Graduate Assistant in the Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film

Job Description:

Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) have a primary responsibility in an instructional capacity. They provide approximately 20 hours of instructional service per week over the course of a semester. Services provided by a graduate teaching assistant may include lecturing in undergraduate level courses, leading discussion groups, serving as assistants to laboratory classes, grading tests and papers, scheduling professor time, lesson planning, answering student questions, or making a syllabus. A TA can perform any ancillary duty that would otherwise fall to the professor.

Qualifications:

Graduate Assistants must be fully admitted and enrolled for at least 8 credits for the academic year in a graduate program at Oakland University. Graduate course work and/or research must contribute directly to the satisfaction of Oakland's degree requirements. Graduate assistants must have and maintain good academic standing (3.0 grade point average).

Tuition:

Tuition (eight credits per semester or a total of 16 credits) will be compensated. Any additional credits and class fees, including books, will be the responsibility of the student.  

Eligibility:

In order to be considered, qualified applicants must have

• A bachelors degree with undergraduate experience in English or a related field.
• A strong academic record.

Priority will be given to current and prospective students in the English M.A. program

Job Description:

G.A.s are assigned each semester to a different faculty member; duties may include any activities relevant to the teaching and scholarship of the supervising professor and to the Graduate Assistant's own growth in these areas.

The English department offers several kinds of Graduate Assistantships; the most common are Teaching Assistantships (T.A.). T.A. responsibilities could include:

• Tutoring
• Grading essays and/or exams
• Leading discussions
• Delivering occasional lectures

The department may occasionally appoints Research Assistants (R.A.s), as faculty needs dictate. 

All G.A. appointments will involve approximately 15-20 hours of work each week during the semester.

Terms and Compensation:

Graduate Assistants must be enrolled in eight hours of graduate credit each Fall and Winter semester while holding the assistantship. They are expected to complete the M.A. degree in two years.

The assistantship normally is awarded on a semester by semester basis and is renewable. It includes tuition remission and a small stipend (around $5,000 per semester). Graduate Assistants will be reviewed each semester to determine if their appointments will be renewed.

Assistants may accept additional employment with the permission of the Graduate Coordinator and Graduate Study Office.

Student will receive a pay check via direct deposit on the last business day of each month for the duration of the assistantship.

Application and Selection Process:

A complete application will include:

• Letter of application (see below for details).
• Undergraduate transcripts if the student is an undergraduate, or graduate transcripts if the student is already enrolled in the M.A. program. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable.

The deadline for application is April 18.

Applications will be reviewed by the members of the graduate committee, and finalists may be contacted for a virtual interview. Any student in financial difficulty may apply for help through the University's Office of Financial Aid, but Graduate Assistantships are awarded on the basis of competence and potential.

Letter of Application:

We ask for a letter of application which will give us a full and personal sense of who you are.

Such a letter might ideally address itself to questions like these:

1) What ideas, writers, and approaches to language and literature have interested and involved

you most fully in your undergraduate work?

2) What experience have you had in teaching or related activities? Describe and evaluate it.

3) What are your expectations as a graduate student and teaching assistant? What would you like to learn and do?

4) What are your professional goals, and how would serving as a teaching assistant relate to or support those goals?

Our questions are meant to be suggestive, not prescriptive, and your own concerns and commitments will provide the most appropriate focus for your letter of application.

Further questions about Graduate Assistantships should be directed to:

Jeffrey Insko

insko@oakland.edu