COURSE CURRICULUM

The Master of Arts in English and Writing Studies is a 30-unit graduate program designed for students seeking advanced knowledge in linguistics, literature, composition and rhetoric, pedagogy, and public or professional writing. Core courses provide a foundation in literary and rhetorical theory, research methodologies, contemporary composition, discourse, cognition, and praxis. Students then select a concentration consisting of 12 units from linguistics, composition and rhetoric, literature, pedagogy, or public and professional writing. Within each concentration, students choose courses tailored to their academic and professional goals, with options for advanced seminars, applied linguistics, teaching methods, and multimodal or public writing studies.The program requires a 3-unit culminating experience, which can be completed either through a thesis or a comprehensive examination. The thesis option allows students to select between a traditional thesis, resulting in an original manuscript of approximately 60 pages, or a professional paper of about 30 pages, which may take the form of an academic journal article, policy paper, or professional piece. Both options involve developing a proposal, obtaining approval from a thesis committee of two faculty members, and completing the project under faculty guidance. Students completing a thesis also present their work at a department colloquium. The comprehensive examination option involves two take-home essay questions relevant to the student’s concentration, with opportunities for revision if the first attempt is unsuccessful.Across the concentrations, students engage in courses designed to deepen expertise in their chosen area. The linguistics concentration focuses on language analysis, sociolinguistics, phonetics, TESL methods, and computational linguistics. The composition and rhetoric track emphasizes rhetoric, literacy studies, teaching writing, and public discourse. The literature concentration provides seminars in literary periods, genres, theory, and teaching literature or imaginative writing. The pedagogy concentration prepares students for teaching English and writing across educational settings, while the public and professional writing concentration develops skills in multimodal writing, creative nonfiction, literary production, and professional writing contexts. Together, the core curriculum, concentration courses, and culminating experience prepare students for scholarly, professional, and teaching careers in English and writing studies.