College: Humanities
Department: English
Program: Graduate Studies
Committee Chair: Ranita Chatterjee
Note: Please submit report to your department chair or program coordinator and to the Associate Dean of your College. You may submit a separate report for each program which conducted assessment activities.
Liaison: Martin Pousson
1.
Overview of Annual Assessment Project(s)
1a. Assessment Process Overview: Provide a brief overview of the intended plan to assess the program this year. Is assessment under the oversight of one person or a committee?
The six member Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) which includes the directors of the Creative Writing option and the Rhetoric and
Composition Theory option as well as the Graduate Advisor and this year, the University GSC chair, decided to assess the graduate programselected common SLO #1. GSC also revised and reduced all of its grad SLOs in favor of more measurable, performance-based verbs, and GSC voted unanimously to have three new common grad SLOs, while dropping all former option-specific ones, in order to better align its efforts with the department.
The new common grad SLOs are:
1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of creative, cultural, linguistic, literary, performative, and/or rhetorical theories.
2. Students will conduct research and/or produce creative work appropriate to their option.
3. Students will produce advanced analyses that take into account current schools of aesthetic, critical, and historical methodology and are informed by disciplinary standards appropriate to their option.

GSC adopted the department-selected five-point scale to measure SLOs while designing its own rubrics for assessment of specific SLOs in specific courses. The rubrics designed for use in this AY will be submitted in an appendix to this form.
After reviewing its core classes, GSC determined that both embedded and explicit assessment in the following courses would provide the necessary longitudinal and option specific data:
1. English 604 (Core Linguistics class required for all graduate students)
2. English 638 (Core Theory Class required for all graduate students)
3. English 652 (Core CW Class)
4. English 651 (Core Rhet/Comp Class)
5. English 601 (Core Lit Class)
Students have the choice of 4 Culminating Experiences:
6. English 698C (Thesis)
7. English 697C (Lit Exam)
8. English 697C (RC Exam)
9. English 698D (Grad Project)
GSC members designed and agreed upon one to three questions for each of the courses above (excluding English 652 which CW will assess) as well as a common rubric. These questions/survey will only be administered in one of the four culminating experiences. At least all 18 students from 698D and a representative sample from 697C Lit will be given the survey in this AY. All GSC members will read the student responses and evaluate them according to the common rubric and department-selected five-point scale. Then GSC will conduct comparative analyses of the quantitative data generated from the SLO assessment to consider modifications to the overall graduate program.
The MA Literature Exam Committee, also chaired by Ranita Chatterjee, the chair of GSC, has already started to revise and modify the Literature
Exam (English 697C) based on data from student success/failure rates and the percentage of students who choose this particular culminating experience.
GSC has also gathered the data, kept by the Graduate Secretary, of the numbers of students in each option along with their entrance GPA. The
Graduate Advisor already runs a listserve of current and former graduate students that may also be productively used to conduct better longitudinal assessment by seeking post-graduation information about students, especially professional and publishing achievements. GSC is thus using multiple evidence sources, including indirect evidence from the Assessment Survey (see #5 below).
1b. Implementation and Modifications: Did the actual assessment process deviate from what was intended? If so, please describe any

modification to your assessment process and why it occurred.
No deviation from the intended plan.
2. Student Learning Outcome Assessment Project: Answer questions according to the individual SLO assessed this year. If you assessed an additional SLO, report in the next chart below.
2a. Which Student Learning Outcome was measured this year?
Common Graduate SLO#1:
1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of creative, cultural, linguistic, literary, performative, and/or rhetorical theories.
2b. What assessment instrument(s) were used to measure this SLO?
A survey with one to three questions for each core course that all students must take (604 and 638), 3 questions for the option specific core course (601 or 651; CW will deal with 652), and 3 questions for the culminating experience that the student takes (this year only 697C Lit and
698D) with a department-selected five-point scale and common graduate rubric to measure SLO #1. Students will answer 10 questions in total.
The assessment survey is attached as an appendix to this form.
2c. Describe the participants sampled to assess this SLO : discuss sample/participant and population size for this SLO. For example, what type of students, which courses, how decisions were made to include certain participants.
Since English graduate students have numerous choices and many pathways to graduation, GSC decided to assess the two mandatory courses for all graduate students (604 and 638), two option specific mandatory courses (grad students choose one of 601, 651 or 652), and the four culminating experiences (graduate students choose one of 697 C Lit, 697C RC, 698C, or 698D). This year we did not have significant numbers of students taking the RC Exam (697C) or the thesis (698C). This was also the first time we offered 698D. Thus, we assessed only two culminating experiences: 697C for Lit and 698D. For all these courses, students would answer three course specific questions in an assessment survey that would provide necessary data for SLO #1.
Our English Graduate students are thus involved in the culture of assessment.

