Department of English Language and Literature : Master of Arts: Literature Concentration

The MA Portfolio

Note:  This requirement pertains to all students beginning their program in Fall 2008 or later, who must complete it and the MA Poetry Analysis Exam.  Students who began prior to Fall 2008 may elect to follow the new requirements or the old ones (the Old MA Written Exam and Old MA Paper).

The portfolio will include:

• A brief cover letter with a one-paragraph abstract of each of the following items.
• A Critical History Essay on a text or body of texts from English, American, or Anglophone literatures, selected in consultation with the Graduate Advisor (with an emphasis on those texts with substantial critical histories).  The first version of this paper will be begun in English 5790 and subsequently expanded and revised by the student for the Portfolio. Students are encouraged to seek the advice of the Graduate Advisor and any faculty members with pertinent expertise while expanding and revising this work. (20+ pages)
• An original, Analytic Essay modeled on a journal article and written with the ideal goal of developing it for publication.  This essay is to be developed from something written previously for a class, under the supervision of the faculty member for which it was written. (20-30 pages)
• The supervising faculty member will determine whether it passes the requirement, and will provide the student with written notification that is has, as well as comments about the essay’s strengths and weaknesses and suggestions for further revision and development with an eye toward the journal article as a model. The Essay supervisor’s comments are to be submitted with the essay itself as part of the Portfolio.
  

Note:  The Critical History Essay and Analytic Essay may NOT be on the same author or the same text.
 
Submission: The Portfolio as a whole will be submitted in the student’s final year, most likely in their final semester, on the 10th Friday after the start of classes in Fall or Spring semester, or the 3rd Friday after the start of Summer Session II for summer graduation, and assessed as a whole by the Graduate Committee by the last week of classes.  For Academic Year 2009-2010, those dates are:

• Friday, October 30, 2009
  
• Friday, March 19, 2010
• Friday, July 16, 2010

NOTE: The deadlines are FIRM. Therefore students must be responsible for ensuring that they give the final draft of the Analytic Essay to their supervisor at least a month before the deadline, and for seeing to it that the faculty member gives written comments before the deadline.

Submit completed portfolios to Sue Cousino in the Department office.

Students whose portfolios are insufficient in some way may be asked to meet with the Graduate Committee for an oral defense, or may be asked to do further work and resubmit in the next term.