NOTE: The following course requirements have been approved by the English department. Faculty who teach ENGL4384 must incorporate these
requirements into their course and include them on their syllabus.

Guidelines and Questions for the Exit Interview (Click HERE)

Catalog Course Description:

A capstone seminar designed to assess students' learning in the program.  The course will integrate literature, theory and writing, centering on an Idea, a theoretical issue or critical concern in literary studies. Required for the English major. Cannot be taken until ENGL 1101, 1102 and core area F have been completed with a minimum passing grade of C. A minimum of 18 hours of upper level classes must also have been completed. Requires permission of the department chair.  Not offered during the summer session.

Credit Hours: 3 / 0 / 3

Learning Outcomes

Students will understand and apply select theoretical and practical issues in the discipline of literary studies.

Students will become conversant with representative texts and a selected issue in literary history that allows for integration of the aims of the discipline.

Students will develop the ability to work both independently and collaboratively toward the publication of an anthology of essays by class members.

Students will propose, research, and execute a substantive literary argument appropriate to the seminar topic.

Students will be able to make effective oral presentations, both individual and collaborative.

Students will participate in an end-of-semester exit interview to assess how the course and the major have served their professional goals.

Other Requirements:

This course, required of all English majors, must be taken during the final semester of course work within the English major. Enrollment will be limited to twelve (12) students in each section in order to facilitate a seminar format. In keeping with that format, the class will be discussion, rather than lecture, driven, and all professors teaching ENGL 4384 will be committed to encouraging students toward independent and collaborative work generated by the class members rather than solely by the teacher.

Proposed sections of ENGL 4384 must involve the three elements of study that students in an English major encounter: literature, theory and writing. To this end, professors will center their course on an idea, theoretical issue or critical concern in literary studies which is illustrated by readings of a theoretical nature in tandem with one or more appropriate literary texts selected according to the professor’s specialty.  The class should not become dominated by those literary texts since their primary focus is to provide a concrete instance of the idea, theoretical issue or critical concern which anchors the course. Since the course functions as a capstone for the English major, the students should be able to draw on their previous experience as students of English in their selection and execution of their final projects.  The primary written product generated by the class will be an anthology of 15-20 page essays produced by the students, essays which share the class’s central focus but which are based on texts not limited by period, genre or country of origin. The focus of the course must therefore be considered in terms broad enough to facilitate such a range of final projects, even though the professor’s selection of illustrative texts for classroom study may be very tightly focused. It is recommended that, in instances where a student’s final project is significantly outside the professor’s range of expertise, the professor advises the student to solicit help from other faculty early in the project’s development.

 The papers will be rigorously edited and organized into a collection by the students collaboratively. They will make all decisions about the design of the anthology itself, and will share responsibility for ensuring the quality of the essays contained therein. The final version of the anthology will be printed and bound, each student taking at least one copy, and one copy being kept by the department.

Assignments: While these may include various combinations of instruments ranging from reading quizzes, response papers, and presentations to longer essays, including documented essays, students in all sections should produce a 15-20 page research documented essay for inclusion in the final anthology in order to meet departmental expectations.

Texts: Individual instructors may assemble a group of texts that will allow students to meet the objectives and specifications outlined above. No specific texts are required.

Attendance and Participation: Because of the collaborative nature of the seminar, students should be expected to come to class, prepared and able to participate.
 

ENGL 4384 (Senior Seminar)
Guidelines for Conducting the Exit Interview

1. Faculty teaching ENGL 4384 should conduct an exit interview with each student enrolled in their assigned section of the course. The interview should be based on the list of approved questions (CLICK HERE).

2. Interviews should be completed before the end of the final exam period.

3. Students should be interviewed in person (in the faculty member's office or in the seminar room). Students should be interviewed individually, not in groups.

4. Each interview should be tape recorded with the student's knowledge and consent in advance. If the student does not wish to be tape recorded, the student should be given a printed list of the questions and should respond in writing. Please make clear to the students that the information they provide will be kept confidential and that it is being used to assist the department with program assessment.

5. Blank tapes can be ordered by the department secretary (please arrange for this in advance). Or, if you prefer, you can purchase blank tapes and then arrange to be reimbursed from petty cash. See Kimily Willingham for reimbursement form.

6. The department owns a tape recorder. It is located in TLC 2234. See the department chair if you cannot locate it.

7. All tapes should be clearly labels with the following information: 1) Course and Section; 2) Semester and Year; 3) Name of the student(s) interviewed on the tape; 4) Instructor.

8. After completing all of the interviews, the faculty member should complete a one-page summary of the interviews, focusing on major weaknesses and/or strengths that were mentioned by students in the interviews. This can be in bulleted format. Focus on points that significant numbers of students address and that are related to the ongoing assessment of our program. References (either positive or negative) to specific faculty and/or staff should not be included, since these are addressed in course evaluations.

9. Tapes and the one-page summary should be given to the department chair at the conclusion of the course. These will be kept on file in the department and used for purposes of curriculum and program assessment.
 

Questions for the Exit Interview:
The exit interview should focus on the following questions. These should be circulated to students in advance.

Please read and be prepared to discuss those things covered by the questions below. We will organize your interview as a conversation rather than as a question-by-question procession through this list; however, you will need to have your thoughts together on all these issues in order to accomplish our task in the time allotted.

General Questions:

1. What were the major factors in your decision to become an English major? What expectations did you bring to the major having made that decision?

2. Could you comment on specific courses within your study that were particularly strong in meeting your expectations or in playing a role in evolving or expanding expectations? Could you specify reasons for their effectiveness?

3. Would you also comment on ways that your course of study has failed to meet your expectations and why?

4. What areas of the curriculum should be strengthened to serve better not only the expectations you brought to or developed within the major, but also the general concerns of all majors?

5. Have you been advised so that the curriculum has proved effective and coherent for you? What is the pattern or direction you see in your use of the major? If you see no pattern, how could the department better help students to have a coherent experience?

6. How have English 2300 (Practical Criticism)  and 4384  (Senior Seminar) worked to introduce and to conclude, respectively, your learning experience?

7. How have your courses within the major served to complement courses in other disciplines? Has being an English major helped you to take advantage of interdisciplinary learning?

8. What is your sense of the department’s consistency regarding writing expectations and instruction in upper-division courses? How could the department better serve its majors as writers?

9. How has the major served to prepare you for your career? Has your career choice changed or evolved during your study?

10. How could we better serve our majors in career preparation?

Course-specific questions:

1. Comment on the structure and organization of this section of English 4384. Among other things, you might want to address reading and writing assignments, class format, and general conception.

2. How has this class allowed you to use and to extend what you have learned in the literature courses you have taken?

3. How has this class allowed you to use and to expand what you have learned as a writer in the course of the major?