UCL DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 1 Welcome to UCL 1.1 Provost’s Welcome Dear students To those of you who are returning, welcome back. To those of you who are new, congratulations for choosing UCL as your university. Whatever your degree programme, your UCL education offers fantastic opportunities to stretch your intellect, expand your experience and develop your skills. And you are in London, which was this year recognised by QS as the best city in the world for students. We want you to learn how to think, not what to think: through our Connected Curriculum you have the opportunity to take part in research and enquiry and to create new knowledge. Your programmes are informed by the work of UCL’s world-leading researchers and are designed to develop your skills of analysis and problem-solving, preparing you for your career, wherever it takes you. At UCL, we believe the best way to solve a problem is to bring together thinking from different academic disciplines. This is reflected in the UCL Grand Challenges, our joined-up approach to the world’s most pressing problems. Most of our degrees allow you to take elective modules from other disciplines within UCL and we encourage language study, to bring new perspectives to your studies. I warmly encourage you to shape your journey at UCL. Take our university-wide surveys and make your voice heard. Become a ChangeMaker or an Academic Representative and work in partnership with academics to make your programme of study even better. You’ll also have opportunities to learn outside your degree programme. Participate in our Global Citizenship Programme, exploring ways of addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the two weeks of summer term following exams. Get involved with amazing volunteering opportunities (coordinated by the Volunteering Services Unit) and make a difference locally. Investigate opportunities for entrepreneurship through UCL Innovation and Enterprise. UCL is first and foremost a community of great minds. You are a valuable member of that community. I hope you will take every opportunity to shape your time here, so that your experience is the best possible. Professor Michael Arthur UCL President and Provost 1 2 Contents Welcome to UCL ...................................................................................................... 1 Contents .................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 4 Email, Computer Use and Communications ........................................................... 9 Attendance.............................................................................................................. 13 Tutorials and Tutorial Essays................................................................................... 14 Guidance on choices of topics in relation to course boundaries............................ 20 Academic Integrity .................................................................................................. 21 Seminars and Lectures ............................................................................................ 23 Commendations and Prizes..................................................................................... 24 Student support and wellbeing............................................................................... 25 Extenuating Circumstances...................................................................................... 31 Changes to Registration Status................................................................................ 35 Data Protection........................................................................................................ 37 Employability and Careers ...................................................................................... 38 Student Representation .......................................................................................... 39 Student feedback...................................................................................................... 42 Learning Resources and Key Facilities...................................................................... 43 UCL Global Citizenship Programme……………….…….……………………….………………….….. 48 Modern Foreign Language Requirements................................................................ 48 Events........................................................................................................................ 49 Security and Fire Safety............................................................................................ 51 After Study................................................................................................................. 52 The First Year…...........................................................................................................52 The Second and Third Years ..................................................................................... 57 Affiliate Students ...................................................................................................... 93 Course Unit Students, including BASc Students ....................................................... 93 Appendix 1: Writing Essays for the English Department ……………..………………………. 95 Appendix 2: Avoiding Plagiarism ………………………………………………………………………….102 Appendix 3: Affiliate Assessment ............................................................................ 105 Appendix 4: Guidance on Examinations .................................................................. 111 Appendix 5: Style Sheet for Essays .......................................................................... 124 Appendix 6: Moodle submission instructions for Long Essays................................. 134 Appendix 7: Long Essay FAQs .................................................................................. 134 Appendix 8: Examination Descriptions, 2019-20 ..................................................... 142 2 Appendix 9: Sessional Examination Descriptions, 2019-20 .................................... 151 Appendix 10: Course Unit Information, 2019-20 ....................................................153 Appendix 11: Sample BA English Options Form ......................................................160 Appendix 12: Sample BA French/German/Greek/Latin with English Options Form 161 Appendix 13: Sample Research Essay title submission form.................................. 162 Appendix 14: Sample Course Essay title submission form ..................................... 163 Appendix 15: Sample Research Essay cover sheet ................................................. 164 Appendix 16: Sample Course Essay cover sheet .................................................... 165 Appendix 17: Sample declaration form to use with Long Essays............................ 166 Appendix 18: Libraries .............................................................................................167 Appendix 19: English Department Staff Contact List .............................................. 169 Appendix 20: Term Dates ....................................................................................... 172 3 2.1 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 2.1.1 Introduction Welcome to the UCL English Department. This handbook is intended to supplement the information which UCL gives you when you enrol, and the UCL pages for current students as well as the UCL Academic Manual. It will be published on the English Department website every year before the start of the autumn term. ‘Doing English’ Claims have been made for the study of literature as a morally uplifting and civilising activity; objections have been made to it as a pointless self-indulgence. You are not required to believe either, and would be well advised to postpone judgment for three years (at least). It may help to remember that the study of literature is one among many forms of study in what are known loosely as ‘the arts’ or ‘the humanities’, a group which includes history, languages, and philosophy. First, there is a body of knowledge to acquire - knowledge of a lot of books, of course (not all of them novels, plays and poems, incidentally), but also knowledge of language and history. Second, there are the skills relating to this particular body of knowledge: an understanding of literary forms, periods and movements, an ability to analyse rhetorical and narrative structures, and an attentiveness to details of language and style both in what you read and in what you write yourself. Third, there are the skills which are transferable into other activities and professions: skills of comprehension, critical analysis, and comparison, skills of oral and written argument and expression, and skills of research and presentation. From the use of an online library catalogue or computer database to the production of a well-presented, accurately referenced dissertation, the study of literature trains you in ways which you will find of great benefit in your subsequent career. ‘Doing English’, then, has several characteristics in common with other academic disciplines. Its special quality flows from the fact that its subject is literature - that students encounter, in the three years of their course, some of the most complex and interesting works of the human mind and imagination produced over twelve centuries. It is the richness and diversity of this material, and the combination of pleasure and intellectual challenge