Departmental Honors Requirements
- Complete all English degree program requirements
- Maintain an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher
- Maintain a major GPA of 3.75 or higher
- Complete two additional scholarly projects, detailed here below
English majors meeting the overall GPA requirement will be invited to apply to the English Department Honors program. Prospective candidates must verify that they meet the major GPA requirement as part of the application process. Candidates are encouraged to apply via the online application form once they have their first Department Honors experience to propose. Candidates must apply for the English Department Honors Program no later than the end of the add period of their penultimate semester before graduation.
Options for Two Additional Scholarly Projects for Honors
- Participate in a faculty-student collaborative project and produce a scholarly, creative, or performance work that exceeds the expectations of a senior seminar project as determined by the faculty collaborator and present at the Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity.
- Present a scholarly/creative work that exceeds the expectations of a senior seminar project at a professional/academic conference or at the Provost's Honors Symposium. Both the work and the conference must be approved by the relevant English emphasis committee.
- Publish a scholarly/creative work that exceeds the expectations of a senior seminar project as sole author or co-author. Both the work and the publication must be approved by the relevant English emphasis committee.
- Complete an Honors project in an upper-division English course. The Honors project will constitute a substantial addition to the requirements for the course and will exceed the expectations of a senior seminar, e.g. a longer, more substantive scholarly/creative project, class presentation(s), additional teaching unit(s). Prior approval by the course instructor and approval of the final project by the course instructor are required.
- Successfully complete a minimum of two credits of an ENGL academic apprenticeship (ENGL 394) with an Honors component, e.g., researching a course topic in depth and leading a class session or writing a paper exceeding the expectations of a senior seminar, preparing curricular materials based using innovative methods and based on extensive research. A reflection essay detailing how the apprenticeship experience relates to and enhances the quality of the student's English major will be submitted along with a portfolio of materials for approval by the course instructor. Prior approval by the course instructor is required.
- Engage in an integrative, professionalizing academic leadership experience that includes research and creative experiences, e.g., grant writing, journal editing, preparing and delivering presentations, through an English Department student organization or internship program. A reflection essay detailing how the experience relates to and enhances the quality of the student's English major will be submitted along with a portfolio of materials for approval by the faculty advisor or internship director.
Note: Other projects (e.g., independent/directed studies) may be considered for English Departmental Honors and must be approved in advance by the instructor(s) involved and the department chair. General expectations for Departmental Honors projects are that they exceed the requirements of senior seminar projects in the appropriate discipline.
