Program Description:
The Department of English Language and Literatures offers a flexible M.A. program designed to meet various needs, including those of prospective or practicing high school or college English teachers, ESL specialists, professional writers, and predoctoral students. The program is structured around work in language, literature, and writing. Courses are regularly available in the standard areas of literature, linguistics, composition/rhetoric, professional writing, and gender studies, as well as in nontraditional and interdisciplinary studies. Elective options allow students to design programs to meet their educational goals. In addition to the course and thesis options, special options allow students to combine courses in literature or language with work in creative writing, professional writing, technical writing, women’s studies, or the teaching of writing and literature, among other options. The program in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), which includes linguistics and prepares students to teach English to nonnative speakers, may be pursued as an elective option, as an endorsement for certified public school teachers, or as a concentration in itself. Details about the different offerings in the TESOL program are available in the departmental office. Interdisciplinary options allow work in programs such as reading, communications, religion studies, or history. By offering on-the-job experience at appropriate sites, internships within the various options prepare students for professional writing careers, for college teaching, or for positions in special collections, archives, and private and rare book libraries. Full-time or part-time study is possible.
Admissions Requirements:
Regular admission
In addition to meeting the admission requirements of the School of Graduate Studies, applicants for regular standing in the M.A. program in English must present either an undergraduate major in English from an accredited college or university with a major average of 3.2 or better (on a 4.0 scale), or five appropriate upper-division courses in English with an average of 3.5 or better in those classes. Applicants must also present an academic paper on a subject in English using secondary sources, and demonstrate an overall undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 or better. Applicants with deficiencies in their undergraduate preparation may be required to take additional courses.
Conditional admission
Applicants whose overall grade point average is between 3.0 and 2.7 may be admitted to conditional standing by action of the English department graduate committee if they meet the other requirements above. To attain regular standing, students must be reviewed by the graduate committee and maintain a 3.5 GPA or better in the first three graduate courses (9 credit hours) taken, which must include the appropriate methods and materials class and at least one other 7000-level course.
Upon petition of the student seeking admission, reasonable exceptions to these requirements may be made for sufficient cause.
International Students
It is essential that applicants for an M.A. in English be able to demonstrate their proficiency in written and spoken English. Nonnative speakers of English must obtain a TOEFL score of IBT 100/CBT 250/PBT 600, or for conditional admission, 80/213/550. Students will be tested upon beginning the program and may be required to take ESL courses to improve their English skills.
Nondegree students enrolled in English graduate courses are subject to review and approval by the English department graduate committee.
Faculty:
Professors
Peter S. Bracher (Emeritus), Victorian literature, English novel
Richard H. Bullock, Director of writing programs
Norman R. Cary (Emeritus), world literature in English, non-Western literature
Deborah Crusan, TESOL, ESL, assessment, applied linguistics
John F. Fleischauer (Emeritus), Renaissance literature, classical rhetoric
James R. Guthrie, American literature
O. Elizabeth Harden (Emerita), English Romantic literature, English novel
Lillie P. Howard (Emerita), African American literature, eighteenth-century novel, Jane Austen
James M. Hughes (Emeritus), American literature, American studies, popular culture
Lawrence E. Hussman (Emeritus), American literature, Naturalism
S. Lynette Jones, African-American literature, American literature, women writers
Joe Law, composition and rhetorical theory, Victorian literature
Nancy Mack, English education, writing theory
Martin Maner (Emeritus), eighteenth-century English literature
Barry Milligan, Director of Graduate Studies in English, nineteenth-century British literature, Romantic literature
Gary B. Pacernick (Emeritus), creative writing, modern poetry
Mary Beth Pringle, modern novel; women’s literary studies; professional, business, and technical writing
Martha C. Sammons (Emerita), technical writing, fantasy literature
David Seitz, composition studies, rhetorical theory
Donald R. Swanson (Emeritus), nineteenth- and twentieth
Associate Professors
Angela Beumer Johnson, Director of ILA, English education, integrated language arts
Cecile W. Cary (Emerita), Shakespeare, Renaissance studies
Erin Flanagan, Creative Writing
Chris Hall, Director of TESOL, ESL composition, computers and writing
John Haught, TESOL, education
Sally Lamping, English Education, Integrated Language Arts, Urban Education
Henry S. Limouze, Milton, seventeenth-century literature, linguistics
Carol S. Loranger, Chair, American literature, critical theory
Marguerite G. MacDonald (Emerita), TESOL, linguistics
Annette Oxindine, twentieth-century British literature, feminist criticism
Alpana Sharma, postcolonial literature and theory, feminist literature and theory, critical theory, U.S. multi-ethnic literature
Kelli Zaytoun, Director of Women’s Studies, feminist theory, memoir
Assistant Professors
Crystal Lake, eighteenth-century British literature
Carol Mejia-LaPerle, Renaissance literature
Lars Söderlund, composition/rhetoric, professional writing
Andrew Strombeck, American literature, literary theory
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