Senior Paper

English 490: Senior Project (1, 2, or 4 Credits)

Together with the required Senior Seminar, the Senior Project is the English major's culminating experience. Projects build upon students' previous experience with scholarly research, creative writing, or the secondary education program.

Permission to register will be given after submission of two copies of this application form. Registration ought to be completed during the semester preceding the semester in which the project is begun. If you are a double major, you may choose the department in which you will complete the Senior Project. If you are undecided about the department in which to do your project, please consult with your advisor.

To browse past senior paper titles, see the "Thematic" and "Genre, Nationality and Period" links above.

General Information

Go to either the Spring Schedule or the Fall Schedule for a list of dates, deadlines, and details about the semester in which you complete your project. Your advisor may work out a different schedule with you, depending on the nature of your paper. Remember, keeping on schedule is key to producing a good essay (or, in some cases, to producing one at all).

In coming up with a senior project:

1. Develop a workable topic.
2. Select and consult with a member of the Department of English with whom you would like to work.

The senior project adviser may or may not be your regular academic adviser, but is someone with appropriate expertise to guide and evaluate your project. If you don't know how to proceed, call me at (1596) or email me (mugglimz@luther.edu). The project application will ask you to list the faculty member with whom you have consulted along with the names of other faculty members with whom you could work. After all applications for the senior project are in, the department may choose to have you work with the second or third named faculty to more evenly distribute the load of advising for senior projects.

If you would like to examine some completed senior papers from previous years, ask Judy Boese (Main 126). (You may not copy them or take them out of her office, however.) All members of the department can answer questions about the senior paper requirement. Don't hesitate to ask questions. Note the enrollment options on the applications form. Here are some other project guidelines:

• Most senior papers are from 15-25 pages (of text).
• Most scholarly papers make use of sources (at least 10 and often 15-25, depending on the topic) within and beyond our own library (interlibrary loan, etc.).
• For some students with the writing emphasis you may choose to do a project in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Such students should have completed the three courses required for a writing emphasis major and for poetry or fiction you should have completed or be completing the 212, 312 sequence.
• For students completing a major in Engish education you may choose to do a unit plan.

Assessment Grids

As part of its ongoing assessment of student learning in order to continue to improve our teaching, the English Department faculty members who read each senior project (the senior project adviser and the second reader) each fill out an assessment grid for the appropriate genre. The Department tabulates the scores to use in assessing long-term trends in student learning. Although the grids are used to assist in the evaluation of each paper in grading, they are not the sole method used for evaluating the papers, which are discussed by the whole department and evaluated by the group in relationship to the other senior papers for that semester. We have the following grids: academic, education, fiction, nonfiction, poetry.