The Kenyon College Department of English: Program Information

The Senior Exercise for English Majors

English majors may fulfill the college wide requirement to complete a senior exercise in one of three ways, depending upon their particular interests and abilities. Every English major may elect to take an examination based upon a set reading list, chosen from a wide chronological range of Anglophone literature and from texts typically taught in courses in the English department. Some English majors may complete the Senior Exercise by writing a fifteen- to twenty-page essay based upon an approved proposal. Those English majors who are pursuing an Emphasis in Creative Writing must submit significant creative work to fulfill the Senior Exercise. A detailed description of each of these options, and of the procedures and expectations associated with them, follows. To help you decide which option is most appropriate for your particular course of study, we urge you to talk with your faculty advisor and to consult materials that we have placed on reserve in Olin Library, including sample examination questions and answers, sample essay and creative writing project proposals, sample essays and creative projects, and sample assessments of successful and unsuccessful senior exercises from previous years.

Option I: the examination
Option II: the essay
Option III: senior exercise in creative writing
Option IV: the honors program

OPTION I: THE EXAMINATION

Every English major may elect to take an examination, based in 1999 on the following reading list. The examination will require students to compose two short "take home" essays on assigned topics, to complete a timed identification exercise, and to write an additional essay in a timed setting. A more detailed description of the exam appears below.

Reading List:

Norton Anthology of English Literature or The Norton Anthology of Poetry

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the modem English translation of this text in The Norton Anthology of English Literature may be used)

Geoffrey Chaucer:
"The General Prologue," "The Miller's Prologue," "The Miller's Tale," "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," "The Wife of Baths Tale," "The Knight's Prologue," "The Knight's Tale"

Shakespeare:
Richard III, Twelfth Night, King Lear
Sonnets: 418 "Shall I compare thee..." #29 "When in disgrace..." #30 "When to the sessions..." #55 "Not marble, nor the gilded..." #73 "That time of year..." #116 "Let me not to the marriage..." #129 "The expense of spirit..." 0130 "My mistress' eyes..." #144 "Two loves I have..."#146 "Poor soul..."

John Donne:
"The Good-Morrow," "Song" ("Go and catch a falling star"), "Woman's Constancy," "The Sun Rising," "The Canonization," "A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day," "The Flea," "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," Elegy XIX. "To his Mistress Going to Bed," Holy Sonnets. #10 ("Death be not Proud"), #14 ("Batter my heart")

John Milton;
Paradise Lost

Aphra Behn:
Oroonoko

Alexander Pope:
Rape of the Lock

Jonathan Swift:
Gulliver's Travels

Samuel Johnson:
Rasselas

Jane Austen:
Mansfield Park

William Wordsworth:
"1802 Preface to Lyrical Ballads "We Are Seven," "Elegaic Stanzas," "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey," "A Slumber did my spirit seal," "Strange fits of passion have I known," "Resolution and Independence "Ode: Intimations of Immortality," "The Solitary Reaper," "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways," sonnets - "London, 1802," "Nuns Fret Not," The World is too much with us," "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, 1802"

John Keats:
"On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer," "When I Have Fears," "On the Sonnet," "Bright Star "To Sleep," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Ode to s Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Um," "To Autumn," "Ode on Melancholy"

Mary Shelley:
Frankenstein

Henry David Thoreau:
Walden

Herman Melville:
"Bartleby, the Scrivener," "Benito Cereno"

Frederick Douglass:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave

George Eliot:
Adam Bede

Emily Dickinson:
214 I taste a liquor never brewed
216 Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
241 I like a look of Agony
249 Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
258 There's a certain Slant of light
285 The Robin's my Criterion for Tune
328 A Bird came down the Walk
341 Mer great pain, a formal feeling comes
414 'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch
448 This was a Poet - It is That
449 I died for Beauty-but was scarce
465 I heard a Fly buzz - when I died
510 It was not Death, for I stood up
675 Essential Oils-are wrung
709 Publication - is the Auction
712 Because I could not stop for Death
986 A narrow Fellow in the Grass
1129 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-
1545 The Bible is an antique Volume
1551 Those - dying then
1624 Apparently with no surprise
1755 To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee

William Butler Yeats:
"Easter, 1916," "Leda and the Swan," "Sailing to Byzantium," "Among School Children," "Byzantium," "A Dialogue of Self and Soul," "Lapis Lazuli," "The Circus Animals' Desertion," "The Second Coming," "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "September 1913," "Fergus and the Druid"

Virginia Woolf:
To the Lighthouse

William Faulkner:
Absalom. Absalom!

Elizabeth Bishop:
"Questions of Travel," "Sestina," "The Moose," "One Art," "The Fish," "At the Fishhouses," "The Armadillo," "The Man-Moth," "Over 2000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance," "The Map"

Ralph Ellison:
Invisible Man

Derek Walcott:
"A Far Cry from Africa," "Sea Grapes," "The Schooner Flight," "The Season of Phantasmal Peace," "Midsummer #41," "The Gulf," "Nights in the Gardens of Port of Spain," "The Glory Trumpeter"

Tom Stoppard:
Arcadia

The examination will be in two parts. To complete the senior exercise successfully, students will be required to pass both parts. In special cases, the examination committee may require a supplemental oral examination for purposes of verification and/or clarification.

