Second-Year Students, Poetry Exam, Early Thesis Prep

Welcome back!

Listen, it’s easy to assume that your second year will be much easier than your first—you’ve made friends in the area, know what to expect in classes, made progress on your writing. This is all technically true, but courses tend to get a bit more rigorous in your second year. The reading requirement for Literature classes tends to be a bit more involved than Forms courses, with some professors assigning a book a week. You’re also probably going to be taking a Workshop course, which might be an extra 60 pages of reading and feedback each session. 

On top of this, students who receive funding through the university will have some new responsibilities headed your way, too: 

GTAs: Congratulations on finishing pedagogy (and welcome to teaching two classes)! While working at the Writing Center technically had more scheduled business hours, teaching has a bunch of behind-the-scenes prep work that takes up a lot of time. Between lesson planning, grading, office hours, and responding to student emails, it’s really easy to spend all of your energy on teaching and neglect your own writing. Over the summer, it might be a good idea to whip up some extra PowerPoints that you can use in a pinch! And think about ways you can manage your time.

GPAs: As you head into your second year in your position, it’s possible that your responsibilities might expand to include new tasks. Generally speaking, the GPA trajectory includes a year of learning and doing, a year of doing and doing, and a year of leadership and doing. Managing your work-life balance might become a bit more difficult than it was in your first year. Finding different time management strategies that work for you will help maximize your time when working independently, but remote work can often feel a bit isolating, especially when things are getting more hectic. Reaching out to your fellow GPAs and leaning on this support system might help make things feel a bit less lonely. 

This is all just to say, I wouldn’t recommend making major life changes until maybe the end of September. You might think you have time for extra work or a new puppy or something, but anticipate that the first semester of your second year might be a bit more time-intensive than you think. You are climbing to the halfway point of your program!

Protip: If you’re nervous about your work-life balance, you might want to consider only taking two classes in the first semester. Ultimately, you’re here to develop your skills as a writer (and, like, hopefully get a job at the end of it). Overextending yourself is just going to lead to burnout and subsequent crashout around Halloween. If you’re worried about making up the credits, you could take an extra class your third year (maybe a two-credit workshop?) or two more sections of ENGH 699 Visiting Writers. 

MFA Exam (Poetry Students Only)

The MFA exam is an important benchmark in the poetry program. Poetry students are expected to sit for the exam in the summer between their second and third year of study. Sitting (and preparing) for the exam affords students the opportunity to deeply consider their area of study, giving them time to develop ideas and demonstrate their knowledge of the genre. In doing so, you will be completing the early stages of thesis preparation as well as strengthening your understanding of the form and historical context of poetry. 

Preparation begins with a drafted and submitted reading list and rationale. All students are required to take "Poetry Planet" (ENGH 684 Proseminar in Poetry). As so much of writing relies on the literary community, students are encouraged to form informal study groups as well.

Reading List: An MFA reading list is a compilation of 20 poets’ names created in preparation for the MFA exam and presented for approval (along with a rationale) prior to sitting for the MFA exam. Students are encouraged to begin compiling their reading lists early. In this way, lists help shape students’ reading and coursework even in their first year of study. Faculty are happy to advise students as they draft lists, even before thesis committees are assigned.

Reading List Format: Poets on the list should be grouped in two columns: major and minor; within each column (major and minor), poets should be listed by full name and in chronological order, with birth and death dates after each name; and a rationale should be attached to the list.

Rationale: A rationale is a 250-500-word prose discussion of the connections among the poets on the list, the various lines of influence and affiliation, as well as the thematic and formal concerns they share. Every poet on the list need not fit into a seamless scheme. Reading lists are comprised of multiple lines of interest, affiliation, and influence. In many cases, a couple of names may not fit into a scheme at all.

Reading List and Rationale Submission: Rationales are required and, along with your reading list, must be submitted to your thesis/exam committee for approval by no later than the end of the spring semester in your second year. Reading Lists and Rationales should be submitted to the student’s thesis committee and the graduate academic coordinator.

Thesis Director Assignments

Thesis Director assignments are typically made in a full-time student's second year. Poetry students make their Thesis Director requests in the Fall of their second year, whereas prose writers make their Thesis Director requests in the Spring of their second year. MFA students need to be on track to successfully complete 36 credits in the academic year they make their Thesis Director requests; therefore, students on an alternative pace through the program need to monitor closely when their 36 credits will be complete to be included in that year's round of requests.

At this point in the process, you don’t need to be entirely sure about what your thesis will be about. Hopefully, over the past year and a half, students have had the opportunity to work with different professors in their genre, allowing them to learn more about their mentoring style, including their aesthetics and their approaches, and enabling faculty to get to know their work. These requests will be reviewed by the professors in your genre, in collaboration with other MFA faculty members, and Thesis Director assignments are made in consideration of professors’ workloads, ongoing thesis directing responsibilities, various departmental and university service obligations, and availability (including planned or unexpected leaves). This process ensures an equitable distribution of labor across the MFA faculty.

The process for submitting your request is a bit more relaxed than it may seem. In an email to the Graduate Academic Coordinator, you’ll list your first and second preferences for your Thesis Director (or, if you have no preference, you will communicate this). The Graduate Academic Coordinator will send an email prompting you to start this process for poetry students (in the fall) and prose students (in the spring).

You will contact your other readers directly. A Thesis Committee is comprised of (1) a Thesis Director, who is a faculty member in your genre, (2) a second reader who is typically another MFA faculty member, and (3) a third reader who can be another English Department faculty member, another Mason faculty member outside of the English Department, or—with the Program Director's approval—a reader outside of the Mason community.

For more information, see "Thesis Year and Checklist."