Graduate Degrees

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission to study in the department of English include: scores satisfactory to the department in both the verbal and quantitative General Test and the literature Subject Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of competence in writing English and interpreting English literature, as demonstrated by two samples of written work by the applicant on literary subjects; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors (English instructors preferred); and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Master of Arts in English

The department does not accept applicants for a Master of Arts degree. All graduate work in English at USC is taken as part of a Ph.D. program, and the M.A. in English is intended only as a transitional degree in the process of completing requirements for the Ph.D.

A student admitted to the graduate program may choose later to earn a terminal M.A. degree, or may be invited by the department to attempt a terminal degree. The terminal M.A. in English may be earned by completing 30 units (normally eight courses) of graduate study in English or in other departments at USC (as approved by the graduate director) with an accumulated GPA of at least 3.0, and by passing a comprehensive examination designed by the graduate studies committee for each student at the end of his or her last semester. A maximum of four units of 590 Directed Research and four transfer units may count toward the 30 units minimum required for the M.A. degree.

Doctor of Philosophy in English

Students may earn the Ph.D. in English by successfully completing requirements in either of three options: English and American Literature; Rhetoric, Linguistics and Literature; Film and Literature.

English and American Literature

This track prepares students for research and teaching in all areas of English and American literary studies. The program offers the study of texts in their historical and cultural contexts as well as theoretical, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to literature.

Graduate Curriculum and Unit Requirements

The graduate curriculum is divided into 500-level foundation courses and 600-level advanced courses. The 500-level courses offer fundamental work in theory; in rhetoric, linguistics and literature (RLL); and in the history of British and American literatures and cultures. The 600-level courses feature advanced studies in theory and RLL, core requirements in film and literature, interdisciplinary studies, transhistorical studies in genres and sub-genres, individual writers, gender studies, multi-cultural literatures and societies, and special topics. Although students will normally take 500-level courses leading up to the screening procedure (see Screening Procedure) and 600-level courses thereafter, students, after consultation with their advisors, may be permitted to take 600-level courses in the first semesters of their graduate training.

Occasionally students who lack adequate undergraduate training in any given area may be required by the graduate director to enroll in appropriate 400-level courses.

The student's course work must total at least 64 units. No more than eight units of 794 Doctoral Dissertation and no more than four units of 790 Research may count toward the 64 units. A maximum of 24 transfer units, approved by the graduate director, is allowed toward the 64 units minimum required by the Ph.D. (see Transfer of Credit).

Advisement

The student will be assigned a faculty mentor in his or her first semester in the graduate program and will be encouraged in subsequent semesters to begin putting together an informal guidance committee. The makeup of the guidance committee may change as the interests of the student change. The faculty mentor and informal guidance committee will assist the student in planning a program of study appropriate to the student's interests leading to the Screening procedure.

Screening Procedure

At the end of the student's fourth semester (second semester for students who enter with an M.A. degree or near equivalent), the student will sit for a departmental examination, which is part of a comprehensive screening procedure. Rarely, and only with the approval of the graduate director and the graduate committee, will a student be allowed to postpone the departmental examination and the screening procedure, and then only for one year. Prior to the screening procedure, the student will be allowed to take a maximum of four units of independent study (ENGL 590), and that independent study will normally be used to prepare for the departmental examination; all other units must be in the 500- or (when appropriate) 600-level seminar.

Guidance Committee

Immediately following successful completion of the screening procedure, the student will nominate formally a five-member guidance committee, including a chair and three other members from the English Department who are in the student's areas of interest and on outside member from another Ph.D.-granting department. The committee must be in place and approved by the Graduate School at the time the student chooses a dissertation topic, writes the dissertation prospectus and schedules a qualifying examination.

Qualifying Examination

Following completion of course work, the student must sit for a qualifying examination, at a time mutually agreed upon by the student and the guidance committee. This is a field examination given in the subject of the student's proposed dissertation research. No less than one month before the qualifying examination, the student will submit to the guidance committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus, it is understood, will not be a polished dissertation proposal, but at a minimum it should display a strong knowledge of the subject, much of the relevant secondary material and other contexts crucial to the writing of the dissertation, and should present a workable plan of attack as well as a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the theoretical assumptions involved in the subject.

The qualifying examination will consist of both written and oral portions. It will focus on the dissertation area and its contexts with the specific format and content of the examination being negotiated among the student and all members of the examination committee. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination, the student proceeds to the writing of the doctoral dissertation.

Dissertation

The final stage of the program is the submission of a dissertation that makes an original and substantial contribution to its field of study. Dissertations being written in the department are now richly various, and this diversity is encouraged.

Foreign Language

Ph.D. students are required to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language. This may be demonstrated by completing a course in the literature of that language at the 400 or 500 level (with a grade of B [3.0] or better), or by passing a foreign language exam that tests proficiency in reading comprehension and translation. Ph.D. students may also be required to demonstrate proficiency in additional languages, as determined by the guidance committee in view of the student's proposed field of research.

Produced by the USC Division of Student Affairs, Office of University Publications, May 1, 1995
univpub@stuaff.usc.edu