Academic Information for Students in
The Graduate Program in English
Student Advising
The advising of graduate students is a complicated and personal process. A student may, and should, consult freely with members of the department about his future. As a practical matter, he will be best served by seeking out and consulting a congenial member of the department whose interests are congruent with his own. The DGS is always available for consultation; for an appointment, talk to the graduate secretary or the DGS.
Formal advising is organized by the Director of Graduate Studies and proceeds in four stages, corresponding to different stages in the graduate program. In a student's first year, she will be assigned to a liaison group, consisting of about a half dozen new students and one faculty liaison. These groups meet a few times each semester, off-campus, to discuss questions, general and specific, about the graduate program and the profession, or about topics of intellectual interest to the group. The groups are meant to provide informal social meetings outside the classroom, as well as an introduction to departmental life. By the third year a student will have the advantage of guidance both from her exam or advisory committee and from teaching mentors, the faculty members with whom she teaches. By the fourth and fifth years, her dissertation director and committee will provide the most substantial guidance for her work.
Courses
English Graduate courses are distinct and separate from the undergraduate course offerings. The department offers three levels of graduate courses: those that are methodologically, professionally, and pedagogically oriented (500-level, enrolling 15-20 students); colloquia, occasionally organized by historical period or major author, but typically focused on special topics or critical methodologies (600-level, limited to a maximum of 15 students); and seminars, requiring directed individual study (700-level, limited to 12 students). Graduate creative writing workshops (limited to 10-12 students) are available to students concentrating in creative writing for the M.A. and M.F.A., and, on formal application to the chairperson of the Creative Writing Committee, to other students when space permits. An independent study course is available to Ph.D. students. During the academic year, the department usually offers 6-8 500-level courses, 20-25 600-level courses and approximately 20 seminars. To reflect its desire that students gain extensive experience in guided individual research and critical interchange with their peers, the department requires that M.A. candidates in literature and language who intend to enter the doctoral program take at least two seminars and that Ph.D. candidates take at least an additional three.
Some courses follow conventional literary history and periodization; others structure themselves according to critical problems, issues of genre, or other intellectual concerns. Sometimes courses are taught by teams, and sometimes they are organized around group projects. Many courses employ interdisciplinary methodologies and innovative critical perspectives. Offerings in film, popular culture, and composition are regularly available. Well in advance of each semester, the department provides detailed descriptions, written by the instructors, of the courses that will be offered.
Teaching
The Department of English views teaching and scholarship as mutually constitutive. Experience in teaching undergraduate courses in writing and literature as well as opportunities to reflect critically upon that experience are considered crucial components of a graduate education.
Prior to their first year of teaching W131, Elementary Composition, new Associate Instructors are asked to participate in a training workshop, during the week before the fall semester. The workshop is followed in the fall by the required proseminar in the teaching of composition, W501.
Beginning with W501 and W131 and continuing throughout their teaching careers, students will construct an individual Teaching Portfolio. The portfolio will eventually contain examples of students' teaching materials, classroom observation reports, and a thoughtful teaching statement. After their first year of teaching, students will have the opportunity to consult with faculty members about their teaching and to review the updated teaching portfolio. Maintaining a teaching portfolio enables graduate students to reflect on how their teaching has changed and how they might wish to expand their teaching repertoire. Teaching portfolios also prove valuable in assembling a dossier and preparing for the job market.
After the first year of teaching composition, AIs may request the specific courses they want to teach. AIs may select from a range of teaching options: W131 (regular and Basic Skills versions) and upper-level writing courses or sections of the freshman literature/writing sequence, L141-142, in which they work with other AIs under the guidance of a faculty member. Experienced AIs may also design and submit an application to teach W170, reading and writing on a particular topic. Later in their teaching careers, AIs are eligible to paticipate in internships with faculty in courses such as the undergraduate literature surveys, Shakespeare, sophomore genre courses, and Women and Literature. Although personal preference is an initial factor, assignments are finally made on the basis of seniority, satisfactory performance in the classroom, and the general needs of the instructional program.
