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Life > Academics

Ranking all the English Courses I have Taken at Texas A&M University

Meredith Andalis
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TAMU chapter.

If you are looking at taking an English course or are required to take one, this ranking is for you. I am currently a Junior English major, so I have taken my fair share of English classes over these past couple of years.

A quick disclaimer about this list: I am basing this list on how interesting and engaging I found these classes, not just on how easy or difficult the classes were.

  1. ENGL 343 Fairy Tales in the English Tradition: As a Disney fan and as person who grew up reading fairy tales, I was so excited to take this course. The professor is very engaging, and all the readings are on the shorter side.  In this course, you learn a lot about not only the origins of fairy tales but also get to see them evolve to the modern retellings that we are all familiar with today.
  2. ENGL 251 Intro to Film Analysis: This class will give you the opportunity to watch and learn about various genres of movies. Through this class, I learned to look closer at films, and I always find myself trying to find meaning in the smallest details on the screen. If you are a big fan of watching movies and want to learn more about them, then I highly recommend this class. The reason it is not my number one is because of the required screenings you must go to at 7:00 p.m. weekly, so you would have to be on campus late.
  3. ENGL 203 Writing About Literature: When I initially learned I had to take this class, I was not too excited for it. However, as the semester went on, I ended up really enjoying this class. There are a couple of assignments that challenge you to look at literature from a different perspective and use modern things such as social media and modern music to talk about older literature. This is at the middle of my list because although I enjoyed most of the assignments, it is focused on introducing people to writing, so you go over the basics of researching and writing which is less enjoyable.
  4. ENGL 317 Early British Drama: In this class, you will be reading a lot of plays from the 1600s. It is essentially “everything but Shakespeare.” This class is very interesting once you understand what is happening in the plays. However, they took me a while to comprehend, and the readings take a very long time. You will have to budget your time well if you take this course.
  5. ENGL 220 Graphic Novel: This class, I felt, had a lot of potential. I did learn a lot about comic books and gained understanding of graphic novels as a form of literature. One aspect of the course that I found the most interesting learning about are the visual elements that graphic novelists use. The professor, however, I found to not be very engaging, and I feel I could have learned a lot more. It is a good class if you love to learn of art and literature, but be weary that it is not very engaging.
  6. ENGL 303 Approaches to English Studies: This class overwhelmed me the most. It was a lot more writing than I have had in previous classes, and all I got to read were novels based on Jane Eyre. As much as I love that novel, I was getting frustrated only learning about one novel and other novels around it. I am not sure if all ENGL 303 sections are like that, but this was my experience. It is not a bad class; it is just a lot more challenging than most might think.
Meredith Andalis is a member of the Texas A&M University chapter of Her Campus. In addition to being part of the social media committee, she enjoys writing about her personal experiences, discussing local restaurants, and covering events on campus. As a member of the social media committee she submits posts once a week for the chapter’s social media pages. Outside of her role at Her Campus, Meredith has had a variety of on campus jobs. She is continuing her over two years of work as a residence hall tour guide and spent the last year helping revise a textbook for one of the English courses at TAMU. Recently she started a new position as a consultant at the University Writing Center. She is also in her final year at TAMU finishing her degree in English with a minor in Communication. For fun Meredith enjoys reading, watching movies, and spending her paychecks on coffee. Her favorite movies include “When Harry Met Sally” and anything from the Captain America trilogy. She is also committed to finding cute coffee shops and bookstores wherever she travels to. She also enjoys writing which is why she loves being a part of Her Campus TAMU!