General Program Information
Matthew A. Holtmeier, Ph.D., Graduate Coordinator
211 Burleson Hall
Box 70683
(423) 439-6678
e-mail: holtmeier@etsu.edu
Daniel Westover, Ph.D., Department Chair
103A Burleson Hall
Box 70683
(423) 439-6626
e-mail: westover@etsu.edu
Faculty: Mark Baumgartner; Michael Cody; Thomas Crofts; Felipe De Oliveira Fiuza; Yousif Elhindi; Matthew Fehskens; Isabel Gomez-Sobrino; Jesse Graves; Katrina Heil; Thomas Alan Holmes; Matthew Holtmeier; Scott Honeycutt; Michael Jones; Shawna Lichtenwalner; Theresa McGarry; Sharon McGee; Martha Michieka; Raluca Negrisanu; Kevin O’Donnell; Joshua Reid; Robert Sawyer; Judith Slagle; Phyllis Thompson; Chelsea Wessels; Daniel Westover.
The Department of English offers a Master of Arts degree in English with a general grounding in both British and American literature, in addition to a selection of courses in creative writing, rhetoric, linguistics, continental literature, and English education.
Program Admission Requirements
A student applying to the graduate program in English must have:
- An undergraduate degree in English or a related field from an accredited college or university.
- A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher for all completed undergraduate coursework.
- A writing sample of at least ten (10) pages.
- Three (3) letters of recommendation.
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) aptitude test is not required for the Master of Arts degree in English.
Applicants wishing to be considered for graduate assistantships must include an explanation of teaching interests in the personal statement required for application to the School of Graduate Studies.
A student who does not meet certain admission requirements may still be admitted to the program unconditionally with provision(s) upon the recommendation of the Graduate Coordinator in English with the understanding that stated provision(s) - for example, completion of a specified undergraduate course(s) - will need to be met for the student to remain in good standing. The student’s background and experience will be considered.
Course Requirements
Students elect to take the program with the option of writing or not writing a thesis. Because the program offers a broad-based degree, there is no concentration per se. Thirty (30) credits are required for the thesis option and 33 credits for the non-thesis option; at least 70 percent of the minimum required credits must be taken from courses for graduate students only. The following courses do not count for credit toward the degree: ENGL 5019 - Supervised Experience in Teaching (required for all teaching assistants, who must register for this course when they take the practicum in teaching freshman composition during the semester of their first teaching assignment); ENGL 5029 - Supervised Experience in Research (required for all research assistants); ENGL 5039 - Supervised Experience in Administration (required for all administrative assistants). All graduate assistants who will serve as teaching assistants must satisfactorily complete the course below during any semester before their first teaching assignment: ENGL 5055 - Composition Pedagogy .
Students choosing to write a thesis must complete 30 credits (minimum) including ENGL 5950 and ENGL 5960 . Students who choose not to write a thesis must complete 33 credits (minimum), including ENGL 5950 . All graduate assistants with teaching assignments must fulfill the condition for teaching assistants above. All courses not covered by the requirements and conditions herein stated may be chosen at the student’s discretion with the guidance and advice of the department graduate coordinator.
To complete their degree work, all students must pass a comprehensive written exam covering material from their coursework, as well as texts from a reading list that will be made available to all students upon entry into the program. Students will be required to pass all sections to pass the exam. If a student fails only one question on the exam, however, the student can retake that section within 7-10 days in an oral exam format. This supplementary one-hour oral re-examination will be given by the professor who wrote the exam question and by another professor under the direction of the graduate coordinator. Students who do not pass the oral re-examination can take the entire exam one more time, but only when it is offered the following semester. Failure to pass the second examination will result in removal from the program.
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