Ohio University
Graduate Catalog

English

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The Department of English offers a master of arts and a Ph.D.

Master's Program

Students enter M.A. programs in English for a variety of reasons. Some wish simply to extend their liberal education beyond the bachelor's level; others want professional training for high school or junior college teaching; still others see the M.A. as a stepping stone to the Ph.D. and a career in college teaching. The Department of English offers an M.A. program that meets the diverse needs of these different students. We believe all students should have a thorough grounding in the basic elements of literary study; thus, all students must satisfy a common set of core requirements. We also believe, however, that you should have the right to give your studies a particular emphasis; thus, we offer a choice of seven departmental concentrations. These concentrations are carefully selected groups of courses that give each master's program a distinctive focus.

Our M.A. program is a two-year undertaking, although full-time students who are not teaching associates may complete it in less than two years.

Admission

Application must be made to the Office of Graduate Student Services. You should present at least 27 quarter hours (18 semester hours) of superior work on the undergraduate level in English language and literature. You should also submit evidence of having completed one full year of college-level foreign language beyond the freshman-level language requirement. This can be either one year of intermediate (sophomore) level or one year of advanced (junior or senior) level foreign language. You may apply if you do not meet the foreign language prerequisite but otherwise have outstanding qualifications for graduate study; however, if accepted, you must complete two quarters of a graduate foreign language reading course before graduating. Applications for admission also will be considered from students who have had extensive training in academic fields closely related to English. You should arrange for letters of recommendation from three professors with whom you have studied on the undergraduate level to be sent to the chair of the graduate committee in English.

You must, in addition, submit your scores for the Graduate Record Examination (general test only), a letter of purpose, and a writing sample. For potential creative writing students, the latter should be a portfolio of poems, a manuscript of short fiction, or a selection of creative nonfiction, which should be mailed to the director of the Creative Writing Program. All other applicants should submit to the chair of English Graduate Studies a critical essay completed for undergraduate academic credit at the junior or senior level.

You may apply for admission for any quarter. To seek financial aid for the following year, you must submit application materials no later than March 1.

M.A. Requirements

To pursue the Master of Arts in English, you must satisfy the following requirements:

1. Bibliography and Methods. ENG 593 Bibliography and Methods deals with enumerative and descriptive bibliography and methods of scholarship. It also provides a general introduction to graduate study and research in English literature and language.
2. English Language. The English language requirement can be met by one of two courses--either ENG 503 English Language or ENG 504 American English.
3. The Teaching of English. ENG 591 Problems in Teaching College English, ordinarily taken in your first quarter of residence, is designed to offer various kinds of practical and theoretical information and discussions about teaching.
4. Literary Theory or Criticism. You will take at least one course that has as its primary focus the theory of literature or the strategies of literary analysis and criticism.
5. Master's Essay. The master's essay is a scholarly essay of publishable quality, substance, and length, written as an extension of work done in a seminar but researched and reshaped to meet professional standards of scholarly publication, and submitted for approval to a board of editors consisting of three members of the English graduate faculty. The master's essay is normally completed and submitted during the winter and spring quarters of your second year. The department will publish annually in a desktop format the master's essays for the year, and will encourage and support submission of essays to professional venues such as scholarly conferences and journals.
6. Area Distribution. You are required to take seminars in at least three of the following six periods:
   

   Medieval Language and Literature
   Renaissance
   Restoration and Eighteenth Century
   Nineteenth Century
   American Literature
   Twentieth-Century English and American Literature

   Of these three seminars, one must focus primarily on literature before 1700, one on literature after 1700, and one on American literature.

7. Departmental Concentration. You will elect one of the following concentrations in which you will take a sequence of three courses.
   

   Literary History
   Creative Writing
   Literary Criticism
   Comparative Literature
   Teaching of Composition
   Women's Studies
   English Language

   
   
8. Foreign Language. If you have not met the foreign-language prerequisite for admission, you must complete two quarters of a graduate foreign language reading course.

Doctoral Program

The Ph.D. in English is designed primarily as professional training for teachers and scholars of literature, composition, and creative writing. Such training requires at least four elements: a solid general background in literary history, a detailed knowledge of a specialized area, successful completion of a scholarly, critical, or creative dissertation, and--for those with associateships--experience teaching a variety of courses.

Admission

If you have taken the master's degree at a school other than Ohio University and wish to be admitted to the doctoral program, you must apply for admission to the Office of Graduate Student Services. Your application should include complete graduate and undergraduate transcripts, Graduate Record Examination scores, three letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose, and a writing sample.

Ph.D. Requirements

1. M.A. Requirements. If your M.A. program did not include the following requirements or their equivalents, you must fulfill them as part of the Ph.D. program.
   

