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Mission Statement

Master's Degree

The Master of Arts in English Composition is designed for students interested in pursuing advanced studies in the related fields of composition, linguistics, and literature. Three concentrations are available: English Composition, Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language, and Literature.

The mission of the graduate program in English is to provide students with an understanding of how written and spoken texts work rhetorically and stylistically as well as how historical, cultural, and social conditions affect the ways in which speakers, writers, and readers construct meaning. With its firm grounding in theory and research as well as its emphasis on pedagogy, the M. A. in English Composition prepares students to excel both as writers and teachers of writing, literature, and English as a second language, particularly at the high school and community college levels. The program also provides students with a foundation for Ph.D. and M.F.A. degrees and prepares them to be effective technical and business writers.

Goals

The English Department expects all students graduating with an M.A. in English Composition to meet the following goals:

  1. Theory Goal: To demonstrate familiarity with major historical backgrounds, theories, and concepts underlying current developments in their particular concentrations.
  2. Analysis Goal: To understand the inter-connections of language, literature, and culture as well as the variety of ways in which texts can be studied and to be able to apply various approaches to the critical analysis of texts.
  3. Pedagogy Goal: To recognize ways that theory and practice inform each other and to use this understanding to construct pedagogies appropriate to the students' particular concentrations.
  4. Writing/Composing Goal: To understand discourse structures and composing processes as well as to demonstrate rhetorical flexibility along with a high level of control of the conventions of written academic English.
  5. Research Goal: To identify and evaluate major scholarly resources and techniques and to conduct and present their own research.

Objectives

Goal 1: To demonstrate familiarity with major historical backgrounds, theories, and concepts underlying current developments in their particular concentrations. (Theory Goal)

Objectives for the Composition Concentration:

  1. To demonstrate understanding of the major theories, texts, and movements in the Western rhetorical tradition, contemporary composition and discourse theory, linguistic analysis, and literature.
  2. To demonstrate understanding of the implications of rhetorical, linguistic, and literary theories as they bear on the teaching of writing.

Objectives for the Applied Linguistics and TESL Concentration:

  1. To be able to explain the evolution of the field of Applied Linguistics and TESL/Applied Linguistics in terms of its historical context.
  2. To situate the development of the field in terms of concurrent (and historically-connected) developments in the fields of linguistics, composition, psychology, language teaching, and sociology.
  3. To demonstrate familiarity with the major figures in each stage of development of the field, as well as to measure and appraise their contributions to the field as a whole.

Objectives for the Literature Concentration:

  1. To demonstrate an understanding of the major critical schools, approaches, and movements in literary theory and criticism and of their historical and cultural backgrounds.
  2. To demonstrate familiarity with current developments in literary theory.
  3. To understand the implications of generic, rhetorical, historical, and linguistic theories as they bear on the analysis and teaching of literature.

Goal 2: To understand the interconnections of language, literature, and culture as well as the variety of ways in which texts can be studied and to be able to apply various approaches to the critical analyses of texts. (Analysis Goal)

Objectives for the Composition Concentration:

  1. To be cognizant of a text's rhetorical, technical, and cultural contexts.
  2. To be able to explain the concepts of standard and non-standard text productions and demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which variables such as power, geographic region, social class, gender, and ethnicity shape language choices.
  3. To demonstrate an understanding of technology's roles in producing and shaping texts, as well as how technology influences writers and readers.

Objectives for the Applied Linguistics and TESL Concentration:

  1. To demonstrate an understanding of the variety of social variables influencing language, such as age, gender, region, occupation, social class, ethnic group, and educational background.
  2. To demonstrate an understanding that language use and choice have cultural and social implications, that one choice of language or speech style is not inherently superior to another, and that appropriateness to the context determines its value.
  3. To examine language as a discourse-based phenomenon (vs. sentence-level) that is situated in time, space, and human relations.
  4. To examine specific schools of discourse analysis and their theoretical frameworks, as well as to apply one or more to the study of text, spoken or written.
  5. To demonstrate an understanding of the difference between linguistic attitude vs. linguistic fact, prescriptive vs. descriptive rules, and standard vs. non-standard dialects.

