MASTER OF ARTS
(Prior to September 2008)
French ~ Italian ~ Romance
Languages ~ Spanish
Note: This description is for the old MA program, for all students starting the MA prior to September 2008. To see the new program, click here.
Course and Credit Requirements
Students entering the M.A. program
may specialize in French, Italian, or Spanish, or
combine two of these fields for a major in Romance
Languages. The Master of Arts program consists of
course work, two written examinations, and a Master's
essay (25 to 30 pages). It is intended to be completed
in two years.
A minimum of 48 graduate credits is
required for the M.A. Students whose knowledge of
the language (French, or Italian, or Spanish) is found
to be deficient will be required to take remedial
work in that area in addition to this 48 hour program.
Students pursuing an M.A. combining
two Romance languages need at least 32 credits in
their major field and at least 16 in their minor.
Students should take at least one course in each period
in the major field and in consultation with a faculty
advisor, select courses in the minor field to complement
the major. If Spanish is the major language, students
are required to take at least 12 credits in both Latin
American and Peninsular literature.
Students who hold a Graduate Teaching
Fellow (GTF) appointment are required to register
and “complete” a minimum of 9 graduate
credits during each quarter of their appointments.
The courses must apply toward their degree programs.
Audits do not count toward the 9-credit registration
minimum. A 9-credit load can consist of 2 graduate
courses and 2 credit of Practicum (RL 609) or 1 credit
of Research (RL 601).
All students appointed as GTFs are
required to take the Teaching Methods course (French,
or Italian, or Spanish 608) in the Fall of their first
year of graduate studies. Students not appointed as
GTFs are also encouraged to take it. Furthermore,
among the 48 credits required for the M.A. degree,
students must complete at least one 4-credit graduate-level
course in each of the literary periods listed below. All M.A. students must
also take Romance Languages Colloquium (RL 623) for at least two credits.
The Colloquium can either be taken as a two-credit, P/NP course (in which
case it does not count toward the 48 credits required for the degree) or as
a four-credit, graded course.
The remaining course work should be
done in French or Italian or Spanish or Romance Languages.
In composing their academic program, students
should aim at a balance of periods and genres.
Upon written permission from their advisors or the
Head Graduate Advisor, students may take as many as
two courses outside of the Romance Languages Department
toward the degree. An advisor is assigned by the department
during the Fall of the first year, but students may
change advisors later if they wish.
A maximum of two reading and conference
courses may be taken to fulfill the course requirements
for the M.A. degree.
All courses counted toward fulfillment
of degree requirements must be taken on a graded
basis. Courses with a grade of “Incomplete”
do not count toward fulfillment of degree requirements.
The grade point average (GPA) of all graded courses
must be 3.00 or better.
Students entering the Master of Arts
program with no previous knowledge of a second Romance
language will be encouraged to start learning one
as early as possible during their course of studies.
This is in addition to the 48 credits toward the M.A.
Requirements for Completion of the
Masters
Successful completion of the Masters
entails the following four components:
1. Course work concentration: Course work concentration: two courses in one
period which would demonstrate expertise in, and thus exempt from examination, that one period.
2. Master of Arts essay: Usually, the expansion of a successful course
paper into a more polished writing sample. Students may write the M.A. essay in linguistics.
3. One exam question formulated to address coverage of two or three periods.
(e.g., 19th and 20th, medieval and renaissance, 18th and 19th, medieval and modern, etc.)
4. One exam question which, while focusing on a "specific topic," can address
either one period (e.g., point of view in the modern novel) or more than one period (e.g., the
fragment as a literary form in the Middle Ages and the 20th century).
In Spanish, two of the four components
must address Peninsular literature and two must address
Latin American literature. In Romance Languages, a
minimum of one of the four components must be in the
minor language.
The four components are designed
to test a student's knowledge in a range of literary
periods in order to achieve maximum coverage.
1. Course work concentration:
Among the 48 hours required for the
MA, students must complete a two-course concentration
in one literary period. Linguistics may also constitute
a course concentration. In this case the literary period
to exempt would be chosen in consultation with the student's
M.A. committee. It is understood that the
period of the course concentration will not duplicate
the periods covered by the exam questions or the MA
essay. Students who write an M.A. essay in linguistics cannot
choose linguistics as a course concentration. Instead, in consultation
with the committee chair, they will choose two literary periods to opt
out of.
2. Master of Arts Essay
In addition to successful completion
of coursework and examinations, the Master of Arts
degree requires a Master of Arts essay in a Romance
Language or in English. At the end of the first year
of study, the student chooses one of the seminar papers
which he or she submitted during the first three terms
of coursework. During the summer term immediately
following, the student will expand and polish the
paper. Issues to focus on in this project include
writing formal academic prose, presenting an interpretation,
constructing an argument, documenting sources and
references, and honing persuasive strategies. The essay may
be written on a literary topic, which will exempt one of the
required literary periods, or, a student may choose to complete
an essay in linguistics. In the latter case, the student
can still exempt one of the required literary periods in
consultation with the advisor.
The essay director submits a final copy of the MA Essay
to the department office by the last day of classes in Spring Term of
the second year. According to department policy, MA Essays are approved
by the essay director and are sent to the full committee only if there is
a problem.
In case of an unsatisfactory performance,
the MA essay would be replaced by an exam question
in the same field.
3/4. Examinations:
The Master of Arts examination consists
of two four-hour written examinations to be taken
over a two-day period, one examination per day, normally
during the seventh week of the spring quarter of the
second year.
Students must confirm their exam date with the graduate
secretary and inform their examination committee members of the scheduled
exam date.
