Senior Writing Projects

More About the English Senior Project

Expand all Collapse all

• Imagining the creative writing project

  • Fiction: Craft an original novel, novella, or a collection of short stories.
  • Poetry: Create a collection of poems or a book-length poem.
  • Personal Essay: Write a collection of essays -- travel, lyric, nature, memior -- or a book-length work of creative non-fiction.
  • Digital Essay: Produce a collection of thematically-unified, 3-5 minutes digital essays, stories, or poems. Or generate a longer (15-30 minute) piece.
  • Screenwriting: Write a film or television screenplay.
  • Playwriting: Craft a full-length play, a series of dramatic monologues, or short (one act or one scene) plays.
  • Genre-crossing: Write a collection of short stories and poems. Or personal essays and a one-act play. Or another project that mixes genres. Cross-genre projects are often organized around a unifying topic or theme.
  • Media-mixing: Any project may also include photographs, illustrations, digital images, or other artistic components
  • Advanced writing courses strongly encouraged: Whatever the project, students should take the most advanced course possible in its primary genre(s) by the end of the junior year.

• Imagining the literary studies project

  • Interpretive essay or essay collection: Write an extended essay -- or essay collection -- on a text(s), question, theory, or literary studies topic that fascinates you. The essay collection may combine interpretive, autobiographical, biographical, and cultural analysis.
  • Autobiographical criticism: Write an essay -- or a series of essays -- that fuses personal narrative and textual analysis. Autobiographical criticism centers on the dynamic relationship between literature and lived experience.
  • Biographical or cultural study: Create a project inspired by a writer's life, letters, or historical context.
  • Film & literature study: Write an essay -- or a series of essays -- on a gripping literary text and a relevant film or television program.
  • Reader’s guide: Design a reader's guide for one of your favorite books. Reader's guides often include: short authorial biographies, plot summaries, discussion questions, analysis of major themes, etc..
  • New Media: Create a website or a zine centered on an intriquing text, writer, theory, or literary studies topic. New media projects may combine interpretive, autobiographical, biographical, cultural, and film analysis. Or integrate elements of the Reader's Guide.
  • Media-mixing: Any project may also include photographs, illustrations, digital images, or other artistic components.
  • Advanced literary studies courses strongly encouraged: Whatever the project, students should take 1-2 3000-level literary studies classes by the end of the junior year.

• Length and format guidelines

  • Format: 12-point font; 1-inch margins; prose pieces should be double-spaced
  • Title page: Center the project title on its own line; center your name and the date of completion on the line beneath it
  • Table of contents: List the titles of the introduction, individual pieces or sections, and the page number on which each begins
  • Acknowledgements page: Thank the people that enabled the project and empowered you
  • Introduction: see additional info below
  • Page numbers: consecutive beginning with the first page of the introduction
  • Creative Writing length specs:
    • Fiction, non-fiction, plays, and screenplays: 80-100 pages
    • Poetry: 30-50 pages
    • Digital essay: 15-30 minutes
    • Cross-genre: distinct but comparable length requirements
  • Literary Studies specs:
    • At least 25-30 pages (not including the introduction. Length specs may shift according to the type of project. See the Engl 400 Professor and your faculty Director for more info.)
    • At least 10 sources and at least 10 footnotes
    • MLA parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page
  • New material: Elements of the project may emerge from previous writing or coursework, provided they're significantly revised, but most of it should be written during the project interval. See your Engl 4000 or 4060 instructor for specifics.
  • Honors projects: have to meet distinct specifications. See your Honors Handbook or Director for more info.

