ENGLISH: PROGRAMS OF STUDY English (MA) THE MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE Programs of Study The English department offers two stream within the M.A. Program in English: Creative Writing and Literature and Language. Within the Literature and Language stream, there are two different options: the Thesis Option and the Course Work Option. Also within this stream, students with interdisciplinary interests may pursue a Cultural Studies emphasis. The Creative Writing program allows students to combine graduate-level study of literature with advanced work on creative writing in a two-term workshop and by developing a significant independent writing project. Within the Literature and Language stream, the Course Work Option offers exposure to a wide variety of topics in literature, composition and rhetoric, and linguistics. The Thesis Option allows students to investigate a single topic in depth through independent, extended research with faculty supervision. The Cultural Studies emphasis is intended for the student who wishes to work across traditional academic and creative disciplines to explore a cultural studies topic in depth. The specific requirements for each stream are: M.A. IN ENGLISH: CREATIVE WRITING Four graduate seminar courses 26-590. Creative Writing Seminar (over both the Fall and Winter terms) 26-794. Creative Writing Project (a novel, a play, a collection of poems or short stories) M.A. IN ENGLISH: LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Thesis Option Five graduate seminar courses 26-797. Thesis/Project (of at least 20,000 words) Course Work Option Eight graduate seminar courses. Students who wish to design their program with a Cultural Studies emphasis must take 5 graduate seminars, including 26-585 (Literary Genres: Criticism/Cultural Studies), and complete 26-797-02 (Cultural Studies Thesis/Project). For all programs, students must include 26-500, Scholarship and the Profession (or equivalent), in their program in addition to their regular course load. Admission Requirements In addition to the requirements set forth in 1.3 and 1.6.1 for admission to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and to programs leading to the Master's degree, applicants for admission to the Candidate year in the programs leading to the Master of Arts degree in English should have the following undergraduate preparation: 1) Some courses, normally four, in the pre- and early-modern periods, that is, from Old English through the Eighteenth Century; 2) Some courses, normally four, in the modern period, that is, the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, including Canadian and American; 3) Some courses, normally two, from the areas of Critical History, Theory and Approaches, Scholarship and Bibliography, and Language and Linguistics; 4) Additional courses from any of the above areas to make up the total number of courses required for a four-year English B.A. Students who do not have a four-year B.A. or its equivalent may be admitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in a qualifying (M1) program. In such a program, the student is expected to register in appropriate undergraduate courses in order to satisfy the requirements above. Alternatively, students who are deficient in any of the stated requirements for admission may be invited or may request to write a qualifying examination (see below, "Qualifying or Placement Examination"). Students who are admitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in the minimum two-year M.A. program will be expected to elect courses in their first year to complete the requirements specified above. In addition to the documents specified in 1.3.2, applicants must submit a "Proposal of Studies" (about 500 words) with their applications indicating the program and option to which they are applying and discussing such issues as their areas of academic or creative interest, their undergraduate training, and their academic or career goals. Students applying to the stream in Creative Writing must submit, with their application, a portfolio of representative creative work (20-25 pages). Students with a four-year B.A. in English may apply to either of the degree programs and to any of the options. Students with interdisciplinary interests, with honours degrees combining English with another discipline, or with abilities or backgrounds that do not correspond to the particular requirements for admission listed above, but who have an overall average of A-, may take a Cultural Studies emphasis of the English Literature and Language stream, which allows for flexible program design. Qualifying or Placement Examination: An applicant for admission to the Candidate year for the Master's degree who is deficient in any of the stated requirements for admission to this level of graduate study may be invited, or may request, to write a qualifying examination. A similar examination is available as a placement test, on the basis of which students in the two-year M.A. program may be granted advanced standing. Students from other universities may arrange to take these examinations in other centres provided the program coordinator is notified well in advance. Counselling: Students admitted to one of the Master's degree programs in English will be assigned a faculty advisor who will be available to counsel them on all aspects of their work. The program coordinator (or a delegate) must approve a student's program of study before registration. Grades: After admission to candidacy, graduate students in the M.A. program in English must maintain at least a B- average, but graduate credit is given only at the A and B level. A student whose grade in a graduate course is less than B- may be allowed to repeat the course or to substitute another for it, at the discretion of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and the program coordinator. The student may not repeat more than one course (see 1.4.3).