Culminating Experience:
All students must complete a ‘culminating experience,’ but you have some choice in
what type of project you complete for your culminating experience. Writing a thesis
is a popular capstone, but you might also revise a piece of scholarship for publication,
take exams on an area you want to specialize in, or create pedagogical materials.
At this time, creative writing is not an acceptable culminating experience, but other
types of critical projects may be accepted with permission of your thesis chair and
the director of the English MA.
You will enroll in 3-6 thesis/culminating experience credits to support this project.
These may be taken in the fall or spring or split between the semesters. To enroll
for these credits, your proposal needs to be accepted by a faculty member. See more
information below.
All culminating experiences require these components:
- A proposal: to be approved by CE committee chair before thesis/project credits are assigned, or by the end of your second semster/first year for full time students. The approved proposal will be sent to the grad director, who will create the thesis credits.
- A committee: a chair and two additional committee members drawn from the graduate faculty. Committee members may also be drawn from other departments on campus, where appropriate for the project and with permission from your thesis chair.
- An oral defense/presentation: if writing a thesis, this is a formal process that must be followed according to the graduate school's timeline on the academic calendar. Other projects may follow a different format, but must be approved by your project director and scheduled with the grad director.
- Delivery of a final, written project: your final project will comprise of 12,500 to 25,000 words. In the case of certain projects, this may be cumulative. For example, the word count for the expanded paper will include the journal map and accompanying analysis, the query letters, and final written essay.
For more information regarding the comprehensive exam, including sample questions and grading criteria, see the Comprehensive Exam Overview
Thesis:
Students wishing to complete a thesis as part of the MA in English program will write
a formal
proposal of 1,250-1,800 words (4-6 pages) early in the semester preceding that in
which they
intend to enroll for thesis credit. Each student will submit this proposal to a potential
committee
chair by 1 October for a thesis to be written in spring semester and by 1 March for
a thesis to be
written in fall semester.
The potential committee chair may accept the proposal, decline it, or ask
for revisions. If revisions are required, the revised proposal must be approved by
1 November for
a thesis to be written in spring semester and by 1 April for a thesis to be written
in fall semester.
Once a thesis chair has approved a proposal, the student must e-mail the approved proposal to the graduate studies coordinator so that thesis credits may be generated.
Students with approved proposals will set further deadlines in consultation with their
respective committee chairs (see below for a full timeline) and in agreement with
deadlines preset by the School of Graduate
Studies. Graduate school deadlines for the thesis may be found on the Academic Calendar (helpfully colored green).
We currently do not offer a creative thesis option.
The formal extent of a thesis written for the Master of Arts in English degree in
the Department
of Literature and Language is normally not less than 12,500 words and not more than
25,000,
excluding Works Cited/Bibliography and index (if present). Variations to these word
counts are
to be determined and approved by the student’s thesis committee chair.
Thesis Forms:
All forms related to the thesis process may be found on the graduate school forms page. Forms are organized according to forms intitiated by students and forms initiated by faculty. The relevant forms include:
Initiated by Student:
- Committee Appointment Form
- Manuscript Review Form
Initiated by Faculty (thesis chair):
- Notification of Thesis Defense
- Results of Thesis Defense
Full Thesis Timeline:
|
October 1 (spring thesis) |
Submit the proposal to a potential committee chair. The committee chair may accept
the |
|
November 1 (spring thesis) |
The committee chair will submit the At this point you may fill out the committee appointment form. |
|
By friday of finals week |
Submit to thesis committee chair and members an abstract with |
|
January 28 (spring thesis) |
Submit introduction and/or first chapter to committee chair. |
|
February 15 (spring thesis) |
Submit second chapter (or equivalent) to committee chair. |
|
March 7 (spring thesis) |
Submit complete thesis draft to committee chair. Your oral defense should already be scheduled at this point, and the appropriate form submitted to the graduate school. |
|
March 15 (spring thesis) |
Submit complete draft of thesis to full committee; this second “complete draft” should
be |
|
After your defense and final revisions. |
Fill out the Manuscript Review (three signatures) form. |
Expanded Paper:
Students wishing to complete an expanded paper will begin by identifying an appropriate
committee with areas of expertise that match the subject matter and writing an abstract/proposal
of 1,250-1,800 words.
Based on your proposed paper topic, you will create a journal map with analysis of
at least five potential journals for potential submission of your final project. After
identifying suitable journals, you will send a query letter to the journals concerning
the suitability of your proposed topic. Consult with your CE chair to determine whether
you will draft your project first or identify journals for publication, which may
shape the nature of your project.
A presentation to faculty and peers will outline your argument as well as your analysis
of the journal/discourse community where you have submitted your work for publication.
The length of the final draft which is submitted for publication is dictated by the
requirements of the journal which you submit your project to.
Comprehensive Exams:
Students who wish to complete the comprehensive exams will begin by writing a proposal of 1,250-1,800 words for their list, which includes a short description of the area of interest and an initial list of sources. Students may use these reading lists as a starting point, but should build upon them based on their own research: MA Comprehensive Exam Reading List
You will then create a prospectus or annotated bibliography, which provides your own
notes and analysis of the texts in your list. These notes should be brief, with a
word count decided by your CE chair. The prospectus/bibliography will be part of your
12,500-25,000 total word count.
The faculty committee will provide questions sets which you will respond to by writing
an essay. Question sets will provide options, but also require comprehensive knowledge
of the reading list. Questions will not be provided in advance, but the structure
of the question set will. For example, your chair might provide three sets of questions,
with two options in each set. The exams are open book, but you are limited to 24 hours
for each question set. Three question sets are typical, but this is to be determined
by your CE chair.
Comprehensive exams culminate in an oral debrief, a discussion with your committee
where they can ask you questions about the area under study.
Other Projects:
Other projects may be completed with approval of the graduate director and CE chair. Remember that all projects must still include a CE chair, two additional committee members, a final written component, and an oral presentation. Before commencing with your proposed topic, the graduate director and CE chair must sign off on an outline which includes the scope of the work (typically including word count or some other definition of scope).
Note that creative writing is not accepted as a culminating experience at this time.
Sample projects might include: a teaching portfolio, creating a critical ediiton,
translation, online introduction, develop OER materials, or another idea that must
be approved by a project chair and the director of graduate studies.