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Graduate Program

 

Degree Requirements

Students, including those already enrolled in the English MA Program, may select one of the two options outlined below after consulting with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in English and/or other faculty advisors in English. Students will then submit a brief written statement to the DGS that presents a rationale for their choice. As can be seen in the following outline of the two alternative courses of study, students who choose not to write a thesis will be required to take eight additional credit hours of course work, for a total of 40 credit hours.

 

Thesis Option:

 

• Required Courses:  Students must take two of the program’s three core courses for a total of 8 credit hours
• Electives:  Students choose six courses in consultation with a faculty advisor for a total of 24 credit hours.  These 24 hours may include a third course and up to 8 credit hours of Internship.
• Required:  MA thesis.  4 Credit hours.  (See a sample theses)
• Total:  36 Credit hours

 

Non-thesis Option:

 

• Required Courses: Students must take two of the program’s three core courses for a total of 8 credit hours
• Elective Courses: Students choose eight courses in consultation with a faculty advisor for a total of 32 credit hours. These 32 credit hours may include a third core course and up to 8 credit hours of Internship.
• Total: 40 credit hours
• Download Non-Thesis Proposal form—pdf / Word

 

The three core courses, which carry 4 credit hours each, provide an introduction to three major areas in the discipline of English: language (G500 Introduction to the English Language), writing (W509 Introduction to Writing and Literacy Studies), and literature ( L506 Introduction to Methods of Criticism and Research).  Students are required to take two of the three core courses, preferably at the beginning of the graduate program.

 

Foreign Language Requirements

There is no foreign language requirement, but M.A. students going on for the Ph.D. are encouraged to validate their reading proficiency in a foreign language according to University Graduate School standards.