English Reforms End Junior Exam

The English Department has decided to abolish its Junior General Examinations beginning next year, John M. Bullitt '43, director of undergraduate studies in English, said yesterday.

The decision, only one in a series of reforms, results from recommendations by the department's Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum.

The department also approved a restructuring of the senior tutorial. The first semester will be devoted to the senior thesis and spring semester to preparations for Senior Generals.

Greater Flexibility

In a move toward greater flexibility, the department also approved a suggestion allowing two pass-fall courses to count toward non-honors concentration. English 100 will still be required of all concentrators.

With the abolition of Junior Generals, those English concentrators fol-lowing the regular concentration program will have the option of fulfilling the Shakespeare requirement with a half-course or a three-hour examination.

Last February, the department created two options in addition to the regular English concentration. One option emphasizes either a genre or a comparative literature approach; the other stresses creative writing.

An official explanation of the new options. to be released next week, reveals that the class of '73 will be the first to have a choice of English tracts.

Admission into the creative writing tract will be based on sophomore year performance in English Cab. Creative writing will be offered only as an "intensive program" -the department's new terminology for honors. Instead of the senior thesis, creative writing concentrators will submit a senior composition such as a long poem or a novel.

Bullitt said magna cum laude will be the highest honor awarded in creative writing. "We were quite undecided on this point," Bullitt said. There is just no way to objectively judge a composition of this type."

Morton W. Bloomfield, chairman of the English Department, confirmed yesterday that the department discussed at last Tuesday's Faculty meeting the appointment of a woman to a tenured position. Bloomfield said he would not reveal the woman's name.

"I'm very anxious to have a woman on the faculty, but I think it would hurt her chances, and the cause of Women's Liberation, if I released her name," Bloomfield said. At present, only two women hold tenured positions at Harvard.