ENG140Y1 vs. ENG150Y1: A Breakdown

A group of students in the Department of English Lounge

Choosing Your First-Year English Course

Selecting your first-year English course is an important first step in your academic journey. Many students find it challenging to choose between ENG140Y1 – Literature for Our Time and ENG150Y1 – Literary Traditions.

This page is here to help you make that decision—whether you're drawn to a course that explores themes and texts you're already passionate about, or you're excited to discover new literary landscapes.

If you’d like a student perspective on the differences between the two 100-level courses, we have the following guide put together by our current English program students: PDF iconENG140 or 150 Guide

Why Take A 100-Level English Course?

Taking a 100-level English course isn’t just about exploring the world of literature—it can also be a strategic step in your academic path. Here’s why:

  • Program Eligibility
    If you're considering becoming an English Specalist or enrolling in the Creative Writing Minor, completing ENG140Y1 or ENG150Y1 is one of the requirements for applying. For program requirements including the minimum grade required, please visit our Program Requirements page.
  • Access to 200-Level Courses
    Earning 1.0 credits in English opens the door to our 200-level courses, which offer a broader range of topics and are required for all English programs.
  • Academic Preparation
    These courses provide a solid introduction to what you can expect in upper-year English classes—both in terms of reading material and the kinds of essays and assignments you'll be asked to complete.

ENG140Y1 - Literature for Our Time

Instructor: Adam Hammond

  • Explores how recent literature in English responds to our world.
  • Starts in the late-nineteenth and twentieth-century in the fall and moves closer to our own time in the Spring.
  • Emphases will include literature’s reasons for being, its formal qualities, historical context, relation to other media, and relevance to our moment in time.
  • In the past, the first three texts have been Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Red-Headed League, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Katherine Mansfield's Bliss. Please note these texts can change from year to year.

ENG150Y1 - Literary Traditions

Instructor: John Rogers

  • Exploration of some of the greatest works of literature composed over the course of three thousand years.
  • Starts with the Hebrew Bible; the Odyssey of Homer; and the lyrics of Sappho and ends with Milton’s Paradise Lost, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
  • The aims of this course are to help students understand some of the cultural and social energies motivating these works, to become conversant in some of the literary controversies through which these works are generally understood and fought over, and to help students develop and hone skills of critical reading and argumentative writing.