A. Admission to the Program and General Requirements
Every Fall and Spring semester, English majors with second-term sophomore or first-term junior standing may apply to the Director of Honors for admission to the Honors program. (The deadlines typically fall in October and March, to allow for decisions in advance of registration for the following term.) To apply, a student must submit a transcript, a brief (4-6 page) writing sample, and the names of two faculty references. To be considered, a student ordinarily must have an overall 3.3 grade point average, with a 3.5 average in English courses. Exceptions may be made, however, and grade point averages are weighed less than writing samples and recommendations from faculty, who will be asked to assess a student's ability to succeed in a course of study centered on tutorial instruction and independent research. Admission decisions are made by a faculty committee chaired by the Director of Honors.
B. The Honors Coursework
Honors candidates complete the same basic requirements as all other English majors (L202, L371, four historical-distribution courses). But the Honors experience adds to these general credentials several kinds of more intensive intellectual challenges, especially opportunities to work with other talented students and to pursue independent research culminating in the writing of an Honors thesis. Honors-related course activity normally involves the following components:
1. The Junior Honors Seminar (L399, offered in fall and spring semesters): this course of no more than 15 students offers intensive study of literature through discussion, class reports, and the writing of critical and scholarly papers. (In special circumstances such as a junior year spent studying abroad students may substitute for L399 another course in a seminar format.)
2. At least one course from English Department offerings at the 300 and/or 400 levels related to the student's area of general research interest and appropriate to the student's anticipated specific research topic.
3. Directed study, under the supervision of a faculty director, in a more carefully defined research topic (two credit hours of L499, in the first semester of the Senior year).
4. The writing of the Honors thesis (two credit hours of L499, in the second semester of the senior year).
The actual scheduling of these components will depend on the availability of courses, the number of semesters the student participates in the Honors Program, and the availability of faculty to supervise research. Each student's program is determined in consultation with a member of the Honors committee.
Note: So that Honors candidates will have the requisite writing practice before taking the seminars, and so that they will have sufficient background in English literature to make a reasonable choice in the subject of their thesis topics, the Director of Honors recommends that they take L202, Literary Interpretation, and two historical-distribution courses in their sophomore year.
C. The Honors Thesis
The Junior Honors Seminar and course(s) in areas of his/her interest are intended to enable the candidate to gain the skill and independence to choose a special research topic and conceive a method and structure for the thesis, a formal document 30-50 pages long. Before the student's registration for first semester of senior year, the Honors Director, in consultation with the instructors of Junior Honors Seminars and of courses the student has taken since admission to the Honors program, will decide whether the student should proceed to directed independent research and the writing of the Honors thesis. Once approved, the candidate chooses his or her own thesis director, often with the help of the Honors Director, who will suggest Department faculty whose special interests lie in the area of the student's topic. Candidates not yet enrolled in L499 who have found a general topic and director may get permission from the Director of Honors to pick up the class any time before the start of the second eight-week session of the fall semester.
The relationship between candidate and director is informal. During the first semester of the Senior year they usually meet once every week or two and develop a systematic program of research intended to lead to completion of the thesis. By the middle of the semester, the candidate must complete a brief (2-3 page) thesis prospectus. It should consist of a detailed statement of the aims of the thesis as those have been developed by reading and discussion procedure rather than content may be emphasized and be accompanied by a bibliography of completed and projected reading. Two faculty members are then appointed to serve as readers on the candidate's thesis committee. Copies of the prospectus are given to these readers, and the candidate meets with them, preferably with both at the same time, to discuss the prospectus and the aims of the thesis.
An additional 2 credit hours of L499 will normally be taken in the first eight weeks of the second semester. In order to enroll for a second semester of L499 (2 hrs.), a student must demonstrate significant progress on the honors thesis during the first semester. Significant progress would be considered a prospectus approved by the director or a note from the director that progress has been satisfactory. A student who has nothing to show for the thesis by October registration must wait for authorization to add L499 at the start of the spring semester. If by then progress remains unsatisfactory, the student will be dropped from the honors program. In that case, credit for the L499 in which the student was enrolled will be given on completion of a certain amount of written work to be determined by the director of the thesis or the director of honors.
During the first eight weeks of the spring semester, all students enrolled in L499 will be required to meet each week for a colloquium at which one or more students will make some presentation on the work they are doing and the problems they are encountering.
Four copies of the completed thesis are due on a date set by the Director of Honors and announced well ahead of time. The two English Department readers examine the thesis and give the candidate a one-hour oral examination on it. Then the Director of Honors determines, on the basis of written reports from the readers, whether the candidate should graduate with Honors in English. The committee's action has no effect on the grade for Senior Independent Study, which is assigned by the thesis director.
Because the sheer act of polishing the writing and form of the thesis takes more time than students usually envision, Honors students should present some draft of the completed thesis to the director at least a month before the deadline for submission of the final version.
D. Creative Writing Option
Honors students who have demonstrated an exceptional ability in at least one of the creative writing workshops at the 300- or 400-level and who have acquired a solid grounding in English and American literature may with the permission of the Director of Honors embark upon a two-semester senior project in creative writing, corresponding to the senior honors thesis. This project will have a director and readers, just as the senior thesis does, and will be subject to the same conditions set forth above.
E. Certificates in Secondary Education
Honors candidates taking the certificate should be advised that their work in the L499 thesis project counts as the equivalent of English W350.
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