2d. Describe the assessment design methodology: For example, was this SLO assessed longitudinally (same students at different points) or was a cross-sectional comparison used (comparing freshmen with seniors)? If so, describe the assessment points used.
GSC has conducted cross-sectional comparisons for measurement of the grad SLO. Through the Assessment Survey, graduating students are involved in the culture of assessment.
2e. Assessment Results & Analysis of this SLO: Provide a summary of how the data were analyzed and highlight important findings from the data collected.
In progress.
The six member Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) which includes the directors of the Creative Writing option and the Rhetoric and
Composition Theory option as well as the Graduate Advisor and this year, the University GSC chair, are involved in the assessment process. The directors of CW and RC will also discuss the GSC Assessment process with their respective committees (CW has a 6 person committee and RC has at least that many). Through numerous email conversations and monthly meetings, the Graduate Secretary’s raw data collection and storage of materials, several members of all three options in the Graduate program are involved in the assessment process. Ultimately, the entire
English department is involved in assessment as all results are discussed at our monthly meetings.
2f. Use of Assessment Results of this SLO: Think about all the different ways the results were or will be used. For example, to recommend changes to course content/topics covered, course sequence, addition/deletion of courses in program, student support services, revisions to program SLO’s, assessment instruments, academic programmatic changes, assessment plan changes, etc. Please provide a clear and detailed description of each.
The analysis of the results is still in progress. However, GSC anticipates the following:
1. Based on the indirect evidence from the Assessment Survey for our two Core classes 638 and 604, GSC will be able to produce a more refined direct assessment instrument to be administered in the following AY.
2. Based on the indirect evidence from the Assessment Survey for our option specific core classes 601 and 651, GSC will be able to determine a suitable assessment instrument for the other option specific core class 652.
3. Based on the indirect evidence from the Assessment Survey for our new Culminating Experience course 698D (The Graduate Project), GSC will revisit both the course content with the several instructors of this courses and the student support services this course requires (the culminating experience for 698D is a student organized conference).
4. Based on the indirect evidence from the Assessment Survey for our other Culminating Experience that we are assessing this year, English 697C
(The Literature Exam), GSC will be able to proceed with radical revisions to the format and content of the Literature MA exam. GSC also hopes to increase the number of students who choose this culminating experience.
GSC will also do a trend analysis based on this year’s results and the data from multiple sources of direct and indirect evidence from previous years.

3. How do your assessment activities connect with your program’s strategic plan?
GSC aligned itself with the Department’s strategic plan by:
1.
Revising its own grad SLOs in favor of more measurable, performance-based verbs in order to generate more valid evidence, more quantitative data and to conduct more effective comparative analyses.
2.
Designing rubrics for assessment in specific courses, to make assessment throughout the Department more refined, more comprehensive, and more valid.
3.
Contributed to efforts of the Department to increase graduate student enrollment by engaging in a serious modification of the
Literature MA exam culminating experience.
4. Overall, if this year’s program assessment evidence indicates that new resources are needed in order to improve and support student learning, please discuss here.
1. GSC will seek funding for the Culminating Experience course English 698D (The Graduate Project) for organizing a conference and binding the conference proceedings.
2. GSC will seek funding for a Creative Writing Capstone Class-based Writing Journal that is in Print-on-Demand form.
3. GSC will seek institutional support to hire a tenure-track professor with expertise in the long British Nineteenth Century, especially the
Victorian period (the department currently has no one) to support the newly revised Literature Exam (English 697C).
4. GSC for will seek funding for the use of VPAC for student performances & readings.