The first part of the examination will require two essays from each student. These essays are not to exceed a thousand words each, are due by or before 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 26, 1999, and are to address two topics which you choose from the five or more options presented. These topics will be set for you during the second week of the Spring semester, in January; in some cases, they may invite or require your attention to secondary, critical or additional texts, which - if not readily available elsewhere - will be on reserve in the Olin Libraries.

PART I DUE DATE: MARCH 26, 1999 4:00 P.M. 102 SUNSET COTTAGE

The second part will be given on Saturday, March 27, 1999 beginning at 9:30 a.m.. in Ascension 220. In the morning you will be presented with passages taken from the texts on the reading list for identification. At the end of the morning exam, you will be given a list of lyric poems selected from those on the reading list. You will choose one of these poems to discuss in the two-hour essay examination (from 1:30-3:30 in Ascension 220).

PART II EXAM DATE: MARCH 27, 1999 IDENTIFICATIONS 9:30 - 11:30 A.M. ESSAY 1:30 - 3:30 P.M. ASCENSION 220

OPTION II: THE ESSAY

The project may derive from a particular critical perspective, theoretical application, research problem, or interpretive question; it may focus on a single text or on several texts; it should in some demonstrable way, build upon work that the student completed in courses or in previous essays, but it should also approach the material from a new perspective, requiring additional elaboration and development. The scope of the project should be commensurable with the fifteen to twenty-page limit of the final essay.

The proposal, due Monday, October 16, 1998 before 4:00 p.m. should be three pages in length, should have a descriptive title, and must demonstrate literary competence and full acquaintance with the primary texts to be discussed. If the proposal is submitted after 4:00, it will not be considered. The proposal should outline as specifically as possible the scope, focus, and intention of the final fifteen- to twenty-page essay; it should frame the question or sequence of questions that the essay will address and suggest why this question seems important. While the essay need not necessarily take the form of a research project, it should reflect an informed engagement of literary texts or problems and demonstrate methodological self- consciousness. To that end, a proposal should include some account of the relation between the chosen topic, and the student's own course of study and critical positioning. It should include a bibliography of any primary and secondary materials that are central to the project as it is currently envisioned. All citation and documentation should follow the guidelines established by The MLA Handbook for Writers and Research Papers, 4th ed., Joseph Gibaldi editor. The department's decision to allow a student to write an essay will finally depend upon the coherence and viability of the proposal and upon the student's interest in approaching the material from an independent perspective.

CONSULTATION WITH MENTOR

During the first semester, each student with an approved proposal will meet with an essay mentor, to be assigned by the department. This faculty member will discuss with the student his or her proposal and the progress he or she has made on the project. The mentor may suggest additional reading or redirect the student's focus and analysis. Most importantly, the mentor will advise the student, as early in the project as possible, if it seems unlikely that he or she is going to be able to produce a passing essay. Each student is responsible for making an appointment with his or her mentor before the end of first semester. Failure to do so will be taken as a sign that the student's interest in the project is insufficient, and the student will take the field examination.

PROPOSAL DUE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1998 4:00 P.M. 102 SUNSET COTTAGE

Each student with an approved essay proposal must present a full-length rough draft of the essay to the department by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 29, 1999. Each student is also required to schedule a single meeting to discuss this rough draft with his or her mentor, prior to submitting a final version of the essay. Failure to meet either of these conditions will mean that the student will take the examination.

ROUGH DRAFT DUE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1999 4:00 P.M. 102 SUNSET COTTAGE

TWO COPIES OF THE FINAL ESSAY, of 15-20 pages, error-free, are due before 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 26, 1999.' Lateness will be punished by imposing the equivalent of a full letter-grade penalty for each 4:00 deadline that passes until the essay is presented. The department will evaluate the essays and respond within two weeks of this date. If the department feels that it would be useful to arrange an oral examination to clarify the evaluation of the essay (i.e. to help the readers decide if the essay is to be awarded "Distinction" or to help the readers discover if the essay is entirely the student's own work), it reserves the right to do so.

ESSAY DUE: FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1999 4:00 P.M. 102 SUNSET COTTAGE

A failure to produce a satisfactory essay (provided that an essay of the required length has been submitted) will necessitate a make-up examination, to be scheduled individually with each student; that examination will be based on the topic of the student's essay.

* The English department expects students to be aware of the social implications of words, especially the use of gender inclusive language. In professional and published writing, it is often unacceptable to use the words manand mankind to refer to human beings in general or to use the pronoun he when the antecedent is a generic noun that may refer to women as well as men. Moreover, such words as mailman, weatherman, and forefathers embody sexual stereotypes and, in most instances, should be replaced by such terms as letter carrier, meteorologist, and ancestors. Because many readers today are sensitive to sexist language, such statements as the following are likely to be rhetorically ineffective if not downright offensive:

"Jane Austen's novels constitute one of man's most enduring legacies," or "Each character in The Scarlet Letter achieves his own appropriate destiny." On this issue, as well as on matters of punctuation, style, and citation, refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Joseph Gibaldi, editor, 4th edition.