A. Examination Committee: Toward the end of the
fall quarter of the second year, students submit
to their advisors:
· a
list of the course work completed in the first year
and planned for the second year (see form)
· the
names of three faculty members of the RL department
to constitute their MA exam committee. It is the
responsibility of the student to assemble his/her
exam committee and to ask one of the three professors
to chair it. The faculty member with whom the student
is working on the MA essay is usually the chair
of this committee. The student's advisor may or
may not be part of this committee.
B. Reading List: A Departmental Reading
List is available as a resource for students to
help them construct an individualized reading list
for their examinations. Using this list, and the
syllabi and bibliographies of the seminars they
have taken, students construct a reading list of
at least 30 works in the periods on which they are
to be examined. This list should be drawn up in
consultation with the exam committee.
Reading lists must be approved by the student's
exam committee by the end of the term preceding the exam dates.
Students are responsible for distributing the approved reading list to
the MA committee members as soon as the list is approved.
C. Distribution of Literary Periods:
In French: Middle Ages, 16th century, 17th century,
18th century, 19th century, 20th century.
In Italian: Middle Ages, Renaissance,
Baroque, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century.
In Spanish: Peninsular literature:
Middle Ages and Golden Age, 18th centuries, 19th centuries,
20th century. Spanish American literature: Colonial,
19th century, 20th century.
In Spanish, one of the two exams
must address Peninsular literature and one must
address Latin American literature.
In all fields, one of the two questions
must be answered in the candidate's major language,
the other one can be the major language or in English;
choice of language is to be determined in consultation with
the committee chair.
The exam committee chair is responsible for collecting
questions from the exam committee members and submitting them to the graduate secretary.
The three members of the MA committee will work together to
prepare the questions for the candidate who, for each part of the exam,
has to choose between two questions. All three members read and grade
the two answers. The student passes when the average grade for each exam
is satisfactory ("Low Pass," "Pass" or "High Pass").
Students who fail the Master of Arts
examination in whole or in part will be allowed
to take it over (in whole or in part) once.
They are encouraged to do so during the course of
the following term (usually the summer) and no later
than 6 months after failing. If they fail again,
they are disqualified.
D. Guidelines For Taking the MA Exam: The MA Exam
is a closed book examination and therefore without footnotes or a
bibliography. The exam must be typed using a 12 font size and should be
double-spaced.
Appendix A: Practicum (RL 609) and
Research (RL 601)
Students who hold a GTF appointment
may register for two credits of Practicum or one credit
of Research in order to complete the nine credits
required by the graduate school (two graduate courses
constitute 8 credits). During the first quarter of
their first year students holding a GTF appointment
use Practicum to develop their teaching skills in
practical aplication. Students not holding a GTF appointment
are encourage to take a third course (for a total
of 12 credits) or one credit of Research to work on
an independent research project. During the first
quarter of the second year, students use the Research
to work on their Master of Arts Essay. During the
other quarters students may use the Research credit
to do work related to one of the seminars they are
taking, such as bibliographical research, or work
on a similar topic in another Romance language. Students
may also devote a Reasearch credit to preparing their
individualized reading lists (see the Typical Two-Year
Master of Arts Program). Before registering, students
must discuss their plans for the practicum or research
credit with the faculty member with whom they wish
to work.
Appendix B: Reading and Conference
Students may request to do a reading
and conference course in order to address a specific
problem or project on which no course currently exists;
they may not request to do as a reading and conference
a course which is simply not being taught in a given
academic year. The student will prepare a project
proposal and submit it to the faculty member with
whom he or she wants to work, at least three months
before the quarter in which the work would be done.
The project proposal should include a statement of
the problem the student wants to explore, and a tentative
reading list of primary and secondary sources. The
student who requests a reading and conference course,
in other words, should be largely self-directed and
self-motivated, with an independently conceived project
in mind for which he or she requires only moderate
guidance. A student may choose to use the reading
and conference courses during the second year of course
work to work on the preparation of the examinations
or to finish the Master of Arts essay.
Appendix C: Incompletes
Incompletes are strongly discouraged. However, students
who find it necessary to ask for one are urged to
complete their incompletes as rapidly as possible.
Agreements for obtaining and completing incompletes
should be filed with the department. Graduate students
must convert a graduate course incomplete into a passing
grade within one calendar year of the assignment of
the incomplete. Any student who has more than 5 credits
of incomplete is not making satisfactory progress
toward the degree.
|
Typical Two Year Master
of Arts Program
|
|
TERM
|
COURSE
|
CREDIT HOURS
|
CREDITS TOWARDS MA
|
|
First Year
|
| Fall Term |
Methodology |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credit |
|
TOTAL |
10 credits |
8 credits |
| Winter Term |
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Colloquium |
2 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credit |
|
TOTAL |
12 credits |
8 credits |
| Spring Term |
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credits |
|
TOTAL |
10 credits |
8 credits |
Second Year |
| Fall Term |
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credit |
|
(MA Essay started 1st draft to faculty) |
|
TOTAL |
10 credits |
8 credits |
| Winter Term |
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits
|
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credit |
|
TOTAL |
10 credits |
8 credits |
| Spring Term |
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Graduate Seminar |
4 credits |
4 credits |
|
Practicum |
2 credits |
|
| (Final copy of MA Essay) |
|
TOTAL |
10 credits |
8 credits |
|
|
|
48 Credits |
Any 2 Graduate Seminars can be replaced
with 605 Reading & Conference or 601 Research or a
combination. Sometime during the beginning of the
2nd term (Fall or Winter Term) students should consider
taking three (3) graduate seminars to have a lighter
course load Spring Term, then during the final term
a 605 or 601 course can be structured to help prepare
for the MA Exam questions.
