Students: Graduate Information

About Our Programs: The M.A. Exam

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.

Structure of the Exam: Four-Hour Written or Hybrid

Students choose one of two exam options:

Four-Hour Written: Complete a four-hour written exam on the focus area (questions written by the adviser) and a two-hour oral on all four areas conducted by an adviser and two other faculty members chosen by the M.A. proctor. The oral exam seeks to demonstrate the student’s knowledge of the primary texts on his/her lists and, when relevant, his/her ability to discuss those texts in light of the issues raised by the secondary texts on the lists. Texts can also be discussed across time periods, genres, or areas. The format of the oral exam includes approximately 35 minutes spent on the focus area and 25 on the other three areas (during the last 10 minutes the student is dismissed while the committee determines whether he/she passes); or
Hybrid: Submit a 20-25 page paper (in lieu of the four-hour written) with a two-hour oral as described in option one. This paper should be a paper the student wrote for course work and revised for the purpose of the exam. The subject should relate to the focus area; the adviser should make sure the subject is appropriate for the focus area exam, but he/she does not work with the student on revising it.

The examination will be taken in three categories:

Category A: Literature and Criticism

Old and Middle English Literature;
Renaissance Literature;
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature;
Romantic and Victorian Literature;
American Literature to 1900;
Modern Literature 1900-1945;
Contemporary Literature 1945 to present;
Postcolonial Literature;
US Ethnic Literature (Directions--Read This First):
- African American;
- American Indian;
- Asian American;
- Latino/a;
Twentieth-Century Literature;
Critical Theory;
Digital Media Studies.

Category B: Rhetoric and Composition

Rhetoric;
Composition;
Literacy Studies;
Digital Media Studies.

Category C: Related Modes of English Studies

Bibliography;
Creative Writing:
- Poetry;
- Fiction;
- Nonfiction;
Film;
Folklore;
Language and Linguistics;
Critical Theory;
Digital Media Studies.

Students must choose seven areas from the above list of three categories:

At least four from Category A, one of which must be in literature before 1800;
At least one from Category B;
At least one from Category C.

The seventh area may be chosen from any of the above areas. One of the seven areas must be designated a focus area for the purposes of the exam. Once the focus area is designated, the student, in consultation with his or her exam chair, will compile a list of 20 texts (in the literary areas, 2-5 of these texts must be secondary works such as historical, critical, and/or theoretical). For the other three areas that the student will be examined on, he or she will choose 15 texts from predetermined lists (in literary areas, two of these works must be secondary).

For example, a student might choose the following areas: (1) Old and Middle English Literature, (2) Renaissance Literature, (3) Romantic and Victorian Literature, (4) Twentieth-Century Literature, (5) Critical Theory, (6) Rhetoric, and (7) Film. As required, at least four of these areas come from Category A, one from Category B, and one from Category C. The seventh area comes from Category A (but it could have come from Category B or C). The student has covered the first three of these areas through course work: English 710, English 727, and English 746. So the four areas he will be examined on are Twentieth-Century, Critical Theory, Rhetoric, and Film. He chooses film as his focus area and compiles a list of 20 works with the advice of his exam chair. He then selects 15 works from predetermined lists for Critical Theory, Rhetoric, and Twentieth Century, respectively. The total number of works he will be examined on is 65.

Students may bypass up to three areas (other than the focus) through course work. Please see the list of approved courses on the Request Form (Coming Soon). In this case, students will be examined in their focus area, plus three other areas. For their focus area, students will devise their own list, with the help of their adviser, of 20 texts (in the literary areas, two-five of these works must be secondary texts such as historical, critical, and/or theoretical texts). For their other areas, they will choose 15 texts (in literary areas, two of these texts must be secondary, as described above) from predetermined reading lists.

The Comprehensive Examination Reading Lists are reviewed at least every three years by the faculty in the field and by the Graduate Studies Committee. Copies of the complete exam list are available in the Graduate Studies Office (Denney 425).

