All graduate students must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate courses. Only graduate credits completed with a grade of A or B (or, for P/NC classes, P) will count towards the degree. For M.A. Literature & Language and M.S. students, at least half of the degree credit hours must be completed through 600-level courses. In addition, all graduate students must pass the Comprehensive Examination either in TESOL or in Literature & Language, and all graduate students must fulfill either the Thesis Option or the Non-Thesis Option. Each of the three Master’s degrees in English, furthermore, has distinctive requirements:
English graduate students who are found to have committed plagiarism or to have cheated in any other way may be expelled from the English Graduate Program.
The forms are listed below in the approximate order in which they should be submitted, but *asterisked* items are required of only certain students. Underlined forms are required of all graduate students. Forms related to the thesis schedule are neither underlined nor asterisked. Italicized forms are faculty forms that the students should make sure get processed or filed.
*1. INTENT TO RETURN (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE): Graduate students who have already been admitted into the English Graduate Program and who have already taken graduate courses, but who have missed a semester or more since that time, must submit this form before registration for the returning semester.
*2. GRADUATE STUDENT INFORMATION SHEET (EGP form): All new students must submit this form at the beginning of their first semester, and all students beginning their second academic year must submit the form again. Any changes in contact information or graduate status must be promptly reported to the DGSE.
3. FORMAL ADMITTANCE TO ENGLISH GRADUATE PROGRAM (EGP form): After students accepted into the English Graduate Program have completed 6 credit hours, but before they have completed 12, they must submit this form to request formal admittance into the program. No more than 12 credit hours towards the Master’s degree will be granted unless a student has been formally admitted to the English Graduate Program.
4. THESIS OR NON-THESIS (EGP form): After 6 but before 12 credit hours of graduate courses have been completed, students must decide whether they will be writing a thesis or will be pursuing the Non-Thesis Option.
*5. (RE-)APPLICATION FOR GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP (WSU OGS form to be submitted, with three letters of recommendation, to the Dir. of Grad. Studies in English): First-year Graduate Assistants must reapply for a second appointment as a Graduate Assistant. First-year students who were not Graduate Assistants may apply to be GAs during their second year. The receipt deadline for all application materials is March 1.
*6. PROSPECTUS SUBMISSION & THESIS COMMITTEE (EGP form): Before the end of the second full-time semester, students who intend to write a Master’s thesis must submit this form and their prospectus to the DGSE. A student may not register for thesis credits until this form has been filed.
*7. CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT (EGP form): Graduate Assistants teaching their first class will be observed by a member of the Composition Committee or Graduate Faculty. The observer will complete this form and discuss the observation with the student. A copy of the form must be given to the DGSE. Graduate Assistants who desire a subsequent observation should contact either the Chair of the Composition Committee, the DGSE, or a graduate professor of TESOL.
8. ADMISSION TO CANDIDACY (EGP form, submitted to WSU OGS; copy to DGSE): Before 16 credit hours of graduate courses taken after acceptance into the English Graduate Program have been completed (just after the second full-time semester for most students), students must submit the original and three copies of this form to the WSU OGS. Two versions of this form exist: one for M.A. TESOL students, and another for M.S. and M.A. Literature & Language students. Both forms include a list of courses that the student has taken and a list of courses that the student plans to take. If the student changes his or her plan of study, he or she must submit a Supplement to Candidacy (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE). This form is the means by which Graduate Special Students and transfer students apply to have approved, relevant graduate coursework applied toward their degree. Pertinent transcripts must be provided for such transfers of graduate credit hours.
9. APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE): At the same time that students submit their Candidacy Form, they must submit an Application for Graduation. If a student’s academic plans or status changes, a new Application for Graduation form will need to be submitted.
10. ARRANGED CLASS: E699: THESIS CREDITS, 1-5 s.h, P/NC (WSU form for registration; copy to DGSE): Because this form is in triplicate, it is not downloadable; it may be found in the English Office files and there obtained by thesis directors. The deadline for this form occurs one week after the beginning of classes, so students and their thesis directors must have the form ready either at the very beginning of the semester in question or even earlier. A copy of the thesis prospectus and its bibliography are appended to this form. Graduate students usually divide the five credits between the two semesters of the final full-time academic year. Each semester of E699 requires an Arranged Course form.
11. NOTIFICATION OF INTENT TO TAKE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE): This form must be submitted in the beginning of the third full-time semester, that is, the beginning of the second full-time academic year; for students pursuing the degree on a more gradual schedule, the form must be submitted at the beginning of the fall semester preceding the spring semester of the exams.
12. NOTIFICATION OF INTENT TO DEFEND THESIS (EGP form): This form must be submitted in the semester prior to the semester during which the student will defend his or her thesis.
*13. REQUEST FOR E699 WITHDRAWAL (EGP form for Registrar; copy to DGSE):
Students who initially decide to write a thesis and who take thesis credits toward this end, but who then change their minds and decide to follow the Non-Thesis Option, must submit this form. On their transcripts, such students will have a W (Withdrawal) for E699 and will receive no graduate credit for this arranged course. These students will also need to submit a Supplement to Candidacy form.
*14. SUPPLEMENT TO CANDIDACY (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE): If a student finishes his or her graduate coursework in a way that departs from the plan outlined on the Admission to Candidacy form, he or she must submit a Supplement to Candidacy form in a timely manner.
*15. (RE-)APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION (WSU OGS form; copy to DGSE): Students whose course of study changes after having submitted the Application for Graduation should communicate closely with the WSU Office of Graduate Studies and must fill out a new Application for Graduation if and as necessary.
16. REPORT OF SUCCESSFUL THESIS DEFENSE (EGP form; given to DGSE to deliver, with Final Dept. Certification of Master’s Degree, to the WSU OGS): After successfully defending the thesis, a student should make sure that his or her thesis committee sign this form and that the thesis director gives it to the DGSE.
17. THESIS BINDERY FORM, aka WSU Master’s Research Paper Certificate (WSU form; copies available from DGSE and, typically, the WSU Cashier): Immediately after a successful defense, a thesis student should make any minor last changes to the thesis and then initiate the “bindery process.” The requisite form will be signed by the thesis director, the cashier, and the library, and it must be submitted to the WSU OGS, with a copy to the DGSE, within a few days of the defense. For more information, see the English Graduate Website section pertaining to the Master’s thesis.
18. FINAL DEPARTMENTAL CERTIFICATION OF MASTER’S DEGREE (EGP form; submitted to WSU OGS by DGSE, English Dept. Chairperson, and, if applicable, by TESOL director and thesis director): Before the mid-April (or, in some cases, the mid-November) WSU OGS deadline, this form will be submitted on the student’s behalf by the aforementioned faculty. Students who do not make an A or a B in their last-semester courses contributing to graduate-coursework requirements will have this certification nullified.
19. GRADUATION EXIT SURVEY (EGP form): At the end of their final semester, graduating Master’s students will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire for the English Graduate Program.
*20. GRADUATION REGALIA (WSU Bookstore): Students who wish to participate in graduation are responsible for renting their own graduation regalia, sufficiently ahead of time, from the WSU Bookstore. Be sure to let the person who takes your order know the degree and field.
