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Requirements

for the Terminal Master of Arts in English

To earn the terminal Master of Arts in English (as distinct from the Master's in passing, for which Ph.D. students are eligible), students must complete the following requirements.

Course Requirement
Seven courses in the Department of English, with at least three courses of 200-level seminars and ENG 301a (Master's Directed Research). ENG 200a (Methods of Literary Study) is optional but recommended. Terminal Master's students are expected to take all seven required courses within the Department of English. A student must petition in writing to the department chair and director of graduate studies to be exempted from this rule.

Residence Requirement
Students may enroll on a full- or part-time basis. Students must complete the M.A. program within four years; the Department strongly encourages M.A. students to complete the program within two years.

Language Requirement
A reading knowledge of a major foreign language (normally modern European, classical Greek, or Latin) must be demonstrated by passing a written translation examination. The completion of the language requirement at another university does not exempt the student from the Brandeis requirement.

This project must be twenty-five to thirty-five pages long. Papers written for course work, papers presented at conferences, and papers written specifically for the M.A. degree are all acceptable. Each paper will be evaluated by two faculty members, one of whom may be the faculty member for whom the paper was originally written. The second reader need not be from the English department. The paper must satisfy the reader's standard for excellence in M.A. degree-level work.