To help you feel prepared for your BA (Hons) English studies, we’ve gathered together a range of course related activities including suggested reading, useful websites and some great things to do right now. Read on to find out more.
Suggested reading
You’ll be given lots of information about which textbooks to read and introduced to the University Library, as well as the many ebooks we have for you to access, when you begin your studies in September.
In the meantime, there are a some suggested texts you might like to read, if you can, before starting your degree. We don’t recommend rushing out to buy texts before you arrive. But if you can pick some up second hand, borrow from a library, or access online, we suggest:
Ready, set, READ.
Reading enhances your imagination, increases your vocabulary and strengthens your writing ability, but reading can also reduce stress levels and help improve overall focus.
These are three pieces of literature that we think you should read if you’re thinking of studying an English degree (and they’re all set texts on first year modules – so you’ll get a great head start!)
Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Bronte
Frankenstein – by Mary Shelley
Some poetry. Choose from: Derek Walcott (‘Love After Love’), Christina Rossetti (‘Goblin Market’), Grace Nichols (The Fat Black Woman’s Poems), and Robert Browning (‘Porphyria’s Lover’).
LING1015: The Sounds of English
Carr, P. (2013). English phonetics and phonology: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell
Collins, B & Mees, I,M (2019). Practical phonetics and phonology. London and New York: Routledge. (Any earlier edition is also relevant)
Ogden, R. (2017). An introduction to English phonetics, Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press
LING1016: The Structure of English
Berry, R. (2018). English Grammar: A Resource Book for Students
Thorne, S (2008) Mastering Advanced English. Basingstoke: Palgrave
LIT1020: Ways of Reading
Set texts:
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Penguin or Oxford edition)
Arthur Conan Doyle, select stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. For class we read: ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’, and ‘The Copper Beeches’
Henrik Ibsen, ‘A Doll’s House’ in Four Major Plays (Oxford, 2008)
Indicative secondary reading. There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries:
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, This Thing Called Literature (London: Routledge, 2015)
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, 5th edition (London: Routledge, 2016)
Rhian Williams, The Poetry Toolkit (London: Bloomsbury, 2013)
LIT1024: Literary History
Set texts:
Carson, Anne, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (London: Virago, 2003)
Homer, The Odyssey, transl. Robert Fagles (London: Penguin, 2000) – we look at books 1-4 and 9-12 in class
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (online text available at start of module)
William Shakespeare, Richard II (available online)
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (London: Penguin, 1988)
Indicative secondary reading. There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries.
Alexander, Michael, A History of English Literature. 2nd ed. (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Sanders, Andrew, The Short Oxford History of English Literature. 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004)
Widdowson, Peter, The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts 1500-2000. (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Read P.H Matthews Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
You will hopefully have received an edition of P.H Matthew’s Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction from us earlier this year. It is an excellent introductory text that we will be using during your first week as the basis of English Language subject meetings. If you have time over the summer and would like to give yourself a head start, why not have a read and think about the following questions:
What is linguistics?
Can we say anything with confidence about the origin of language?
Why does language change?
When different languages draw different distinctions, do their speakers still perceive the world around them in the same way? Or do people speaking different kinds of language think of it differently?
What are the two classes of vowels in English and what do they each contain?
Are there ‘speech centres’ in the brain?
Useful websites
If you’re looking for something to read, have a look at the Poetry Foundation website, or if you’re after something to listen to, try this podcast.
Make sure to visit the Prospects website if you’re thinking about a future career in English. You can also create an online ‘to do’ list .
Buy a notebook and use it to record ideas, snippets of overheard conversations, poems, short stories, etc. As well, describe one incident in clear prose as though it were a passage from a novel you’d like to read