The Honors Program offers to qualified majors and non-majors the opportunity to pursue advanced studies in small discussion sections. Students need not plan to write an Honors thesis to take Honors sections. Students who do write the thesis and who successfully complete the other Honors requirements may graduate with Honors or High Honors in English.
The English Department generally offers two Honors sections each semester in its schedule of courses. Enrollment is limited to fifteen students. Honors sections are open to any student who has completed the College writing requirement and who has at least a 3.25 G.P.A. or has been recommended by two members of the English Department. Honors sections fulfill the same requirements as regular sections of those courses. Students who have taken either the Honors or the regular version of a course may not enroll in the other version for credit. Many students take these more advanced sections even though they do not intend to enroll in the Honors Program.
To graduate with Honors in English, students must (a) complete all the requirements of the English major with at least 6 hours in honors sections (if appropriate for a particular honors thesis, a graduate seminar or a seminar in a study-abroad program may be substituted for one honors seminar); (b) complete 3 hours of 290a; (c) maintain at least a 3.25 grade point average overall and 3.5 in the major; (d) be admitted to the honors program in spring of the junior year; (e) write a thesis (290b); and (f) pass an oral examination about its subject in the spring of the senior year.
Application for admission to the Honors Colloquium (English 290a & 290b) is made to the English Department Honors Committee in the spring semester of the junior year. No more than 15 students will be admitted.
English 290a is a 3-hour course with the Director of the Honors Program. It features shared readings, which may vary from year to year, but includes discussion of critical approaches, research methods, and selection of thesis topics. This course will count toward the standard major should a student drop out of the Honors Program. English 290b is a 3-hour independent study course in which the student writes the Honors thesis. It must represent an additional 3 hours of work for any major.
The thesis, which will be supervised by a faculty member of the English Department, is due in early April. It is ordinarily 40-80 pages in length but may be longer by petition to the Honors Committee. It will be graded by a committee consisting of the thesis supervisor, the Honors Director, and an additional member of the faculty. The oral examination will be on the subject area of the thesis and will be administered by the same committee who read the thesis.
Grades in 290b will be awarded by the candidate’s committee based on thesis grade and performance in the oral. Students who make B- or below in 290b will receive credit but will not be eligible for Honors in English; students who make B to B+ ordinarily will receive credit for 290b and Honors in English; students who make A- or above ordinarily will receive credit for 290b and High Honors in English. If necessary, the committee may review the candidate’s record before reaching a decision on whether to grant Honors or High Honors.
Click here for Link to Application to English Honors Program
HONORS SECTIONS
Fall 2008
ENGL 210 Shakespeare: Representative Selections
ENGL 272 Movements: Culture of Modernism
Spring 2009
ENGL 274 Major Figures: Wordsworth and Coleridge
ENGL 278 Colonial and Post Colonial Literature
