ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT
English Major Handbook
a.k.a.
“The ALPHABET BOOK”
2023 - 2024
Contents
Professors of the English Department page 2
Course Offerings &
Courses that fulfill English Major Requirements pages 3 - 4
Requirements for English Major page 5
Pathways and Correlate Sequences in English pages 5 - 6
Opportunities in the English Department page 7
Frequently Asked Questions pages 7 - 10
Creative Writing Seminar page 10
Independent Study and Community Engaged Learning page 11
Planning Your Senior Year pages 11- 12
Thesis page 12
Creative Work in the Senior Year page 13
Guidelines for Requesting Letters of Recommendation page 14
English Majors and Correlates may not take English Courses NRO.
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The English Department
2023 to 2024
English Department Faculty Academic Year 2023 - 2024
Biographies and faculty interests can be found under the English Department section of the Vassar College website.
Mark C. Amodio, Professor of English
Heesok Chang, Associate Professor of English
Ryan Chapman, Adjunct Instructor
Robert DeMaria, Professor of English
Eve Dunbar, Professor of English
Leslie C. Dunn, Professor of English
Katie Gemmill, Assistant Professor of English
Wendy Graham, Professor of English and Chair
Joshua Harmon, Visiting Associate Professor of English
Thomas Hill, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English
Jean M. Kane, Professor of English
** Amitava Kumar, Professor of English
Timothy Liu, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English
Zoltán Márkus, Associate Professor of English
Molly S. McGlennen, Professor of English
* David Means, Visiting Associate Professor of English
Tracy O’Neill, Assistant Professor of English
Hiram Perez, Associate Professor of English
Matthew Schultz, Adjunct Associate Professor of English
Blevin Shelnut, Assistant Professor of English
Nina Shengold, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English
Tyrone R. Simpson, II, Associate Professor of English
Mark Taylor, Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Christine Vines, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English
Susan Zlotnick, Professor of English
* On leave in Spring ‘24 ** On leave for full year.
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Course Offerings in the English Department
Courses in bold are scheduled for the 2023 - 2024 year.
Courses That Fulfill English Major Requirements, pre-1800, pre-1900,
Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality (REGS), INT, are noted as such.
Course Title Requirement Fulfilled
101 The Art of Reading and Writing
105 Literature X
170 Approaches to Literary Study
178 Improvisational Writing INT
203 These American Lives: New Journalisms
205 Introductory Creative Writing
207 Intermediate Creative Writing: Literary Non-Fiction
209 Advanced Creative Writing: Narrative
211 Advanced Creative Writing: Verse
213 The English Language
214 Process, Prose, Pedagogy
215 Pre-Modern Drama Before 1800 pre-1800
216 Modern Drama: Text and Performance after 1800
217 Literary Theory and Interpretation
218 Literature, Gender, and Sexuality REGS
219 Queer of Color Critique REGS
222 Early British Literature pre-1800
223 Surrealism Across the African Diaspora REGS
225 American Literature, Origins to 1865 pre-1800 or pre-1900
226 American Literature, 1865-1925 REGS or pre-1900
227 Harlem Renaissance and its Precursors REGS or pre-1900
228 African American Literature REGS
229 Asian-American Literature, 1946-present REGS
230 Latina and Latino Literature REGS
231 Native American Literature REGS
233 Carceral Literature of the Caribbean
235 Old English pre-1800
236 Beowulf pre-1800
237 Medieval Literature pre-1800
240 Shakespeare REGS or pre-1800
241 Shakespeare pre1800
245 The Enlightenment pre-1800
247 Eighteenth-Century British Novels REGS or pre-1800
248 The Age of Romanticism pre-1900
249 Victorian Literature pre-1900
251 Topics in Black Literatures REGS
253 Topics in American Literature REGS
255 Nineteenth Cent British Novels pre-1900
256 Modern British and Irish Literatures
257 The Novel in English after 1945
262 Postcolonial Literatures REGS
265 Selected Author pre-1900
270 New York Stories INT
271 Reviewing Shakespeare INT
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272 What Makes a Collection? INT
273 Slow and Close: Toni Morrison INT
274 Reading and Writing American Memoir INT
275 Vassar Critical Journal Intensive INT
276 How to Write a Black Memoir INT
277 Reading and Writing Outdoors INT
278 Reading Middlemarch INT
290 Community Engaged Learning INT
298 Independent Study OTH
300 Senior Tutorial INT
304 Creative Writing Seminar
305/306 Senior Creative Writing Seminar
315 Studies in Performance pre-1800
319 Race and its Metaphors REGS
320 Studies in Literary Traditions REGS
325 Studies in Genre
326 Challenging Ethnicity REGS
328 Literature/Amer Renaissance pre-1900
329 American Literary Realism pre-1900
