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 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 1 credit of Practicum (RL 609) or 1 credit of Research (RL 601) (see Appendix A and the Typical Two-Year Master of Arts Program).

All students appointed as GTFs are required to take the Teaching Methods course (RL 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 (Section II. C).

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 (see Appendix B).

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 (see appendix C). 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. One course-out provision: two courses in one period which would demonstrate expertise for, and thus exempt from examination, that one period.

2. One master’s essay: which would (again) exempt that period from examination.

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 focussing 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).

The four components are designed to test a student’s knowledge in a range of literary periods in order to achieve maximum coverage.

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.

1. Course-out provision:

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. It is understood that the period of the course concentration will not duplicate the periods covered by the exam questions or the MA essay.

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 revised paper will be the Master of Arts essay; after it is approved by the student’s essay director, it must be submitted to the student’s examination committee at the end of the first week of the fourth term of study (e.g., 10 January).

In case of an unsatisfactory performance, the MA essay would be replaced by an exam question in the same field.

3. 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.

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 attached 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. The list of at least 30 works must bear on the four periods on which the student is to be examined. This list should be drawn up in consultation with the exam committee.

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 and 19th centuries, 20th century.

In Spanish:

Peninsular literature: Middle Ages and Golden Age, 18th and 19th centuries, 20th century.

Spanish American literature: Colonial, 19th century, 20th century.

D. Questions:

In all fields (French, Italian, Spanish, and Romance Languages) one question stresses historical coverage. The other explores a theme, a critical problem, or an intellectual issue.

In Spanish, one of the two exams must address Peninsular literature and one must address Latin American literature.

In all fields, at least one of the two questions must be answered in the candidate's major language. The language of the other exam can be the major language or English; choice of language is to be determined in consultation with the committee chair.

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 (B and above).

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.

Appendix A: Practicum (RL 609) and Research (RL 601)

Students who hold a GTF appointment may register for one credit 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

First Year

TERM	COURSE	Credit Hours	Credits Toward MA
Fall Term	Methodology	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credit

	TOTAL	9 credits	8 credits


Winter Term	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credit

	TOTAL	9 credits	8 credits


Spring Term	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credits	1 credit

	TOTAL	9 credits	8 credits


Second Year

Fall Term	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credit
	(MA Essay started 1st draft to faculty)

	TOTAL	9 credits	8 credits


Winter Term	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credit

	TOTAL	9 credits	8 credits


Spring Term	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Graduate Seminar	4 credits	4 credits
	Practicum	1 credit
	(final copy of MA Essay)

	TOTAL	9 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.