English & Creative Writing > Current Students > Honors & Awards > Guidelines for Department Honors

Guidelines for Department of English and Creative Writing Honors

To be eligible to earn Honors in English you must be a senior and a declared English major and you must have a final GPA of 3.7 or higher for courses taken within the department. If you are qualified, you must then be sponsored for Honors by a member of the full time faculty in the department, submit an Honors project, and pass an Orals defense of the project.

The Honors project should be one of the following:

1. a 20 page or more critical, analytical, or research project in English studies. If the project is a research project, it should include a bibliography.

2. a comparable creative project (in creative writing, hypertext, film/video) with a five-page written artist's statement.

3. a 20 page or equivalent combination creative/critical/research project.

Process for the Honors Project

1. First, talk with a faculty member in the department about your desire to earn Honors and ask that faculty member to sponsor you. If the faculty member accepts, notify the department chair that you do plan to seek Honors; then work with the faculty member to design a prospectus for the Honors project, including the plan to register for an Independent Study course if needed. (See Guidelines for the Prospectus.)

2. Write up the 1-2 page prospectus for the project and have it approved by the faculty sponsor. The sponsor will then distribute the prospectus to the other department faculty; if they approve the prospectus, they will indicate that approval in written form.

3. Working with your advisor, follow the timetable printed below.

Timetable

The exact timing of draft, conference, and revision in the early work on the project will be up to the student and the sponsor, but the department has established a series of deadlines for the later stages. It is essential that the student adhere to this schedule. Note that the intention to pursue honors must be declared nine terms before the student will fulfill the requirements to graduate as an English major. Under normal circumstances, this will be block 8 of the student’s junior year, but it is up to the student to ascertain the proper timing for extenuating circumstances (winter graduation, for example). Otherwise, terms refer to the student's senior year.

Interest in pursuing Honors declared to sponsor and to department chair	no later than	Block 8 of Junior year
Prospectus submitted to sponsor	no later than	2nd Friday of Block 2
Prospectus circulated to other department faculty	no later than	3rd Friday of Block 2
Approval of prospectus signed by all department members	no later than	2nd Friday of Block 3
Final draft submitted to sponsor	no later than	2nd Monday, Term 6
Draft distributed to department & outside faculty	no later than	4th Monday, Term 6
Oral defense of project	no later than	2nd Friday, Term 7
Final version with revisions suggested by committee	no later than	1st Monday, Term 8

Orals Defense

The Honors Orals committee will be made up of three English and Creative Writing faculty members and one faculty member from another department. The committee will meet with the student for 1-2 hours, reviewing the project and asking questions about it.

After the defense, the committee will discuss the project and the student’s ability to answer the committee’s questions. The committee will decide on one of the following:

• Pass: Exceptional work that surpasses intellectually and stylistically the “A” work that we would expect to see in a regular course. The student should receive honors.
• Pass on condition: The project approaches this level of excellence but needs further work. The student should receive honors on condition of satisfactorily completing the revisions required by the committee.
• No pass: The committee determines that the project and defense do not meet the department’s expectations for the designation of honors.

Any revisions required by the committee should be completed by the first Monday in term 9 and the final version signed by all committee members.

Please note: We are looking for work that truly deserves the citation: Honors. Departmental Honors is in no way guaranteed by acceptance of the initial prospectus.

 

Guidelines for the Prospectus

In 2 double-spaced pages, describe the project you wish to complete, addressing the questions below:

Which honors option (a, b, or c) have you chosen to pursue? What central idea/question do you plan to explore? Where did your interest in this project emerge? What reading, or other preparation, do you intend to do? What medium will you use (e.g., a sonnet sequence, a critical research paper, a close reading)? What do you expect to gain by completing this project? What do you hope to contribute with this project?

Note: If your paper is a research paper, or if your sponsor recommends it, you should submit a bibliography of preparatory material you plan to read.

Note for faculty: The prospectus should be submitted to all department faculty in hardcopy with a cover sheet with space for comments and a place to check whether prospectus is approved, revisions are requested, or rejected.