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Degree Requirements

Graduate Programs

Professional Writing

Degree: Master of Science

The program provides advanced study in the theory of writing, writing techniques and style, principles/techniques of editing, and the functions of written communication within the professional/occupational setting. The program centers on (1) developing the communication skills of people seeking to enter or to advance in occupations requiring extensive written analysis and reporting of data and on (2) improving written communication and its management in professional organizations.

The program features two broad concentrations. Writing for the Public and Private Sectors concentrates on acquiring specialized skills such as technical writing, journal editing, communications management, business communication, or consulting. Writing in the Professions uses the University's interdisciplinary resources to offer focused study of writing (18 semester hours) in one of five specializations:

• mass media

• health professions

• science

• imaginative writing

• teaching writing

Both concentrations enroll part-time students and are available through evening and summer schedules. Either can be completed with or without a thesis and offers flexibility in the selection of elective courses. Students work closely with their advisors in designing their programs and in assessing the development of their writing skills. All courses require extensive writing.

Admission Requirements

• Apply to Towson University's Graduate School

• A 3.0 is required for full admission; 2.5 for conditional admission.

• Two letters of recommendation, preferably letters that speak to writing experience and capability.  Please also submit the Recommendation Form

• Writing sample on a designated topic: Please tell us in 2-3 pages why you wish to pursue this degree and why at Towson. Do not simply write a summary of material from the graduate catalogue — we want to find out about you. Also, you are encouraged to submit a brief (10-pages or less) example of writing you’ve done of any kind.

Return material to the Director PRWR, c/o Towson University Graduate School, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252.

• Based upon the applicant's undergraduate transcript and upon the writing sample, the department reserves the right to require two specified preparatory undergraduate writing courses, passed with the grade of "B" or higher in each course, for admission.

• Application deadlines are April 1 for fall semester admission and November 1 for spring semester admission.

• NOTE: Upon admission to the program, the student must meet with the assigned advisor to plan a program of study.

General Degree Requirements

The 36-credit program can be completed with or without a thesis. All students complete an 18-hour core of foundation courses. Within both concentrations students have considerable flexibility in choosing electives. Students work closely with their advisers in designing their programs and in assessing the development of their writing skills.

      1.   Required Core (18 semester hours):

• PRWR 611 - Rhetoric: The Pursuit of Eloquence (3)

• PRWR 612 - Rhetorical Grammar (3)

• PRWR 613 - Theory of Exposition (3) This course must be taken within the first twelve hours of degree work.

• PRWR 615 - History and Development of Prose Style (3)

• PRWR 617 - Editing (3) This course must be taken within the first twelve hours of degree work.

• PRWR 797 - Internship in Professional Writing (3)

      2.       Elective Core (18 semester hours)

• In addition to the required core each student completes an eighteen-hour elective program from Writing for the Public and Private Sectors or Writing in the Professions. Each concentration has a thesis and non-thesis option.

Guidelines for the Portfolio/Qualifying Exam

All students in the Professional Writing program are required to take the qualifying exam between completion of 12-18 hours of degree work. The format for the "exam" will be an evaluation of a portfolio of work completed by the student in the Professional Writing program.

The portfolios must be turned in to Geoffrey Becker by October 31 during the fall semester and April 1 during the spring semester. Drop the portfolios off in Geoffrey Becker's mailbox located in the English Department Mailroom, LI 218D. Please submit two copies in flat folders or report covers.

What You Need to Submit

The portfolio should contain three written texts that show the range of your writing skills. These should have been done for classes in the Professional Writing program. They may be prose, fiction, or poetry, technical, informative, or creative. Please include the assignment sheet or a description of what prompted you to write each text. The portfolio should be at least 15 pages and not more than 50. If you include poetry, include at least seven pages of poetry. The portfolio should contain at least one example of expository prose. Samples should be clean copies and may be revised.

How Portfolios will be Evaluated

Portfolios will be read by two Professional Writing professors. Portfolios will receive either a passing or a failing grade. Portfolios that receive a failing grade must be resubmitted after a conference with the program director and the student's advisor.

Evaluation criteria of the portfolio will generally be as follows.

Your portfolio should

• represent a range of application and show flexibility and variety in addressing various writing situations.

• show focus on a topic and deliver sound, reasonable evidence to support or develop the topic.

• be clearly and logically organized and show evidence of organizational craft, i.e., that it's a carefully designed piece.

• have paragraphs that are unified, well-developed, and internally cohesive.

• have sentences that are clear, concise, artful, and masterfully wrought.

• display diction that is consistently precise and accurate, showing command of a broad vocabulary.

Overall, the writing should be powerful, emotional, clever, creative, intelligent, thought-provoking--in short, graceful and interesting whatever the content.

Why You Need to Do This

The graduate school requires that all programs give a test midway through a student's program. The test requires students to display a level of subject mastery demonstrating that they are learning the appropriate skills needed in the curriculum to complete the degree successfully.

This "exam" is an opportunity to create a professional portfolio that students might present at the end of the program to show what they've mastered.

Whom You Need to Consult

It would be a good idea, though it's not required, to meet with your advisor to make sure you're submitting appropriate materials. If you have general questions about submitting work, please send Geoffrey Becker an e-mail with your questions (gbecker@towson.edu).

Master of Arts in the Humanities

The College of Liberal Arts' New Graduate Program

Starting in Spring 2002, Towson will offer its first courses in a new program, the Master of Arts in the Humanities. Housed in the College of Liberal Arts, this cross-disciplinary program will comprise courses from the departments of English, History, Modern Languages, and Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Unlike specialized degrees in these areas, this program links texts both with other disciplines and their intellectual, historical, and literary contexts.

Each core course will study masterpieces in English translation bridging four epochs of Western Civilization: the Ancient, the Medieval, the Renaissance, and the Modern. Each elective will study texts in their contextual time.

The degree comprises 36 credits structured as Core Texts, Contexts and Connections, and Thesis or Course Options.

Requirements.

I. Core Texts: Great books and timeless topics in sequential time studied from the disciplinary angles of analysis [Titles of sample courses follow each category] 18 credits

The Humanities and Philosophical Inquiry (one course)
HUMN 6xx: On Being Human

The Humanities and Historical Inquiry (two courses)
HUMN 6xx: Visions of History and Human Nature
HUMN 6xx: Virtue: A Tradition and Its Modern Crisis

The Humanities and Comparative Literary Inquiry (two courses)
HUMN 6xx: The Symposium: Dialogues of the Human
HUMN 6xx: War in Literature
HUMN 6xx: The Literature of Empire

The Humanities and the Rhetorical Tradition (one course)
WRIT 611: Rhetoric: The Pursuit of Eloquence

II. Electives. Contexts and Connections: Books studied in contextual time, the historical, intellectual, and literary periods of the texts and authors. 12 credits

Students may take courses from approved offerings in at least three of the home departments and, with the permission of the program director, from one approved course in theater, music, or art history in the College of Fine Arts.

III. Thesis or Course Options 6 credits

A thesis and defense OR Two approved courses from one of the home departments and
presentation of an anthology of all course major papers

For Admission

• A baccalaureate degree

• G.P.A. of 3.0 (last 60 undergraduate credits)

• Statement of intent (500 words)

• Two reference letters