Master of English at Pennsylvania State University

The graduate program does not offer a stand-alone M.A. degree; the M.A. is linked to the Ph.D. program, and students completing the M.A. must be approved for continuation into the doctoral segment of the program. Students may choose from a variety of courses in English literature and language, rhetoric and composition, and theory/cultural studies.

The department offers an excellent college-level teacher-training program, and all graduate students in English have the opportunity to serve as teaching assistants. Students usually begin by teaching basic composition courses, but there are opportunities for advanced students to teach courses in business writing, technical writing, fiction writing, poetry writing, literature, and humanities, and to serve as tutors in the Writing Center.

1. Graduate students will develop a basic familiarity with the tools, methods, techniques, and critical conversations in the various subfields.
2. Graduate students will use professional standards of the field of English studies in order to sustain an argument, develop and carry out an ambitious research plan, and to communicate the importance of that research in spoken and written forms.
3. Graduate students will be able to analyze literary or rhetorical texts or objects using a particular theoretical or methodological approach. 
4. Graduate students will demonstrate effective skills in undergraduate teaching, in their research area, in the writing classroom, and as generalists.
5. Graduate students will be able to demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of tools, methods, techniques, and critical conversations in their chosen subfield(s) as well as an ability to engage substantively with those critical conversations.