Research Intensive Track
Department of English ::: Saint Louis University
Senior Honors Project
Description:
To graduate with a BA in English with the Research Intensive designation, all RIE students must
complete a Senior Honors Project. This requirement asks RIE students to craft, over one
semester, a scholarly, polished and dynamic piece of critical or creative writing of substantial
length (25-30pg). Senior Honors Projects must display original scholarly research beyond the
immediate primary texts under study, and must engage with appropriate secondary works to
craft a critically-informed yet distinctive essay or creative / digital media project.
Procedures:
Proposing your Senior Honors Project
RIE students may sign up for three Senior Honors Project hours [ENGL 499] in the fall or
spring of their senior year. In consultation with a full-time member of the English Department
faculty, each RIE student will formally propose a senior honors project topic in the semester
prior to writing the thesis. Faculty mentor permission must be obtained prior to signing up for
ENGL 499; the student will be enrolled in this course under his or her faculty mentor. RIE
students may sign up for ENGL 499 through the English Department office by submitting the
Senior Honors Project application with all required faculty signatures.
 Critical Projects
For critical projects, the proposal should offer a careful description of the critical question
your honors thesis will engage. Your proposal should identify your main primary text(s) and
the analytical framework you will use to enter into existing critical debates. Your 500-word
proposal must be accompanied by a bibliography that lists both primary and secondary
sources you anticipate consulting as you write your Honors thesis.
 Creative Projects
For creative projects, the proposal should explain how the student will assemble, extend, and
revise his or her own creative work; it should identify issues of craft that are central to the
project, with an accompanying reading list of approximately a dozen related texts.
Submitting your Senior Honors Project
All Senior Honors Projects will be due two weeks before last day of classes, and will be
evaluated by two full-time faculty members other than the student’s mentor. Late projects will
not be eligible for levels of distinction or the Senior Honors Project Award (see below).
Evaluation Process
Your Senior Honors Project will be evaluated not by your faculty mentor, but by a team of two
English department faculty members working in fields relevant to the work of your Honors
Project.
To evaluate critical projects, faculty readers will use the following criteria:
This Senior Honors Project:
 Articulates a compelling and original research/interpretive question.
 Displays knowledge of and dexterity with appropriate research methodologies, critical
vocabularies and modes of argumentation current in the field of literary studies.
 Demonstrates strong close reading skills.
 Is able to historically contextualize.
 Shows awareness of the central concerns of the scholarly field.
 Develops mastery of rhetorical strategies appropriate for a clearly identified audience.
 Is written in a clear, engaging, lively expository style.
To evaluate creative projects, faculty readers will use the following criteria:
This Senior Honors Project:
 Includes a substantial, original work of fiction or poetry (15–25 pages) that demonstrates
care and craft.
 Includes a critical section (10–15 pp.) analyzing issues of craft that are central to the
project, as those issues relate to a reading list of approximately a dozen related texts.
Given they pass examination, each submitted Senior Honors project will be assigned one of
three designations: “Pass”; “Distinction” or “High Distinction”; students who earn the
designations “Distinction” and “High Distinction” will have these levels of distinction noted in
the Arts and Sciences commencement program.
Senior Legacy Symposium
It is expected that RIE students will present a portion of their Senior Research Project during
SLU’s Senior Legacy Symposium, held each April.
Senior Honors Project Award
The Department of English will designate one graduating RIE student each year as the recipient
of our Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award. We will announce this award annually
alongside our existing Collins and Mandeville awards for excellence in the major.
Revised September 2013