The following information applies to pre-doctoral MA students in Literature and in Composition and Rhetoric. To date, American Studies students do not participate in an Advisory Session; instead, they must take an American Studies Advisory Session, which serves much the same purpose.
The Advisory Session is a two-hour academic conversation with three faculty members held by the end of an MA/PhD student’s fifth semester. The session provides the student with focused guidance from the faculty before advancing to doctoral coursework. Students scheduling their Advisory Session must have at least a 3.5 GPA in the program and no incompletes.
Please bear in mind that the Advisory Session is not an examination. The department has designed it to be a springboard that helps you advance more quickly and effectively through the program. We encourage you to bring any and all questions you might have to the session and to regard it as an opportunity, not an ordeal.
Scheduling the Advisory Session
MA/PhD students should schedule a meeting with the GPD in their fourth semester to discuss the session. In that meeting, the GPD will consult you about a possible chair for the committee; the GPD generally selects the other two committee members to distribute this service work equitably among the faculty. As the fifth semester approaches, the Graduate Office Assistant will help organize a time when all the faculty participants can attend, checking first with you for possible dates. Once the date has been fixed, and no later than three weeks before the session is to be held, give copies of your materials (see below) to the three faculty members on your committee. The English Graduate Office needs only a copy of your five-page reflective essay.
NOTE: While an in-person meeting is always preferrable, Advisory Sessions may take place via remote conferencing if necessary.
Advisory Session Materials
Your advisory session conversation will be structured around three documents:
- Two papers you have written for courses taken in the program. You may choose any two course papers; different students make different choices. For example, you may choose an early paper and a recent one; or you may choose two papers on one topic, or in one field, or in one genre; or you may choose two papers that represent seemingly unconnected research interests in hopes that the session will help you decide which to commit to. If you would like help in choosing these papers, the GPD will be happy to provide advice, as will your Advisory Session chair. The two course papers are not intended to serve as a “stand-in” for an MA thesis, and they do not need to be extensively revised or expanded prior to the exam.
- A five-page reflective essay written specifically for this occasion. The reflective essay discusses your graduate career to date and outlines possible directions for future study. Consult with your Advisory Session chair as you complete this essay and before submitting it. Include those issues, texts, theories, ideas, and experiences that have been most formative for you here at UMass; in addition, evaluate your own sense of where you are in your graduate study and what you feel you have left to do and learn. More than anything else, this document should be specific about what intrigues you as a scholar. It should reflect careful self-analysis of your strengths and those areas where strength can be built. It should project hopes and aspirations for your course of doctoral study. It is an occasion for you to undertake self-reflection about what you have accomplished and what you hope to accomplish in your graduate career. Be sure to turn in a copy of your reflective essay for your file in the English Graduate Office.
What to Expect During and After the Advisory Session
At the beginning of the Advisory Session, you will be invited to speak briefly (5-10 minutes maximum), perhaps highlighting what you feel is most important in your five-page reflective essay, or narrating an intellectual trajectory thus far, or adding any further thoughts since the essay was first turned in.
Thereafter, discussion develops organically yet includes two main elements.
- Discussion of your skills, especially as indicated by the seminar papers: Often the session begins with a review of strengths, weaknesses, and progress exemplified in the seminar papers. Committee members may point to specific passages or elements in the papers to commend or to raise questions about matters such as close reading of textual evidence, use of historical evidence, skills in argumentation, and handling of criticism and theory.
- Exploration of your intellectual interests, with an eye to the Two-Area (Preliminary Comprehensive) Exam and dissertation: The other main focus of the session is an exploratory dialogue about your intellectual interests and possible areas of concentration. This discussion typically builds on the submitted materials, yet it may also develop from ideas that have emerged in the session. Together, you and your committee consider preliminary possibilities for the two areas and the dissertation. Within that framework, the committee offers advice about remaining coursework and suggestions for independent reading that you should pursue.
Toward the end of the two-hour period, you will leave the room briefly while the faculty members discuss the session and prepare to summarize their advice; you will then return for a final conversation. The committee may make recommendations regarding possible additional coursework, potential faculty advisors, helpful professional organizations and outlets for completed work, suggestions for area-exam studies, and even potential dissertation topics. In most cases, recommendations will be guided by the specific questions you have raised during the session. Within seven days of the session and with faculty input, the chair will write a brief evaluation of the session and submit the report to the English Graduate Office, which will then send you a copy.