Coursework

Students must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours, including 24 hours of required coursework and 6 hours of either department-approved electives or thesis research.

For a detailed list of course requirements, visit the UA Graduate Catalog here.

For information on courses, visit English’s Graduate Courses page here.

Degree Options

The program offers two paths to the MA:

• Plan I (Thesis): Students writing a thesis will complete 24 hours of coursework in English before writing the thesis, which must be a historical, critical otherwise analytical treatise. Thesis-plan students must take 6 hours of thesis research (EN 599) in addition to their 24 hours of coursework, for a total of 3o hours.
• Plan II (Non-Thesis): Students on the non-thesis plan must take at least 30 hours of coursework in English and complete the comprehensive exam.

Language Requirement

MA students must demonstrate reading proficiency in a foreign language in one of two ways:

• certification through the appropriate department of a “B” average or the equivalent of two years of undergraduate- or graduate-level study in a single foreign language, completed within five years of admission to the master’s program
• passing the foreign language reading examination prepared by the Department of Modern Languages and Classics. Students who are not native speakers of English may use their native language to fulfill this requirement.