UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR > GUIDELINES FOR
HONOR'S ESSAY
I.
Topic:
The Senior Essay should examine in some detail a literary topic broad enough in scope to warrant the name "Comparative." One of its purposes is to allow the student to synthesize readings and perspectives acquired during the course of an undergraduate education. For this reason a well-chosen topic should extend the student's work already begun in a course or sequence of courses taken before the senior year. It can offer a critical analysis of two or more texts from different national traditions or cultural discourses, or even of a single text that catches and expresses a problematic interplay of different cultural discourses; it can pursue implications of literary theory in its varied guises or it can explore those implications as they intersect with findings drawn from other bodies of knowledge. Finally, the senior thesis can engage the problems and methods of visual studies.
II.
Supervision:
A faculty member in the department of Comparative Literature must approve the student's topic and supervise the writing of the essay. In some special cases the Director of Undergraduate Studies may authorize a faculty member in an allied department to supervise the student's progress. Experience suggests that supervision work best when the student has already taken a course from the faculty member and knows his or her expectations and approach. The nature and extent of contact between students and supervisor depend upon mutual agreement between them. From time to time the Director of the Senior Colloquium, Professor Natalie Melas will call for a meeting of all seniors writing essays. These meetings will allow students to share ideas about their work and to discuss one another's problems-solving strategies.
III.
Format:
The finished essay should be approximately fifty pages in length and it should be drafted and revised in a series of carefully planned stages. The format may vary, but as a rule students should draft portions of the essay in discrete units and rewrite them into a complete whole. In a majority of cases the finished essay will present three chapters or subdivisions with a conclusion and a general introduction.
Timetables
may vary, but the following deadlines have prove useful to other seniors
in the past:
30 September, outline
15 October, bibliography
15 November, first chapter or subdivision
15 February, second chapter or subdivision
15 March, third chapter or subdivision
1 April, complete essay to advisor and second reader
15 April, revised essay to advisor
1 May, final clean copy to Senior Colloquium Director
April 1: Each student submits a complete essay to the faculty advisor with whom he or she has worked, and to the second reader.
April 15: Each student submits a complete (revised) essay to the Departmental Office, 247 Goldwin Smith Hall.
Note**** A second reader may be recommended by the student or the Department may chose one for the student based on the topic of the senior essay.
May 1: Each student submits two final clean copies incorporating all final revisions to the Senior Colloquium Chair. At this point the faculty advisor and the second reader will determine the grade and, if applicable, appropriate honors. All students will receive a grade of "R" for the first semester's work.
mini-directory:
Professor Natalie Melas
Department of Comparative Literature
Director of Senior Colloquium
255-2220, 161 Goldwin Smith Hall
|
