Welcome to the English Department home page at Drake University! Here you will find information about our program, our faculty, and our courses.

The English Department is composed of fourteen full-time faculty members and 120 majors in English and Writing. The vitality of our commitment to the classroom is evidenced in the many changes we have made in our curriculum. In particular, we are excited about our Writing Major and Minor, a program designed for those students who wish to concentrate their course work on developing their writing. We are happy to give students the option of choosing either the English Major and Minor and the new Writing Major and Minor.

At Drake courses are taught by full-time, professionally accomplished faculty members who work closely and carefully with their students. The typical English course enrolls twenty-five students; a writing course will enroll no more than twenty; and an upper-level seminar is limited to fifteen. Such class sizes insure that academic work receives the attention it deserves, and many of our faculty schedule personal interviews with their students to discuss and evaluate their progress. It is certainly worth noting that in that in their class evaluations, 95% of our students recommend our courses and professors to other students, a testimony to the quality of the experience we provide. In addition to the classroom, the Department sponsors a number of other activities - like the Writers & Critics lecture series and the Periphery literary magazine - that contribute to "extra-curricular" learning.

I hope you take some time to explore the home page, and, if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me - just click the address line below my name on the right to send your message. I'll be happy to respond.

324 Howard Hall
Drake University
(515)271-3777
Joseph Lenz, Chair
joseph.lenz@drake.edu