The Department of English offers graduate programs leading to an M.A. in English with a concentration in either literature or writing. Graduate courses are scheduled during the late afternoons and evenings. Classes are small enough to allow a close working relationship with the faculty. The literature concentration offers students advanced study and enrichment in English and American Literature and contextual studies, literary criticism, history of the language, and modern linguistics.  Students also explore the connections between literary studies and politics, science, the environment, race and ethnicity, class, film, and gender.  Students receive a foundation in the theory and practice of scholarship and literary criticism, the history of the English language, modern linguistics, the techniques of composition, and critical and creative writing.  The writing concentration offers aspiring writers, pre-professionals, teachers who wish to update their skills, and individuals interested in writing as process enough structure to supply a firm foundation and enough flexibility to accommodate individual writing goals.