PROPOSAL FORM
Independent and Honors Projects
Name:______CMR:______
Phone:______Email:______
Proposed course: Please check appropriate line:
SENIOR PROJECT___ 489 FALL Semester
___ 490 SPRING Semester
JUNIOR PROJECT ___ 389 FALL Semester
___ 390 SPRING Semester
HONORS PROJECT___498 FALL-SPRING
GPA Requirements*:Overall GPA: 2.5
AND
For Honors: 3.5 in English
For Jr. or Sr.: 3.25 in English
*Attach an unofficial transcript with courses listed by department(not semester) to this application form.
Courses completed at the 300 or 400 level (Minimum2 for Honors or Senior Projects).
Creative writing applicants: to qualify for any independent study (Honors, Jr., or Sr.), you must have completed the full sequence of courses (introductory and advanced levels) in the genre of your proposed project by the end of the current semester. Please list those courses here as well:
______
______
______
List of possible faculty sponsors. This list should include the department’s acknowledged specialist(s) in the project’s specific concentration. Selection of faculty sponsor will be made by the committee on the basis of availability and approval of plan of study. Minimum of 3 names:
______
______
______
(over)
Please attach a carefully written, typed proposal for the project that includes the following:
- The focus of the independent project, including the general topic and your thesis, argument, or take on that topic. Be as detailed and specific as possible; a cursory, general, or careless proposal will not be considered.
- The rationale for the project: the genesis of your interest in this project and why it cannot be accommodated by, or incorporated into, an existing course.
- An initial, or tentative, reading list. The department is concerned that all independent projects be academically rigorous.
Forms, proposals, and transcripts due back to the English Department,
Richardson Hall 102, no later than4 pm (EST) on March 1 (spring) or November 1 (fall).
______For committee use only______
APPROVED: ______Project Advisor:______
ENGLISH 498: HONORS PROJECT GUIDELINES
English Department
St. Lawrence University
LITERARY ANALYSIS AND WRITING PROJECTS
I. Project Calendar
II. Procedures
A. Advance Preparation
B. First Semester Schedule
C. Formation of Evaluative Committee
D. Evaluation and Revisions—First and Second
Semester Schedules
E. Committee Evaluation of Project
III. Specifications
A. Content
B. Length
C. Title Page Format
N.B.: A student must first submit a proposal for an English 498 project, and havethat proposal accepted by the English Department, before s/he can be assigned an advisor and enroll in the course. All proposals received are subject to departmental review and approval—insufficiently focused proposals will be rejected. Project acceptance, and advisor assignment, are also subject to the availability of faculty personnel.
Deadline for proposals are March 1 in spring semester and November 1 in the fall. The Department will send solicitation letters to eligible students, and will include additional lead time for students attending programs abroad during the Spring semester. Minimum g.p.a. in English courses: 3.5.
Honors projects are two-semester independent studies; however, they count for only one unit of credit. Candidates register for this unit in the fall semester only, along with three other units of credit. In the spring semester, candidates will have to register for at least 3.5 units of credit, in addition to completing their honors projects, to maintain full-time status.
I. Project Calendar
EARLY-TO-MID-SEPTEMBER – Evaluative Committees formed.
Second 498 Seminar: Research Methods (note: first 498Seminar will have been in April
of the previous year).
EARLY-TO-MID-OCTOBER – Second 498 Seminar: Synthesizing Other Writers’ Work.
LAST DAY OF CLASSES IN DECEMBER – First draft of project due. If draft is not
forthcoming by this date, advisor will convert the project to ENG 489 (Senior
Project).
PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS BREAK – Advisor outlines work to be done over break.
UPON RETURN FROM BREAK – Second (revised) draft due to advisor and evaluative
committee. If draft is not forthcoming or is incomplete in any way, project will be
converted to ENG 489 (Senior Project).
END OF JANUARY – Feedback fromreaders to students.
EARLY FEBRUARY – Third 498 Seminar: Revision workshop.
MID-APRIL – Submission of final draft (unless additional work is requested by committee—in
which case, final draft is submitted by late April).
LATE-APRIL—Reading by and reception for students completing honors projects; first 498
Seminar for students accepted into 498 for next year: guidelines submitted, summer
advance work discussed.
EARLY MAY – Once approved by committee, three copies of project are due to English
Department secretary, to send for binding.
II. Procedures
- Advance Preparation
It is important to understand that the Honors Project is designed to challenge and to enhance the student’s skills as a writer, and hence while it is possible that the student may bring a certain amount of previously drafted work to the project enterprise, we expect that the project will consist substantially of new work. Any previously drafted work will also be subjected to substantive revision and rewriting in the course of the project. To allow maximal time for the development of ideas, the student will meet with sponsors before the end of the spring semester in which their proposals are accepted in order to establish a list of summer readings and a full plan for the fall semester.
