Each participant will contribute a project done during the M.A. Program to the Project Collection File in the Teachers College Library. The project should be something the participant has written and rewritten during the M.A. Program; it should be of sufficient quality to meet the guidelines set out below, and be of what the Project Readers consider to be MA research standard. It should also demonstrate how the participant's reading in different subject areas of the program is related to the theme of the project. No additional credit is given for the project. It is expected that participants should have begun to develop their idea for the MA Project about one year before they expect to submit it in its final form.
Since the aim of the project is to explore, think, and relate personal interests/practices to ideas/theories written about in the field, the project should demonstrate the integration of work undertaken in more than one course. In this way, the participant can pursue an interesting idea/theory that was first developed and written about during the program. The M.A. Project will not be a first draft but rather a paper that has been worked on and developed over time. It will be an original work, that has not been published previously, nor submitted for any other requirement.
Each project will reflect knowledge of the subject area, as shown in the references. In addition, it will show some relationship between personal experiences/practices and ideas/theories in the works cited. In most cases, the project will represent a point of view developed over time. Though the actual form of the projects can vary, some data collection and analysis is required for all projects. Some will emphasize materials read, taking the form of critiques of relevant literature in relationship to actual practices. Some will emphasize personal experience developed from a diary study including the relevant background reading. But all will show data collected, analyzed, and interpreted and all will show a survey of related literature including original sources. All projects, however, must meet the standard requirements of an academic paper, both in format (bibliography/references) and nature--it should, for example, include both detailed analysis of and reflections on the theme of the project.
The possible types of MA Projects are listed below. Examples of each can be found in the TC Library.
In good time--at least one month--before the first deadline for submission of the MA Project, the participant will give one copy of the project each to two other students (his/her peers in the program) who he/she has asked to read it and write statements of at least one half page about the project. The peer comments should be handed in with the first copy of the project, and readers need to sign their statements. This peer reading will remind all M.A. candidates of the importance of professional discourse in all spheres of our professional lives. Such discourse occurs as a matter of course in all other aspects of the M.A. Program--in practica, workshops, course work and exam preparation. Thus, it is important that it take place in relationship to the culminating activity of each MA participant as well. Peer learning is a key feature of the TC M.A. Program. In addition, after graduation, many will have the opportunity to read manuscripts submitted for publication by colleagues. Some experience critiquing such writing will serve as a reminder of this professional responsibility.
Once the participant has completed the final version of the project, he/she will submit one copy to the office to be sent to the TC staff reader for review before the deadline appropriate for his/her planned time of graduation. The suggested deadlines for the first and second submissions are:
These dates have been established in order to synchronize with the deadline for the submission of graduation applications.
The project reader will assign a PASS or a REWRITE. The project will then be returned to the participant for revision if necessary after the first submission. Papers which are not complete will be returned unread.
If the project has been approved by the reader and awarded a PASS, the participant will make any necessary minor changes, write an abstract, and then submit the project and appendices to the Program Director on a CD-R disk or 1.4 Mb diskette in MSWord for Windows format as one file.
If the project has not been approved by the reader and given a REWRITE, the participant should remember that the reader-evaluation system used at TC approximates the same evaluative process everyone goes through if they submitted a paper to an academic or teaching journal. In that situation, no author ever is published without minor (sometimes major) changes being requested. So it is important to treat this reading and any re-write request as a chance to learn from the process for any future activities in the TESOL field.