Related Programs and Minors
An M.A. candidate in language or literature may elect to take up to eight hours in other traditional departments like History, Philosophy, Folklore, and foreign languages, or in interdisciplinary programs like Comparative Literature, American Studies, Victorian Studies, Film Studies, Renaissance Studies, and Medieval Studies. All Ph.D. candidates are required to finish a doctoral minor of their choosing. While a Ph.D. student may elect to concentrate exclusively on English and take a departmental minor, the student may also elect to take an outside minor in a related field or in an interdisciplnary program such as Victorian Studies, Women's Studies or Science and Literature. At present there are also several dissertations in progress in such areas as film and television, the rhetoric of science, Colonial and Postcolonial literature, and literacy studies.
Incompletes
Incompletes are given at the instructor's discretion only when a student has satisfactorily completed most of the work of a course, and, for good cause, needs additional time to finish. A student requesting an Incomplete should see the instructor before the semester ends. Normally the instructor will set a deadline for the completion of the work. Incompletes not completed within one calendar year automatically become Fs. An Incomplete can be extended only in extraordinary circumstances; application forms for extensions are available from the Graduate Secretary.
Probation
Failure to meet the departmental requirement of a 3.0 grade point average for M.A. and M.A.T. candidates or a 3.5 average for M.F.A. and Ph.D. candidates normally results in probation with a one-semester deadline for improving academic standing. Three or more Incompletes will also result in probation. Normally, a student who has been on probation for two consecutive semesters will be asked to leave the program.
Foreign Languages
All M.A. candidates (but not M.A.T. or M.F.A. candidates) must show proficiency in a foreign language. Ph.D. candidates must show proficiency in a second language or Computer Science, or in-depth proficiency in the first. The language departments administer the requirement, and specific inquiries should be directed to them. Newly admitted students who have time to study during the summer before enrollment would do well to spend it achieving proficiency in a language. The requirement can be fulfilled by examination during the first semester on campus.
The language requirement can be fulfilled in three ways: either by taking the test administered by the appropriate department; or by taking the two graduate courses offered by language departments and designated to fulfill the requirement (you must get at least a grade of "B"); or, in some cases, by taking a literature or civilization offered in a foreign language, and numbered 300 or above (again, a "B" or better is necessary). The foreign language requirements must be met before applying to take the Ph.D. qualifying examinations. Check the Bulletin of the University Graduate School or individual departments for more details on the requirements and on courses.
Prizes and Fellowships
Each year on Founders Day the English Department awards the following prizes named after distinguished and beloved faculty members who served the department in the past: The James A. Work Award for the best graduate student in English; the William Riley Parker Award for distinguished teaching by an Associate Instructor; the David H. Dickason Award for the best essay on American literature by a graduate student, and the Mary Gaither Award for the best essay on British Literature by a graduate student. In addition, there are several awards for original work in fiction and poetry. Procedures for submitting materials are widely announced in advance.
Job Placement
Job placement for M.A. candidates is currently being handled by Arts and Sciences Placement or by the Educational Placement Service in the School of Education. Job-seekers should consult the Service early in the year in which they look for positions.
M.F.A. and Ph.D. candidates use the job placement service established and administered by the English Department. This service is available to each student for a period of five years from first use. In addition to the placement service, the Department sponsors meetings each spring and fall devoted to the preparation of credentials and the job search, interviewing techniques and the MLA annual meeting, arranges practice interviews for those interested, and provides individual counseling on all aspects of the job search. The departmental Placement Officer and the Placement Secretary have further details.
While graduate work in English prepares people most obviously for careers as teachers in colleges and universities, applicants for the graduate program should know that competition for teaching positions at present remains keen. Happily, some indications suggest that the situation is improving -- but at a very slow rate. Most recently, about fifty per cent of the department's new Ph.D.'s have found academic appointments, most of them tenure-track.
Recently the department has begun to address this problem by hosting workshops for graduate students on non academic career possibilities. The Placement Officer will send out announcements for these workshops. Information about other related types of employment is available from the Arts and Sciences Career Planning and Placement Center and the Office of Career and Placement Support Services. These last two also have extensive libraries on non-academic employment and the non-academic job search. The Director of Graduate Studies maintains a more modest collection of relevant publications and can supply further information.
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