English M.A. Information

MSU's Graduate School has open enrollment, so prospective students may apply to the online MA at any time.

No. Registration, unlike graduate admissions, is not perpetually open. It is restricted to periods that are outlined on the Registrar’s site. Students who are admitted before the advanced registration period for a given term are able to secure courses for the forthcoming semester. Students who are admitted after those dates may have to rely on waitlists or plan to attend the following semester.

No. When we first made the MA in English available online, we spent a great deal of time and energy discussing how we could render our admission standards both flexible and fair. We decided to abide by the most basic admission standards we could generate. We realize that even these basic standards are not always ideal in all situations, but we found no other way to remain consistent and ensure that all students were given the same opportunity to enroll.

We stress undergraduate coursework and GPA because we want to make sure that students have the preparation they need to do well in our rather traditional degree. The best way to gauge that is to look at their performance in a range of undergraduate English courses.

If students have successfully completed the equivalent of our minor, they should have the requisite knowledge needed to succeed in the program.

The English program has only two admission requirements, and only one of those two requirements directly addresses a student’s performance within the field of English studies. When we decided to allow for conditional admission to the program, we opted to make the condition contingent upon the non-discipline-specific standard: the GRE score. We were not willing to allow students to temporarily circumvent the requirement of undergraduate coursework because that would be tantamount to stating that students do not need to demonstrate a basic understanding of English studies before they enter the program.

Conditional admission grants students extra time to achieve an admission standard. Waiving requirements remove a particular standard for admission. Our program allows for the former but not for the latter. Students conditionally admitted to the MA in English program still have to meet the “special requirements for admission to [our] particular program” (graduate catalog); they are able to take up to 12 hours of English coursework before they have to achieve the requisite score on the GRE. If they meet the score requirement, they are unconditionally admitted. If they do not, they are denied entrance to the program.

The aforementioned distinction may also help to explain why we do not offer conditional admission to students who lack undergraduate coursework in English. If we were to grant this “temporary status” to students, we would then have to request that they complete the undergraduate coursework that they lack while they are working on their graduate degrees. Most students are understandably loath to do so, and we ourselves see no point in asking students to complete their undergraduate training while they try to earn graduate credit in English. We, therefore, require students to come to the program with the necessary undergraduate coursework.

Unlike undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees have no basic core that renders them fundamentally similar or makes the credit earned within them easily transferrable. Discipline-specific concerns shape both form and content, and individual programs necessarily utilize the modes of instruction and methods of assessment that are best suited to their subject matter. Given this wide and necessary divergence, it is impossible to say that successful performance in one program will guarantee successful performance in another. To gauge general graduate performance, we look at a nationally-normed test that has long been a graduate school standard, the GRE.

Yes. The student just needs to make sure that the Graduate School receives an official record of the scores (either from ETS or from a school that has the student’s GRE scores on file). We do not set time limits, but we do insist that scores must be officially documented by a testing or academic institution.

No. Although all of our classes are worthy of graduate credit, they cannot (and should not) be considered microcosms of the program. Students who excel in Linguistics may struggle in Literature classes, while those who triumph in Creative Writing may find that Literary Criticism is a challenge they can't quite master. To give the most obvious example, we have a number of students who do well with methods that are embedded in specific classes but struggle with the general research methods in ENG 603. In consequence, we do not consider performance in one or two classes alone as an indicator of a student's ability to successfully complete the program. We look to more holistic markers, such as the range of undergraduate coursework and performance on a general, standardized test. 

Yes. Unclassified students can take up to 12 hours in any discipline, so even students who do not meet the program’s admission requirements can still take up to four graduate English classes at MSU.

Designed to meet National Council of Teachers of English and Kentucky Department of Education guidelines to prepare candidates for the clinical semester in the areas of disposition, content knowledge, pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. The course may include up to 15 clock hours of Level III field experiences.

A linguistic approach to the study of meaning in language.

Principles of grammar from current theoretical perspectives.

An invitational, intensive institute for practicing educators and administrators that focuses on their development and training as writers and writing teachers. Includes a yearlong follow-up obligation.

An invitational, intensive institute for practicing educators and administrators that focuses on their development and training as writers and writing teachers. Includes a yearlong follow-up obligation.

An in-depth study of composition theory and research with a heavy emphasis on the analysis and critique of important sources in the field of composition and rhetoric.

Advanced study of representative writers, texts, genres, and themes of the American Renaissance.

Advanced study of representative American poetry.  

Advanced study of representative American novels.

An advanced thematic study of American literature.

A survey of literary theory from the twentieth century to the present.

The study of themes, movements, or modes in British Literature that span multiple literary periods; or of clusters of authors. May be taken only once for credit.

Advanced study of representative British novels and the development of the genre from its beginnings to the present.

Old English culture, epic and lyric poetry, and prose will be studied in translation. Selected passages from Old English literature will be read in the original language.

Intensive study of Chaucer’s early poetry, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Canterbury Tales (in the original Middle English). Fulfills the Major Author requirement for the MA in English.

Prerequisite: previous study of Shakespeare or consent of instructor. Intensive study of Shakespeare’s works. Fulfills the Major Author requirement for the MA in English.

Intensive study of a significant American author (about whom there exist reference resources and a substantial amount of critical commentary). Fulfills the Major Author requirement for the MA in English.

Intensive study of a significant British author (about whom there exist reference resources and a substantial amount of critical commentary) excluding Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. Fulfills the Major Author requirement for the MA in English.

Intensive study of Milton's poetry and major prose. Fulfills the Major Author requirement for the MA in English.

Advanced study of representative writers, texts, movements and themes in African-American literature and culture.

Advanced study of selected major writers of the English Renaissance with an emphasis on Spenser, Shakespeare (excluding drama), Donne, and Jonson. 

Advanced Study of representative British writers, texts, literary forms, and themes, 1660 to 1798.

Advanced Study of representative British writers, texts, literary forms, and themes, 1789-1832. 

Advanced study of representative British writers, texts, literary forms, and themes, 1832-1901.

Advanced Study of representative British writers, texts, literary movements, literary forms, and themes, 1901 to the present.

Advanced study of representative dramas and the development of the genre from the advent of Realism to the present.  

Advanced study of representative dramas and the development of the genre from the Greeks to the mid-nineteenth century.  

Advanced study of representative writers, texts, genres, and themes focusing on an American literary period.

Advanced study of representative American fiction from its beginnings to the present.

Advanced study of contemporary literature in English or English translation. 

Advanced study of the relationship between literature and film.

Individual study in any area in English under the direction of the graduate English faculty. Requirements: a written proposal approved in advance of starting the work; a copy of the final report for the departmental files. May be taken only once to count toward degree requirements

Stresses syntactical studies primarily in the English language, and specifically in the use of American English structures.

Advanced instruction in poetry writing: organic and traditional structures; tone and persona; the sentence and the line; the lyric, dramatic, narrative, and meditative stances; and other concerns of poetics. An intensive writing workshop format with emphasis on poetry in the contemporary idiom.

Advanced instruction in fiction writing: plot, conflict, characterization, point of view, atmosphere and other concerns of contemporary fiction. An intensive writing workshop format with emphasis on contemporary fiction and the audience and market for literary fiction.

Both theoretical and practical applications of all psychological aspects of language.

Principles of analysis, process, and definition; program, recommendation, and research reports; proposals and memoranda; visual aids; transitions, mechanics of clear and precise statements. 

Theory and practice involved in individual and institutional language patterning.