B. First Semester Schedule
During the fall semester, the student should plan on meeting with the projectadvisor at least once a week. This phase of the project is conceived as a time ofintensive reading, research, discussion and initial drafting, allowing the writer time to become conversant with the issues and challenges involved in the project. Insupport of this, two seminar sessions besides the student/advisor meetings arerequired for the fall semester.
Students performing literary analysis projects will meet, together with theiradvisors, in September for a workshop emphasizing library research tools andmethods. In October, those
students and their advisors will meet again to discussthe various ways in which a scholar incorporates the critical work of other readersinto literary analysis without sacrificing her/his own original perspectives on thetopic being addressed.
Students performing writing projects will meet, together with their advisors, todiscuss their proposed projects and may also choose to exchange early drafts withother writers for feedback. Our goal is to identify the community of English 498writers, working with common goals, in order to facilitate discussion and mutual support among the individuals comprising it.
The 498 seminars will generally be convened by the honors committee faculty, with the assistance of the project sponsors.
C. Formation of Evaluative Committee
Each project will be evaluated for honors designation by a committee of threefaculty members, consisting of the project advisor and two other individuals withexpertise or research interests in the subject matter of the project. In most cases these additional two readers will be members of the English Department, but not always—as, for example, a study of eighteenth-century English Francophiles might usefully be read by a member of the Modern Languages Department who offers coursework in French Literature.
This committee will be constituted before the end of September, in orderto allow faculty members to plan accordingly for the spring semester when theywill be asked to provide feedback on the projects (see Evaluation and Revisions below). The department’s English 498 coordinator will propose committee assignments to the department, with division of labor as the primary criterion, followed closely where possible by research interest/activity. Once department members have approved these assignments, advisors should identify for their 498 students the other faculty serving as readers for their projects.
D. Evaluation and Revisions—First and Second Semester Schedules
The issue of evaluation of an English 498 project must be divided into two concerns: grading the project, and determining whether the project merits the honors designation. An X-grade is issued at the end of the first semester, inrecognition that the student has had to spend a significant amount of time in researching and initial drafting. The grade for the project, assigned by the projectadvisor at the end of the year-long process in April (see Second Semester Schedulebelow), should reflect the entire process independent of whether the student receives the honors designation for it or not. Hence, a student who works very hard throughout the year may produce a project that receives honors designation, but may also receive less than a 4.0 grade because of the advisor’s perceptions about the student’s ability to digest criticism or advice, to meet deadlines, etc. Theconverse is also a possible scenario.
A complete first draftof the project is due in the last week of classes of the fall semester. The project advisor will give the writer timely feedback on this draft, enabling the student to begin the task of revision and expansion over the winter break.
NOTE: If the student fails to produce a complete first draft at the end of the fall semester, the advisor will issue a grade for the project at this time. In this case, the student’s transcript will be adjusted to show participation in English 489: Independent Project, rather than English 498: Honors Project.
The student writer should expect to return to campus at the end of January with a new and thoroughly revised second draft. The student should submit this second draft to the project advisor and the evaluative committee for feedback in the first week of the spring semester. The advisor and committee members will return their comments and suggestions by the end of January. Before the end of February, the student writers and their advisors will meet together for the third 498 Seminar to discuss progress, problems, and strategies for revision according to the feedback they have received from their committees. After responding to the committee feedback, writers will present final drafts to their evaluative committees no later than the end of the third week of April, when committees will decide whether to grant honors or not.
NOTE: If the student fails to produce a complete second draft upon returning from Christmas break, or the advisor feels at this time that the student writer is notprepared (or motivated, or capable) of pursuing the project to its final evaluation for honors designation, the advisor may terminate the project. The advisor should consider such factors as the student’s ability to grasp intellectually the central issues vital to the pursuit of the project, the quality of the student’s writing, responsiveness to feedback, etc. when making the determination to continue or to terminate the project. In the case of termination, the advisorwill issue a grade in May, and the student’s transcript will be adjusted to show participation in English 489: Independent Project, rather than English 498: Honors Project.
E. Committee Evaluation of Project
The three members of the evaluative committee are expected to write responsesto the project draft they receive in late January that are modeled after the kind of feedback given to scholars by journal reviewers when they submit essays for publication consideration—particularly in regards to revisions necessary before resubmission. A more concise, summative response should be written by the readers after receiving the final draft of the project in April. The recommendation and rationale for or against honors designation should be included in those comments.
