Module Level

D

Module co-ordinator:

Dr Bruce S. G. Stewart
School of Languages and Literature
Room B251c (South Phase)

Office hours: Monday—Friday 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 pm.
028703 243r5 tel. (off.)
07977469256 mob. (emergency)
BSG.Stewart@ ulster.ac.uk
Fax 028 7032 4693

ENG504C1 is a compulsory final-year module for Single Subject and Major English students (and optional for Joint English students) in which the focus is placed on independent thinking, research, and critical argument. While not a core module, it is, like the core structure, an intrinsic part of the Honours degree programme. The module is designed to test the student’s ability to apply the lessons learned in the rest of the degree programme concerning the defining and solving of critical issues, the successful marshalling of evidence, the creation of a developing and sustained argument, and the proper use of relevant scholarly conventions in referencing, bibliography, and presentation.

The aims of the module are to offer final-year Honours students the opportunity to define and plan an original, interesting and substantial piece of literary criticism on their own initiative and to provide the necessary supervision, skill training, facilities and organisational support to enable them to complete it successfully. To put the matter in a simple list form:

• the module will require you to choose and plan a suitable topic;
• acquire information about it both in traditional form (books and critical articles) and in electronic form;
• develop your ideas about the chosen topic in the form of a convincingly-argued dissertation which takes into account, as appropriate, other opinions, arguments andjudgements put forward by critics before you;
• organise and present this argument in an academic style with scholarly referencing and bibliography;
• keep within the word limit imposed;
• present the results of your work in the required format and on time.

ENG504 gives you an opportunity to write about the aspects of literature that interest you the most and to show why. In so doing, it elicits a demonstration of your originality, intelligence and imagination as well as your capacty to form critical opinions, either similar or opposed to those of others, articulated by means of appropriate research techniques and scholarly methods.

This module carries the same number of marks as final-year taught modules, but is examined solely on the worth and value of the dissertation which you produce at the end of it. From this it follows that you should spend on your dissertation module an equivalent amount of time and effort to that which you would expect to devote to any other taught module (including both lecture and seminar hours and private study time). The difference is that in the present module more responsibility is devolved upon the individual student and less on members of staff. It is up to you (with your supervisor’s help) to designate the area of study you wish to follow, define and plan the critical problem you are proposing to examine and the argument you will adopt, and manage the different stages of the work intelligently and successfully. You are not permitted to choose topics without consultation. Any variations from the list of designated areas for research must be made with the agreement and sanction of your supervisor.

In assessing the dissertation, the examiners will take the following factors into account. They will expect you to adhere strictly to the word limits imposed on the dissertation. Anything significantly below 8,000 words (the lower limit) or significantly above 10,000 words (the upper limit) is likely to be penalised. You should therefore make sure your final dissertation falls comfortably within these numbers. The devising of a manageable topic which can be sensibly tackled within these limits, and its proper planning and execution, are among the things being tested. Note that the word limit does not include bibliographies, but does include explanatory notes and references.

Secondly the examiners will look for each student’s ability to identify a proper area of research—that is, one in which or by which some genuine literary-critical issue is raised. It is this literary issue which your dissertation is meant to address. The research area chosen must fall within the parameters defined by the list of recommended supervision areas and it must be appropriate to dissertation treatment—that is, it must be capable of  successful handling within (at most) 10,000 words. The examiners will expect you to explain why this topic is interesting and worth doing; to show that you have researched it properly; to write it up convincingly, demonstrating that you have achieved an adequate knowledge of the relevant critical and scholarly work previously undertaken in that field; and to do this with minimal supervision. Your dissertation should pursue its argument logically, with appropriate use of relevant evidence, and should bring matters to a definite (and defendable) literary-critical conclusion. Finally you will be expected to present all this material in the proper way, and in an appropriate formal register, with due regard for the conventions of scholarly argument in literary dissertations and theses. 

Two copies must be submitted at the time and place indicated. Printing and binding a third copy for your own use is recommended since the English Division has no obligation to return copies which have been handled by examiners. Keep an eye on the English Noticeboard for details about the date of submission (usually a week before sessional exams). Ability to complete on time is an assessment factor on the Module and dissertations not submitted by the due date will not be accepted unless appropriate documentary evidence of medical or other sufficient cause allows otherwise. In such cases a supervisor’s report on the work in progress will normally be sought.

Stylesheets: Make sure you have a copy of the English Style Sheet produced by the English staff at the University of Ulster as a guide to formats in coursework and dissertations. The Modern Humanities Research Association Style Book (London: MHRA 1996) is the authoritative reference-work for styles acepted by publishers and examiners in the United Kingdom and Ireland. (Copies of the former available in the Faculty Office and the latter in Waterstones on campus at Coleraine.) American methods are set out in the Modern Language Association Style Book (NY: MLA 1970) and you may use these if you wish, but be sure not to mix styles from both of these sources. Standard rules on referencing web pages are set out in in Zia Li & Nancy B. Crane, The Official Internet World Guide to Electronic Styles (Westport, WA: Meckler 1996).

