Assessment Plan and Assessment Mapping: Master of Arts/Sciences in English

We have instituted four points of assessment that all English students must participate in. These are:

1. All English graduates must complete a minimum of 30 credits from English offerings.
2. Thesis proposal and proposal defense (Plan A and Plan B)
3. Thesis and thesis defense (Plan A and Plan B)
4. Completed Program of Study evaluation

A. Assessment Mapping: English Courses

English students are required to complete a minimum of 30 credits of classes from English offerings. All classes must be completed with a B- or higher to be counted on a student’s Program of Study. Note that classes from other English fields (Folklore and Technical Communication) may also be included in the English students’ Programs of Study. As these are classes offering by our other degree programs, they are assessed by their own curriculum committees and are included in this document under their appropriate degrees.

In 2016, the Graduate English and American Studies Curriculum Committees and faculty reviewed the coverage of the program learning goals across courses for the English programs. Coverage is ranked as high (H), medium (M), or low (L). Note that the 6800-level courses are also included in the Master of Technical Writing Program assessment. The result of this ranking is presented in the following table. The Graduate Advisory Committee will review the assessment mapping every spring to update, amend, and correct it.

English (Literature and Writing)

Course	L1 Acquire knowledge of research tools, methods, and techniques with the aim of applying these in research, creative writing, and/or pedagogy.	L2 Conduct, present, and defend a body of research and/or creative work conducted during their program.	L3 Develop the writing and presentation skills to communicate research findings and/or creative work to professional audiences.
ENGL 6320	H	M	H
ENGL 6330	H	M	H
ENGL 6340	H	M	H
ENGL 6350	H	M	H
ENGL 6360	H	M	H
ENGL 6810	H	M	M
ENGL 6820	L	H	H
ENGL 6830	H	M	M
ENGL 6860	H	M	H
ENGL 6890	H	M	M
ENGL 6880	H	H	M
ENGL 6882	H	H	M
ENGL 6883	H	H	M
ENGL 6884	H	H	M

B. and C.: Thesis Description

The Plan A thesis or B thesis/research project is a requirement of all English (Literature and Writing) students. Students undertake their thesis during their second year. The Plan A thesis required students to enroll in 6 credits over one or two semesters.  The department minimum length for the thesis is 50 pages, but committees are free to set their own minimum above 50. The Plan B thesis requires students to enroll in three thesis credits. The department minimum is 25 pages, but committees are free to set their own minimum above 25.

Students form a thesis committee of at least three faculty members who are appointed to the graduate faculty: A major advisor, a committee member, and an outside member. For English (Literature and Writing), and “outside member” is defined as a person whose appointment (and/or teaching assignment) is not in the main field of the thesis.

B. Assessment Mapping: Thesis Proposal and Proposal Defense

The thesis proposal is a written document produced by the student, revised under the guidance of the thesis advisor, and then shared with the entire thesis committee. Students may be required by the advisor and/or entire committee to revise their thesis proposal multiple times before they are allowed to go to oral defense.

The thesis proposal oral defense results in one of four decisions, which is voted on by the entire thesis committee:

• Pass: No revision required. Student may proceed directly to researching and writing the thesis.
• Pass with minor revisions: Student may be required to make these minor revisions before he/she is allowed to proceed to the researching/writing of the thesis, or the committee may allow the student to proceed to the researching/writing of the thesis and to address the minor revisions in the thesis itself.
• Pass with major revisions: Student may be required to make these major revisions before he/she is allowed to proceed to the researching/writing of the thesis, or the committee may allow the student to proceed to the researching/writing of the thesis and to address the major revisions in the thesis itself.
• Fail: Student is required to rewrite most or all of the proposal and must re-sit the oral defense.

Assessment of Learning Objectives: Both the thesis proposal and thesis proposal defense require mastery of Learning Objectives 1, 2, and 3. Below is a table that describes how the thesis proposal and thesis proposal defense address the learning objectives.

Event	L1: Acquire knowledge of research tools, methods, and techniques with the aim of applying these in research and/or creative writing.	L2: Conduct, present, and defend a body of research and/or creative work conducted during their program.	L3 Develop the writing and presentation skills to communicate research findings and/or creative work to a variety of professional audiences.
Oral defense of written thesis proposal	H	H	H

C. Assessment Mapping: Thesis and Thesis Defense

The thesis is a written document produced by the student and revised under the guidance of the thesis advisor and/or thesis committee. When the advisor and/or thesis committee decide the thesis is defendable (sometimes after multiple revisions), the defendable version of the thesis is then shared with the entire committee and an appointment for examination is filed (at least two weeks before the defense date) with the Graduate School.

The thesis defense is an oral examination of the thesis. The thesis oral defense results in one of four decisions, which is voted on by the entire thesis committee:

• Pass: No revision of thesis required.
• Pass with minor revisions: Student must make minor revisions before submitting the thesis to the Graduate School for review (for Plan A) or the library (for Plan B). Unless the revisions are extremely light, the thesis advisor reviews them to make certain they have been completed satisfactorily.
• Pass with major revisions: Student must make major revisions before submitting the thesis to the Graduate School for review (for Plan A) or the library (for Plan B). The thesis advisor and/or entire committee reviews the revised thesis to make certain the revisions have been completed satisfactorily.
• Fail: Student is required to rewrite most or all of the thesis and must re-sit the oral defense.

 

Assessment of Learning Objectives: The thesis and thesis defense require mastery of Learning Objectives 1, 2, and 3. Below is a table that describes how the thesis and thesis proposal defense address the learning objectives.

Event	L1: Acquire knowledge of research tools, methods, and techniques with the aim of applying these in research and/or creative writing.	L2: Conduct, present, and defend a body of research and/or creative work conducted during their program.	L3 Develop the writing and presentation skills to communicate research findings and/or creative work to a variety of professional audiences.
ENGL 6970: Thesis credits. (Plan A requires 6, Plan B requires 3)	H	H	H
Oral defense of written thesis	H	H	H

D. Assessment Mapping: Completed Programs of Study

Graduate student in the English (Literature and Writing) program students develop a Program of Study under the guidance of their advisory committees and the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) that draws from classes offered in the English Department. Although there are no required courses, students are strongly encouraged to take at least one course from each of the three “legs” of the program: Literature, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric and Composition (including Pedagogy). In addition, students may draw from classes offered by the Folklore and Technical Communication programs.

At least once a year the Director of Graduate Studies meets with all enrolled students to discuss their individual Programs of Study. The English graduate program requires that students take (and pass with a B- or higher) 30 credits of coursework, including a thesis/research project (Plan A or Plan B). The English curriculum committee monitors the classes being taken by students to determine if the course offerings need to be adjusted. In addition, the thesis advisory committee evaluates and approves their students’ Programs of Study before the thesis proposal approval form is signed.

To collect and analyze this data, the DGS uses the matrix below. Note that the three “legs” of the program--Literature, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric and Composition (including Pedagogy)-- are separated in the table. Folklore and Technical Communication courses are also included in the table as they are offered by the English Department. The table also records whether students write the Plan A (6 credits) or Plan B (3 credit) thesis/research project.

Coursework for students graduating with English (Literature and Writing).

Student (identified by letter)	Year of graduation	# of courses in Literature	# of courses in Creative Writing	# of courses in Rhet Comp & Peda-gogy)	# of courses in Folklore	# of courses in Tech Comm	# of other courses	Thesis