Graduate Program in English
300 Pompton Road, Atrium 220, Wayne, NJ 07470
Director: Dr. Andrew Barnes; (973) 720-2837

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.

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.

Our faculty publish literary criticism, fiction, poetry, biography, autobiography, gender studies, interviews, editions of essays and letters, and textbooks. Their most recent books include: A Precious Seeing: Love and Reason in Shakespeare's Plays; Senhora - Profile of a Woman; Dream House: A Memoir; "Bad Girls"/"Good Girls": Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties; The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane; Literature and Society; City Life: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara; The Tapestry Grammar: A Reference for Learners of English; A Life of Kenneth Rexroth; Approaches to Teaching Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"; The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946. Their publishers include the University of Texas Press, New York University Press, W.W. Norton, Rutgers University Press, Prentice Hall, and Knopf.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE M.A. IN ENGLISH

• English 699 - Research and Thesis Seminar
• English 656 - Contemporary Modes of Criticism
• English 614 - Applied English Linguistics: Grammar and Style or
• English 618 - Modern English and Its Background
• Two courses in Contextual Studies
• Two courses in English literature from any period
• Two courses in American literature from any period
• Two electives from any category, including writing courses

The M.A. in Writing requires the following distribution of courses (33 credits):

• English 699 - Research and Thesis Seminar.
• English 656 - Contemporary Modes of Criticism
• English 616 - Creative Writing I
• English 626 - Creative Writing II
• Four additional writing courses
• Three courses in American literature, English literature, or Contextual Studies

 

ADMISSION TO THE MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

The requirements for admission are:

1. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university;
2. A cumulative grade point average of no less than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the undergraduate major;
3. A minimum score of 45 on the Miller Analogies Test or a minimum combined score of 1400 on the three sections of the Graduate Record Examination General Test;
4. Two letters of recommendation;
5. A brief written statement of purpose.

Students with a limited background in English can be admitted, but may be required to take additional courses with the approval of the graduate program director.

Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Services at William Paterson University