330 American Modernism REGS
340 Studies in Medieval Literature pre-1800
341 Studies in the Renaissance pre-1800
342 Studies in Shakespeare pre-1800
345 Milton pre-1800
350 Studies in Eighteenth-century British Literature pre1800
351 Studies in Nineteenth-Century British Literature pre-1900
352 Studies in Romanticism REGS or pre-1900
355 Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Poetry REGS
357 Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature
365 Selected Author Pre-1900
370 Transnational Literature REGS
374 Experimental Fiction Laboratory INT
375 Seminar in Women’s Studies REGS
376 Vassar Poetry Review INT
378 Brief Encounters: The Reading and Writing of Flash Fiction INT
379 The Research Intensive INT
380 Then Whose Negro Are You?: On the Art and Politics of James Baldwin REGS
381 English Seminar
399 Senior Independent Work OTH
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Requirements for English Major
Total Units Required for the major: 11 units, comprising 10 graded units of coursework and 1 ungraded
intensive unit.
Distribution Requirements for the Major:
● One unit of literature written before 1800 at the 200- or 300-level.
● One unit of literature written before 1900 at the 200- or 300-level.
● Alternatively, students may take 2 units of coursework in literature written before 1800.
● One unit that focuses on race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, or disability.
● 1 intensive unit at any level.
The distribution requirements must be taken at the 200- or 300-level. (Intensives do not qualify.)
300-level seminars: 3 units, at least one taken in the senior year. (Intensives do not qualify.)
Further information
Applicants for English 305-306 (Senior Creative Writing Seminar), must submit samples of their writing
before pre-registration; please check with the Department office for the exact date of the deadline, or go to the
English Department webpage, https://www.vassar.edu/english, and scroll down to the bottom to “SP Creative
Writing Course Application.”
Pathways
Pathways are designed to articulate coherent plans of study that build on a foundation in
introductory and intermediate courses to greater depth and complexity in advanced courses.
Students are advised to take the courses in sequence, beginning with ENGL 101 and/or ENGL
105 or 170 (limit 2 courses at the 100-level), moving on to 200-level courses, and concluding
with 300-level seminars.
Pathways and Correlate Sequences in English
The curriculum in English presents a broad array of courses representing a variety of
subjects—literatures from different periods of history and geographical locations, genres,
approaches or methods of study. Given the scope of the discipline, the English department has
decided to offer alternate pathways through the English major for students who wish to tailor
their programs to individual interests within the discipline. These pathways are modeled on the
correlate sequences, which have been revised to achieve a broader understanding of the
historical contexts underpinning each area of focus. Defined, in part, to suggest intellectual
compatibilities among literature and other disciplines, the correlate in “Race, Ethnicity, and
Indigeneity,” for example, will supplement and extend students' work in AFRS, AMST, URBS,
and WFQS.
Students may elect a pathway when declaring the English major as sophomores or by the end of
their junior year.
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Pathways:
1. Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity
2. Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
3. Literary Geographies
4. British and American Literary History
5. Creative Writing and Literary Forms
Please refer to the department website for full descriptions and required
courses for each Pathway.
1. Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity
This pathway explores literatures that interrogate identity, explore its social function and value,
and contemplate its undoing and re-making. Courses examine common tropes like noble savages,
tragic mulattoes, transracial adoptees, and terrorist threats and particularly track debates about
ethnic traditions in English writing.
2. Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
The Gender, Sexuality, and the Body pathway challenges gender and sexual norms often upheld
as "natural,” introducing students to the crucial insights of feminist, queer, and transgender
studies, and asking students to reflect upon the way that gender, sexuality, and the body
intersect with categories of power such as race, class, nation, religion, and ability.
3. Literary Geographies
This track invites various scales and vectors of geographic organization: environmental, global,
transnational, settler-colonial, post-colonial, territorial, archipelagic, regional, and urban,
including spaces of myth and allegory, quest and pilgrimage, voyage and travel, diaspora and
migration, utopia and dystopia.