Composition and Procedures of the Exam

The exam has both a written and an oral portion:

The written portion consists of two options: a four-hour exam in the student’s focus area, which usually consists of two questions (with a choice of four). Committee chairs should spell out in their directions any particular stipulations they want to make: that equal time be spent on each question, for instance; or that the student address a certain number of texts, if that is relevant. Normally, the written exam should precede the oral exam by no more than one week. The written exam can be done by hand or on a clean computer, usually in a Digital Media Project (DMP) lab (this should be arranged through the DMP office in Denney 324), in the office of the faculty member who is chairing the committee, or on a laptop checked out from DMP and set up in a departmental conference room. The written exam can be administered either by Kathleen Gagel in the Graduate Office or by the Chair of the exam. The written exam and the exam questions should be distributed to the Examinatio n Committee in advance of the oral exam. Sample written questions for most areas are available in the Graduate Studies Office.

The second option for the written portion is the submission of a 20-25 page paper in the focus area that the student wrote in a class and has revised on his/her own for the purposes of the exam. The exam chair should make sure the subject is appropriate for the focus area exam, but he/she does not work with the student on revising it. The student should provide each member of the committee with a copy of the paper a week before the oral exam.
The oral portion consists of a two-hour exam on the whole list. No more than 25 minutes are spent on any one area, except the focus area, which consists of 35 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, the student is dismissed while the committee discusses his or her performance and decides whether the student passes or fails. The examinee is permitted to choose the order in which he or she is to be examined on each field. Normally, the focus area comes first, and the student’s answers to the written question(s) are used as the basis for beginning the discussion. Examiners should bear in mind that examinees are spreading their critical attention across a wide range. In the focus area, it’s appropriate to expect a higher level of background knowledge; how much knowledge, and how it will be tested for, should be discussed beforehand by the examinee and the exam chair. Indeed, the chair should make sure that the student is clear about all procedures for taking the oral exam be fore the exam starts.

Examinees are encouraged to contact each member of their exam committee to discuss the exam ahead of time. Faculty should be as informative as they can about their expectations and the probable nature of their questions.

All oral exams must be taken by Friday, May 16, 2008.

The Examination Committee

The Examination Committee consists of three faculty members: one from the focus area, who is chosen by the student and who will set the written exam; and two faculty members whom the M.A. Proctor assigns several weeks before the oral exam from a published pool of examiners.

Committees may fail examinees on one or more parts of the exam, or on the entire exam. In case of partial failure, each committee decides what further work to require if the examinee wishes to retake the exam. A committee may feel, for example, that an examinee should retake a part or parts of the oral; or it may require that the examinee complete a supplemental written exam. The chair of the committee should submit a written account of what will be required of the student to repeat the examination to the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may not change fields or committees for the re-examination. A second failure is final, and subsequently no degree will be awarded.

The results of the exam must be reported on a form generated by the Graduate School; a copy should be turned in to the Graduate Studies Office

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Courses that count as substitutes for one area (with a grade of B+ or better):

Old and Middle English Literature: English 710, 713, 716, or 718
Renaissance Literature: English 720, 727 or 728
Restoration/18th Century Literature: English 736 or 737
Romantic and Victorian Literature: English 746 or 747
American Literature to 1900: English 755, 756, or 757.01
Modern Literature (1900-1945): English 766
Contemporary Literature (1945-present): 767 or 757.02
Postcolonial Literature: English 864
U.S. Ethnic Literatures: English 757.01, 757.02, or 758
Critical Theory: English 761, 776.01, 776.02, 790, 791, or any theory course in another department (subject to approval by the Director of Graduate Studies or designee)
Rhetoric: English 779.01, 779.02
Composition: English 780
Literacy: English 750
Digital Media: English 789
Bibliography: English 799 or 980
Creative Writing: English 763, 765, 768, or 788
Film: English 778
Folklore: English 770.01
Language and Linguistics: English 771, 772, 773, 774, or 872

Important notes:

Some works appear on more than one area list. Students must avoid duplication of selected works.
Three areas (other than the focus) may be covered through course work. In this case, students will be examined in four areas rather than seven, though the distribution areas remain the same.
Older Web browsers may not show underlining for titles in the reading lists.

Be sure to review the reading list of any given area.

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