OPTION III: SENIOR EXERCISE IN CREATIVE WRITING

This option is open only to those completing a creative writing emphasis.

Submission of the proposal, rough draft, and final version of the creative exercise, and consultation with the assigned faculty mentor, should follow the schedule outlined above for the senior exercise essay.

proposal

A list of creative writing courses the student has taken, including names of professors and dates of courses.
A five-page sample of creative work.
A list of five antecedents and/or influences (names of writers and titles of their works). In addition, the student may wish to list relevant non-literary influences.
A statement of approximately 500 words discussing the proposed creative project in the context of those antecedents and influences. In order to demonstrate to the English Department the student's ability to frame a project of appropriate range and scope, this proposal should describe a 15-25 page creative project, should suggest its coherence, and should identify its thematic and/or formal goals and challenges. Fiction writers should suggest how the theme will be embodied—an idea about a character, setting, or rudimentary conflict. The care with which this proposal is prepared will be taken as an indication of the student's preparation for undertaking a project requiring a difficult degree of independence and initiative.

The creative exercise may include, in addition to the creative work, a 1-2 page "autobiography" of the project in which the student looks back to the proposal and discusses ways the project has evolved, or a brief introduction or afterword providing a critical framework for the project in the context of the relevant antecedents and influences.

Although the senior exercise in creative writing is similar to the senior essay, it differs signally in the greater degree of independence it offers, and in the greater degree of individual initiative necessary to formulate an acceptable proposal and then to bring the project to a successful completion. Thus a student who fails to complete a senior exercise in creative writing which he or she initially proposed, will have the entire responsibility of proposing some way of remedying this failure, which meets the department's approval, and then satisfactorily accomplishing that remedy, if he or she wishes to complete the major in English at this college.

OPTION IV: THE HONORS PROGRAM

English 97 a seminar on literary theory to be taken the first semester of the senior year;
English 96 (undertaken in the fall semester), 98 (undertaken in the spring semester) - directed independent studies during which the student produces a substantial essay of approximately fifty pages;
a written exam set by the Department, based on the same reading list as the Senior Exercise Exam, to be taken in the spring of the senior year;
an oral exam, to be taken soon after the written exam, and conducted by Outside Examiners on both the thesis and the reading list for the written exam;
evaluation of the thesis, written exam, and oral exam by Outside Examiners.
In order to be eligible for the honors program, students must have a 3.5 grade-point average in their English courses and a 3.2 grade-point average overall. In the first-semester independent study, students will compile an extensive bibliography, submit a proposal for their independent project, and, by the end of the semester, complete the draft of at least one chapter. A proposal of five pages is due October 2,of their senior year. The proposal will be read by the Department and will be held to rigorous standards. If the Department does not find the proposal compelling evidence that the student will produce a sophisticated literary project, the proposal will be rejected and the student will not be allowed to proceed in Honors during the second semester. At the discretion of the Department, a student may be allowed to revise a proposal and resubmit it no later than November 3. The Department considers this proposal and its promise of an outstanding essay to be the most important step in the student's progress toward honors second semester.
By the beginning of the senior year, students should identify a faculty member willing to work with them on the honors project. The first-semester independent study will start at the beginning of classes, and the student should already be enrolled in English 96. The faculty member will direct the independent study through both semesters. ANY STUDENT WHO DOES NOT YET HAVE A FACULTY MENTOR FOR THE SENIOR HONORS PROJECT IN 1998-99 SHOULD CONTACT HIS OR HER FACULTY ADVISOR, AND/OR THE DIRECTOR OF THE HONORS PROGRAM IMMEDIATELY. (The director of the Honors Program for 1998- 99 is Adele Davidson.)
Students who complete Honors will have three distinct grades - first semester for (1) the seminar and (2) the independent study, and second semester for (3) the independent study. Successful completion of the courses first semester is necessary for students to continue in the program second semester. None of these courses will count towards fulfilling distributional requirements in the English major. The grades awarded to a student in English 96 and 98 are not to be taken as an evaluation of the finished thesis, but rather reflect the student's performance on the thesis tutorial.

A note about the degrees of "Honors" in English:

The English department considers successful completion of the Honors Program to be in itself a significant achievement. We expect, therefore, that most students who successfully complete the prescribed course of study (Honors seminar, independent study, senior thesis, written examination, and oral examination) will be awarded "Honors" in English. Students whose work taken as a whole is demonstrably and unequivocally distinguished or excellent may be awarded "High Honors." Rarer instances of exceptional distinction may even receive "Highest Honors." This degree of Highest Honors is reserved for exceptional cases and in most years will not be awarded.