4. British and American Literary History offers a historicist rather than great books
approach to two national literatures. Organized chronologically and presented comparatively,
this concentration facilitates an understanding of the process of canonization, the gradual
assimilation of extraterritorial traditions, and how culture contributes to the formation of
national identity.
5. Creative Writing and Literary Forms
This track supplements required creative writing classes with a selection of non-creative writing
courses that foreground considerations of craft and form.
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Opportunities in the English Department
Opportunities for students in the English Department extend beyond the classroom.
The English Majors Committee organizes events for majors, fosters a sense of community
among students, interacts with department faculty, and acts as a resource for students with
questions about the major. The Majors Committee represents a great opportunity for students to
become more involved in the department.
English majors and correlates are informed about calls for submissions and other writing and
publishing opportunities both on campus and at other universities. These opportunities are also
posted on the Department's Instagram page, Vassar English Instagram.
The Elizabeth Bishop and William Gifford lectures are hosted each fall by the department.
Students engaged in related courses are invited to attend the post-lecture dinner at Alumnae
House with the guest lecturer. These intimate gatherings provide an opportunity to meet and
engage with notable writers and authors, as well as department professors in an informal setting.
The spring semester brings the Writer-in-Residence lecture and residency, which offers students
in the Senior Creative Writing Seminar (English 305-306) the opportunity to have a one-on-one
meeting with the invited guest to review and enhance their current work. The
Writer-in-Residence will also visit creative writing classes and First-Year Writing Seminars
(FYWS) when asked by the instructor.
Each spring, the English Department sponsors several prize competitions. These include The
Academy of American Poets Prize, The Beatrice Daw Brown Prize, the Deanne Beach Stoneham
Prize for Poetry, the Sister Arts Poetry Prize, The Helen Kate Furness Prize and the Elizabeth
Dana Reading Prize. Information is posted on the webpage, Instagram, and on the English
Department bulletin board in the spring semester.
Frequently Asked Questions
Area Requirements
Does English 226 (American Literature, 1865-1925) count as a pre-1900 course?
Students may elect either pre-1900 or REGS credit for English 226, which covers material from the
latter half of the nineteenth century and deals substantively with literary modernism. Students may
elect either pre-1800 or pre-1900 credit for English 225 (American Literature, Origins to pre-1900).
Can area requirements be covered by courses taken JYA or during summer session?
Yes, with approval from the associate chair. In order to receive approval, make an appointment with
the associate chair; bring with you a course description from the university catalogue and a copy of
the syllabus.
Credit Questions
I received IB or AP credit in English. Does this count toward my English major?
No, your AP English credit does not count as 1 of the 11 credits you need to complete the English
major. However, it does count towards your total college credits (1 of 32 needed to graduate).
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My English JYA credits appear on my transcript as ungraded work. Will they count
towards the major, even though the departmental requirements state that 10 of the 11
required units must be graded units?
Yes, as long as your JYA credits are approved English credits, they will count toward your English major.
What about English credits taken over the summer at another institution? Do they also
transfer as ungraded work; do they count toward my major?
These credits must be taken for a grade, though they appear on the transcript as ungraded work. We
suggest asking the associate chair of the department to review the course description and syllabus (if
available) ahead of time, to give you a sense of whether the course will be accepted for credit. Once
you’ve finished the course, send a transcript to the registrar and an electronic copy of the syllabus and
your written work to the associate chair. Note: courses that give exams and ask you to produce fewer
than 20 pages of written work (we are looking for essays not posts) may not qualify for credit.
Can any of the English credits I have earned at other schools, either JYA or during summer
session, count as a 300-level credit?
Generally speaking, no. However, Oxford and Cambridge University offer coursework that is
comparable to that undertaken in a 300-level English class at Vassar. If you attend one of these
universities, you may ask the associate chair to consider one course for seminar credit (300-level
work). Only one unit of 300-level work may be taken at another institution. You will need to share a
syllabus and all written work to qualify for credit, once you return to Vassar. There is no pre-appoval
process.
Can a Vassar course I have taken outside of the English department count towards my
major?
Yes, but only under the following circumstances: You can count any course that has been cross-listed
with the English department. You may petition to count a course taught by an English professor that
is not cross-listed; however, you must obtain the approval of the instructor and associate chair in such
a case.
