All students working toward the MA in English sit for a one-hour oral examination. The thesis student defends his or her thesis orally; the non-thesis student takes a comprehensive oral examination over the same three areas covered in the written comps.

For both thesis and non-thesis students, three members of the graduate faculty examine the candidate, one serving as chair of the examining committee.

Oral Examination  for Thesis Students: Thesis Defense

After completing the scholarly or creative thesis, the candidate must defend the thesis orally. The examination committee comprises the three members of the student’s thesis reading committee, with the thesis director serving as chair.

The defense of a creative thesis typically emphasizes the genesis, rationale, and methods for the project and requires that the candidate explain her or his aesthetic. The defense of a scholarly thesis typically emphasizes the genesis, critical methodologies, and findings of the thesis and the value of those findings.

With the permission of the thesis director, a student may defend his or her thesis publicly.

For more information on the thesis defense, see Writing the English Master’s Thesis.  

Oral Examination for Non-Thesis Students: Oral Comprehensive

After successfully passing the Written Comprehensive Examination, the non-thesis student sits for a one-hour oral examination covering the same three areas as the written exam. The Director of Graduate Studies, who schedules the oral for a date shortly after the candidate passes the written examination, appoints the three examiners from among faculty area specialists.

As with the written comprehensive examination, the examiners ask that the candidate demonstrate his or her broad, graduate-level understanding of the selected subjects. Typically, each of the three examiners asks questions for approximately fifteen minutes; this initial round of questioning is followed by a fifteen-minute “redirect,” during which the committee members follow up on earlier questions or ask new ones that have arisen during the conversation.

As with the written comprehensive examination, a student who fails an area of the oral exam has one opportunity to retake that section. He or she must retake the exam the next semester and must be enrolled for the reexamination.

Advice for the Oral Examinee

The oral examination sometimes causes candidates more consternation than it should. Students must keep the exam in perspective: It is a relatively small part of one’s graduate career. And at its best, it is not a nauseating ordeal but an engaging conversation among people who share the same interests.

For the thesis student, the oral defense is generally a pretty pleasant affair. By the time that you have completed the work, you will probably know the subject as well, if not better, than any person in the examining room. The defense is an opportunity to talk at length about a project that by this time has become (and remains?) very dear to you and to accept constructive suggestions from the readers. You have the option of opening the defense to the public, a great opportunity for showing off your accomplishment to friends, family, faculty, and fellow graduate students.

For the non-thesis student, the oral examination is a follow-up to the written comprehensive exam, an opportunity to review the highlights and to address issues that you may not have had the chance to write about earlier. Although the examining committee for an oral comprehensive comprises area specialists, the session is by no means meant to be a firing squad; rather, it is an informed conversation among people who have gathered for the same reason—to discuss the literature, language, and ideas that they all love more than anything else in the world (!).

Having just passed the written examination (prerequisite to sitting for the oral), you should know the three areas well. If necessary, review key concepts and works before walking into the exam. Certainly you should be able to answer basic questions (of the sort that you might face in a classroom from inquisitive students). If you are being examined in Renaissance and 17th-century British literature, for example, you should be able to define Renaissance; if you are being examined in the English language, you should be able to trace out the Great Vowel Shift. Failure to answer fundamental questions like these will give the examining committee pause: They may be tempted to ask how you ever managed to wriggle through the written exam.

The best advice for a student approaching the oral examination—aside from knowing the subjects reasonably well—is to speak: To the disappointment of examining faculty, too many candidates in orals seem to have nothing to say about their subject, despite the fact that they have just devoted at least two years of their lives to studying it at a graduate level. If you love language and literature as much as someone pursuing a Master’s in English should, you must certainly have plenty to say about it. If you don’t, the examining faculty have to wonder about your sincerity and about the value of the degree that you are walking away with from the program.