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Graduate Programs & Degrees
The Degree
IUPUIs graduate
English program has been designed to prepare students for careers
in the analysis and production of texts. To this end, the program
covers issues and skills in reading and writing in the richest
sense of these words, in order to prepare students to address
these issues and to teach these skills. The program has also been
designed to serve those students who undertake graduate study
to continue enriching their lives, rather than to prepare themselves
for a career.
Because of IUPUIs
urban, nonresidential setting, its graduate English program strives,
in its curriculum and scheduling, to meet the special needs of
part-time, nonresidential students.
In contrast
to traditional MA programs, which place heavy emphasis on literary
history, IUPUIs graduate program focuses on the application of
English studies to contemporary situations and problems. While
interested students will be encouraged to take courses in literary
history, graduates of this program will probably have to take
additional literary history courses to be qualified candidates
for traditional doctoral programs.
Degree Requirements
The MA in English
requires 36 credit hours, including
- 8
hours of core courses
- 24
hours of "area" course, may include up to 8 hours of
internship
- 4
hours of thesis work
Ordinarily,
not more than 12 hours of Graduate Continuing Non-Degree courses
at IUPUI may be counted toward your degree. Not more than 8 credit
hours may be transferred from another institution. Degree requirements
(including transfer credits) must be completed within five consecutive
years of beginning the program. (Although degree candidates may
in extraordinary cases request that an older course be revalidated,
the process is cumbersome and the outcome uncertain. The decision
is made not simply by the Department of English but by the IU Graduate
School. Candidates must not look upon revalidation as a generally
tenable option.)
Core Courses
At the beginning of your graduate career,
you will take two of the three core courses that provide an introduction
to major areas in the discipline of English:
-
Language: G500, Introduction to the
English Language, 4 cr.
-
Literature: L506, Issues and Motives
of Literary Studies, 4 cr.
-
Writing:
W509, Introduction to Writing and Literacy Studies, 4 cr.
Area of Concentration and Program Committee
The three core
courses—in language, literature, and writing—are intended to give
you a broad understanding of the analysis and production of texts,
as well as the teaching of such analysis and production. By the
end of your second semester of studies (if you are a full-time
student) or by the end of your third semester (if you are a part-time
student), you should declare to the Director of Graduate Studies
your area of concentration: language, literature, or writing.
A language concentration includes such areas as discourse analysis,
socio-linguistic, applied linguistics, and English as a second
language (ESL); a literature concentration, such areas as literary
criticism, film criticism, and the investigation of how we read
literary texts; and a writing concentration, such areas as the
theories of text production and composition in the classroom as
well as workplace or technical writing.
After you have
declared your area of concentration, you should ask a member of
the graduate faculty of the English Department to serve as your
Program Committee chair; this person should be the graduate faculty
member in the English Department who is best qualified to direct
a thesis on your topic. The Director of Graduate Studies can advise
you in choosing this person. (A list of graduate faculty is included
in this guide.) You and your Program Committee chair should then
ask two other faculty members to serve as members of your Program
Committee; these two should also be members of the graduate faculty
of the English Department, though occasional exceptions may be
made. After the Director of Graduate Studies has approved your
Program Committee, its chair will serve as your academic advisor
and, in some cases, as your thesis director. If, after choosing
your program committee, you change the focus of your thesis, you
may change the composition of your program committee by consulting
with the Director of Graduate Studies, explaining the reasons
for the change to your original program chair and committee, and
filing a new Program Committee appointment form with the signatures
of your new committee. A copy of this form is included in this
guide.
After you have
completed 15 credit hours, you will meet formally with your Program
Committee to review your progress and make preliminary arrangements
for your internship and thesis project.
Remaining Courses
After your core
courses, you choose the remaining 12-16 hours of courses, normally
within your area of concentration, with the help of your Program
Committee chair.
With the approval
of your Program Committee and the Director of Graduate Studies,
your courses may include L695, Individual Readings in English,
or W609, Directed Writing Projects. These courses are taken as
tutorials with individual graduate faculty members.
Graduate Course Offerings
The Department
of English has committed to offering at least two core courses
and at least two other graduate courses each Fall and Spring semester;
these four courses will include at least one course each in language,
literature, and writing. This commitment will allow students to
fulfill their core course requirements during their first year
of study.
The department has also committed to offering
at least one core course and at least one other graduate course
each summer.
L590,
L695, L699, and
W609 are offered each semester
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