Honours in English

English Honours is a year of transformation and the culmination of your undergraduate studies. Through a rewarding and challenging program of inquiry, you will significantly extend the knowledge and skills you have developed over the course of your undergraduate degree. In particular, you will develop your capacity for independent research, critical thinking, and high-level research and analysis. English Honours is an excellent preparation for a wide-range of professional pathways and graduate study.

• Careers and Graduate Pathways
• Enrolling in ENH Honours
• Scholarships and Awards
• Program

Honours in English can also lead students onto becoming part of a vibrant research culture, providing you with the training required to make the transition from your undergraduate studies to graduate research. Please refer to the Postgraduate Studies in English webpage for further information.

• Arts Future Student (Entrance Requirements)
• ECPS Honours Admissions (Application Procedure)
• Research Strengths (Staff profiles to help you choose a supervisor)
• Past Thesis topics

For information on scholarships available to English Honours students see the ECPS Scholarships and Prizes webpage.

Arthur Brown Memorial Prize

The Arthur Brown Memorial Prize is awarded for the best thesis in English.

The Henry Handel Richardson Prize

The Henry Handel Richardson Prize is awarded to the student who received the highest aggregate score for their Honours units.

The Jenny Strauss Prize

The Jenny Strauss Prize is awarded for the best Creative Writing thesis in English. For further information please refer to the Honours in English (Creative Writing) webpage.

The English Honours coordinator is Dr. Nina Philadelphoff-Puren

Further information regarding what is generally required of Honours students can be referred to on the ECPS Honours webpage.

Course Structure

For information on how to build your honours in English, see the Arts Areas of Study - Honours Section.

Units available:

• ENH4600 - Minor Thesis
• ENH4195 - Legal Fictions
• ENH4210 - Writing the Child
• ENH4250 - Gothic Revivals
• ENH4265 - Writers and the Creative Process
• ENH4289 - The Fiction Industry
• ENH4370 - Contemporary Australian Poetry and Fiction
• ENH4500 - Supervised Reading
• ENH4620 - Literary Theory
• ENH4700 - Drama of the Age of Shakespeare
• ENH4760 - Visions and Revisions

To check the availability of units, and to their view current handbook entries, please enter the relevant unit code and click submit. Unit Code:

Progression

The Honours thesis is constituted by two semesters of work: Part A and Part B. The Faculty requires evidence that you have fulfilled the requirements of Part A before allowing you to progress to Part B. In the English Section, the criteria here are as follows, and must be fulfilled before the beginning of the second semester of study:

• Successful presentation at the Honours Thesis Presentation Seminar
• Completion of one chapter of the Thesis (submitted to supervisor)
• Time-line for thesis completion (submitted to supervisor)

Progress in your thesis is recorded on the Honours Thesis Interim Progress report which your supervisor will discuss with you.

Honours Thesis Presentation Seminar

The English Honours Program at Monash University includes a 15,000 - 18,000 word thesis to be written over two semesters. The Thesis Topic Presentation Seminar showcases to academic staff and your peers the topic you propose to research, the theoretical and methodological approaches you plan to use, how your research will complement existing research in the field, and any additional outcomes you plan from the completed project.

The point of the seminar is that it provides you with the opportunity to structure your thesis topic and approach by the end of Semester Two. Staff and student feedback through questions and discussion will help you to hone your topic and approach, highlighting any shortcomings in your existing framework and alerting you to research in other areas of which you may not already be aware. Posing your research question in a formal, public manner is an excellent catalyst for you to clarify your ideas- crystallising what your project is really about, what is at the core and what is peripheral.

Presentation Format

You will formally present your proposed topic for 10 minutes, followed by a 10 minute question and answer session, in which you will field queries from both staff and fellow Honours students. At the beginning of the presentation, all students should distribute a 1-2 page A4 handout summarising key aspects of the proposed topic and including a list of references consulted.

You are expected to attend all presentations so that you will be aware of other students’ projects and potential cross-currents and connections with your own research.

Layout

• Essential criteria
• Thesis title
• Argument summary
• Thesis statement
• Aims and significance of your research project (for example, adding to the understanding of a particular author)
• Brief description of theoretical framework (for example, the approach that you bring to your texts, such as feminism, psychoanalysis, literary theory, postcolonial theory)
• Brief account of what has so far been completed

Desirable criteria (as appropriate):

• Thesis structure broken down into chapters
• Timeframe for research (that is, dates for completion of individual drafts/chapters)
• Potential publication avenues for completed research (such as specific journals or postgraduate conferences)

Honours Methodologies Seminars

All Honours candidates are required to complete the Honours Research Methodology Seminar. It runs for four weeks and is designed to assist you with the process of thesis-writing. We tackle the following topics:

• argument construction
• thesis claim
• the process of thesis-writing: study techniques
• library research practice

The Seminar also gives you the chance to talk with other Honours students about the thesis-writing experience.