Description of the Coursework-Only, Non-Thesis (Plan-B) Portfolio
At the start of their final semester, online MA students opting not to write a thesis for their MA degree will assemble a portfolio consisting of 3 to 4 major projects/papers produced in courses during the program. Please edit, regularize formatting, and make adjustments if anything in previous work needs clarification or improvement. What students include in the portfolio is their choice, but they are encouraged to seek guidance from the committee chair and committee members. The only extra work involved in assembling the non-thesis portfolio will be to compose a reflective essay, of 5 to 8 pages, serving as an introduction to the portfolio. The reflection should place the portfolio in a narrative of personal intellectual development over the program, and it should discuss the pedagogical, research, and/or real-world applications/implications of the documents therein.
Since the papers in the portfolio may at first glance seem disconnected in subject and/or methods, the reflection piece aims to give students an opportunity to connect them, specifically in terms of the common implications these projects have for pedagogical approaches, research and/or creative methods, or broader social applications. The reflection piece need not include new research; a mix of personal narrative (about teaching, students, personal goals, personal challenges) and how the study has shaped the student’s work in the classroom or in other public spaces and projects, would be best. The tone can be informal. Students should plan to distribute the portfolio to committee members at least two weeks before the defense date. When including the reflection element, the minimum acceptable length for the Plan-B portfolio is 50 pages. The defense will take place on Zoom (local students may defend in person) and will last 45-60 minutes.
Forming the Non-Thesis (Plan-B) Portfolio Committee
In the fall of their third year in the program, students need to recruit four members (three from within English, and one tenured faculty member from a unit outside English) to serve on the committee. Under most circumstances, students recruit the same faculty for whom they wrote the thesis portfolio papers. Students must complete an oral defense of their Non-Thesis Portfolio to graduate. Once students have a committee chair selected, please consult with the chair about the selection of the outside reader.
The committee form for which students must get faculty signatures is here.
The policies governing graduate committee formation are here.
The proof of final examination form that students must have signed at the defense is here.
What to Expect from the Defense
Think of the defense as a conversation, and not as an interrogation. Since you're not “defending” an argument, you'll instead be leading a conversation about your work during the program. Students will prepare a 10- to 15-minute opening statement or presentation, where you introduce your portfolio and situate that material within your larger work in the program and in relation to your professional goals. The first half hour of a defense at UW is the public portion, where anyone from the UW community may attend to hear your presentation and then ask questions. This audience will not have read your portfolio, so please plan to summarize your portfolio’s contents for them. It is fine to repeat some of the key points from the reflective portion of your portfolio during this oral portion of the defense. Come with talking points in mind about your work and progress during the program--and steer the conversation in the directions you want to go. After the 15-minute presentation, and the 15-minute public Q&A, the public audience will be dismissed, and the defense will continue as a conversation with your three committee members. Important: unlike in the case of a thesis, the Plan-B portfolio does NOT need to be uploaded to ProQuest as a graduation requirement.
