ECLS HONORS PROGRAM
The ECLS Department encourages highly qualified majors to work towards Honors in English by writing an honors thesis during the senior year. Interested students should consult the College Catalog (in the “ECLS” and “Undergraduate Study” sections) for general Honors guidelines. More specific guidelines and procedures follow
1. REQUIREMENTS FOR ELIGIBILITY:
a) Senior Status: Honors work may only be done by students as part of their final 32 units of credit before graduation.
b) GPA: at least 3.5 in ECLS courses, at least 3.25 in all college courses.
c) Course Preparation: ECLS 370, Literary Criticism. This may if necessary be taken concurrently with writing the thesis in fall of the senior year, but the department strongly recommends that it be taken in the junior year.
Students should note that satisfaction of these eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission to the Honors program.
2. APPLICATION:
a) Preliminary Notifications: In the spring of each year, the ECLS chair will send these eligibility requirements and guidelines to all junior ECLS majors. Students who meet the requirements and are interested in pursuing Honors should begin by discussing projects with possible faculty advisers. They should notify the chair by the end of spring semester if they intend to submit a formal Honors proposal.
b) Formal Candidacy: After securing the written agreement of an adviser, students apply for Honors candidacy by submitting to the department chair a formal proposal for an Honors thesis, prepared in consultation with the thesis adviser, who must also indicate his or her approval.
i. Proposal guidelines:
-- it must be no more than 750 words in length;
-- it must state what previous coursework and reading provide a basis for the project;
-- it must propose a preliminary thesis or set of questions to be answered;
-- it must outline the research to be conducted;
--it must provide an historical and critical context for this research;
-- it must include a preliminary bibliography; and
-- it must include a statement from the adviser indicating her/his willingness to oversee the project.
ii. Proposal deadline: no later than the end of the first week of class in the fall semester.
Department faculty will review and subsequently approve, reject, or require modifications. Students will be notified by the course add deadline of the disposition of their proposals.
3. WRITING THE THESIS:
a) ECLS 499: Honors candidates should register for ECLS 499 (Honors Research) for 4 units of credit in the fall semester or for 2 units of credit in fall and spring semesters. Your registration will take the form of an independent study contract. Students taking ECLS 499 receive a letter grade and are exempt from the college’s usual 8-unit limit on independent study courses.
b) Guidelines for the Thesis: The honors thesis must involve significant independent research and synthesis, resulting in a completed paper of about 35 pages, prepared in accordance with MLA guidelines. The faculty adviser is to function as a resource person and writing consultant; the purpose of the honors thesis is to produce independent work. Adviser and candidate will agree on a schedule of research and writing, and the candidate will submit regular brief progress reports to the adviser. During the writing of the thesis, advisers and candidates will meet at frequently. If satisfactory progress is not made toward the completion of ECLS 499, the adviser may require the dropping of the course and project.
c) Relation to ECLS 490: Honors candidates will also take ECLS 490 (Senior Comprehensive Seminar) in the fall semester, and they will complete the Senior Comprehensive requirement in its entirety. Their Comprehensive projects, which will result in a critical research paper of about 15 pages and a 15-minute oral presentation, must be different in subject matter from the Honors project.
d) Deadlines:
i. 10/15: thesis defense committee identified by student and adviser (the committee shall consist of the adviser and two other faculty members, one of whom may be from outside the ECLS Department)
annotated bibliography of no fewer than fifteen works submitted to adviser
ii. End of Fall Semester: completed thesis draft submitted to adviser, upon which he or she will base the ECLS 499 course grade (this grade is independent of the project’s consideration for Honors) (i.e., a candidate could receive an A for fall ECLS 499 yet not receive Honors).
iii. Winter Break: Permission to proceed: the completed draft will be read by a committee of three ECLS faculty members (including one member of the defense committee) after the end of the fall semester. The committee will decide whether the project should proceed to a thesis defense; candidates will be notified of the decision before the beginning of spring semester classes.
4. THE HONORS THESIS DEFENSE: The first weeks of the spring semester should be used for final revision of the thesis and preparation of the defense copies, which the student must deliver (normally prior to the spring break) to the adviser and other committee members. The student shall schedule an oral defense before the end of the ninth week of classes, in which the examining committee will ask the candidate to discuss his or her project. Following the defense, the adviser will inform the candidate and the department chair of the committee’s decision whether or not to award Honors.
5. ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULES:
Students who wish to undertake Honors and ECLS 499 entirely in the spring or fall semester (usually because of December graduation plans or fall off-campus study) must petition the department chair for alternative arrangements by the Honors proposal deadline. In addition to all the elements listed above in (2) (B) (i.), such a proposal must include a carefully thought out schedule for completion of the thesis and defense which meets the spirit of these guidelines for Honors theses. Students petitioning for single semester Honors projects must be aware that they will not have the entire semester in which to complete their projects, since defenses must be completed well in advance of the end of the semester for notification of the Registrar of Honors graduation status to occur.
Rev 04/09; 09/12