If two members of the committee believe the project should be approved for honors, but the third member disagrees, the committee of three should meet to discuss the project, though the student can still be granted honors on a two-to-one vote in favor. If two of the three committee members recommend against honors, however, the student cannot be granted the honors designation.
Project advisors should plan on reporting the determination of their committees to the English 498 coordinator on or before the last day of classes, to allow the department chairperson enough time to communicate the honors recipients to the registrar. Then, before the end of the exam period, the student should submit three clean copies of the project manuscript, with the title pages signed by all three committee members, to the English Department secretary so they can be submitted to the library for binding. All three committee members must sign the copies, even if
one of them has not approved the project for honors: the signature demonstrates membership in the evaluating committee, not approval for honors. One copy will be made available to the advisor (who may decide to make this copy available to the student), one will go into ODY Library’s permanent archives, and one will go into the English Department’s library of honors projects.
III. Specifications
A. Content
1. Literary Analysis
To qualify for the “honors” designation, a project must demonstrate:
• originality of argument (that is, it must do more thansynthesize the
critical arguments of other writers);
• familiarity with secondary sources relevant tothe topic of the analysis;
and
• clarity of interpretive/argumentative thesis.
In most cases, the writer will adopt an explicit theoretical position and will employ a methodology or methodologies germane to that theoretical position.
Structurally, the project should consist of Title Page (see Section C. below forformat), Table of Contents (optional), Introduction (a critical overview of issues atstake in this area of study and secondary approaches to it, which introduces the central thesis of the project and outlines the major issues to be discussed in it), Essay, Notes, and References (divided into Works Cited and Works Consulted).
Prerequisites for the literary analysis include a minimum 3.5 grade pointaverage in English, and the completion of a minimum of two 300-levelEnglish courses.
2. Writing Project
To qualify for the “honors” designation, a project must demonstrate:
• artistic merit (that is, it must display a polished technique
and elements of originality);
• familiarity in, and facility with, the genre(s) practicedin it; and
• stylistic sophistication (carefully crafted diction, tone, etc.
consistent with acknowledged practitioners of the genre).
In most cases, the writer will be drafting with the work of other genre writers in mind--not necessarily in imitation of them, or in response to them, but with them in mind as models of effective, respected genre practice.
Structurally, the project should consist of Title Page (see Section C. below for format), Table of Contents (unless project is a novel, screenplay or stage play), Introduction (discussing the genesis of the project, including research specifically related to it and articulating the process
of revision employed by the writer; the writer should also identify the source of any work previously drafted before initiating the current project and include aims for that work regarding revision/rewriting), Collection/Novel/Screenplay/Stage Play/Memoir/etc., and Reading List (of influential stylists studied by the student writer in preparation for the project).
Prerequisites for the writing project include a minimum 3.5 grade pointaverage in English, completion of the appropriate course sequence in the project’s chosen genre, and the completion of a minimum of two 300-level English courses.
B. Length
1. Literary Analysis
Minimum of 40 pages, with average range between 40-60 pages. Manuscripts of over 70 pages’ length must be justified by the complexity of their topics, comprehensiveness of treatment, etc., and must have the project advisor’s approval before being submitted for committee evaluation.
2. Writing Project
Projected length for writing projects varies largely according to genre:
• POETRY: 40-60 pages.
• SHORT FICTION: 50-70 pages.
• NOVELLA/NOVEL: 60-120 pages
• CREATIVE NONFICTION ESSAYS / JOURNALISTICWRITING /
EXPOSITORY ESSAYS: 50-70 pages.
• MEMOIR (BOOK-LENGTH): 50-90 pages.
• SCREENPLAY: 90-140 pages, with industry format employed
throughout.
• STAGE PLAY: 80-120 pages.
C. Title Page [see following page for example]
The title page consists of the following elements: title (centered, in large typefont); the words “in fulfillment of the requirements for Departmental Honors inEnglish” followed by the date on which the final manuscript is submitted in triplicate to the English Department secretary after having been approved forhonors (see Committee Evaluation of Project below); the name and home address of the student; and the signatures of the student’s evaluative committee, with the project advisor’s name appearing first.
Hammering Home the Bats: A Collection of Essays
on the Challenge of Growing Up Male
in fulfillment of the requirements for
Departmental Honors in English
May 15, 1998
William Jennings Bryers
2013 W. Appleway Landing
Newgate, VA02893
______
Dr. Harrison B. Wishman, Project Advisor
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Ms. Alison C. Castor, Project Reader
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Dr. Marsha Balderson-Gomby, Project Reader
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