• Undergraduate
  • Degree Requirements
  • Courses
  • Advising
  • Awards & Scholarships
  • Conference
  • Get Involved
  • Learning Abroad
  • Career Assistance
• Graduate
• Creative Writing
• Faculty
• Public Engagement
• Alumni
• Teaching Resources
• Contact
• Give to English

Read
English at Minnesota Newsletter online

Home > Undergraduate Studies > Get Involved : Independent Study

Independent Study

Many opportunities available to English majors are fueled by students' own initiative and drive. You can study a subject that isn't regularly offered, design your own project, or become involved in a larger directed study project with a faculty adviser (see faculty interests).

Resources available to help you choose and design your own coursework include:

• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)
• Directed Instruction
• Directed Study

All of these options are up to you to initiate, develop, and design; they provide opportunities for you to exercise some independence over your educational experience beyond simply choosing from familiar course offerings.

UROP

One place to look for assistance in preparing a directed study is the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). This program is designed especially to help undergraduates with specific research interests work with faculty members. Started in 1985, this competitive program provides over 400 students a year with financial support in the form of a stipend (up to $1400) and/or an expense allowance (up to $300) while they assist with a faculty member's scholarship or carry out projects of their own under the supervision of a faculty member. The UROP office in 345 Fraser Hall has a detailed faculty listing. Stop by to see if any faculty areas of expertise match your own interests for Directed Study. If the listings at UROP do not align with your interests, you can devise your own proposal and submit it to the professor with whom you would like to conduct your directed study.

Directed Instruction

Students may also plan Directed Instruction (EngL 3980) projects, defined in the CLA Bulletin as opportunities "to learn more about a subject you have studied by assisting others."

One way students can assist others is by leading discussion groups or writing groups for a 1xxx or 3xxx level course. You must be very familiar with the course's focus material or, preferably, have taken the course before. Again, this option involves a great deal of student initiative: you must define your goals for the project and then work closely with a faulty member to design a learning experience to meet these needs and interests.

Allow time before a registration period to plan your Directed Instruction, using the CLA Student/Faculty Learning Contract available in 227 Lind Hall and 135 Johnston.

Directed Study

A proposal for Directed Study (EngL 3993) should be a two to three page document detailing what you will do and why that work will be important to you. The more innovative, interesting, and detailed the plan and the better it fits your larger educational goals, the greater the chance it will be accepted. This document, which you submit to your professor, should be clearly and logically organized and convincingly written. It is separate from the contract form you'll submit to the English Undergraduate Studies Office. Spend some time on it!

All proposals should have at least the following components (not necessarily in this order):

• A clearly developed plan. What will you do during the Directed Study? What resources will you use? How often do you expect to meet with your professor? What kind of research (if any) do you plan to do? Where will you obtain it? How will it feed your project?
• A clearly developed rationale. Why are you studying this topic? What background do you have to do the work? How will it be enhanced or improved as a result of the Directed Study? How will the Directed Study fit in with your general career goals? What purpose will it meet? What more immediate goals do you intend to reach? Let's say your focus will be on some sort of writing. Try to work out in detail what you hope a piece of writing will do rather than simply say, "I think this project will improve my writing abilities."
• A clearly developed work load. What will be the "work" of the course? These details should be extensive and realistic. Proposals that don't include a clear sense of what you'll do for your credits will not fare well, nor will those that list so many activities and tasks that it's clear you couldn't accomplish them successfully. Make sure you think about the amount of work you’ll be doing. A typical three credit University course requires roughly ten hours of work per week minimum. That's loosely equivalent to reading from cover to cover (and studying in detail) a standard college textbook, attending three hours of lectures or class sessions per week, studying for exams, and perhaps writing either several short or one long paper for the course.
• Defined evaluation tools. Decide for yourself what would constitute "quality" in the Directed Study. Specify, in as much detail as possible, what sort of performance in a Directed Study would receive an "A," a "B," and so on. Consider, too, how many credits you should receive for your project, and why.
• Defined writing formats. Most Directed Studies proposals should include as the work of the course a detailed "journal" or "log" of your thinking during the Directed Study. Explain in your proposal what the term paper will try to do, specifically, and what the journal will be used for. You will probably want to include other sorts of writing or research in your proposal; the more complete and challenging your proposal, the better its chances of being accepted.
• When to present your proposal. Before the beginning of each semester, professors review all the proposals submitted to them and select the one or two most promising and well-developed ones. (Because time is limited, professors may not be able to work with everyone who submits a proposal. If your proposal is rejected, you may rewrite it and submit it for the following term.)

If a professor agrees to work with you on a Directed Study, you should come to the English Undergraduate Studies Office to pick up a CLA Student/Faculty Learning Contract form for Independent and Directed Study Registrations. This will be a condensed version of the proposal you give to your professor; it requires signatures from you, the professor you'll be working with, and the Department.

Service learning classes inspired this English major to teach in Senegal

"With service learning classes, you're not just participating in the campus environment: You're a figure outside in the community. After awhile you realize that you're making an impact...You're connecting with different people: and having all these different relationships really changes your future." 

Lyncy Y.