AV俱乐部

Within four weeks of a student's successful completion of the qualifying examination, the student and supervisor will meet to discuss the student's likely dissertation topic. The Graduate Committee, in consultation with the supervisor and student, will appoint a supervisory committee.

Within twelve weeks of passing the qualifying examinations, the candidate must submit to the Supervisory Committee a prospectus for the thesis. The prospectus should be about 1000-1500 words long.  It should consist of an introduction to the topic and the approach, a general outline of the central issues and methods, and a bibliography of works bearing on the project. The proposal is meant to be exploratory and open to reasonable change in focus, rather than comprehensive and complete in its analysis.

The candidate must then submit the prospectus to the Graduate Committee, approved and signed by the supervisor and supervisory committee. The Graduate Committee will then consider the prospectus for further approval, and return the prospectus to the student within three weeks. The Graduate Committee's written comments will be made available to the supervisor and the student at that time.

Once the Graduate Committee has approved the prospectus, the supervisory committee will meet with the student to agree upon a procedure by which the student will submit the thesis to members of the committee. Some supervisory committees may wish to see each chapter as it is written, while others may wish to wait for a completed draft, or they may come to some other mutually satisfactory arrangement 鈥� but the committee must agree on how to proceed.

In the term following the approval of their thesis proposals, PhD candidates will be expected to present their projects to the Department at large at one of the Friday afternoon talks. In general, these candidates will present on the same day; each presentation should be approximately twenty minutes in length and will be followed by a question and answer period.

Thesis

The thesis itself should be between 75,000 and 100,000 words, excluding notes, bibliography, and most appendices. It should make a significant contribution to knowledge; the regulations of the Graduate Faculty require that it 鈥渕ust display original scholarship expressed in satisfactory literary form consistent with the discipline concerned and be of such value as to merit publication.鈥� Once it has been revised to meet the requirements of the supervisor, it must be submitted to the second and third readers within the Department, and then revised to meet their requirements. It is the responsibility of the doctoral candidate to:

鈥� Obtain the consent of his/her supervisory committee to begin the search for an external examiner.  The supervisory committee must inform the Chair of their consent to begin the search for an external examiner no later than three months prior the anticipated defense date.

鈥� Deliver one unbound copy of the completed thesis (the External Examiner鈥檚 copy), the Ph.D. Thesis Submission Form, and a c.v. to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and four additional copies to the Graduate Co-ordinator in the Department no later than one month prior to the defense date.

鈥� Make sure the abstract of the thesis (maximum length of 300 words) is sumitted electronically to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for the thesis defence notice.

The supervisor must approach the Chair of the Department about the defence a minimum of three months in advance, and must suggest possible external examiners. The Chair of the Department contacts and arranges for an external examiner; the Chair鈥檚 choice is approved and the external examiner invited by the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The Department requires that the MLA Handbook be used as a guide to presentation of theses; it is the candidate鈥檚 responsibility to get the most recent regulations on the format of the thesis from the Office of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and to make sure that the thesis meets the regulations. The candidate must take one unbound copy of the thesis to the Office of the Faculty of Graduate Studies one full month in advance of the scheduled defence so that it can be shipped to the external examiner; it must be accompanied by the thesis submission form with appropriate signatures. At the same time, the candidate must bring four unbound copies of the thesis to the Department of English, to be read by the supervisor, by the second and third readers, by a fourth reader (all internal readers are to be approved by the Graduate Committee), and by the Chair of the Department.

