Learning Outcomes for English M.A.

PLO 1. Core Knowledge

Students will acquire and demonstrate competence in fundamental tools and methods of literary study, including close reading, literary history, concepts of genre, and cultural analysis.

PLO 2. Disciplinary Knowledge

Students will gain an understanding of literary study at the graduate level. Through coursework and seminar papers, they will become familiar with work in a range of genres and historical periods, and become acquainted with central issues (historical, interpretive, methodological) at stake in a variety of disciplinary subfields. Students will also acquire a sense of current debates within the profession as a whole.

PLO 3. Independent Research and Writing

Students will advance as writers, writing and revising analytic essays that meet high standards of methodological rigor. Through mentoring and independent study, students will learn how to formulate a problem as part of a larger disciplinary conversation, and sustain an essay-length research project. In their final year of coursework, students will produce an MA thesis—a work of scholarship comparable in scope and format to articles that appear in peer-reviewed journals of literary and cultural study.

PLO 4. Academic and Individual Community

Students will develop the skills necessary to participate in the conversation of academic professionals. By participating in seminar discussion, presenting work to a community of peers and professors, reading extensively in critical literature, and writing in scholarly genres, students will learn to convey complex ideas clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing

PLO 5. Pedagogical Reflection 

Students will deepen skills crucial for teachers of literary texts. Observing the practice of experienced professors and sharing techniques with engaged peers and colleagues, students will learn to communicate complex ideas at a variety of levels and deliberate together to consider which skills and competencies are translatable into pedagogical settings beyond the university.

We’re here to help. Please contact Venette Van Duyn to request services.