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Students: Graduate Information

About Our Programs: The M.A. Program

Overview

The M.A. program is a comprehensive one whose purpose is to provide a broad-based education in what, in all its complexity and multiplicity, currently constitutes English Studies. It is designed to ensure a range of study in the major areas of English Studies and, at the same time, to allow students to pursue their particular interests through course work and independent study. In order to achieve this, the M.A. program provides students with the opportunity to:

• acquire as much familiarity as possible with English and American literary history;
• obtain a solid familiarity with the questions and the discourses of contemporary critical theory;
• explore courses in folklore, rhetoric, composition, language, and creative writing;
• explore courses in fields such as ethnic studies, women's studies, gender studies, sexuality and queer studies, disability studies, and the emerging disciplines of multiculturalism, cultural studies, and postcolonial literature and theory;
• explore the major debates in the profession.

Much of this program is designed to prepare students for Ph.D. work -- the two degrees operate together as a unit -- but an M.A. degree which combines all (or most) of these elements also has intellectural and professional value as an advanced degree.

The M.A. degree is normally completed in two years and must be completed within six calendar years of a student's entry into graduate study at Ohio State. Only two years of Graduate Associate (TA, RA, AA, or Fellowship) funding may be applied towards the completion of the M.A. Students who do not complete the degree within six years must work out a plan for resuming their studies with the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee.

The minimum requirements are 50 credit hours (including 781 and 5 hours preparation for the M.A. Exam [696] or Portfolio [693]). Students may take up to 5 hours of Independent Study as part of the required 50 hours.

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Required Courses

Students will complete the M.A. degree with either a Comprehensive Exam or a Portfolio. Both of these options are described in this section and involve slightly different course requirements, as outlined below.

1. English 700: Introduction to Graduate Studies in English.
   This course is designed to introduce students to essential research skills, major issues in critical theory, central debates in the profession, and the resources of the Ohio State Libraries and English Department. (5 hours)
2. A minimum of three (four if students choose the Portfolio option) 700-level Historical Survey Classes.
   At least one must be taken in British Literature before 1800 and one in British or American literature before 1900. For students choosing the Portfolio option, the four survey classes must be taken in distinct historical periods (e.g., taking 713 and 716 counts for only one historical period: medieval). These courses are not prerequisites for 800-level seminars, but it is recommended that students take them first. (15-20 hours)
3. A minimum of one course in:
   creative writing, folklore, film, rhetoric, composition (exclusive of 781), linguistics, or any relevant graduate level course from another department approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Students choosing the Portfolio option must take one course in rhetoric or composition, and one course from another field on this list. (5-10 hours)

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Recommended Courses

1. A Course in Theory beyond English 700.
   This is strongly recommended, especially for those students who wish to go on to a Ph.D. in literary studies. Any theory course would be appropriate (including some in comparative studies, women's studies, or other departments that offer them).
2. A Course in Bibliography: English 799.
   All M.A. students who expect to do their principal research in an area of literary history or literary interpretation should take English 799 (Graduate Studies in Literary Bibliography).

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The Exam Option: Four-Hour Written or Hybrid

The Comprehensive Examination is taken in Spring Quarter of the second year of M.A. work. Students may apply a maximum of 5 credit hours of M.A. comprehensive exam hours (English 696) toward preparing for the exam, but it is assumed that the preparation for it will comprise the bulk of students' independent reading during their enrollment in the M.A program. By the end of the fifth week of the quarter preceding the exam, students must submit to the departmental proctor the form requesting permission to take the examination and specifying the four areas prepared. In the quarter in which they take the examination, students must register for English 696 with the proctor or their adviser. If a student withdraws from the exam process any time after the exam committee has been formed, the withdrawal will count as a failure of the exam.

Read more about the M.A. Exam.

The Portfolio Option

For the portfolio, students will revise two essays or equivalent work in another medium written in class with an eye toward potential publication. The essays should be 25-30 pages each (excluding notes and bibliography), and the student will work on them with a student-selected adviser. The M.A. proctor will assign two faculty members—one of whom should be outside the student’s field/s as identified by the topics of their two papers—to the student’s committee in late winter or early spring quarter. The two-hour oral exam consists of the student discussing the arguments, knowledge, methods, and conclusions of the two essays and their sources (i.e., the paper should include an extensive bibliography of sources cited and consulted).

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Evaluation of Exam and Portfolio

Committees may fail examinees of either option (exam or portfolio) on one or more parts of the exam (e.g., in the case of the portfolio option, the committee might approve the student’s work on one essay but not the other). In case of partial failure, each committee decides whether the examinee is allowed to retake the exam or defense and, if so, what further work to require for a retake. A committee may decide, for example, that an examinee should retake a part or parts of the oral; or it may require that the examinee rewrite one of the essays in the portfolio. The adviser should report the specifics of the retake to the Director of Graduate Studies. Studies may not change fields, portfolio essays, or committees for the re-examination. A second failure is final, and no degree will be subsequently awarded.

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M.A. Bypass and Requirements for Ph.D. Students with M.A. Degrees From Other Universities

Ordinarily, all M.A. students are required to take the exam or complete a Portfolio, but, in exceptional cases, students may petition the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee to bypass the M.A. and be admitted directly to the Ph.D. program. The Comprehensive Examination or Porfolio will not be required of students entering the program with M.A.'s from other universities or other disciplines, though incoming Ph.D. students who have recognized deficiencies in areas covered by the exam may be admitted

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