MA
General Information | Thesis | Report MA
MA - General Information
UNB’s MA program has two streams: academic and creative writing. Students in both streams normally take 18 credit hours (ch) of graduate courses, plus a 6 ch research methods course, and then write a thesis to be defended orally at the completion of the degree. Students in the academic stream will normally take six academic courses and write a scholarly thesis on a topic of their choice in any field of English literature under the guidance of a supervisor. (Permission may be requested to substitute a creative writing workshop for one of the six regular courses.) Students in the creative writing stream normally take two creative writing workshops in different genres and four academic courses, and write a creative thesis in a genre of their choice with the guidance of a supervisor. The MA degree is designed to be completed in 20 months, and the time-limit is four years. Graduating students may earn admission to a doctoral program from either the academic or the creative writing stream.
Applicants to the MA program are expected to have an English Honours BA with first- or high second-class honours. The current average GPA required for admission to the MA program is 3.5. Students applying from a program without an Honours option, or whose degree is in another field, may apply if they have a strong academic record; however, such students, if accepted, may be required to do a qualifying year before beginning the MA program.
MA students must spend a minimum of two terms in residence (i.e., living in Fredericton or surroundings). Students must maintain a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 to remain enrolled. (Please note that a GPA of at least 3.7 is required of MA students seeking admission to the PhD program.) Course choices must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies; while some students complete their six courses in the first two terms (September-April), followed by 12 months of thesis work, others take one or two of their courses in the second year of the program while working on the thesis.
NOTE: All applicants must submit a one-page statement of interest outlining their preferred area of study, and a sample of their best academic writing: a clean (unmarked) photocopy of a term paper at least eight pages long, involving literary analysis and research and, where applicable, in the area of proposed study. Students applying for the Creative Writing option must submit, IN ADDITION to the academic writing sample, a small portfolio (at least 10 pages) of their creative work; at least some of the writing submitted should be in the genre of intended specialization.
MA Thesis - Guidelines, Regulations and Procedures
After most or all of a student’s coursework is complete, he or she will write a thesis. The Director of Graduate Studies will act as each student’s advisor until he or she has chosen a supervisor from among the full-time faculty in Fredericton and Saint John. (Retired professors and Honorary Research Associates may co-supervise a thesis with a full-time faculty member.) Normally for the MA thesis, the supervisor will be a specialist in the relevant field or creative genre. Through graduate classes, including the methods course, students will have the opportunity to meet many faculty members and identify prospective supervisors.
Before beginning work on the thesis, the student should discuss the proposed creative or academic project with the supervisor and, with his or her guidance, submit a thesis proposal to the Director of Graduate Studies. The proposal is a course requirement of the research methods course and must be submitted by the end of the student’s second term. Guidelines for the preparation of academic and creative writing thesis proposals are available from the Graduate Assistant. The proposal and its accompanying bibliography must be approved by the Graduate Committee before thesis work is begun.
The usual length for an academic MA thesis is 90-100 pages. For a Creative Writing thesis, the length can vary considerably depending on the genre; a poetry collection may be 60-70 pages and a novel 200 pages or more. All creative theses must be accompanied by an analytical introduction (15-20 pages) written by the candidate and must include a bibliography of works read and studied in connection with the project.
Students are expected to consult regularly with their supervisors as they research and write the thesis. Once it is complete, the thesis supervisor and a Departmental reader must approve the thesis on behalf of the Graduate Academic Unit (GAU) before it can proceed to the oral examination. Once it has been approved, the examining board will be set up by the Director of Graduate Studies. It will be composed of the thesis supervisor, an internal examiner (a member of the Department’s GAU who has not been previously involved with the thesis), and an external examiner (from a UNB GAU other than English). Students are welcome to suggest potential readers and examiners, and are advised that all faculty readers must be given at least two weeks to read the thesis. A detailed time-line is available from the Graduate Assistant.
Once the Examining Committee has read the thesis, it determines whether the project meets the standards of good critical or imaginative writing. If it does, then the student has passed the written component of the project, and may proceed to the oral examination. If it doesn’t, the examiners may recommend (a) that the thesis be revised or rewritten in specific ways; or (b) that the thesis be failed. This means that the decision about the overall merit of the written thesis is rendered by the examiners, and communicated to the candidate, before the oral. Students are advised that all faculty readers and examiners must be given at least two weeks to read the thesis. Students hoping to defend in mid-April (the deadline for May graduation) should have a complete draft ready for the supervisor and reader by mid-February and, if approved, a final version to the examining committee by mid-March. After the examination, students should plan to spend a day or two on final corrections and photocopying before submitting the thesis and all relevant forms to the School of Graduate Studies.
At the oral examination, the student is assessed as to her/his ability to discuss academic and creative issues raised by the project, its literary context, and the texts in the bibliography. The question of the acceptability of the project itself, having been decided previously, is not reconsidered. The oral examination begins with a brief talk (20-30 minutes) about the project from the candidate, followed by questions from the examining board. Other graduate students and faculty members are encouraged to attend and ask questions after the examiners have concluded their examination of the candidate. At the close of the oral examination, the Examining Committee will discuss the candidate’s performance, gauging the adequacy of his/her responses and knowledge of the texts in the bibliography. If the Examining Committee decides that the candidate has not demonstrated adequate knowledge, it may recommend that s/he reconsider the entire project before another oral examination is scheduled. In any event, it is only the oral component of the examination which can be passed or failed at this stage.
The thesis must follow the guidelines for MA theses; these are available from the Graduate Assistant or on the UNB School of Graduate Studies website.
Report MA
Although the vast majority of MA students write a thesis, it is possible to graduate from the academic MA program with 24 credit hours of graduate courses, the Methods course, and a report. The report is similar to a thesis but shorter: approximately 50-60 pages. Like the thesis, the report is supervised by a GAU member and examined orally by a committee.