Objectives for the Literature Concentration:

  1. To recognize the cultural and social implications of literary texts and practices.
  2. To be able to apply analytical strategies of various critical approaches to the study of texts.
  3. To be able to identify and analyze major forms and genres of imaginative writing.
  4. To demonstrate an understanding of technology's roles in producing and shaping texts, as well as how technology influences writers and readers.

Goal 3: To recognize ways that theory and practice inform each other and to use this understanding to construct pedagogies appropriate to the students' particular concentrations. (Pedagogy Goal)

Objectives for the Composition Concentration:

  1. To apply rhetoric and composition theories in teaching contexts.
  2. To recognize the theoretical underpinnings and implications of particular textual practices and pedagogies.
  3. To engage in pedagogical activities that demonstrate the reciprocity between theory and practice.

Objectives for the Applied Linguistics and TESL Concentration:

  1. To describe and explain current principles and methods of teaching English as a second language, and to choose and apply those relevant to the particular language teaching contexts, taking into account the particular population of students and its needs and goals.
  2. To understand how practice is informed by theories of second language acquisition and to select appropriate theoretical approaches.

Objectives for the Literature Concentration:

  1. To apply literary theories in teaching contexts.
  2. 2-3. Same as above objectives 2-3 for the Composition concentration.

Goal 4: To understand discourse structures and composing processes and to demonstrate rhetorical flexibility along with a high level of control of the conventions of written academic English. (Writing/Composing Goal)

Objectives for the Composition Concentration:

  1. To identify multiple rhetorical strategies and their foundations in classical rhetoric and other traditions and to be able to translate and/or subvert these strategies in contemporary speaking and writing situations.
  2. To demonstrate familiarity with the multiple composing processes writers use to produce texts.
  3. To demonstrate rhetorical and stylistic flexibility in their own writing and to communicate their ideas with appropriate register, style, and purpose.

Objectives for the Applied Linguistics and TESL Concentration:

  1. To recognize the systematic nature of language and the implicit knowledge of native speakers, (including sound, form, and structure) of their language system.
  2. To identify communicative competence as an important aspect of knowledge of a language; to understand the influence of pragmatics on language, as well as the nature of conversational interaction.
  3. To demonstrate familiarity with the multiple composing processes writers (including ESL writers) use to produce texts.
  4. Same as above objective 3 for the Composition concentration.

Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
     1-3. Same as above objectives 1-3 for the Composition concentration.

Goal 5: To identify and evaluate major scholarly resources and techniques and to conduct and present their own research. (Research Goal)

Objectives for the Composition Concentration:

  1. To demonstrate understanding of various research orientations and approaches such as qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic, historical, theoretical, empirical, and experimental.
  2. To locate relevant scholarship using traditional print and online resources (e.g., specialized bibliographies, citation indexes, the Internet).
  3. To demonstrate understanding of research concepts such as validity and reliability and to assess the quality and applicability of different forms of scholarship.
  4. To formulate research questions appropriate to the scholarly context, to interpret and evaluate the results in terms of contribution to the field, to draw conclusions warranted by data and evidence, and to present their research to scholarly audiences.
  5. To understand the necessity of ethical responsibility in scholarly research and to design and employ ethically responsible research methods appropriate to their purposes.

Objectives for the Applied Linguistics and TESL Concentration:

  1. To comprehend and differentiate between the major research paradigms and methods of inquiry, including qualitative/quantitative, theoretical/empirical, descriptive/experimental, as well as formal/functional.
  2. 2-5. Same as above objectives 2-5 for the Composition concentration.

Objectives for the Literature Concentration:

  1. To demonstrate understanding of various research orientations and approaches, such as formalist, historical, biographical, and cultural.
  2. 2-5. Same as above objectives 2-5 for the Composition and Applied Linguistics and TESL concentrations.