English

The Department of English Honors Tutorial Program’s central mission and goal is to study the history, forms, theory, and practices associated with the production and reading of written texts, especially those presenting artistic and imaginative evocations of human experience, and to help students develop an expertise for responding to such texts. These aims inevitably incorporate description of and debate about the cultural, social, economic, philosophical, and political contexts implicit in the works, thereby exposing students to a variety of such contexts, both historical and contemporary. The program prepares students for diverse futures by offering courses that introduce them to critical skills requisite to a fuller understanding of reading literature of all kinds. In order to complete the degree, tutorial students are required to take six tutorials, English 399 (Literary Theory), and two years of a foreign language.

Program Goals

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 on the mutual engagement of student and tutor in the study of literary texts, 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 sessions.

Each week all the students in a tutorial meet with their tutor in a two-hour seminar for a group discussion of the assigned materials. 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.

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 DVDs, taking field trips, or posing and answering questions over the week's readings. Students often have responsibility for leading group sessions.

Written Work and Comprehensive Exam

Tutorial students complete a minimum of fifty-five pages of essays of varying length each semester, including regular five-page tutorial essays and occasional 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. Each tutorial ends with a written or oral examination over the material covered that semester.

All third-year tutorial students take an oral comprehensive examination in conjunction with their penultimate portfolio review. The one-hour exam generally takes place before the portfolio review with the dean. The exam is administered by a committee of three tutors appointed in consultation with each student. The exam emphasizes synthesis and broad thematic and disciplinary issues across the student’s tutorial courses rather than course-specific content.

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 semester 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 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 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 semester 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 semester 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.

Electives and Collateral Studies

Within the Department of English students have the opportunity to take additional courses in World Literatures, Women Writers, Rhetoric and Composition, Lesbian and Gay Literature, African American Literature, Shakespeare, Creative Writing, and British and American Literature.

Students may also 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.

Further Information

Dr. Carey Snyder
Ellis Hall 354
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
(740) 593-9937
snyderc3@ohio.edu