Guidelines for Thesis (M.F.A.)

General guidelines

The M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment has a research element in addition to the required number of credit hours. All M.F.A. students write theses that are composed of their own imaginative writing.

Thesis Proposal

The proposal for a book-length thesis must be approved by the student’s major professor by the last month of that student’s third semester in the program or of the semester following completion of at least 18 credits (transfer or ISU credits), whichever comes first.

Results

Thesis work produces one document-the thesis itself. In the case of M.F.A. students, that thesis is considered a work of publishable quality.

Audience, distribution, and awards

The immediate audience for the thesis is the POS committee and other interested readers, but the M.F.A. thesis project also anticipates an outside audience of readers—agents, publishers, and readers of literary works. It should also be noted that copies of M.F.A. theses are kept on file in the university library. M.F.A. theses are eligible for Graduate College Research Excellence Awards.

Form

The form of the thesis is that of a creative writing manuscript. A checklist of Graduate College general requirements for the  the thesis, along with other important information on thesis writing and submission, is linked into the Graduate College page Electronic Theses/Dissertations (ETDs) at ISU. An M.F.A. creative writing thesis must approximate a published collection or novel.

Original Work

Your thesis should comprise original work you completed while receiving credit for English 699. A thesis may draw upon work you previously completed in a class, but the final product should be a significant expansion of that work. For example, a creative writing thesis may contain work you began or produced in graduate creative writing workshops, but it should reflect significant development of that earlier work.

Procedures for completing the M.F.A. thesis

In completing the creative writing M.F.A. thesis, you will need to do the following:

• submit a proposal that includes
  • a description of the thesis
  • a timetable or work schedule
• review the proposal with the POS committee
• submit the thesis
• defend the thesis in an oral examination