Archive - MacAllen's Theater GUide

To MFA or Not MFA

The Master of Fine Arts degree for creative writing is a now common avenue for aspiring writers. As recently as a few decades ago, the idea of actually teaching people to write was foreign. Today, there are hundreds if not thousands of students enrolled in programs around the country seeking fine arts degrees. But for a degree that teaches something as subjective as writing, is it worth while?

Writing is not a skill that can be learned like riding a bicycle. But writing is an art that like painting can be practiced. There is a distinction between forcibly learning and improving through practice. For instance, a series of vocabulary words are easily memorized, but the ability to use those words in coherent sentences, naturally, is not necessarily something can be memorized.

PhD Programs in English, Literature, and Comparative Literature offer in depth study of works of literature that are considered to be written by master authors (who these individuals are differs depending on who’s opinion you are conferring with). Through the study of literature, many students will improve their writing. Certainly the critical writing aspect of a PhD program encourages use of the same skills as any author would need.

MFA programs on the other hand specialize in refining the craft of writing through in depth practice rather than the study of literature. While most programs will have an element of literary study, the focus is really on writing volumes and through production improving.

But What Degree is Better?

An MFA program is best looked at not as a means to learn to write, but as a period of time where a writer can write. The modern pressures of employment and family obligations often reduce the available time for a writer to actually practice his craft. And by putting a writer in the heart of a university setting with the available resources and similarly minded individuals, an MFA program is ideal to foster the skill set good writers already possess.

On the other hand, PhD programs in literature focus much more on producing critical essays. While many programs often a focus of study at the masters level, the primary attention of students in these programs are the normative concerns of literary criticism. Again, these students have the resources and like minded individuals a university setting offers, but without the attention or focus on actually writing creatively.

There is certainly a lot MFA students could learn through critical reading in the style of an academic in Literature. However, these studies are appropriate for students in addition to the focus of writing an MFA program offers.

The advantage of a PhD program though is that students finish with a degree that is more in demand. There are good number of MFA holders who are looking to write. Since writing creatively is not a particularly profitable business, the best solution and most often result with MFA candidates is to reenter academia as a professor of creative writing. There are far more willing employees than job vacancies however. While the MFA is a terminal degree, the limited academic job opportunities that exist are more likely to go to PhD’s who can teach academic literature courses in addition to writing courses.

Students of writing and literature must weight the benefits of holding a PhD that will qualify them for many more jobs, or the MFA that focuses on the craft of writing but does not offer many post graduate employment opportunities.