Resources for Current Students

As you pursue your education in the Department of English & Literary Arts, our faculty and staff are here to support you and provide the resources and opportunities you need to flourish. Through mentorships and internships, we're dedicated to helping you grow. We want to ensure that you take advantage of DU's online and on-campus initiatives to enhance your experience, keep on track in your degree and connect to post-graduate career options.

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Student Resources

Department Resources for Graduate Students

On the English Graduate Studies Digication page, you can access important departmental forms, sample comprehensive exam and fourth-year funding materials, pedagogy aids for GTAs and the Graduate Student Handbook. In the handbook, you'll find information about MA and PhD degree requirements and coursework plans, thesis and dissertation proposals, GTA expectations, academic exceptions and appeals, and answers to other questions.

English Department Digication Page

Department Resources for Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students can access information about degree requirements through the DU Bulletin and can visit the Study Abroad page to learn more about study abroad requirements. The English Department Digication page has access to degree requirements, course descriptions and more.

Departmental Distinction in English

Undergraduate students with a 3.5 GPA or above in the English major are eligible for Departmental Distinction.

Thesis Requirement
Students seeking "Distinction in English" are required to complete a thesis of a minimum length of 40 pages during the Fall and Winter quarters of their Senior year. If interested please complete the "Undergraduate Distinction Statement of Intent" form, which should include a summary of your thesis. This form is available in Sturm 495. For any questions, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The “Statement of Intent” form must be completed by the student in consultation with the student’s faculty thesis advisor (who need not be the student's academic advisor), and then submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in English. This form is due at the end of Week 9 of Spring Quarter of the student's Junior year.

By the end of the 1st week of the Spring Quarter of their Senior year, students seeking recognition for Distinction must submit either:
- a 40-50 page analytic research thesis or
- a fiction and/or poetry project of a length to be determined by the student and the faculty director
Two unbound physical copies of the work are to be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Each thesis will be read by the student's faculty thesis advisor and one other English faculty member. Written reports and recommendations for "Distinction" will be returned to the student and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in week 6 of the Spring Quarter of the student’s Senior year. A final, bound copy of the thesis, with all required revisions and/or corrections, must be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in English by week 9 of the Spring Quarter of the student’s Senior (or final) year.
Coursework Requirements
In addition to the completed honors thesis, students applying for distinction in critical literary studies or creative writing must also complete the following coursework:
1. 3800 Bibliography & Research or, for students writing a creative thesis, an Advanced Creative Writing course in a different form/genre from what was taken for the concentration (offered in the Fall and Winter quarters)
2. 3992 Faculty-Directed Research/Study (2 hrs., Winter quarter; 2 hrs., Spring quarter)