If you are thinking about going to graduate school, it is a good idea to consider doing an Honors Thesis, or any type of senior thesis/independent research project under the guidance of a professor. This will not only give you a feel for what you will be doing in grad school, but it will also give your professor(s) something to evaluate you with when they write your letters of recommendation. Moreover, many grad schools might not take you seriously if you have not done undergraduate research since most of today's applicants have done some type of research project.
You might remember Jane Arney's presentation last Spring at the Third Annual UCR Symposium for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. Immediately after Jane's excellent presentation, Shawn Higgins presented his own Honors Thesis in a presentation titled "Materialism, Memory, and Self-Expression: Success in Caribbean-American Literature." Shawn graduated from UCR in the Spring of 2009 majoring in English and minoring in Asian Studies. He is now a graduate student at Columbia University.
Here is a recording of Shawn's presentation so that you can see what a great research project and its subsequent presentation looks like:
Shawn Higgins, "Materialism, Memory, and Self-Expression: Success in Caribbean-American Literature," UC Riverside Undergraduate from Shawn Higgins on Vimeo.
