The Master of Arts in Publishing and Writing program offers courses in the publishing of books and magazine media via print, web, mobile, video, social media, and other platforms. These courses cover a full range of skills from writing to editing, from design to marketing, from management to product development. Opportunities for experiential learning can be found in class projects and by working on the Emerson College-owned digital publication The Independent and with community partners (current and former partners include The Boston Globe Magazine, Bookbuilders of Boston, and Artists for Humanity). Students may also take courses in creative writing, literature, and teaching college composition as electives. Students are taught and mentored by faculty with significant industry experience. Internship opportunities are available, for credit, in publishing firms, with magazines, and at literary agencies. This program is designed primarily to meet the needs of students who are interested in pursuing careers in publishing or as writers or professionals in a writing-related field.
Following are the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for the Publishing and Writing program:
● Students will develop and demonstrate a range of publishing skills in disciplines such as writing, editing, design, production, marketing, sales, and product development and for platforms such as print, web, mobile, video, and social media.
● Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills and knowledge about the history and future of publishing, new technologies, literary forms, business models, professional ethics, and issues of diversity and equity.
Admission Requirements
Students must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and, generally, have attained a 3.0 grade point average or better. In addition, they must submit three letters of recommendation. Students may also submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test scores, but they are not required. Applicants for admission to the MA in Publishing and Writing program may have majored in a field other than undergraduate writing or English.
MA program applicants are required to submit a nonfiction writing sample (maximum 5 double-spaced pages). The quality of the writing sample, as judged by the faculty, will be a primary factor in determining admission. The sample should not be an academic paper, but one that reflects work done in campus publications or in a professional context.
Degree Requirements
The MA in Publishing and Writing requires 40 credit hours: 24 credits of Publishing (PB) courses (including the three required foundational courses, PB 680 , PB 683 , and PB 693 , and the option to do a 4-credit master’s project) and 16 credits of department elective courses from Writing, Publishing, and Literature.
Program Required Courses
PB 680: Magazine Media Essentials (4 credits); PB 683: Book Publishing Essentials (4 credits); PB 692: Digital Publishing Essentials (4 credits); and PB 698: MA Project (4 credits)
Or 4-credit Publishing (PB) course MA Project or Course Option
Students in the MA in Publishing and Writing program may choose to submit a project showing a professional level of accomplishment in publishing. The MA project can be a traditional thesis- type project that explores a publishing issue in depth by doing appropriate research and analysis, or a publishing project in which the student exhibits expertise in at least two areas within the publishing industry. To register for a project, students must write a two-page prospectus in the semester before registering, which must be approved by the project committee chair. Students may complete a 4-credit Publishing (PB) course in place of the project.
4+1 MA Option
Current Emerson students working toward a BA in WLP with a minimum overall GPA of 3.3 and a major GPA of 3.6 may apply for the 4+1 program at the beginning of the first semester of their junior year. Applications will be evaluated by the MA graduate program director and faculty of the department. Students will be notified of acceptance at the start of the second semester of their junior year. The 4+1 MA in Publishing and Writing will require students to take eight graduate-level publishing courses (32 credits), in their senior and fifth years. A maximum of four graduate courses (16 credits) may be taken in the senior year. These classes will count as electives toward the undergraduate degree and toward the master’s degree. Students in the program cannot count these five foundational graduate courses toward the MA: PB 680: Magazine Media Essentials, PB 683: Book Publishing Essentials, PB 692: Digital Publishing Essentials, PB 688: Copyediting, and PB 691: Introduction to Design and Publishing.
Students must complete all requirements for the BA degree by the end of their senior year and are required to complete the following courses with a grade of B- or higher as part of their degree: PB 203: Introduction to Digital Publishing, PB 302: Copyediting, PB 380: Magazine Publishing, PB 383: Book Publishing, PB 395: Applications for Print Publishing. Students must complete the courses required for the MA in Publishing and Writing and may optionally complete the MA Project (PB 698) as one of the eight graduate-level courses required for 4+1 students.
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