If you have a correlate in a related discipline, you are entitled to count one course towards your
English major with the approval of the associate chair; however, no breadth, historical, or 300-level
seminar credit will be granted. We will count intensives towards your English major in lieu of a
course.
If you have a double major in a related discipline, you may count two courses towards your English
major with the approval of the associate chair. Once again, no breadth, historical, or 300-level
seminar credit will be granted. We will count intensives towards your English major in lieu of a
course.
Before declaring my English major, I NRO’d an English course. I did well in the class and
received a letter grade for it on my transcript. Can this course count towards the major?
Unfortunately, no. Even if you received an “A” for the course, the non-recording option counts
towards the quota of your allowable nongraded units. Your transcript may show a letter grade for
the course, but our records will indicate it was elected as NRO. During the pandemic, spring
2020-fall 2020, the cap on NROs was lifted by the college. We will count courses NRO’d during
that period.
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Rumors and Queries
Do professors in the department keep secret grade books?
Some do and some don’t. But even if a professor keeps a private entry of grades for papers,
exams, oral reports, participation, and so forth, it functions more as a memory aid than an
official record. Since your final grade will be determined by your performance over the course
of the semester—taking into account factors like effort and improvement—the professor’s
written comments on papers will provide an index of how you are doing.
Why don’t professors in the English department put grades on papers?
This long-standing practice in the English department is based on the theory that an English
course is a conversation. The conversation takes place in class among students and teachers; it
takes place in conferences and e-mail; and it takes place in the dialogue between a student’s
paper and a teacher’s response. The placement of a grade on the paper puts an end to this part
of the conversation. A student paper is not an exam but is rather an opportunity for the student
to speak on a particular subject. The instructor’s response is not a grade, but it is an informed
response to what the student has said.
Whom should one ask about graduate study in English?
The chair of the department and the associate chair are available by appointment to discuss
graduate school plans and applications for post-graduate grants. It also makes sense to talk to
junior faculty about their more recent experiences of graduate school.
Is there a Creative Writing Program at Vassar?
While there is no separate program for creative writing within the Vassar English Department,
we offer a pathway for English majors and a correlate for non-majors in Creative Writing and
Literary Forms. We also offer an array of creative writing courses. Students usually begin with
English 205: Introductory Creative Writing, which may be taken in either “a” or “b” semesters.
This course serves as an introduction to the writing of fiction, literary nonfiction, experimental
writing, and poetry. English 205 is open to first-years only in “b” term of their first year.
The department also offers English 207, Literary Nonfiction, English 209, Advanced Creative
Writing: Narrative, and English 211, Advanced Creative Writing: Verse, which are open to both
majors and non-majors.
English 205 (or 206 when offered) is a prerequisite for admission to both English 207 and
English 209. These courses are not available to first-year students. English 207, 209, and/or 211
are prerequisites for English 304, a one-semester Creative Writing Seminar open to Juniors and
Seniors. To enroll in 209, 211, or 304, which are Special Permission courses (SP), you must
submit a form (available on the department website or in the office) early in pre-registration. Do
not contact the instructor or attempt to pre-register. We are enrolling students ourselves to
prioritize the admission of English majors and correlates.
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A writing portfolio, due before preregistration, is required for students wishing to take English
305–306, the year-long Senior Creative Writing Seminar. As of January 2023, you must be an
English major or have a correlate to apply.
Creative Writing Seminar
What exactly is the Creative Writing Seminar (English 305–306)?
Senior Composition is a year-long creative writing course aimed at refining craft repertoire,
developing a practice of rigorous revision, and producing a written project of style and substance,
which may range from a collection of poetry, or a sequence of stories, to a short novel.
This course is open to English majors and Creative Writing correlates.
If you wish to be considered for admission to this yearlong course, English 305-306, you must
submit an application. Your application will consist of:
● 15 pages of double-spaced creative prose or poetry max.
● A list of 5 books you love.
● A written critique completed for another workshop or a short craft essay (1-2 pages) on a
published work.
The class is limited to twelve students.
Who can take Creative Writing Seminar and how can I apply?
