Masters in Professional Writing: Requirements

As of Fall semester 2006, the MA program in Professional Writing has been replaced by the MA in Rhetoric and Writing.  If you are interested in a Professional Writing degree, please see the relevant information under the MA in Rhetoric and Writing here.

34 hours of coursework
Foreign Language competency
Master's Thesis

Required Courses (6 hours)

English 501: Introduction to the Profession for Writers.
Taken in the first Fall semester of your graduate work, this introduction for professional and creative writers surveys writing for different occasions, the world of publishing, the means of getting published, and the technology writers need to know.

English 587: Genre Studies
A study in one or more of the major literary genres, including narrative fiction, poetics, comedy, epic, satire, tragedy, and nonfiction prose.

Literature Requirements (10 hours)
Three courses, including one 4 hour, 600 level seminar, distributed across three of the following fields:

A. British literature to 1660
B. British literature from 1660 to 1900
C. American literature to 1900
D. Literatures in English since 1900
E. Literary Criticism and Theory, Rhetoric and Writing

Writing Workshops (12 hours)
four 3 hour courses from the following:

English 513: Scientific, Environmental and Medical Writing
English 514: Documentation
English 515: Publishing
English 516: Biography and Autobiography
English 517: Editing
English 518: Proposal and Grant Writing
English 519: Visual Rhetoric
English 520: Topics in Writing
English 521: Workshop: Prose Fiction
English 522: Workshop: Poetry
English 523: Workshop:
Creative Nonfiction

Foreign Language Requirement

See the language requirement page for full information on the English department foreign language requirement.

Masters Thesis (6 hours)

English 599: Master's Thesis

Once you have begun registering for 599, university regulations require you to maintain continuous enrollment in it, with a minimum of 1 hour per semester (excluding summers, unless you finish in a summer semester) until you successfully defend your thesis. Six hours are required for your degree and count as part of your 34 credit hours, but no more than 6 hours will be accepted for it.

The Seven Year Rule:
UNM stipulates that all work toward the MA degree be completed within 7 years of the earliest graduate course listed on your Program of Studies. This affects your ability to transfer credit and the speed with which you need to complete the degree.