• Elements of the project proposal

  • Your name
  • Director’s name and Reader’s name
  • Tentative or working title
  • Primary topic or genre(s)
  • Description of the project: What are the central aims or themes of the project? What form do you think it will take? How long do you expect it to be? What questions do you hope it will answer?
  • Revised and new material: Is the project an entirely new undertaking or will components of it come out of previous writing/coursework? If so, how will you rework and revise that material to fit the project's focus, themes, or goals?
  • Research or reading agenda: What do you need to read, research, learn, or discover in order to form and complete your project?
  • Grading contract: see sample below

• Sample grading contract

  Director-Student Collaboration
  Student and Director will meet once each week for the Fall and Spring semesters. Our regular meetings will be: day, time, and place.

  Student will email work to Director by day/time so that the Director has time to read and comment before each meeting. Student will submit work with 2-3 questions or concerns that s/he would like the feedback to address. Student will come to each meeting prepared to discuss the current draft, the feedback, and to raise additional or follow up questions as the conversation unfolds.

  Reader-Student Collaboration
  Student and Reader will meet in week 8 of the Fall term to review the project proposal; week 1 of the Spring term to review the current draft of the project; and week 8 of the Spring term to review the complete draft. Student will email to arrange meeting times, generate a list of questions or concerns that s/he would like the feedback to address, and provide Reader with hard copies of materials at least 5 days before scheduled meetings.

  Process Expectations
  Student will complete 70% of the requisite reading and research in the Fall term, and draft 80% of the project in Spring term, generating at least 5 pages per week. Student will have a complete working draft of the project by week 2 of the Spring term. The whole project will be written, revised, and carefully edited by week 7. All projects must be complete by Friday of week 8. Student will devote at least 3 weeks to revision in the Spring, and revision will extend to substantive changes in content, organization, word choice, sentence and paragraph construction, etc.

• Grading

  In the Fall, the grade distribution will be:

  • Process: 70% (meeting deadlines and production expectations, attending meetings, coming to meetings prepared, etc.)
  • Product: 30% (quality of the written work and revisions) In the Spring, the grade distribution will be:
  • Process: 30%
  • Product: 60%
  • Final Interview: 10% (preparation, professionalism, engagement, enthusiasm, clarity, insight, etc.)
    
    At the Fall and Spring mid-term, the Director will provide the student and the course coordinator with a progress report and a current assessment of the grade.

• Critical introduction

  A critical introduction orients the reader to the larger aims and interests of the project, reflects on its genesis and evolution, situates it within an autobiographical and disciplinary context. It can answer questions like:

  What informs your interest in this project? What personal or educational experiences inspired it? Did elements of the project emerge from previous writing or coursework? And if so, how did you rework or revise that material to fit the project's focus and aims? What writers, theorists, or thinkers influenced the project? What quotes, concepts, or ideas had the most impact on its conception or evolution? What's significant about the work -- personally, culturally, creatively, or intellectually? What was your original vision for the project? How -- and why -- did your vision change as the process unfolded? How did your reading or research shape your conception of the project? What was difficult, what came easily, and why? Can you provide an overview of the different sections, components, or themes of your project? What questions, issues, or elements unify the project? What has the project taught you -- about life, literature, reading, writing, yourself, your world? What do you hope it will teach others?

  Your introduction should be 5-10 pages and quote from 3-5 sources. Honors students are expected to write a 10-15 page introduction and quote from 5-7 sources.

• Senior reading

  Each student will present an excerpt of their project in a Spring Senior Reading. You will be introduced by your faculty Director or Reader, and friends and family are welcome to attend. To prepare for that experience, you will:

  • Submit a 150-word abstract of the project, a digital picture, and brief personal bio to your course coordinator. Abstracts, pictures, and bios will appear in the Senior Reading program
  • Identify the portions of your work you will read
  • Prepare a short introduction to your excerpt
  • Time and rehearse your reading. Readings are 10-minutes long, which usually translates into 4-5 double spaced pages of prose

• Final interview

  As Spring semster closes, you will schedule a meeting with your Director and Reader to discuss the aspirations, outcomes, significance, and evolution of your project. Your Director and Reader should have a final copy of the project by the end of week 12. And final interviews must take place during weeks 13 and 14 (not finals week).