RPW/LWR Students

The Rhetoric and Professional Writing concentration (formerly Language, Writing, and Rhetoric – hence the LWR acronym you might see some places) within the English Major provides you with both a breadth and depth of experience with writing in professional settings. Graduates have a wide variety of career paths they can pursue, and part of my job as your advisor is to provide you guidance on class choices so that you are both qualified for and prepared for whichever of those paths you choose.

The following information has been collected across various websites and combined here to help you look at everything at once. This being said, the information here is not exhaustive but rather intended to provide you an overview of what you must take to complete the degree. Click on the links below to read through the full information for all of the requirements.

The following is a brief overview of your list of requirements, organized by your degree audit.

Major Requirements Fall 2025-present

English Department Requirements

  • Literature I (3 hrs)
  • Literature II (3 hrs)
  • Breadth (6 hrs) – Select one course from two different categories, for a total of two courses:
    • Film
    • Linguistics
    • Creative Writing
    • Rhetoric *

Rhetoric and Professional Writing Requirements

Additional restrictions not mentioned below can be found on the Rhetoric and Professional Writing degree page.

  • Core Concepts (6 hrs) *
  • Methods, Strategies, and Contexts of Rhetoric & Professional Writing (9 hours) *
  • English Electives (9 hours)
  • ENG 350 Internship (3 hours)

*Note: Two of the courses for your area of concentration must be at the 400-level or above. These can fall under Core Concepts, Methods Strategies, and Contexts of Rhetoric & Professional Writing, and/or as a Rhetoric course under the Breadth requirement. They will not be counted under Literature I, Literature II, Breadth-Film, Breadth-Linguistics, Breadth-Creative Writing, or English electives, though you are free to take 400-level courses for those requirements if you’d like.

Major Requirements 2020-2025

English Department Requirements

  • American Literature (3 hrs)
  • British Literature (3 hrs)
  • World Literature (3 hrs)
  • Film (3 hrs)
  • Linguistics (3 hrs)
  • Rhetoric (3 hrs)

Rhetoric and Professional Writing Requirements

Additional restrictions not mentioned below can be found on the Rhetoric and Professional Writing degree page.

  • Core Concepts (6 hrs) *
  • Methods, Strategies, and Contexts of Rhetoric & Professional Writing (9 hours**) *
  • English Electives (6 hours)
  • Writing and Rhetorical Practice (co-requisite)
    In their junior or senior year, students may fulfill the Writing and Rhetorical Practice co-requisite in one of three ways:
    • Complete an Internship and satisfy course requirements for ENG 350 (or ENG 498).
    • Complete EI 495 (Independent Study in Entrepreneurship) with someone in the Entrepreneurship program

*Note: Two of the courses for your area of concentration must be at the 400-level or above. They can fall under any category with a single asterisk above.

**Note: If you fulfill the Writing and Rhetorical Practice Co-Requisite with ENG 350, this will count as a Methods, Strategies, and Contexts course as well, which would mean you really need 6 hours here.

Writing and Rhetorical Practice

This requirement is a co-requisite, meaning it does not necessarily require additional hours to complete. This is satisfied by taking ENG 350, our internship course. More information about ENG 350 can be found on the English Department Internship Program page.

Internship Requirement

All students in Rhetoric and Professional Writing are required to complete an internship. The internship course, ENG 350, is only offered in the spring, so please plan accordingly. You can count an internship you’ve completed ahead to ENG 350 but not behind. For example, if you do an internship over the summer, provided you complete 120 hours of work related to your major, you’re able to count that internship ahead to the following spring’s ENG 350 course. You must either be completing or have completed the internship by the time you’re taking ENG 350. All internships must be arranged and approved by the Internship Program Coordinator, and there is an application process to take the course. I will work with students to ensure you meet all prerequisites and are ready to take the course in our advising sessions.

Additional Requirements

You can not take more than five 200-level courses for the major.

Additionally, you cannot double-count courses across categories within the major.

Neither of these restrictions apply to GEP or CHASS requirements.

