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Undergraduate Studies

Welcome to the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo. I am the Associate Chair for Undergraduate studies in English, and I’m here to help advise you on your courses and plans, and help you navigate your way around English undergraduate studies. If you have any questions about our program, please contact me, Heather Smyth.


Our unique undergraduate program features our faculty members’ strengths in the study of literature, rhetoric and communication design, and digital media. We offer three Honours degrees—in Literature, Rhetoric and Professional Writing, and Literature and Rhetoric—as well as Joint Honours degrees in each field, and also offer a Four-Year General degree, Three-Year General degree, and English minor. You can also combine your Honours degree with one of our specializations: the Digital Media Studies Specialization focuses on the exploration of new digital media, and emphasizes studies from a lab-based and hands-on approach to digital technology. Your courses in this specialization can include such topics as Electronic Imaging, Visual Rhetoric, Designing Digital Images and Hypertext, and History and Theory of Media. The English Literature in a Global Context Specialization focuses on global literature, and the presence of the “global” or international in the field of English studies from its inception. Courses in this specialization can include Postcolonial Literatures, Race and English Literature, Canadian Multicultural Literature, Global Shakespeare, and American Literature in a Global Context, to name a few.


We offer many of our courses online through the Centre for Extended Learning, and currently offer a full Three-Year General degree online. Online courses are available for both off-campus and on-campus students. English Honours students at the University of Waterloo also have the opportunity to complete their degree in the Co-op mode, and take a combination of study terms and work terms. Take a look at the options for completing an English co-op degree and click here for the University of Waterloo Co-op website.


Begin your study of English with our first-year courses, and then choose a plan: here are the admission requirements for our plans. Here is a link to the recommended courses to take for each year of study, and a list of our course offerings by term.


We look forward to sharing with you our love of literature, rhetoric, and digital culture, and helping you develop the critical and analytical skills, the knowledge of literature and language practices, and the reading and writing skills that you need for your future profession or for graduate studies in English.