The Graduate Thesis is a two-course sequence, IMF65001 MFA Thesis I and IMF65002 MFA Thesis II, that is required for all MFA in Writing students, to be taken in your final term with us. IMF65001 is offered in the first eight-week term of each Fall and Spring semester and the first six-week term of the Summer semester. IMF65002 is offered in the second eight-week term of each Fall and Spring semester and the second six-week term of the Summer semester.
The thesis courses are designed to support students in producing a polished draft that is publication ready. The courses also serve as a bridge between the weekly structure of MFA courses and the self-directed writing life beyond the program. As such, these are “studio” courses, designed to provide open time and supportive structures to help you focus on your drafting.
Note that, for students who began the program between Fall 2022 and Spring 2025, we will retain a 6-credit, single-course version of the thesis to meet program requirements for those students through the Summer 2025 semester. Students needing to take their thesis coursework after that term who began the program prior to fall 2025 should speak with their advisor, or contact the program director, regarding enrolling in the two-course sequence.
The final thesis includes six pages of front matter as described below.
If you are writing prose (or mostly prose), your thesis will be between 70-100 double-spaced pages.
If you are writing poetry (or mostly poetry), your thesis will be between 48-60 pages of poetry. All theses will include an additional six pages of front matter.
The front matter provides an opportunity to consider the development of your craft within your genre as you reflect on your thesis project. This reflection on learning is a potent part of cultivating expertise, as we articulate the hows and whys and whats of our craft choices--and the expansion of our range of possibility in making craft choices.
Meeting specific page length requirements is a useful exercise in self-editing, conciseness, and clarity.
The cover page, which includes the overall thesis title, the student's name, and the completion date (1 page)
Table of contents (1 page)
The introduction—2 pages, double-spaced—should include:
A brief discussion of the overall theme and organizational intelligence of the work, and/or a brief, focused summary of the larger work if the thesis is an excerpt. Keep this focused on your work’s unique voice, subject matter and your organizational structures (sequencing of stories, essays or poems, or narrative sequencing) that support that voice and subject matter.
Provide a multifaceted definition of craft, touching on several aspects of craft (examples: line breaks and punctuation for poets; dialogue and narrative arc for prose), supported by examples linked to your own creative work. As part of this exploration of craft, reflect on how your understanding of how your craft developed over the course of the program.
A brief discussion of your genre: Here you will situate your work in your genre, including key features of the genre and ways that your work fulfills and/or innovates upon the genre. You may want to mention two or three key influences (comparable titles), but keep your focus on craft features or themes of their work that impact your work—keep the focus on your work.
For the latter, include a brief discussion of literary influences that helped form the work. This is an opportunity to reflect on key authors that helped your thesis take shape. The clarity you gain from such reflection then helps keep honing your voice and style further. So for this section, you might ask yourself: What books did you encounter in the program that helped you find and refine your voice or style? What authors do you admire and feel kinship with? (And note that many writers are a cross between wildly different writers, with one foot in one work and another foot in another writer's work, with some of our grandma’s voice or hobbies in the mix of the worlds we make in our stories, essays, poems.)
A revisions documentation page summarizing the revisions and edits made to work that was previously written before the thesis class (1 page, double-spaced). The kind of questions you might ask yourself here are: What did aspects of craft did you hone? What new approaches did you take and why? What books did you encounter in the program that helped you find and refine your voice or style? What authors do you admire and feel kinship with? (And note that many writers are a cross between wildly different writers, with one foot in one world and another foot in another with some of our grandma’s voice or hobbies in the mix of what we make in our stories, essays, poems.)
A process description page summarizing the writing process for the newly written work in the thesis (1 page, double-spaced)
Optional seventh page: If you would like, you may also include a page thanking friends, family, and faculty who helped your thesis on its way; this “Acknowledgements” page will be placed right before the contents page. Likewise, if your work is researched based, a "References" page may be placed at the end of the thesis.
At least 30% of the final thesis must be entirely new work that is written during the thesis term. So for a prose thesis of 100 pages, that would be 30 new pages; if you turn in 70 pages, that would be 21 new pages. For poetry, 60 pages would be 18 new pages and 48 pages would be 15 new pages. The new pages can be one piece, or several pieces, or a section of a longer work.
Students must summarize their writing process for these new pages on their “process description” page. The rest of the thesis can be revisions of work that was written previously, as long as revisions/edits are worked on during the term and are documented on the “revisions page” in the front matter.
In general, students in the Thesis classes should focus on the quality of the pages they produce, revising and polishing their writing to ensure it is strong, publishable work when submitted at the end of the term.
The final thesis must be uploaded in Canvas by the due date and must be formatted according to the guidelines below:
Thesis projects are archived electronically; they are not posted publicly. The student retains all publication rights.