Requirements for the Master of Fine Arts Degree

Course List

Code	Title	Semester Hours
Complete twelve semester hours in one or more of the following writing workshops: 1		12
ENGL 509	Workshop in Poetry Writing
ENGL 510	Workshop in Fiction Writing
ENGL 512	Workshop in Creative Non-Fiction
ENGL 514	Workshop in Playwriting/Screenwriting
Complete twelve semester hours in genre craft or literature courses covering multiple traditions and literary periods 1		12
ENGL 599	Thesis 1, 2	6
Total Semester Hours		30

1

No course with a grade lower than B- may be applied toward a degree.

2

Master of Fine Arts candidates must complete a thesis, work on which may begin at any time after the other eight required courses have been completed. Working closely with an advisor, students complete a manuscript of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or dramatic writing. This is a substantial creative manuscript: a novel or sustained nonfiction narrative, a collection of short stories or essays, or a collection of poems. The length of the thesis may be anywhere from 80 to 200 pages of prose or 40 to 50 pages of poetry.

Learning Expectations for Master of Fine Arts Program

The School of Letters expects graduates of its Master of Fine Arts program to have developed the following skills and areas of expertise:

1. A rich and articulate understanding of the formal elements of the genre in which they write.
2. Sufficient knowledge of the history and traditions of that genre to be able to place their own work in relation to these.
3. Skilled employment of techniques of intensive revision.
4. Production of polished literary work of publishable quality.
5. Verbal articulation of the purposes of their work, accounting for their artistic choices and explaining the work’s place both within its genre and within their own developing craft.