• Students learn advanced skills in creative writing, critical reading and writing, and language analysis and teaching. Many of MSU’s graduates go on to M.F.A. or Ph.D. programs in creative writing, Ph.D. programs in literature, and doctoral programs in linguistics.
  • Students can specialize in one of the 3 available tracks:
    • Creative writing
    • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
    • Literature
  • Learning outcomes:
    • Students will know the history of literature written in English, including literary periods and generic traditions.
    • Students will locate literary texts in their historical, cultural, and rhetorical contexts.
    • Students will employ literary terms and contemporary critical methodologies in the analysis of texts, appropriately using and citing secondary materials.
    • Students will employ advanced research methods with professional rigor.
    • Students will understand, analyze, and effectively use the conventions of the English language.
    • Students will demonstrate how narratives lead to the discovery of cultures in their specificities and diversity, and to the understanding of human beings in their similarities and differences.
    • Students will fulfill Missouri State University’s public affairs mission by analyzing how literature, writers, and literary institutions respond to existing leadership and provide new leadership.