Student Aids
This part of the site is intended to help you with your studies. Please make use of the relevant documents and kindly be sure to have read through Advice on Writing Academic Essays in English and the Style Sheet before turning in your paper. Thank you.
Sample Literature Lists:
Sample Exam For a BA Course: [Link]
Essay Advice: Writing Academic Papers in English – A Guide for German BA Students
Style Sheet (Updated 2 Feb 2021): Style Sheet, Department of English, JLU
BA Thesis: Some Guidelines for Writing Your BA Thesis
To keep on top of changes in classwork, deadlines, the semester start, etc., please refer to:
Call Justus:
https://www.uni-giessen.de/studium/beratung/calljustus
FAQ concerning the new corona virus:
https://www.uni-giessen.de/coronavirus/faq/faqen
Picking Up Your Evaluated Class Work and Getting Feedback on Your Theses
Many of you feel frustrated that you can only look at the evaluations of your BA and MA theses at the Prüfungsamt. So as to alleviate this situation, I wish to invite you to contact Ms. Rück, MA (Stefanie.Rueck@anglistik.uni-giessen.de) after your evaluations have been officially submitted, that is ten weeks to three months after your submission date. Ms. Rück can then send you a copy of your evaluations by email.
You can also arrange to read other comments on your theses by contacting the research assistants for my chair at HiWis Olson hiwis.olson@anglistik.uni-giessen.de about when you can come in to look at the marked version of your thesis.
Please note: In the Hiwi office, there are huge piles of your evaluated work. Please ask the hiwis Olson (email above) about a good time to come in and pick up your papers.
Do you need help writing your thesis?
Please join us for our meetings of the thesis support program. Students of didactics, linguistics, and literary and cultural studies are all welcome. For more information please contact: BAsupport@anglistik.uni-giessen.de.
The team for the thesis support has also created this helpful document with some more information and the deadlines for the winter term 2022/23.
Alternatives to Writing a Term Paper
Reading journals can be written in different ways. Please see excellent examples by:
- Ina Alexandra Machura for the Seminar “Law and Literature” (SS 2012)
Louis Bördner for the seminar “Lusting After Submission? The Cultural Politics of Fifty Shades of Grey” (WS 2015/16) - Yvonne Zeiss for the Seminar “Migraton/Law/Gender” (WS 2016/17)
- Lea Kassandra Karachaliou for the Seminar “Trump and the Alternative for Germany – The Politics of Gender” (SS 2019)
- Melina Koch for the Seminar “Controversial Advertising: Nike, Gillette & Co.” (WS 2019/20)
- Giulia Lotz for the Seminar “Controversial Advertising: Nike, Gillette & Co.” (WS 2019/20)
Example of a creative approach to critical media analysis by Eileen Willweber and Judith Pech: Mindmap , Imaginary_Transcript , Mood_Board.
Demonstration of the importance of types of music in TV interpretation by Stephanie Lotzow: Music and Manipulation: A Sound Experiment (SS 2015).
Example of a portfolio by Dorothea Seibert for the Lecture “From Proto-Feminism to Queer Studies and Beyond” (WS 2015/16), and one by Daniela Marina Schulz “You Might as Well Call Ma A ‚Hypoclit‘” (SS 2018).
Example of a Multimedial Reading Journal (picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4, picture 5) by Dilini Algama for the Seminar “Gendering Television Series” (SS 2013).
Example of a screenplay considering diversity in trans* context written by Berina Alomerovic for the Seminar “Trans*Television” (WS 2017/18).
Please see the Student Work page for examples of other types of projects students have done for credit.
Featured Student Work
As our culture becomes increasingly visual – what has been called the ‚pictorial turn’ – written academic papers appear less and less to be the only viable means for documenting learning experiences based on university course work. One goal of this webpage is then to make an argument for recognizing the merit of final projects which depart from the traditional forms of academic essays and written and oral exams. This instructor’s experience has been that individuals put an extraordinary effort into academic work in which they can express forms of experience that go beyond the verbal and the analytical. This includes final projects based on making films or creating visual objects, creative writing, and performances. Students who choose to document their learning in this way also write short essays in which they make explicit how their projects reflect on the course work out of which they grew.
A second goal of this webpage is to celebrate students’ creative efforts. Unless they embark upon university careers, students often lack forums for letting the world know about their exceptional work. This is much more the case if they do not express themselves the most persuasively in academic papers. Thus this page aims to publicize the creative efforts of those students who wish to act or to create films while pursuing an academic degree or combine creative writing with literary studies.
Finally, the third goal of this page is to reflect on the increasing importance of television and other multimodal forms for cultural analysis. Cultural studies needs to become more articulate about the meanings of medial forms and about methods for attaining visual and media literacy. Tools for describing ideologies inherent to various medial forms also need to be named. This page then also highlights student work which is engaged in media analysis.
Please join me in applauding your great efforts.
Greta Olson 
