English Graduate Program Requirements

Program Requirements

Course requirements are grouped into distributional categories to reflect the various focuses of the profession, particularly the emphases on literature composition and rhetoric, creative writing, and cultural studies and theory. The number of units required for the M.A. program is 30, not including the courses necessary to satisfy the program's language requirement. In addition to coursework requirements, students must complete a project as specified below.

I.  Graduate Distribution Requirements:

Classes are distributed among four categories; students must take one course from three of these four categories. After a distribution category is filled, further courses in that category are considered electives. Elective coursework allows students to specialize in one of the fields designated within the M.A. program. The fields of inquiry identified are the following:

• Language, Composition and Rhetoric
• Creative Writing
• Cultural Studies/Theory
• Literature

The M.A. in English 30-unit Course of Study requires the following:

• ENGL 500 Introduction to Graduate Studies (to be taken during the first year)
• 1 course each from three of the four categories listed above
• 5 electives
• ENGL 595 Project Writing course (to be taken during the final semester)

In addition, students must satisfy a language requirement by taking a 400 level course in Linguistics, taking a language-study based course like ENGL 410 (thought such courses can only be used to satisfy either the language requirement or the Study Plan, not both) taking a 400 level course in a foreign language or literature course, or completing (or having completed) the equivalent of two years of study in a foreign language.

With adviser approval, students may include up to 6 units of 400 level courses on their study plan and up to 3 units of study from a discipline other than English.

Areas of Study:

Language, Composition, and Rhetoric
ENGL 402               Theories of Response to Written Composition (2)
ENGL 402S             Tutor Supervision (1)
ENGL 410               Language and Power in African American Culture
ENGL 525T             Proseminar in Literature, Rhetoric, or Writing (Topics on Rhetoric)
ENGL 590               Writing Theory and Practice for Teaching Associates (2)
ENGL 590S             Teaching Associate Supervision (1)
ENGL 591T             Seminar: Topics in Rhetoric and Composition

Creative Writing
ENGL 509T             Creative Writing Workshop (Fiction, Non Fiction, Poetry, or Playwriting)
ENGL 515               Professional Editing and Journal Production
ENGL 525T             Proseminar in Literature, Rhetoric or Writing (Topic: Poetic Form and Theory)
ENGL 404T             Advanced Creative Writing (Fiction, Non Fiction, Poetry, or Playwriting)

Cultural Criticism/Theory
ENGL 492               Modern Critical Theory
ENGL 574T             Graduate Seminar: Special Problems in Literature (same as CPLT 574T)
ENGL 579T             Graduate Seminar: Problems in Criticism (same as CPLT 579T)

Literature
ENGL 525T             Proseminar in Literature, Rhetoric, or Writing (same as CPLT 525T)
ENGL 571T             Graduate Seminar: Major Writers (same as CPLT 571T)
ENGL 572T             Graduate Seminar: Literary Genres (same as CPLT 572T)
ENGL 573T             Graduate Seminar: Cultural Periods (same as CPLT 573T)

II. The Culminating Experience:

Option 1: M.A. Project

In the process of completing their 30-unit course of study, students must complete a Culminating Experience consisting of a Project. Visit the M.A. Project page for more information.

Option 2: M.A. Exam

Students will take an M.A. Exam in one of the approved areas: Medieval, Renaissance, Eighteenth-Century, Romanticism, Victorian, American Literature to 1900, Modernism (British Emphasis), Modernism (American Emphasis), Contemporary Literature (British Emphasis), Contemporary Literature (American Emphasis), Global Literature: Literature in Translation, Global Literature: Anglophone Literature, Global Literature: Migration and Diaspora, or Rhetoric/Composition. Visit the M.A. Exam page for more information.