Encyclopaedias, &c. For general enquiries the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica International, many editions) is a useful first reference point. Note that the older editions of this work can be better than the more modern editions and that compact encylopaedias such as Pears have ready-reference value only and should not be cited in bibliographies.

Internet websites offering an immense range of reference materials and electronic texts are increasingly used by dissertation-writers. Their use, however, is regarded as secondary to printed sources in the academic world and no dissertation confined to them will satisfy examiners. All such internet sources used must be included in bibliographies with an “accessed on [date]” record attached. (Wikipedia @ www.wikipedia.com, the collective endeavour of many contributors, ranks among the most reliable of these but must not be taken as “gospel” either .)

Biographical dictionaries occupy a large place in the reference-work collection in any library. Articles in them usually end with bibliographies pointing out the leading monographs on the writer in question. A Handbook of British Chronology (London: Royal Historical Society 1986) is useful for checking historical facts and dates and contains summary information on the main dates and events in British history. Similar works exist for American and Irish history. If you want preliminary information on memorable historical persons, including writers, try the Dictionary of National Biography, 22 vols. (OUP 1885-1901) or the New Dictionary of National Biography (2005), which is just now becoming available.

The DNB and NDNB are standard works of their kind; however the “old” DNB, though a magnificent achievement in its day - or at any time - seems gender-biased and unfair to minorities today, so supplement it with An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers, ed. Paul & June Schlueter (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1998) or works such as A Dictionary of Irish Literature, ed. Robert Hogan, 2 vols. (Greenwood Press 1996). Numerous Companions devoted to single authors and major topics including national literatures and literary genres are issued by Cambridge University Press, Blackwells (Oxford) and several other publishing houses. These, too, include useful bibliographies.

Guides on dissertation-writing: Finally, for sound and sensible general advice on all aspects of dissertation writing, consult George Watson’s Writing a Thesis: A Guide to Long Essays and Dissertations (London and New York: Longman, 1987). The Cambridge Foundation on Critical Thinking publishes a series of booklets designed to highlight the concepts involved in all good intellectual work.

• M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms [6th edn.] (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1992). Succinct and suggestive explanations and definitions, with useful lists of further reading.
• F. W. Bateson & H. T. Meserole, A Guide to English and American Literature, 3rd edition (London: Longman, 1976)
• The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature , ed. George Watson, 5 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969-77). The standard reference work for English authors and their works—now into the third edition.
• The Year’s Work in English Studies (London: English Association, 1919- ). Here you can find discussions of all significant books and articles on the major authors and areas of English literature which have been published in the last twelve months, with an assessment of their value. A new volume is published every year.
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1967- ) A compilation of all critical and scholarly works published within the last twelve months, not critically evaluated, but fully referenced.
• Oxford Companion to English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932 and later). Brief succinct information on authors and their books.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989) The authoritative reference work on the meaning of the English language.

All members of the English Division of the University of Ulster , whether on the Coleraine or the Jordanstown campus, are available to act as dissertation supervisors unless on study-leave during the semester in question. Collectively, the English staff make an undertaking to supervise dissertations on any major author(s) in English in any period, genre, or movement as well as most minor authors commonly known to readers and scholars. While work in well-known areas is obviously preferable from the point-of-view of expertise, supervisors are generally willing to take on less familiar writers and/or topics.

In planning a dissertation, your first task is to choose a topic. Some students will wish to deepen their knowledge of authors or themes met with in English modules to date, while some will prefer to work on others that have featured in their private reading and have not been met with on the teaching syllabus. For obvious reasons, however, you must prepare your dissertation under proper staff supervision and may not select a topic without the agreement of a given supervisor. The actual scope, structure, methodology and contents of the dissertation will then be decided in consultation with that supevisor.

Once you have broadly chosen your topic—whether an author, theme, genre or movement, or a combination of all these—the Module Co-ordinator will allocate a supervisor who researches and publishes within that area. Where availability renders this impossible you will be invited to propose a different topic or else to continue with the one you nominated while working with a supervisor less actively involved in researching that topic. If you are in a quandary about your choice of topic, feel free to approach any member of staff with whom you would like to work. You can also, of course, seek advice from your Studies Advisor.

The following English staff members are available to supervise your ENG504 dissertations in the academic year 2006-07:

In addition to the subjects assigned to them for teaching, and hence made known to you from Subject and Module handbooks, the research specialisms and publication records of the English staff are posted on the English Division web site:

Those pages are under revision during June 2006 and will be available thereafter. Contact addresses are given on the University of Ulster online address book (www.ulster.ac.uk - “Information On - University Staff”. All those in the above table have offices on the Coleraine campus other than those marked [Jord] for Jordanstown.