   ENG 591 Problems in Teaching College English
   ENG 593 Bibliography and Methods
   A course in literary theory
   A course in the history of the English or American language

   
   
2. General Course Requirements for Doctoral Students in Literary History. You are required to take three doctoral seminars (numbered 700 or above) in an area outside your area of specialization. You are also required to complete two elective graduate courses, which may be within or outside your area of specialization.
3. General Course Requirements for Doctoral Students in Creative Writing. You are required to take two doctoral seminars (numbered 700 or above) in an area outside your area of specialization. You are also required to take two workshops a year for the first two years of your program, including one in a genre that is not your primary one, and a fifth workshop in your third year as part of your preparation for the creative writing dissertation.
4. Composition and Theory Requirements. You are required to take one composition-rhetoric course at the 700 level and one critical theory course at the 700 level, both to be in addition to courses in these areas taken for your M.A.
5. Specialized Course Requirements. You will take at least two doctoral seminars in your area of specialization, chosen from a list of six literary periods and a composition option. (The composition option is still in preparation; inquire if you are interested.)
6. Exam Requirements. Ph.D. area exams are given in the spring of your second year of coursework and consist of three portions:
   

   a. Dissertation area (quite circumscribed, e.g., an author)
   b. Period of specialization (one of the six historical periods)
   c. Tradition (a reading list, including works from at least two periods which are not your period of specialization and which place the dissertation area in a deeper historical perspective, e.g., a genre)

   The reading lists for all three portions of the exam will be drawn up by your examining committee with your consultation.

7. Foreign Language Requirement. All Ph.D. students will have reading knowledge of one foreign language, to be proved by the Princeton exam.
8. Dissertation and Oral Presentation. The main criterion for the dissertation is quality, not quantity. You are encouraged to plan a dissertation that is original, significant, and ideally, publishable. The number of pages is not crucial; the finished dissertation may fall below the usual 150 to 200 pages, but the project should nonetheless require an investigative process equivalent to that required of the dissertation of traditional length. Thus, a self-contained section of a proposed book-length study may satisfy the dissertation requirement.
   Once a topic has been decided upon, you and your advisor will draw up a prospectus to be approved by the dissertation committee.
   In lieu of the traditional oral examination, you will deliver a public lecture on some aspect of your dissertation and lead a discussion on the work. You and your committee may, however, decide that the traditional examination would be more appropriate.

Supervised Teaching

All Ph.D. students holding associateships are expected to teach as part of their professional training. Because Ohio University is a moderate-sized state university, it has a wide variety of undergraduate English courses to be staffed. Consequently, graduate associates receive considerable experience in teaching different courses. As a Ph.D. graduate associate, you will probably leave the university having taught at least three or four different courses at the freshman through junior levels. Although you will have received supervision, you will have been primarily responsible for organizing and teaching these classes. Recent Ph.D. graduate associates have found this varied experience particularly valuable when they enter the professional job market.

Faculty

English (ENG) Courses

503 English Language (5) Sounds, inflections, syntax, and vocabulary of English from 1500 to present. Emphasis is upon language of Shakespeare.

504 American English (5) Historical and geographical development of American English from a linguistic point of view.

507 The Structure of American English (5) Study of grammar of English using linguistic model chosen from contemporary linguistic theories.

511 18th Century Novel (5) Development of novel form in 18th century. Defoe through Austen.

512 l9th Century Novel (5) Critical analysis of novels by Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, the Brontës, Eliot, Meredith, and Hardy.

515 19th Century Prose (nonfiction) (5) Studies in nonfiction prose, mainly the personal essay, literary criticism, social criticism, biography.

520 Stylistics (5) Problems in the description and analysis of style in literature.

524 Shakespeare (5) Intensive study in specific critical and historical problems.

531 A Major Medieval Genre (5) Development of major genre: lyric, epic, romance, or drama; close critical attention to representative texts.

532 Renaissance Drama (1590-1642) (5) English drama (excluding Shakespeare) from Ben Jonson to closing of theaters.

536 History of Criticism (5) Critical theory and practice.

537 History of Criticism (5) Continuation of 536.

540 Studies in Comparative Literature (5) Literary movements, themes, or genres. Different topic studied each time offered, e.g., symbolist and surrealist movement, baroque in western literature, concept of realism or romanticism, grotesque in literature.

541 Studies in Comparative Literature (5) Continuation of 540. See 540 for description.

542 Studies in Comparative Literature (5) Continuation of 540 and 541. See 540 for description.

555 English Education Workshop (1-5) Prereq: teaching certificate or equiv. Studies in principles, problems, approaches, and issues in teaching of English from elementary school to post-secondary. Topics determined according to need and demand.