All courses outside of ENG 350, Free Electives, and GEP Health & Exercise Studies must be taken for a grade. You may take up to 12 credit hours as S/U grading under Free Electives, provided they are not counting towards a second major or a minor.

You must earn a C- or higher for courses in the major to count towards the degree. This does not apply to CHASS, GEP, and/or Free Electives unless they are also counting for a second major and/or a minor. You must have a GPA of 2.0 or higher to graduate.

 

College and University Requirements

As an English major within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, you are required to take both the University’s and the College’s general education requirements. Many courses can satisfy these requirements, and you can look those up with the Degree Requirements page through Registration and Records.

I highly recommend that you try to get these requirements out of the way as soon as you can in your academic career. This will give you the freedom to take what’s more interesting to you as a Junior and Senior and allow you to be taking courses relevant to your career path at the same time you’re (hopefully) doing an internship. Additionally, if for whatever reason you can’t get into a GEP or CHASS course that you need, you still have time left to fulfill the requirement. Relatedly, you also have either 12 hours or 27 hours (depending on when you started the program) of free electives. Try to save those for your senior year, again so that if you can’t get into a class you have that safety net of free electives you can fall back on.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) Requirements

  • ENG 101 (4 hrs)   [This is also a GEP requirement – you don’t need to take it twice!]
  • History I (3 hrs)
  • History II (3 hrs)
  • Foreign Language 200 level (3 hrs)
  • Philosophy (3 hrs)
  • Arts & Letters (3 hrs)
  • Social Sciences (9 hrs, must be from different disciplines)   [No, this doesn’t mean you need to take 15 hrs, they can also count under GEP]
  • Additional Social Science (3 hrs)

University Requirements
Description of GEP Requirements from University Catalog

  • Mathematical Sciences (6 hrs)
  • Natural Sciences (7 hrs)
  • Humanities (6 hrs)    [This will be satisfied by your degree.]
  • Social Sciences (6 hrs)   [This will be satisfied by CHASS requirements.]
  • Additional Breadth (3 hrs) OR US Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (3 hrs) — This depends on when you started at NC State. See me if you have questions!
  • Interdisciplinary Perspectives (5 hrs)
  • Health and Exercise Studies (2 hrs) (One of these must be at the 100-level)

There are additional co-requisites also required for the University. Classes you take for the major or to meet a CHASS or GEP course will double-count here, or you can fulfill the requirements through electives:

  • U.S. Diversity (if you have the Additional Breadth requirement above)
  • Global Knowledge
  • FL 102 Proficiency, if you didn’t satisfy this already via High School

 

A note about the Foreign Language requirement

There are three courses required to get to the required 200 level course for the Foreign Language requirement: 101, 102, and 201 in your chosen language. Prior to starting this sequence you will take a foreign language placement test. This is taken online, unless you feel you might place out of 201. In that case, you should opt to take the exam in a proctored, face-to-face setting. If you indeed place into a level higher than 201 you may be able to get the requirement waived or take 202 to fulfill the requirement.

If you place into 101 and took the same language in high school, then the 101 class will be required but will be considered non-degree (it won’t count for anything on your transcript). For example, if you took Spanish in high school and place into FLS 101, then FLS 101 will be non-degree and will not count as a Free Elective. If you took Spanish in high school and decide to take Italian as your language at NC State, then FLI 101 will count as a free elective. FL* 102 will count as a Free Elective.

I highly recommend starting your Foreign Language requirements in your very first semester. If you continue from the language you took in high school, then that will ensure everything’s fresh in your mind (you don’t want a two-year gap between High School and your FL* 102 course, for example). If you decide to change languages, then you’re facing three semesters of a language, and you’ll want to start that sooner rather than later. You absolutely do not want to be entering your senior year having not taken a single language course and realizing that you’re going to need to stick around an extra semester just to fulfill FL* 201!

 

PLEASE NOTE that information on this page is updated often, but may not be the most up-to-date information. It is offered only as a series of starting points and recommendations. It is your responsibility to ensure you’re meeting the requirements to obtain your degree appropriately. If you have questions, please schedule an appointment to meet with me.