ENLI Honors Policy
Eligibility: 3.7 GPA in the major (English, English with a concentration in Creative Writing, or any special major in the department)
Honors Project: An “A” paper or project from an ENLI seminar or individual study, with approval of the faculty member who supervised the paper or project. The faculty member may, at his or her discretion, require further work on a graded paper or project before approving it as an Honors Project. The faculty member may also turn down the student’s request for approval of the paper as an Honors Project if the faculty member does not think it is worth Honors. Students intending to apply for ENLI Honors should consult with the supervising faculty member no later than the day after spring break ends in the Spring semester, or, for December graduates, by the day after fall break ends. It is important that students work closely with their sponsors throughout the last month of the semester to make sure that the paper is deemed worthy of Honors by the sponsoring faculty member.
Application process and deadlines:
- All students who intend to apply for Honors must first declare that intent by sending an email to the ENLI Chair, Dr. Levin (jlevin@umw.edu) with the subject heading “Intent to Apply for Honors”; the sponsoring faculty member should be copied on this email.
- December graduates should declare intent to apply by the second Friday in November, 5 p.m.
- Spring graduates should declare intent to apply by the second Friday in April, 5 p.m.
2. No later than 5 p.m. on Friday, April 24, 2026, students must submit an approval sheet listing the name of the sponsoring faculty member. For December graduates, the deadline for the approval sheet is the last day of Fall classes, December 5, 2025. Submission is as an email attachment to the ENLI Chair, Dr. Levin (jlevin@umw.edu), with the faculty sponsor copied.
The approval sheet is available for download here: HonorsApplForm_rev_2023.
Note: This file is best accessed using Safari or Firefox. If you are using Google Chrome or another web browser that has trouble accessing this document, you may download the file from this link.
3. After this date, students may edit their papers for typos, etc.; however, all work must be completed and the final project must be submitted no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday of exam week, whether Fall or Spring. Students will submit their work directly to the UMW library; for information on submission see the Registrar website.
4. In addition, by Friday of exam week, students should provide the following to Dr. Levin (jlevin@umw.edu), both submitted via email with subject header “Honors Candidate”:
- An electronic copy of a 150-word abstract of their paper. This should include the paper’s title, the name of the sponsoring professor, and information on the course (field, number, and name) or independent study for which the paper was written;
- A quality digital photograph.
The abstract and photo may be displayed at the ENLI Reception for Graduating Seniors in the Spring and will be posted in the ENLI department. Note: December graduates should submit the above by Friday of exam week in the Fall; it will still be used for the reception at the end of the academic year.
adopted Fall 2003; revised.