5. GSC will seek funding for featured professional creative writers for our ongoing periodic performances and readings, and speakers involved with assessment, stretch composition, and high school-college connections.
5. Other information, assessment or reflective activities not captured above.
Common Graduate SLO Rubric: To be used for completed surveys of the following courses: English 604, 638, 601, 651, 697C Lit and 698D
Outcome: Common Graduate SLO #1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of creative, cultural, linguistic, literary, performative, and/or rhetorical theories.
5: “
4: “
3: “
2: “
1:
”
Answers effectively engage with the questions and accurately use theory and terminologies appropriate to professional discourse. Reponses are thorough and demonstrate in-depth knowledge. No mechanical errors.
Answers engage with the questions and use some theory and some terminologies appropriate to professional discourse. Responses are clear and demonstrate some knowledge. In general, mechanically correct, but with a few errors.
Uneven. Some answers may engage with the questions.
May show awareness of theory and terminologies appropriate to the discourse but generally misuses them. Responses are uneven and may demonstrate lack of knowledge.
Mechanically uneven.
Answers are vaguely aware of the questions. Lacks any sense of theory or terminologies appropriate to the discourse. Responses suggest minimal engagement.
Mechanically problematic, with many errors.
Incoherent and incomplete. Nonresponsive. Unable to answer any of the questions. Responses suggest almost no engagement, as if the student may not even have taken the course. Deeply mechanically flawed.

2010-2011 English Masters Program Assessment
The Graduate Program in English is in the midst of conducting an assessment of the program’s stated student learning objectives. This year, we are assessing Student Learning Outcome (SLO) #1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of creative, cultural, linguistic, literary, performative, and/or rhetorical theories.
The Graduate Program would appreciate your honest responses to the following survey. This information will only be used to gather data about the effectiveness of the program. Please do not put your name on this survey.
For classification purposes, please answer the following questions first:
1. When did you begin the Graduate Program? Please state the year and semester (for example, Fall 2008).
2. Did you enter as a “Conditionally classified” student? If yes, please circle which conditions you needed to fulfill (BA, WPE, GRE). Also, if yes, please state the year and semester you were classified.
3. Were you a TA? If yes, please state the year and semester you took English 600A. Also, if yes, please state how many semesters you taught.
SURVEY
A. CORE CLASSES
English 638:
1. Name three post-structuralist theorists and briefly explain 1) what makes their theories post-structuralist (aside from their emergence after Structuralism) and 2) how they differ from each other in concept or application.
2. Name two schools of formalism and two schools of historicism and briefly explain three salient differences between formalism and historicism. Refer to specific theorists and use their key concepts.
3. Briefly explain the theories of language/discourse and power in at least three of the following theorists: Althusser, Foucault, Butler,
Spivak, hooks, or Said. Use the key concepts of the theories in question.

English 604:
1. Briefly explain how Linguistics is related to other fields such as Language Acquisition, Language Use and Variations related to region, class, and so on.
B. OPTION SPECIFIC CORE CLASS
Please answer the questions for your specific option:
For Literature Option Students  English 601:
1. List three resources that would be useful for researching an article on x and briefly discuss why you would choose them.
2. Please put the following information into correct MLA formatting for a works cited page:
Do You Hear Voices? A Study of the Symbolic Reading Inventory
Author(s): Allison L. Baer
Source: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Nov., 2005), pp. 214-225
Published by: International Reading Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017584 .Accessed: 11/02/2011 11:49
3. One important topic of discussion in 601 is related to “entering the critical conversation.” Please briefly discuss your understanding of how we go about doing this.
OR
For Rhetoric and Composition Theory Option Students  English 651:
1. Name three classical rhetorical theorists and explain 1) how their concepts of rhetoric differ from one another, and 2) the extent to which their concept of rhetoric is relevant today.

2. Briefly explain what is meant by the “new rhetoric” and what influence this view of rhetoric has had on Composition theory.
3. Briefly explain two Composition theories that have been prominent in Composition scholarship over the past thirty years. Explain how these theories have influenced Composition pedagogy.
C. CULMINATING EXPERIENCE:
Please answer the questions for your specific culminating experience:
For Literature Option Students  English 697C (The MA Exam):
1. Briefly name and explain at least 3 significant eras, periods or movements in British literature.
2. Briefly name and explain at least 3 central concepts in American literature.
3. Use the terminology of at least one theorist to briefly compare one specific text from British literature and one specific text from American literature.
OR
For Students in All Options  English 698D (The Graduate Project):
1. List three resources that would be useful for requesting funding for an academic conference.
2. Briefly discuss how to find appropriate sources for disseminating your scholarly, creative, or performative work.
3. Briefly discuss what steps might you take to turn the germ of an idea into a publishable essay, creative text, or performance?