This course is open only to senior English majors and correlates. To be considered for admission
to English 305–306 (Creative Writing Seminar), you need to submit two copies of samples of
your writing to the English Department office before spring break (see the bulletin board outside
the department office for the exact date). Try to submit samples of the kind of writing that you
think you may want to concentrate on in your senior project. However, it is more important that
you submit writing that you feel best shows your abilities than to predict what you will write in
the Creative Writing Seminar. If you are interested in writing fiction, you should submit one or
two completed stories; if poetry, a number of poems; if literary nonfiction, an extended prose
piece, and so on. You may also wish to submit a variety of pieces (poetry and prose). You should
not submit traditional critical essays (papers), although papers that veer toward literary nonfiction
are a possibility. Feel free to use samples of writing you have done for other courses; that is, you
need not write something new for this process. A committee of at least three faculty members
reads the submissions and selects the members of this course. The course instructor is not
necessarily a member of the committee. The names of students selected for English 305–306 will
be posted outside the English Office. Enrollment is limited to twelve students.
Independent study in creative writing is also available for sophomores, juniors and seniors,
subject to the ordinary rules for independent study in the English department, and English majors
may elect to undertake a creative thesis.
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Independent Study and Community Engaged Learning (Fieldwork)
How do I apply for English 298 (Independent Study), 399 (Senior Independent Work), or
290 (Community Engaged Learning)?
Permission to elect Independent Study is granted by the associate chair, but you first must find a
faculty sponsor. If you wish to undertake 298, 399, or 290 and you don’t know who would be an
appropriate sponsor, consult the department website under the heading “faculty,” which will give
you a sense of the faculty’s range of interests. Please note, Independent Study does NOT qualify
as an Intensive.
A request to undertake Fieldwork or Community Engaged Learning also requires a sponsor and
the permission of the associate chair. OCEL qualifies as a .5 or 1 unit intensive.
What kinds of Community Engaged Learning will the department sponsor or oversee?
The first step is to consult the Office of Community Engaged Learning (OCEL). There is a
formal process for undertaking fieldwork or an internship for English credit (as an intensive,
usually .5 units), but this work must be pre-authorized by OCEL. The project must fall clearly
within the scope of our concerns as an English Department; however, we will countenance
projects involving a student’s work in television, theater, radio, or advertising, for example, if
they involve reading, evaluating, and writing. You are required to submit a written proposal. The
proposal should address the relevance of the project to your work as an English major (or work in
English courses) as well as outline clearly and specifically your duties on the job. You need a
supervisor from the English Department.
Planning Your Senior Year
Students should begin planning their senior year well in advance. As a part of this process, there are
a number of questions you should ask yourself. For example: How do my various courses connect
with each other? What is my trajectory through the major and how might the senior year serve as a
capstone for it? While the department hopes that students will sample the rich diversity of its
offerings, the department also strongly encourages students to work up from the 200- level to the
300-level in at least one field.
Do I want to take English 304, the one-semester Creative Writing Seminar, or do I want to apply for
English 305-306, the year-long Senior Creative Writing Seminar? Students wishing to take either of
these courses should note the prerequisites and prepare themselves by taking more than one of the
writing courses offered at the 200-level.
Do I want to write a thesis? If so, what kind of preparation do I need?
If you decide to enroll in English 300 and write a critical (or creative thesis), you should make sure
that you have adequately prepared yourself for undertaking the project. Take coursework in your
chosen field before you write the thesis. Consider how your JYA experience or courses taken in other
departments might support/anticipate the work you want to do on your thesis.
In the semester before you write the thesis, talk to both your major and thesis advisor about the kind
of work you might be able to undertake independently over the summer or during winter break.
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Whenever feasible, the department will offer English 379: The Research Intensive: Sources,
Methods, Processes for .5 units, which will prepare you to write a thesis.
The senior thesis is ungraded and counts as a full unit Intensive. As a department, we want to
encourage students to undertake a demanding and fulfilling research/writing project as seniors.
Remember: English 300 is an Intensive not graded coursework. You must enroll in a 300-level
seminar during your senior year and complete three seminars (300-level classes) in all.
The department encourages English majors to think imaginatively about these and similar questions
and to seek advice from their major advisers as well as their course instructors.
English 300: The Thesis
A-term deadlines:
Within the first three weeks of the term in which you are writing the thesis, but no later than the third
week of September 2023, you must submit to the department office the following information: your
name, your email, your thesis advisor, and the working title of your thesis.
Students and their individual advisors are responsible for determining interim deadlines for the
drafting and revising of the thesis. Some advisors ask that you submit a few pages each week; others
may request that you submit completed chapters or sections over the course of the semester. Whatever
you do, be sure to have a discussion with your advisor early in the thesis process about interim
deadlines so that you know what your thesis advisor expects.
