The curriculum in the English department changed dramatically in the 1940s. In 1949, Speech (including theater, radio and film) broke from English and became an independent department. Its program is described in detail in an announcement in the alumni magazine, “The New Department of Speech.” And, in 1946, the English department created a new major area of undergraduate study, the Writing Major. The programs in Literature and Composition remained similar to what they had been in the 1930s.
Speech and Theater: In the 1930s, the department’s division of Speech had an active and distinguished program in public speaking, debate and theater, and it drew large numbers of students. The enrollment demands and the range of course offerings were cited as reasons for departmental status. But it was also the case that the faculty clusters in the English department seemed to be moving in different directions. Those teaching in the Speech division were more politically progressive, and Chancellor Bowman had made the campus a difficult and unfriendly place for those on the left. And the department had been divided for many years between those who taught or studied language as text and those who taught or studied language as performance. These areas of teaching and research no longer seemed to be compatible.
By the mid-1940s, courses in speech, debate and theater began to be listed separately in the college catalog from the English offerings, although the Speech Division was still, the catalog said, administered by the English department. By the end of the decade, Speech became an independent department, a department whose mission and curriculum was strongly marked by the vision and commitments of its first chair, Buell Whitehill.
Whitehill had developed a very successful program in theater. In the 1940s, he added courses in the new media of performance— “Radio,” “Writing for the Radio,” “The Motion Picture,” “Types of the Motion Picture,” and “Film Production.” He added additional courses to serve the program in theater arts: “Playwriting,” “History of the Theater,” and “Modern Theater.” (In the early 1950s, he would develop ties with WQED to create courses in television.) Speech would be the department on campus to teach, study and promote the new media. Playwriting and script writing, courses that had been a part of the English curriculum, went to Speech.
Speech would also develop a track in speech pathology and this development began in the 40s. In 1947 Jack Matthews was hired as a Professor of Psychology and Speech. He joined the new department to develop a speech clinic and courses in “speech correction.” Matthews would become a future chair of the Speech department, and an important figure both in his field and in the College.
Writing: In 1946, the department created a new “Writing Major.” Here is the original announcement: 
The English department offers, in addition to its usual major in English, a special major in writing. This is an integrated program of courses in composition (journalism, fiction, advertising, radio, verse, and article) and in literature and criticism that trains students to take advantage of the opportunities in writing now open to young men and young women.
From the core courses (still referred to as composition courses), students would learn the “special skills of writing”:
how to get a character from one room to another, how to edit a news story for accuracy of statement, how in a magazine article to make a fresh and true approach—how, in short, to put down in words whatever emphasis and interest an experience has for the writer.
Central to the major, however, was the belief that,
to be successful, a writer must know more than the skills and techniques of his craft. It is equally important that he have something to say, that he be informed in as many fields of human interest as possible.
And so the program relied on faculty advisers who would direct students not only toward courses in literature but to courses in other department, “in fine arts or history or biology—in any of the social and the natural sciences.”
In establishing a Writing Major, the department was also making a commitment to bringing distinguished writers to campus to give lectures, to meet with small group of students, and to discuss student manuscripts. One way this was accomplished was through an annual conference (begun in the 1930s by Edwin Peterson) bringing writers, critics and editors to campus to discuss contemporary writing, publishing, editing, and the teaching of writing. The department would also sponsor a magazine of student writing, MSS (Manuscripts: Writing at the University of Pittsburgh)” And, following the success of Peterson’s students in national competitions, the Atlantic Monthly promised a four year scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh for the winner of their annual writing contest for high school students. It was a grand beginning.
The Journalism program also continued to attract students. The basic courses—reporting, editing, feature writing, editorial writing—were supplemented in the 40s by courses in magazine writing and editing, courses in “pictorial” journalism, and a course in writing the “Advanced Article.” This was defined as a “conference course,” a workshop most likely, that had students working with a member of the writing faculty and a faculty member from another department. Students, then, were writing explanatory articles on topics that required an outside expert as a reader and mentor.
Literature: Emily Irvine’s course, “Child Literature,” was renamed “Literature for Children.” The department introduced a course in “European Backgrounds for English Literature.” George Crouch, with sponsorship from the Nationality Room committee, created what was designed to be an annual series of lectures on “World Literatures.”
The PhD program continued to center on literary study. The numbers remain about the same (20 PhDs granted in the 1930s and 22 in the 1940s), although the student body was more diverse, and there was a less predictable range of dissertation topics, including dissertations on American journalism, on biography, and on race. Here are some titles: “A Study of the Writings of an American Magazinist, J.T. Trowbridge,” “Aspects of Southwestern Regionalism in the Prose Works of Mary Austin,” “John Forster: Critic,” “Development of the Negro Press, 1827-1948,” and “Attitudes Toward the Negro as an Expression of English Romanticism.”
In 1947, the graduates formed a Graduate English Study Club whose goal was to provide a schedule of meetings where graduate students, faculty and visitors would present papers and lead discussions. Thomas Berry, a PhD graduate, came back to campus from West Chester State Teachers College to lead a discussion of Katherine Mansfield. Professor Boyd from Psychology spoke on Freud. Graduate students spoke on “20th Century Criticism of Hawthorne,” “The Esoteric in Modern Poetry,” and “Metaphor.” Preston Schoyer, a Pittsburgh author, spoke on “China as a Source of Literary Material.” The final event of the year was a presentation by Norman Foerster.
Composition: It is important to note that the Writing Major grew out of the concerns, the energies, and the faculty identified with composition in the English department. Percival Hunt and now Edwin (“Pete”) Peterson were the central figures. Hunt continued to teach advanced writing courses, including a course in “the sketch and the longer narrative,” and he introduced a course in “Verse Writing.” Peterson had instituted what came to be called “conference courses,” workshops where writers met to discuss their work, and these continued to produce nationally recognized, prize-winning student short stories. In the 1930s the English department, with George Crouch at the lead, created courses for students in Engineering, Business, and the technical professions. Courses in professional and technical writing continue to be offered. They (and the expertise they represent) became central to Army Training Programs during the war years.