"The two programs allow us to meet the needs of both types of honors students," Boutry says.

"The department strongly encouraged juniors to consider not writing a thesis at their honors meeting early last spring," Manoni says. "Kathy Boutry, who held the meeting, told us...that it was better to do well in our English classes senior year than to write a thesis for the sake of writing one."

Manoni says she is happy with her decision not to write a thesis.

"The department places an emphasis on criticism and theory in the study of literature, but after two years as a concentrator I realized that I didn't share this view," she says. "I've learned a tremendous amount in my English classes, but when I read a novel or a poem, I'm far more interested in the craft of writing than in the theory behind it."

In the past, English concentrators have often bemoaned the scarcity of creative writing classes in the department. Students can write creative theses, but they must submit writing samples, and very few are approved.

Many seniors agree with Buell and Boutry that the department is not trying to dissuade them from writing theses, but rather, to provide more choices to meet the needs of students who have different interests.

"They don't want you to feel obliged, like your BA in English is not legit unless you write a 60-page paper," says Leora Bersohn '99, who is writing a thesis on the use of low language in the poems of Philip Larkin and Tony Harrison. "Instead, they only want you to write a thesis if you have some topic you are obsessed with."

The department held two meetings for honors students, one at the end of last year and one at the beginning of this year. The message was that students didn't have to write a thesis.

"I think there was an emphasis [at those meetings] that we don't need to be writing them, which could be interpreted as discouragement," says L. Andrew Cooper '99, who is writing a thesis on literary theory. "I think that they are discouraging people from feeling like they have to write a thesis, but not discouraging people from writing one."

The Consequences

For professors, who were often forced to read theses that they felt were uninspired, the change is welcome.

"Theses written by students who only write them in order to avoid not getting honors are also not likely to be terribly exciting proofs of academic accomplishment," Sollors says.

Little echoes his sentiments.

"Students like me who take the honors track because they want to go to grad school in English are still going to choose to write a thesis. Those who aren't going to go to grad school in English probably don't need to and they shouldn't have to," she says.

Yet she adds that there could be a negative consequence. Thesis writing requires a one-on-one mentorship with a professor within the department as part of the senior tutorial and is a significant body of work.