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Dec 26, 2024
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2018 - 2019 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
English, M.A.
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 Return to: College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences
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Program Requirements 30 hrs.
Required Core Courses 18 hrs.
With three credit hours from each of the following categories: Scholarly Methods; Theory; Earlier British Literature; Later British Literature; Earlier American Literature; and Later American Literature
Scholarly Methods: (3 credit hrs. required)
Theory (3 credit hrs. required)
Earlier British Literature (3 credit hrs. required)
Later British Literature (3 credit hrs. required)
Earlier American Literature (3 credit hrs. required)
Later American Literature (3 credit hrs. required)
Electives 6 hrs.
Elective courses for the Literature option : 6 credit-hours to be chosen from the list below:
Masters Final Exam: Goals of a Comprehensive Exam
A Radford University graduate student seeking an M.A. or M.S. in English will complete the Comprehensive Exam in accordance with the following criteria. The exam must:
- provide an opportunity for the candidates to demonstrate through a written argument a significant level of scholarly or critically literate knowledge gained through classwork and independent scholarship, and
- provide an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate knowledge sufficient to be successful in year one of a PhD program, or to teach a college-level literature or composition class, or the subject area of high school English, or to be proficient as a professional writer or editor.
Process and Breadth
- Format and administration
The English Graduate Comprehensive Exam is a 48-hour open-book test. It will be given on a single weekend each semester, with the date to be announced at the beginning of the preceding semester. A student who has an unresolvable conflict that weekend may petition the Graduate Program Coordinator for a change of date.
- Subject Matter
The student’s committee will devise a comprehensive examination consisting of a single question. The purpose of this examination will be to give students the opportunity to synthesize and to make connections from the student’s program of study.
- Committee composition and function
The composition of the committee will be reported by the student to the Graduate Program Coordinator by the end of the third week of the semester in which the comprehensive examination is to be taken. Based on his or her major interest, each student will ask a professor to serve as chair of the comprehensive examination committee; the remaining members of the committee will be selected jointly by the student and the committee chair.
The role of the committee will be to read the student’s written examination and evaluate it as satisfactory, marginal, or unsatisfactory.
Satisfactory: If the written examination is satisfactory, there will be no oral examination.
Marginal: If the written examination is marginal, the committee will ask the student to readdress the question(s) in an oral examination. At this time the committee will make a final decision as to whether the comprehensive exam is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
Unsatisfactory: If the written examination is unsatisfactory, there will be no oral examination. According to the policies of the Graduate College, the student will have one opportunity to retake the comprehensive exam.
Additional Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree
Language Proficiency
The candidate must meet a foreign language reading proficiency requirement. This may be accomplished in one of three ways:
- completion, with a grade of “B” or above, of 12 semester hours in a foreign language no earlier than five years before admission to the current Master’s program in English;
- completion, with a grade of “B” or above, of French 210, German 210 or Spanish 202 or the equivalent course no earlier than five years before admission to the current Master’s program in English; or
- passing a reading proficiency exam, administered by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, on material chosen by the foreign language examiner in consultation with the candidate’s thesis director. The requirement must be completed at least two weeks prior to graduation.
Thesis
The thesis will be written under the supervision of the candidate’s committee. The committee must approve the thesis.
Oral Thesis Examination
After the thesis has been completed but prior to its submission to the office of the dean of the Graduate College, the committee will meet with the candidate for an oral examination of one hour on the topic of the thesis. The examination must occur at least two weeks prior to graduation.
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