Introduction Advising Keeping Informed Major Requirements Major Worksheet Options & Restrictions English Concentrations Senior Essay Program Registration Procedures Course Distribution Lists 09-10 by Category 09-10 by Course Barnard Courses Summer Courses Past Distribution Lists Writing Prizes The Williams Traveling Fellowship Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism (CJLC) SENIOR ESSAY PROGRAM Eligibility All Columbia College and General Studies senior English majors with at least a 3.65 GPA in their English courses. Description The senior essay program offers qualified seniors the opportunity to write a critical essay of between 8,000 and 15,000 words under the supervision of a full-time faculty member in the English Department. The essay should constitute some substantial and original critical or scholarly argument of the sort normally required in literature courses. Submitting a senior essay by the deadline in early April is necessary, though not sufficient, for a student to receive honors for his or her English major. (There are no departmental honors for concentrators.) Procedure Students interested in applying to this program should devote some time during the summer between their junior and senior year thinking about what topic they might want to explore and how they would go about it. Early in the fall semester, applicants submit a one- to two-page proposal for the essay to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE). (Note: the proposal should include a provisional title that identifies the focus of the essay.) The deadline for Fall 2009: Monday, September 28, by 2 p.m. (To get some sense of what CUE considers an acceptable project, students should consult the sample proposals of past applicants posted at this site.) Along with the proposal, applicants should also submit their transcript and a list of three suggested faculty sponsors. (Choose faculty members whose interests correspond with yours; you need not know or have talked to the faculty members whose names you put on your list.) Applicants are asked to submit 4 copies of their proposal and transcript. On the basis of the proposal and academic record, CUE accepts students into the program, at the same time assigning them to individual faculty sponsors. Although efforts are made to accommodate student choices of sponsor, there is no guarantee that this will happen in every case. The final authority to assign faculty sponsors rests with CUE. Once students have been accepted and faculty assignments made, they are expected to meet with their sponsors throughout the fall to sharpen the focus of their topics, establish a bibliography, and otherwise organize themselves for the actual preparation of the essay. During the November registration period for the spring term, students register for the three-point independent study course, English W3999y. During the spring term, students are expected to see their sponsors at least once every two weeks as they work on their essays. At least twenty pages of draft should be submitted to the sponsor by Monday, March 8, 2010. The essay must be handed in by 2 p.m. on Monday, April 5, 2010. Students should submit 4 copies to 602 Philosophy Hall for CUE, and they should deliver one other copy to the sponsor (whether the essay should be delivered directly to the sponsor or deposited in the sponsor’s mailbox is a matter to be arranged between the student and sponsor; this fifth copy should not be dropped off with the other four: do not assume that someone in the office will make sure that the sponsor receives it). Faculty sponsors submit to CUE an evaluation of the essay and a grade one week later, along with a recommendation (or not) for departmental honors. CUE then meets to consider the essays, the sponsors’ evaluations, the students’ grades, and other faculty members’ recommendations for honors to determine which students should be nominated for departmental honors. By College rule, the department can grant honors to no more than 10 percent of its College majors. The list of nominated students is then presented to the College or to the School of General Studies for its final approval.