Master of Arts in English

Master of Arts in English

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Take the next step in your career with a Master of Arts in English

The Master of Arts in English program at Worcester State University helps you expand your literary knowledge and further develop your critical research and writing skills.

With courses available in the late afternoons and evenings as well as online, our program offers working students like you a flexible schedule. Our rolling admissions process allows you to start your studies at a time that’s right for you. With the possibility of transferring up to 12 credits of graduate work, the program is also an exceptional value.

Courses in this program cover a range of topics, from literature and literary theory to writing theory and teaching to research methods. In fact, research is an integral component of the program, and you are encouraged to turn your seminar papers into conference papers and articles. In recent years, students have presented their work at a variety of conferences. You may also have the opportunity to pursue a graduate assistantship in Worcester State’s Writing Center and at our online scholarly journal, Currents in Teaching and Learning, or our online news and literary magazine, The New Worcester Spy. After completion of your coursework, you either take 2 area exams or research and write a thesis, a book-length study of some area of literature, literary theory, or rhetoric.

While many graduates of this program have continued their studies beyond the master’s level, others have found great success as English teachers in public schools across the state. In fact, this program is well-suited for English teachers who need a master’s degree to complete the final step in obtaining professional educator licensure in Massachusetts.

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Explore sample courses in the Master of Arts in English
EN-900 History and Structure of the English Language
The phonology, syntax, and lexicon of English from its proto-Indo-European origins to its contemporary dialects.
3 credits
EN-901 Methods of Graduate Research
An introduction to graduate-level research and writing.
3 credits
EN-903 Theory and Teaching of Writing
Current writing theory and pedagogy with emphasis on the college, high school, or middle school classroom.
3 credits
EN-905 Modern Rhetorical Theory
Examines history of and recent developments in modern rhetorical theory and composition studies.
3 credits
EN-906 Donne, Herbert, and 17th-Century British Poetry
Analysis of the work and influence of John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, and other metaphysical and religious poets.
3 credits
EN-907 Pastoral Literature
This course explores the pastoral’s emergence as a major genre of 16th- and 17th-century literature.
3 credits
EN-908 Milton
Analysis of Milton’s prose and poetry, emphasizing “L’Allegro,” “Il Penseroso,” Comus, “Lycidas,” Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and Areopagitica.
3 credits
EN-909 Critical Approaches to Literature
An in-depth examination and interpretive application of the works of a critical theorist or a critical perspective, to be chosen by the instructor.
3 credits
EN-910 Literature of the English Renaissance
Advanced examination of Tudor and Jacobean literature emphasizing More, Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Nashe, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson.
3 credits
EN-911 Young Adult Literature
Examination of a range of texts, classical and modern, that address both middle-school and high-school (and older) readers.
3 credits
EN-915 Community Writing
An advanced introduction to writing about, for, and with communities. Generally, students learn to consider the rhetorical, relationship-building power of documents, and they specifically apply this understanding by working with an organization to complete a community writing project. For students, a foundation in community writing scholarship, increased genre knowledge, and practical consulting experience are outcomes.
3 credits
EN-921 Antislavery Literature in the Atlantic World
This course traces the literary history of the antislavery movement in the Atlantic World: writing in a range of genres (journalism, history, fiction, poetry, drama, slave narratives), antislavery writers made a significant contribution to the campaigns to end the slave trade and slavery. While the Atlantic system of legal slavery ended in the 19th century, an even larger system of illegal slavery still exists, and so the course concludes by considering the work of 21st-century antislavery writers and what they might learn from their predecessors. In other words, can we use literary history to make slavery history?
3 credits
EN-932 English Theatre: 1660–1780
English Theatre introduces the student to the study of Restoration theatre, including the tragedies of Dryden, but principally the great comedies of Etherege, Vanbrugh, Wycherley, Dryden, Behn, Rochester, Farquhar, and Congreve; the counter-movement of sentimental comedy that followed from 1710 to the 1750s, notably in the work of Cibber, Steele, and Centlivre; and finally the return in the 1770s to “laughing comedy” found in the plays of Goldsmith and the witty comedy of manners in the plays of Sheridan.
3 credits
EN-933 Romantic and Victorian Gothic
Romantic and Victorian Gothic is a subversive arena where major authors explore the issues bedeviling their eras.
3 credits
EN-941 Modern Poetry
A study of the major figures who shaped American and British poetry between 1920 and 1950.
3 credits
EN-943 Medieval Literature
This course covers the major genres of English medieval literature, such as drama, poetry, debate, prose, and riddles. The major works in medieval literature are covered, including Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Corpus Christi plays. The themes of religion, courtly love, chivalry, women’s roles, and class are considered.
3 credits

Admission Requirements

In addition to the general admission requirements, applicants to the Master of Arts in English must have either earned an undergraduate degree in English or completed at least 18 semester credit hours of English courses, not counting first-year English composition classes or English for English language learners, at an accredited institution of higher education.

Applicants without undergraduate training in the English discipline are strongly advised to take survey courses in American and English literature and a course in undergraduate literary theory as part of the required 18 undergraduate credits.

Transfer credits may include coursework taken at Worcester State University prior to matriculation.

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