Remember the thesis Intensive is a tutorial, a conversation between you and your advisor.
All students writing a senior thesis during a-term must submit the final draft of the thesis on the final
day of classes, December 6, 2023.
B-term deadlines:
Within the first three weeks of the term in which you are writing the thesis, but no later than the first
week of February 2024, you must submit to the department office the following information: your
name, your email, your thesis advisor, and the working title of your thesis.
Students and their individual advisors are responsible for determining interim deadlines for the
drafting and revising of the thesis. Some advisors ask that you submit a few pages each week; others
may request that you submit completed chapters or sections during the semester. Whatever you do, be
sure to have a discussion with your advisor early in the thesis process about interim deadlines so that
you know what your thesis advisor expects.
Remember the thesis Intensive is a tutorial, a conversation between you and your advisor.
All students writing a senior thesis during b-term must submit the final draft of the thesis on the final
day of classes, April 30, 2024.
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Creative Work in the Senior Year
Creative Writing Seminar (English 304)
This course examines creative writing through focus on style, structure, emotional effect,
character, genre, or convention. Throughout the semester, we will consider works of poetry,
fiction, and narrative nonfiction. Students will present pieces in workshop and engage with the
possibilities of the page in rigorous discussion. Short exercises, such as experimenting with
voice, will expand the writer’s range.
Prerequisites: 207, 209, or 211.
Open to juniors and seniors.
Senior Creative Writing Seminar (English 305-06)
Senior Composition is a year-long creative writing course aimed at refining craft repertoire,
developing a practice of rigorous revision, and producing a written project of style and
substance, which may range from a collection of poetry, a sequence of stories, to a short novel.
This class will begin with the notion that revision and the revising mind are fundamental engines
of literary composition. We will read a number of texts, considering the question of how a writer
“revises” a notion and/or tradition to create a centripetal force holding together a lengthier work
or sequence. How might a constraint both generate diffuse work and adhere as a collection? How
might a voice cinch together stories or a collection of verse? How can the fragment insinuate a
coherent narrator, sensibility, or concept? Class will operate both as a workshop and a laboratory
for critical-creative practice. We will aim to articulate the raison d’être of our work, and our
intentions for how it will converse with the larger world of literary texts.
Please see page 10 for information on applying for this course.
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Guidelines for Requesting Letters of Recommendation
Every academic year, members of the English department write hundreds of letters of recommendation
for students and former students. This is, of course, a part of their work as teachers and mentors, and
students should not be shy about asking for recommendations. However, faculty members take
considerable time on the task; write in detail, and make every effort to present a candidate in the best
possible light. They write different letters, of course, for each individual, and they write letters designed
for a variety of applications, including graduate school, law school, medical school, summer
fellowships, traveling fellowships, study abroad programs, prizes, employment prospects, and
internships. Students, therefore, should do what they can to give faculty the time and information
needed to write successfully on their behalf. Here are some guidelines, adapted from those issued to
undergraduates at Harvard:
* Give at least three, preferably four or more, weeks' notice for any request. Even if you know that the
instructor has a letter already on file, do not assume that it can be changed and quickly printed. Letters
may need significant revision to fit a particular purpose.
* Include a written statement of the due date and whether it is a postmark or a receipt date.
* Provide a written description of the purpose of the letter and/or a copy of instructions intended for
the person writing. If there are multiple letters for different purposes, provide a description for each
(e.g., graduate school, law school, traveling fellowship).
* Make sure to provide the instructor with your statement of purpose or letter of intent for each
application. This statement is crucial to the success of your application, and it is essential for your
instructor to read it when writing on your behalf. If your instructor is willing to work with you on the
statement, you should certainly take advantage of the opportunity.
* Offer to provide copies of class papers and of any other papers directly relevant.
* Fill out any forms as completely as you can. Do not expect the person writing for you to fill out any
information that you yourself know.
* Offer to provide a copy of your transcript (an unofficial one is fine) and a CV.
* Offer to have an individual conference about the reasons for your application(s). At the very least,
explain these reasons either by including a written statement or by including a draft of your project or
statement of purpose submitted with your application.
* Make certain to fill out any waiver request, either yes or no. This is easily missed.
* Never assume that a letter can be e-mailed at the last minute. This puts unacceptable constraints on
the person writing on your behalf.
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