Prof. Weinbaum
English 496
Spring 2025
Seminar meets in MGH Room 097
Seminar meeting time 11:30-1:20 Tu/Thurs
Office meetings in 408B Padelford
Office hours Tu/Thurs 3:30-4:30
and by appointment
Email contact: alysw@uw.edu
English Honors Thesis Seminar
This writing and research-intensive seminar will walk you through the process of producing an honors thesis of 25-30 pages. To reach this goal, over the course of the quarter you will produce an abstract, an abstract revision, an annotated bibliography, a thesis outline, and drafts of various lengths. These will be read, engaged, and peer workshopped. We will discuss in class how to undertake each of these steps, and you will then accomplish them with the support of your colleagues and myself. As part of the process, you will attend individual conferences with me, carefully revise and edit your own work, and comment on the work of other people’s drafts. Drafts will be discussed with small groups that will together share and discuss the obstacles and successes encountered.
Emphasis will be placed on acquisition of scholarly research skills, development of critical writing skills, acquisition of the fine art of generous and at once critical peer review of written work by others, and self-revision, editing, and polishing of ideas and prose. At the end of the quarter, you will present your thesis and subsequently hand in a complete and polished version of it for a grade.
Course requirements
Active in-class participation in all in person seminar meetings and workshops
Preparedness for individual meetings
Careful and thoughtful preparedness for workshops, including pre-reading drafts
Submission of all parts of the thesis in-process (see below)
Final thesis
Course Expectations
Punctuality and regular participation in all seminar activities including workshops
Careful preparation of your written work for sharing
Respectful and thoughtful engagement with other people’s written work
Self-awareness about making space for everyone to speak in large and small groups
On time submission of all written work
Attendance of all scheduled individual meetings
Course grade (partial contract)
Assuming active and engaged participation (see above) AND submission of a polished thesis of at least 25 pages that represents your very best effort, you will receive a grade of 3.7 (A-) in this course. You may not miss workshops, individual meetings, or deadlines for written work if you wish to receive full credit for active and engaged participation, except under exceptional circumstances. Each missing required element, including meetings and workshops, will detract from your grade by .1
All grades above 3.7 will depend on the overall quality of your final thesis. The grading rubric that will be applied to your thesis (the only written element that will receive a letter grade) will be handed out and discussed in class before the full draft is due.
Schedule of meetings, activities and deadlines
This schedule is subject to change. All changes will be announced in class and on canvas.
Week 1
April 1: Introductions and discussion of plan for the quarter
Discussion of abstract writing and provisional bibliographies
Sign up for individual meetings for this week and next
April 3: Required individual meetings 408B Padelford
Week 2
April 8: Meeting with English Librarian Elliot Stevens; meet in Suzzallo Instruction Lab
April 10: Required individual meetings 408B Padelford
Week 3
April 15: Independent work on thesis abstracts and provisional bibliography
April 17: In class discussion of annotated bibliographies
Bring 2 or more print sources that you have read carefully to class with you
Week 4
2-page abstracts of roughly 400-500 words due Monday April 21, 5pm (via Canvas)
April 22: In class presentation of abstracts, 5 minutes each
Discussion of abstract revision and preparation of thesis outline
April 24: Optional meetings, by appointment
Week 5
April 29: Optional meetings, by appointment
May 1: In class workshop of 3–4-page thesis outline; small groups
Bring 5 hard copies of your outline with you to class
Discussion of grading rubric for thesis
Week 6
May 6: Optional meetings, by appointment
May 8: Optional meetings, by appointment
Week 7
10-page draft of thesis due Monday May 12, 9 am (via Canvas)
This draft does not need to include notes or bibliography
I will distribute drafts to small groups via email for pre-reading
May 13: In class workshop of drafts #1
May 15: In class workshop of drafts #2
Week 8
Meeting schedule for the week will be sent out via announcements
May 20: Required individual meetings re: drafts
May 22: Required individual meetings re: drafts
Week 9
20–25 page draft of thesis due Monay May 26, 9 am (via Canvas)
This draft does not need to include notes or bibliography
I will distribute drafts to small groups via email for pre-reading
May 27: Small group workshop of draft #1
May 29: Small group workshop of draft #2
Week 10
June 3: Student thesis presentations #1
June 5: Student thesis presentations #2
Final thesis (with complete notes and bibliography) due Monday June 9, 5 pm
Additional useful information
Religious accommodation
All requests for religious accommodation will be honored. No formal paperwork is required; however, I ask that you notify me of the dates you will be unable to join us in class before the start of Week 2, and that we together work out a plan that allows you to make up any missed work.
Disability accommodation
Should you require accommodation, please come to me after class during the first week of quarter to discuss any adjustments you may require. Also, please have the disability services office send me the official request immediately so that I have this hand when we meet.
Plagiarism
One of the most common forms of cheating is plagiarism—submitting work that includes words or ideas not your own without proper citation. The UW guidelines that define plagiarism apply to information gleaned from websites and to words and ideas generated by AI such as ChatGPT. In this course, use of ChatGPT or any other AI is not allowed in any form. Any assignment that appears to indicate use of AI or any other form of plagiarism will automatically receive no grade.
The key to avoiding plagiarism is to show clearly where your own thinking ends and that belonging to someone/thing else begins. Should you have consulted outside sources (written or recorded), should you have used either digital or print sources to spark ideas or formulations, or should you have used search engines or AI (such as ChatGPT, but not restricted to it) to generate ideas or writing (including any of your discussion posts), you must specify precisely where ideas, information and/or the words you have submitted were obtained. This must be in the form of footnotes and/or a bibliography.
More information on plagiarism
https://www.washington.edu/cssc/for-students/academic-misconduct/
https://students.nursing.uw.edu/policies/student-policies/plagiarism/