Programs of Study
English
Modeled along the lines of the Oxford-Cambridge system, the English tutorial is a four-year program for students capable of a more independent approach to study than is usually available in a traditional classroom setting. Students in the program meet weekly with their tutors for individual sessions to discuss their week's reading and the essays they have written over that reading. Students also take part in weekly seminar discussions of texts by English and American authors from the medieval period through the twentieth century. Students take few examinations during the first three years in the program; instead they do literary and historical research and write extensively about their reading and research. In the fourth year, students take a comprehensive written and oral examination covering the work of the first three years and then write a thesis, either a creative work or an extended project of literary analysis.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The tutorial is the core of the program, with students meeting individually with their tutor in an hour-long session each week. While the tutorial hour focuses on students' interpretations of assigned texts, normally beginning with their essays about those texts, the tutorial centers in the mutual engagement of student and tutor in the study of fiction, lyric poetry, and drama, including the historical and cultural contexts of the works. The tutor may work with the student in evaluating research materials, experimenting with different theoretical models for reading, developing ideas into an essay, or working on improvement of writing skills. The tutor may also prompt students to pursue topics and questions arising out of readings or seminar discussions. Whatever direction the tutor-student relationship takes, it is intensively collaborative, with an emphasis on the sharing of judgments and perceptions through dialogue. Students are responsible for taking an active part in tutorial part in tutorial sessions.
SEMINAR
Each week all the students in a tutorial meet with their tutor in a two-hour seminar for a group discussion of the materials assigned for that week. Seminars may focus on analyzing and understanding difficult texts; issues involving the history, philosophy, and culture of the period being studied; concerns about canon formation or concepts of tradition and literary conventions; reviews of contemporary scholarship, or other ideas put forth by the tutor or students. These sessions may also include presentations by students or guest speakers, watching assigned videos, or paying a visit, for example to the Special Collections Department of Alden Library.
Students currently studying with a particular tutor also meet together for two hours weekly without their tutor to discuss the themes and reading materials of the course or to read and comment on one another's tutorial essays. Tutors may assign group-session activities such as watching videotapes, taking field trips, listening to audiotapes, learning to read Middle English, or posing and answering questions over the week's readings. Students often have responsibility for leading group sessions.
WRITTEN WORK
Tutorial students complete a minimum of fifty-five pages of essays of varying length each quarter, including weekly five-page tutorial essays and three longer papers incorporating outside research. Tutors' oral and written responses to both short essays and longer papers guide students to become proficient writers and expert readers.
Entering students' command of English grammar, syntax, and diction must be sufficient to allow significant intellectual development over the course of the program. Students who have already developed skills in exposition, analysis, and argument, who have done independent research, and who are accomplished at integrating facts and ideas will probably adapt well to the tutorial and seminar approach. During the first three years in the program, tutors' personal and written guidance provides the essence of instruction. Few exams are given before the fourth year; students' written work and discussion in tutorials and seminars provide the chief evidence of their progress.
In order to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English in Ohio University, tutorial students are required to take six tutorials as well as English 254 (Research and Writing in English) in their first quarter in the program, English 399 (Literary Theory), and two years of a foreign language. Entering freshmen also take the HTC seminar. Students should also take two courses (totaling nine hours of credit) in math and/or the natural sciences to be eligible for election to Phi Beta Kappa.
THESIS
At the beginning of their fourth year students select a thesis director from members of the English Department faculty. Each student decides on a thesis topic in consultation with his or her director, writes a thesis prospectus, including a proposed time line and bibliography, and submits the prospectus to the Director of Studies (DOS) by the last Friday of September. When the DOS approves the prospectus, he or she will forward it to HTC. Students will register for thesis hours during each quarter that they are writing the thesis, not exceeding thirty hours total.
CREATIVE WRITING OPTION
Students electing the creative writing option within the English tutorial program participate in the three-year tutorial sequence described above, including Eng 254, Eng 399, and two years of a foreign language, and take an additional sixteen hours of creative writing courses, including a four-hour Form and Theory seminar in fiction, poetry, or non-fiction prose and selected workshops in poetry, fiction, or non-fiction prose. Students who wish to write a creative honors thesis (such as a collection of short fiction, poems, or essays) under the direction of a member of the creative writing faculty must preface their collection with a critical introduction of at least twenty pages.
EVALUATION
Students in the first three years of the program earn letter grades on their work consistent with the university grading system. Students who receive any grade of B- or lower in any quarter will be asked to confer with the Director of Studies and the Dean of the College, as will students whose cumulative grade point average at any point falls below 3.5. In addition to posting quarterly grades with the university Registrar, tutors complete quarterly course descriptions and extensive written evaluations of each student’s work, evaluations that are shared with the students. These evaluations are especially important in giving students regular opportunities to review their progress, noting achievements as well as difficulties. Students are also asked to evaluate their tutors each quarter in order to help the English Department and the College monitor and improve the program.
At the end of the first year in the program, all students create a portfolio representing their year's work and discuss it with the Dean and DOS. Juniors create a similar portfolio providing an overview of their three years in the program, again discussing it with the Dean and DOS.
All fourth-year tutorial students take a combined written and oral comprehensive examination. The written portion of the exam, which extends over three weeks, requires two short essays (six pages) in response to questions from each of the students’ six tutorials (i.e., two essays on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Literature, two essays on Early Modern Literature, etc.). The oral portion of the exam takes place in a fourth week, as the student meets with each tutor for a forty-five-minute discussion of the written exam and specific questions on, e.g., the chronology of figures and works in the particular period.
Letter grades are not awarded for the comprehensive examinations. Instead, the tutorial faculty as a group awards each student one of the following grades: pass with distinction, high pass, pass, low pass, or fail. A letter grade is also not awarded for the final thesis. The approval of the thesis director and the DOS signifies satisfactory completion of this requirement.
COLLATERAL STUDIES AND ELECTIVES
In English, students may choose collateral studies (including double majors and study-abroad programs) with the advice and approval of the DOS. The program is flexible enough to give students a fundamental grasp of literary history and conventions while allowing them to complement their knowledge of English with studies in related fields. A variety of combinations is possible in and out of the liberal arts tradition. The program in English can be coordinated with classics, film, history, modern languages, philosophy, political science, African American studies, or psychology, among others. Outside the liberal arts, it may also be combined with business administration, journalism, or education leading to teacher certification. This flexibility helps students as they move toward vocational plans.
People who can read, write, think, and speak with clarity and force will always be in demand in all occupations, and the English program, alone or combined with areas like those listed above, supports preparation for a wide variety of professions, including business, education, and law. Because they are broadly educated rather than narrowly trained, English majors adapt well to a variety of vocations requiring effective communication, problem solving, and research and organizational skills.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information about the English Tutorial Program, contact:Dr. Marsha Dutton
Ohio University
Ellis Hall 354
Athens, OH 45701
(740) 597-2752
Dutton@ohiou.edu