Criteria for Awarding Teaching Assistantships

A Teaching Assistantship is a contract for employment with definite requirements and obligations, and to the extent that the selection process is competitive, it confers a form of academic recognition. It is not an award or an honor, nor is it primarily a form of financial aid. The duties of an Assistant are to teach one section of composition each semester or perform such other tasks as the Department Chair shall require. Part-time Assistantships are arranged individually by the Chair according to the Department's needs. If the Assistant is engaged in teaching composition, his or her responsibilities include assisting students in classes and regular office hours, attending meetings as required by the Department, and meeting other responsibilities as may be required outside teaching hours. Each Assistant shall also solicit student evaluations each semester and submit these to the Department Administrative Associate, Janis Schmier. The forms and procedures for evaluation will be determined by the Department. A Teaching Assistantship may not be held for more than a total of four semesters (ordinarily, two years). Certain other requirements and restrictions are specified in the current Graduate Programs & Admissions bulletin.

To be considered for a Teaching Assistantship, the applicant must be fully admitted to the Graduate School, except in unusual circumstances must have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher, must normally have a verbal score of 600 on the Graduate Record Examination, or combined aptitude scores of l500. The requisite GRE code is 4489.

All decisions on Assistantships are made by the Graduate Committee on the basis of academic or creative ability, teaching ability or expository writing ability.

Academic or creative ability. This is judged from the applicant's creative writing sample, academic transcripts, Graduate Record Examination scores and letters of recommendation.

Teaching ability. This is judged from the applicant's previous teaching experience, if any, and letters of recommendation. If the applicant has been in residence at the University, faculty evaluations of potential teaching ability may be solicited by the Graduate Committee.

A renewal of a Teaching Assistantship for a second year is not automatic. Each application for a renewal will be evaluated on the basis of satisfactory course work, progress toward the degree, and teaching performance during the preceding year.

All applicants for a Teaching Assistantship must ATTACH A SAMPLE OF THEIR EXPOSITORY WRITING (essay, term paper, research paper). It need not be from an English course. If you are applying for the MA-Lit, ENT (Teacher Option) or ENT (Linguistics Option) program, the expository writing sample you submitted in your application for that program may also serve for this Assistantship application; thus you need submit only one copy of that sample.

If applying for a Teaching Assistantship, download and complete the Teaching Assistantship Application.