IQ84's advice is spot on, and I'm posting only to add a little bit to what was written in the last paragraph about fit. Whether you name professors or not, do be sure to read faculty profiles (and ideally work) to get a sense of current research interests. Do some of those interests appeal to you/fit with your research area? If so, that's a good indicator that you could fit in the program. It can also help you use more specific language as per IQ84's suggestion. Additionally, try to see what other resources are available at the university, especially in regard to research centers. Many universities have research centers that bring together faculty and students from numerous disciplines to work on a particular topic or time period. Knowing that those centers exist and what they do and saying how you'd contribute to/participate in center activities in your fit paragraph shows that you've researched the university community as a whole rather than just looked at the department webpage.
Hey! I had similar questions when I was writing my MA SOP so you're not alone. I ended up writing something that should've been used for Ph.D. apps but it worked out anyway.
As for your questions:
- You seem to be on the right track for research question specificity. You want to show that you have a direction and that you're curious and keen to look into a certain field. I would say that you should at least propose what you'd like to look at in terms of "responses to politics and social institutions" because that's pretty vague. I also think it's absolutely critical to read up on your proposed area of research and find out what the most up-to-date trends and theories are. You don't want to be applying thinking that you're being a cutting edge New Historicist or something.
- It's good you mention that your end goal is getting into a Ph.D. program because that's important (of course, many folks get an MA with the intent to teach in CCs after). I'm not entirely sure I would emphasize wanting to strengthen my foundation in the canon, though. I say this first because I don't think MAs are for widening the scope of one's learning but whittling it down to find a specialty for your Ph.D. program (not to say that you won't be reading widely, but I wouldn't lead with that) and secondly because I find mentioning issues of canonicity to be pretty "out", unless of course your study will be to question or rethink the canon (but even that issue is kind of dated.)
- If you have teaching experience (or any kind of instructional experience), mention it if you're applying for those TAships.
Though you don't really choose faculty that you hope will "adopt" you or with whom you'd like to work in an MA, a fit paragraph is still pretty essential. There's been raging debates on this forum about whether or not you should name professors, so that's up to your discretion but I would absolutely do research on the department ethos, specialties, and focuses so that you can explain in the fit paragraph why exactly you would contribute to the department and vice versa.
Lemme know if you have anymore questions!
