Course Description: According to the Honors Thesis Manual, a thesis is “a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and mature manner under the guidance of a faculty supervisor and a second reader.” That sounds easy enough, but how does one get there from here? This course offers something of a roadmap. Over the course of the term we will examine literary criticism from the “inside out” and hone skills essential to a successful honors thesis. Along the way, we will address a number of questions, both practical—How do I use the MLA Bibliography? How do I produce annotated bibliographies that will be useful for writing the thesis?—and theoretical—What does it mean to make an argument about literature? How does a scholar enter into an existing critical conversation?
Course Objectives: This course will: first and foremost prepare students to write an honors thesis; interrogate methods of literary and cultural interpretation; consider what it means to make literary arguments and conduct literary research; help students to improve their research, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Course Requirements and Evaluation Method
Participation (15% of final grade)
Needless to say, students are expected to be active participants in both class discussions and thesis reading group meetings. (This is, after all, an honors seminar.) Attendance is mandatory; please let us know in advance if you need to miss a class meeting.
Bibliographies, Annotations, and Critical Review (30% of final grade)
One of the most important functions of this course will be to introduce you to the scholarly conversation that attends your thesis topic. Over the course of the term you will: produce three bibliographies of secondary texts useful to your thesis (totaling at least 30 references); provide annotations for at least 10 of these texts; and write a 3 to 5-page review of the text that seems most useful for helping you to position your own project within.
Thesis Prospectus (25% of final grade)
In early November you will submit to your reading group, thesis director, second reader, and tutorial professors a 4 to 6-page thesis prospectus.
Symposium Presentation (30% of final grade)
This course will culminate in a day-long symposium at which you will make a fifteen- to twenty-minute presentation (i.e., 6-8 double-spaced pages) from your thesis-in-progress. The first part of the presentation (i.e., ~ 250 words) will be a précis of your thesis project. The pages used in the presentation should be selected from a 15-20 page chapter of your thesis. A 45-60 page thesis will typically consist of about three chapters of 15-20 pages each. Thus, one expectation of the course will be to produce a draft of at least one such major segment of your thesis, to be submitted to your director. As a successful thesis will be a revised thesis, you should plan to continue producing such segments on a regular basis once the course ends (winter “break” is prime writing time!) so that you will have a complete draft to show to your director well in advance of the April defense. Two chapters drafted by January, and three chapters by February, would good targets for progress towards a successful revised and defensible thesis by April and polished final version by May.
Course Texts
Required Core Texts
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Russ McDonald, A.R. Braunmuller, Stephen Orgel, eds. (Penguin Classics, 2000)
# 978-0140714555
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (W.W. Norton, 1996)
#978-0393964585
Required Secondary Texts
Wayne Booth, et al, The Craft of Research (Third Edition) (University Of Chicago Press, 2008)
#978-0226065663
Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2005)
# 978-0393924091
Marjorie Garber, A Manifesto for Literary Studies (University of Washington Press, 2003)
#978-0295983448
Recommended Text
Eviatar Zerubavel,The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books (Harvard, 1999)
#978-0674135864
All additional materials will be placed on our course Blackboard site (Bb).