ENGLISH 781

Research Project

Description

This is a required 30-point course for all BA (Hons) students in English who are not preparing a dissertation and an optional course for MA and PGDipArts students.

The course is designed as an intensive experience with collective and solo learning opportunities, including one-on-one supervision. By actively engaging in this course you will: expand your knowledge of those methodologies and forms of analysis that underwrite the contemporary field of English, including textual analysis, bibliographic studies, editorial practice, literary history and interpretation; enhance your research skills, including those of discovery, analysis, written and oral presentation; understand the principles and practice of scholarly citation; learn how to participate in structured peer review; develop an understanding of the mutual expectations of supervision; produce an independent research essay or essays amounting to the equivalent of 12,000 words of coursework.

While this course is an ideal preparation for students intending to go on to Masters or PhD, it will also contribute to your acquiring those skills which are most valued by employers of arts graduates: namely, the ability to conceive and implement a project to completion, to conceptualise and clarify a problem and to cogently present the results of such forms of inquiry. Across the semester specialist-led seminars will cover different aspects of research method and technique, including all aspects of the writing process from preliminary conception to final presentation.

By the end of the first week students will have selected which of the available research areas they wish to pursue a topic within and will be assigned an appropriate academic supervisor. Peer research clusters will be organised around the different research areas and these student groups will continue to meet with the academic facilitator in the weekly timeslot or at another mutually agreed time.

The course cohort will reconvene for the oral presentation of work-in-progress before the mid-semester break. After the mid-semester break (weeks 7 and 8), the final six weeks of the course will include a peer review exercise and one-on-one supervision. One-on-one supervision will cease in week 13, to allow students to prepare essays for final submission at the end of the following week. The 2012 research areas will be announced in Semester One 2012.

Availability 2012

Semester 2

Lecturer(s)

TBA

Points

ENGLISH 781: 30.0 points