Honors Thesis

English Honors Students’ Thesis Papers

How to Become Oneself:
The End of the Epic and the Beginning of a Personal Mythology in The Rainbow

The Voice of Trauma: Collective Memory and History in The Farming of Bones

The New Refrigerator

From Novel to Musical: A Study in Adaptation

“His Own Spirit Unto My Soul”
Political Resistance and Religious Authority in George Eliot’s Romola.

Guidelines for Honors Thesis Students and Mentors
  • Students and mentors meet as they see fit. The thesis is approximately 25 pages, plus a bibliography.
  • It is something like a seminar paper, only longer, better written, and better researched: the closest thing to a publishable paper that the student can produce.
  • Once the paper is complete, the mentor simply approves the thesis and gives the student a Pass grade for the Thesis course, Engl. 303.1Q. No signatures are required.
  • The deadline for submission of a thesis is at the end of the semester; however, if the student is graduating that semester, he or she should submit their thesis by Dec. 1 or May 1 in order for the honors designation to appear on their transcript on time.
  • Students should submit a paper copy to Renee Philippi in NAC 6/316 and an electronic copy to Renee Philippi (rmphilippi@ccny.cuny.edu) and to Prof. Robert Higney (rhigney@ccny.cuny.edu).
  • No need for the thesis to be bound.
Creative Writing Thesis

A creative writing thesis may be longer than 25 pages (for prose works) or shorter (for poetry). It must be accompanied by a critical introduction, in which the student reflects on the genre in which he or she are writing, places the work within a certain literary tradition, meditates on literary choices he or she made, or writes about his or her literary influences. For example, a student who writes a coming-of-age memoir may describe the memoirs that influenced his or her work or compare it to contemporary memoirs and meditate on his or her work’s unique contribution to the genre.