561 Colloquium (5) Specific interdisciplinary problems to be assigned each quarter.

562 Colloquium (5) See 561 for description.

563 Colloquium (5) See 561 for description.

570 Studies in Literature (5) Advanced study of a period or of some aspect of a period (a movement, genre, author, etc.) of English or American literature. Designed to supplement undergraduate training and to provide intensified training in areas of concentration. Following areas scheduled regularly: (A) Medieval language and literature, (B) Age of Chaucer, (C) 16th Century, (D) Spenser, (E) 17th Century, (F) Milton, (G) Restoration, (H) Earlier 18th Century, (I) Later 18th Century, (J) Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, (K) Romantic poets: Byron, Shelley, Keats, (L) Major Victorian poets, (M) Minor Victorian poets, (N) 20th Century, (O) American literature to Civil War, (P) American literature, Civil War to WWI, (Q) African-American literature.

575 Teaching Technical Writing (3) Problems in teaching technical writing. Practice in writing feasibility studies, proposals, progress reports, and a range of minor items from abstracts to letters of transmittal. Techniques and standards of good business and professional writing.

580 Internship (4-5) Internships in various university offices provide firsthand, on-the-job experience in areas where you may usefully employ your verbal skills and aptitudes. Coordinated by and evaluated by graduate chair in English and director of office in which you are placed.

585 History of Books and Printing (4) Broad introduction to history of the book and its place in development of Western culture from ancient world to present.

590 Independent Reading (1-5, max 15)
Directed individual reading and research.
Staff.

591 Problems in Teaching College English (1-5) Introduction to methods of teaching literature and writing, with inquiries into various critical approaches, remediation, rhetorical theory, teaching aids, evaluation, counseling and coordination of student, and institutional needs.

592A Major Rhetorical Theories and the Teaching of Composition (5) Introduction to major rhetorical theories underlying modern composition pedagogy. Invention, form, and style are examined from historical perspective.

592B Composition Research and Teaching (5) Graduate-level survey of recent and significant research on writing process (composing, revising, editing, audience analysis); other problems in teaching writing also studied (evaluation, basic writing, writer's block, and other special problems).

592C Rhetoric in Reading (5) Links teaching of writing to teaching of reading through study and application of contemporary theories of reader-text interaction.

593 Bibliography and Methods (5) Enumerative and descriptive bibliography; methods of criticism and scholarship.

650 Proseminar in Literature (5) Two-quarter study, research, and writing program. Winter quarter devoted to comprehensive reading in subject matter area, investigation of nature of literary problems relevant to this area, and selection of problems appropriate to graduate writing of papers comparable in scope to master's thesis or scholarly papers.

651 Proseminar in Literature (5) Prereq: 650. Continuation of 650. See 650 for general description. 651 devoted to further research and writing of papers.

690 Creative Writing Seminar (5) Prereq: 6 hrs creative writing. Criticism of manuscripts and discussion of problems of form. Admission only in first quarter, except for unusual reason.

691 Creative Writing Seminar (5) Prereq: 6 hrs creative writing. Continuation of 690.

692 Creative Writing Seminar (5) Prereq: 6 hrs creative writing. Continuation of 690 and 691.

695 Thesis (5-10)

701 Formal Stylistics (4)
Research on selected topic in formal characterization of texts.

715 Theory of Teaching Literature (5) Discussions of theoretical and practical problems of teaching literature in colleges and universities.

724 Problems in Shakespeare (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. Intensive research in specific problems in area of Shakespeare criticism and scholarship.

765 Theory of Literature (5) Investigations into nature of literature and problems of practical literary criticism.

770 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. Three one- or two-quarter seminars customarily offered every year in each of seven areas. Seminars form sequence of independent units. In any particular year, more than three seminars may be offered in same area (e.g., a sequence in early Renaissance and one in late Renaissance or sequence in Romantic and one in Victorian). From three to six seminars may be offered in area, depending upon staff and upon student need. 770 covers Medieval literature.

771 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 771 covers Renaissance.

772 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 772 covers Restoration and 18th Century.

773 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 773 covers 19th Century.

774 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 774 covers 20th Century British and American.

775 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 775 covers American literature.

776 Seminar in Literature (5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. See 770 for general description. 776 covers comparative literature.

780 Special Studies Seminar (1-5) Prereq: Ph.D. applicancy. Seminars on individual writers and individual works. Offered when there is (a) student demand and/or (b) a widely recognized specialist on staff.

781 Research (1-15) Covers period when student is doing necessary research for prospectus. Also used to cover special research courses, e.g., problems in editing, problems in historical research, etc.

782 Research (1-15) Continuation of 781. See 781 for description.

792 Problems in Teaching College English (1-5) Colloquium for apprentice teachers designed to explore alternative approaches to classroom planning and presentation. Encourages exchange of ideas and problems among teachers; evaluation methods, syllabi, and texts; development of a sense of professionalism in teaching.

895 Dissertation (1-15)

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Return to 1995-1997 Graduate Catalog Table of Contents

University Publications and the Computer Services Center revised this file ( https://www.ohio.edu/~gcat/95-97/appadm/english.html ) April 13, 1998.

Please e-mail comments or suggestions to " gcat@www.ohiou.edu ."