HONORS PROGRAM (CRITICAL)
Applications to this year’s English Department Critical Honors Program are due Wednesday, May 15, 2024. It’s time to start thinking about whether the Honors Program might be for you.
Why should you apply to the English Department Critical Honors Program?
Because you love reading, critical research and writing, analyzing texts and contexts, and want the experience of diving more deeply into a topic than is possible on the quarter system. If you’re planning to go to graduate or professional school, participating in the Honors seminar during fall quarter and writing a thesis in the spring provide invaluable preparation. But the Honors seminar also offers more than that. Whatever your plans are, the seminar can provide a capstone for your undergraduate career.
The Honors Program (Critical) in the English Department consists of a two- course sequence: English 194H, Special Study for Honors (4 units); and English 195H, Honors Thesis (4 units).
Students admitted to the Honors Program are required to take English 194H in fall quarter of their senior year, and English 195H in the spring quarter. In winter quarter, students will work independently. Students completing the Honors Program will receive appropriate notation on their transcript.
194H and 195H: In the fall quarter, English 194H is taught by the member of the English Department faculty who is coordinating the Critical Program. This coming year, Professor Matthew Stratton will lead the seminar. English 194H helps students sharpen their critical reading, research, oral presentation, and writing skills and asks them to engage in conversation and collaboration with one another. The class is limited to fifteen members so that students can work closely with the professor and engage actively in discussion. In addition to completing short reading, research, and writing assignments, each student will be required to sharpen the focus of his or her Honors Thesis during the quarter, to produce a rough draft of the thesis, and to designate an individual faculty advisor who will serve as a mentor during the thesis writing process.
As a course, English 195H has no class meetings during the spring quarter; instead, each student schedules regular meetings with their faculty advisor and works with the advisor in building a schedule and agenda for their independent research and writing. Students receive four units of credit for working on their thesis projects under the direction of the faculty advisor.
Description of the Honors Project: The Honors Thesis is a scholarly essay, usually 25-30 pages long, that you conceive, research, and write over the course of three academic quarters. You’ve been writing interpretive essays about literature and other cultural texts for years now; every time you write a five- or ten-page essay about a novel or a film or a comic or a play, you’re doing a big part of the work that you’ll do in an
Honors Thesis. The difference between short upper-division essays for an English course and the Honors Thesis comes down to depth that is a result of length: not only will you be formulating your own research question on a text or author you choose (rather than responding to a prompt), you’ll be delving deep into criticism, theory, history, and other genres as you engage in a more profound and comprehensive investigation.
Successful Honors Theses have been written on many different genres, styles, and historical periods of Anglophone literatures and cultures. Students have written theses about individual novels, literary anthologies, poetry, drama, video games, comics, film, and more. The methods and objects of inquiry will vary, but successful theses share some qualities in common regardless of topic:
- A clear critical claim supported by a meaningful argument, which is sustained and elaborated over the course of the essay.
- Sustained analytical engagement with textual evidence.
- Authoritative engagement with a variety of scholarly sources, which moves beyond literary review or summary into real dialogue with critical sources.
- Clear understanding of and active engagement with critical methods of interpretation.
- Effective organization that demonstrates purposefulness, a logical progression of thought, and rhetorical skill.
- Freedom from stylistic missteps and mechanical errors.
- Correct documentation utilizing either MLA Handbook or Chicago Manual of Style.
If this sounds like a lot, it is. The process of arriving at these polished 30 pages, however, is one that lasts an entire academic year with faculty support all along the way. It starts with a proposal, and in Fall Quarter you’ll take a 10-week small seminar in research methods where you really begin reading and writing in earnest. In this ten weeks, you’ll learn a variety of research methods as you produce something like a rough, short draft. In Winter Quarter, you’ll continue at a more relaxed, mostly self-directed pace. Finally, in Spring Quarter, you’ll work under the direction of a faculty member who will advise you as you work toward writing a final draft.
Eligibility: English 194H and English 195H are open to senior English majors with a 3.50 GPA overall as well as a GPA of 3.50 in the major*. Advanced-standing juniors who expect to graduate in mid-year may also apply for admission. In addition to the GPA requirement, applicants are expected to have completed ENL 110A or 110B and at least one Advanced Studies course, preferably a seminar (see Advanced Study section under “Major Requirements” for a complete listing).
Application Process: Please submit the application form, a two-page statement of purpose, and a writing sample that displays your strongest work.
In the two-page statement of purpose, please address the following questions:
1) Why are you interested in pursuing Honors in English?
2) What important or relevant academic experience has shaped your interest in this program?
3) What potential research topic or areas of interest do you aim to focus on in your Honors project?
More information is available from the Undergraduate Counselor, Ms. Brandy Fleming, 177 Voorhies Hall (bafleming@ucdavis.edu) or Professor Margaret Ronda, 254 Voorhies Hall (mronda@ucdavis.edu).
*Graduation with “honors” requires that a student meet the appropriate grade point requirement described in the General Catalog for all UC courses completed. Students who meet the grade point requirement for graduation with honors, and who complete a Departmental Honors Program, may be recommended by their departments for graduation with high honors or highest honors on the basis of an evaluation of their academic achievements in the major and in the honors project in particular.