The Directors of Honors oversee and administer the program. They also facilitiate an informal seminar of students undertaking theses on critical or literary historical topics. Each student works in close consultation with a faculty supervisor. Proposals for all honors projects are approved by a departmental committee called the C.D.C. (Committee on Departmental Curriculum). Completed theses are graded by the supervisor and a second reader assigned by the director(s). The Administrative Assistant has copies of the full guide. Students are urged to discuss their interest in honors with potential faculty supervisors and one of the directors of honors.
Honors Directors for 2008 - 2009 are Professor Alexandra Halasz and Professor Soyica Colbert.
At the time of application, a would-be Honors student should have an average in the major of 3.4 or higher. The applicant's overall college average must be 3.0 or higher. Small downward adjustments in these GPA requirements may be permitted on appeal. See the Director of Honors.
Honors students must have completed at least six of the eleven courses required for the regular major by the end of their junior year.
The proposal for Honors work submitted to the CDC identifies the area in which the student wishes to work and the particular work or topics to be pursued. It should be accompanied by a short letter to the CDC that includes the following information: overall GPA; a list of English courses taken, by term with grades received; and the name of the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the work. The proposal should be given to the Administrative Assistant or an Honors Director.
Thesis proposals are due by the last day of classes in the last term the student is registered prior to the term in which she or he plans to enroll in English 98. This means that if a student plans to enroll in English 98 Fall and Winter terms, and is not registered Summer term, the proposal is due at the end of the previous spring term. Students planning to begin their theses Winter term must submit proposals by the last day of classes in the Fall term.
The proposal should say enough about area and topic to show that the student has the preliminary knowledge to get started and sufficient sense of direction to carry the work forward. The student is not expected to know all the conclusions in advance, but should be able to indicate the dimensions of the topic and the direction of the study.
Two pages of explanation should be enough, but the proposer may take the space required to make the case for the thesis as a project. If the CDC finds the proposal weak, or the project unsuitable for an Honors thesis, then the CDC may ask the student to revise and resubmit the proposal.
A one-page bibliography should accompany the proposal, to show that the preliminary research has been done and that the relevant major books and articles have been identified.
Some thesis proposals from past years are appended to the full guide.
Students wishing to pursue a creative writing thesis should consult with a member of the creative writing faculty to see how supervision might be arranged.
The proposal should consist of three parts. First, the proposal should describe the student's work in English 85, how that work has prepared the student for a longer project, and whether the honors project is a continuation of the work begun in English 85 or a new project. Second, the proposal should describe the proposed writing, specifying genre, theme, and scope. If the proposal involves a collection of stories, essays or poems, students should identify the unifying principle in the collection. Third, the proposal should contain an assessment of the material the student has already written in relation to the project, a description of the kinds of work that remains, and a statement of projected length.
One page of explanation should be enough, but the proposer may take the space required to make the case for the thesis as a project. If the CDC finds the proposal weak, or the project unsuitable for an Honors thesis, then the CDC may ask the student to revise and resubmit the proposal.
Students who have taken Advanced Seminar courses in the English Department, and who can demonstrate in their proposals to the CDC that the seminars have served as preparatory research, may be permitted to complete an Honors course with one term of English 98. Applicants should first consult the Director of Honors concerning this possibility.
When a student receives permission from the CDC to begin Honors work, he or she should bring to a Director of Honors a "permission to enroll" card from the Registrar. The Director will sign the card and the student will return it to the Registrar, usually dropping one of the courses for which he or she has pre-registered, to make space for English 98. The Directors of Honors will confirm enrollment with the registrar for the second term of honors work after which students can register without a "permission-to-enroll" card.
Three copies of the finished thesis are required. One copy is for the student, the other two (one of which eventually goes to Baker Library) are handed in to the Administrative Assistant. Students are responsible for arranging the duplication and binding. The department pays the cost of the three copies. Students should consult the Administrative Assistant about the methods of payment.
All theses should be bound and printed on acid-free bond paper of 20 pound weight. (Cranes Thesis Paper or Howard Permalife Bond meet this requirement). The title page or prefatory matter should include the thesis title, author's name and class year, department name, advisor's name, and date.
Theses are due by 4 p.m. one week before the last day of classes in the term when the thesis is to be completed. Theses delivered after the due date are not eligible to be awarded High Honors or to be nominated for prizes.
Students should realize that completing a thesis on time always entails difficulties. Word-processing catastrophes in particular are inevitable. The student's schedule for completing the work should acknowledge and make allowances for last-minute problems. To turn in before the deadline an incomplete thesis, one without its footnotes or bibliography, for example, does not satisfy the requirement. Two copies of the thesis, complete and bound, should be delivered to the Administrative Assistant one week before the last day of classes. Incompletes for English 98 are arranged, as for other courses, by the office of the Dean of the College.
"Those students who satisfactorily complete the Honors Program with a B+ average or better will earn Honors recognition in their major or, in appropriate cases, High Honors." An average grade of B+ for the Honors work, therefore, brings an automatic conferral of Honors for the thesis. "High Honors will be granted only by vote of the department on the basis of outstanding independent work" (ORC). If the supervisor and second reader agree that the thesis is "outstanding," they will recommend, via a short citation submitted to the Director of Honors, that the student be awarded High Honors in the major. (This decision is based solely on the Honors work.) The Director of Honors will propose awards of High Honors at a Department meeting for formal vote.
Honors theses in English, unless disqualified by lateness, are eligible for the Feinstein Prize, awarded annually for the Department's best thesis. Those who endowed the prize added these criteria: the winner shall be the author of "a thesis that demonstrates a forceful yet easy mode of expression, a work with well expressed ideas that are more apt to change the way people feel about things in the world, a work that exhibits the greatest likelihood of influencing how the world responds."
The Feinstein Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the Director of Honors to consider those theses nominated by Supervisors and Second Readers.
The winner of the Feinstein Prize may be further advanced to nomination for the Rintels Prize, for the best thesis in Humanities and Social Sciences.
Students who have enrolled for modified majors in English may be granted permission to do Honors work by the same criteria that pertain to unmodified English majors. The modified majors should be, however, of the "English modified" or "English modified with [another subject]" types, where eight of the major courses are in English.
