The Literature Emphasis degree program serves to prepare students for graduate work in fields such as literature, composition, English education, communication, journalism, and linguistics. Either of these degree programs further serves as an appropriate pre-professional major for a student who plans to seek a higher degree in a field such as law, medicine, ministry, or mental health, especially when combined with a second major or minor pertinent to that field (for example, history, political science, business, biology, philosophy, psychology, etc.).