Defense

The defence is chaired by a faculty member designated by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and is open to anyone interested. Those entitled to examine the candidate are the external examiner, the supervisor, the second and third readers, all with some expertise in the field of the thesis; the fourth or 鈥渄epartmental鈥� reader, from a field of expertise other than that of the thesis; and the Chair of the Department, whose principal role is to see that there is fair play, and who consequently may choose not to take part in the questioning. The examination normally runs about two hours, and opens with a summary statement of about twenty minutes made by the candidate before questioning begins. After the questioning, the candidate and observers are asked to withdraw, and a decision is immediately reached. Theses may be assessed as 鈥渁pproved鈥� or 鈥渘ot approved.鈥� A thesis can be accepted as is; accepted with specific corrections (within a set time, but not to exceed six months), rejected with permission to submit a revised thesis (within twelve months); or rejected. Candidates should read section 10 (Thesis Regulations) of the for further information on the thesis and its defence.

The candidate must submit their approved thesis electronically, and deliver hard copy of the signature sheet, to the Office of the Faculty of Graduate Studies in time to meet the deadlines for convocation as spelled out in the Graduate Calendar.

PhD candidates must satisfactorily complete six half-year graduate seminars; three in the Fall and three in the Winter plus the professional development class.

• At least one half seminar, and preferably two halves, must be in the area in which the student will write the thesis.
• At least one seminar must be in a field unrelated to the thesis area.
• One half or one full seminar may be taken from another Department, where the student鈥檚 thesis plans make such a choice appropriate, with prior approval from the Graduate Committee.
• One half or one full seminar may be a reading course in the thesis area, if a regular seminar is not being offered, if the student is able to persuade a member of the Department to offer the reading course, and if that faculty member submits a schedule of work to be done and methods of assessment that are approved by the Graduate Committee. (Where the enrolment in a listed graduate seminar is below three non-auditing students, the instructor is entitled by Department regulation to change the seminar into a reading course. The instructor will inform the Graduate Committee of the decision and students may then, but need not, transfer into another seminar.)

If an appropriate seminar in the thesis area is not available until the candidate鈥檚 second year, seminars may be spread over two years. At least three full seminars or equivalent from the whole body of graduate seminars, including those done for the MA, must normally be outside the area of concentration of studies.

Seminar Assesment

The possible grades in the Faculty of Graduate Studies are A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, FM (marginal failure), F, incomplete and ill. A minimum of 鈥淏-鈥� is required for credit. AV俱乐部 Graduate Fellowships are contingent upon students maintaining good standing in the program, and good standing is normally interpreted as obtaining credit for all graduate classes (i.e., 鈥淏-鈥� or higher). Students are also advised that their overall average is more important than any single standing in a given class. Instructors of the graduate classes provide their students, usually at the beginning of the term, with a clear breakdown of the method of evaluation to be used.

Instructors may have policies regarding extensions or late essays. The issuing of 鈥渋ncomplete鈥� is at the discretion of the instructor. In any case, the Registrar automatically converts all 鈥渋ncomplete鈥� grades to 鈥淔鈥� at the end of the month subsequent to that in which the seminar ended. 鈥淚ll鈥� grades can only be issued if students provide adequate medical documentation. Passing grades in ancillary courses (by which term is usually meant undergraduate language courses taken at AV俱乐部 to fulfill the language requirement) include all grades from B- to A+. The grade IP (for in progress) is assigned to the thesis until it is completed.

All first year graduate students must complete ENGL 8500, a non-credit seminar focusing on professional development. As well as introducing graduate students to the principles and practices of effective teaching, the professional development seminar offers sessions on public speaking and paper presentation, career options, and on thesis prospectuses and grant proposals. The seminar features a number of guest speakers addressing topics from application letters to careers in publishing.

The pedagogical component, which takes up much of the first term, focuses on training TAs to assist in delivering the Department's first and second-year curriculum. The class offers explicit instruction in teaching writing and teaching literature, concentrating on best practices in evaluating student work and strategies for leading successful tutorials.

PhD students who have completed their qualifying examinations are eligible to teach up to 4 half-credit classes as the primary instructor, schedule and budget permitting.

There is no automatic transfer to the PhD program from the MA program.

Before beginning thesis work, candidates must pass a set of qualifying examinations, designed to ensure their broad understanding of the field in which they are about to pursue specialized research.

The PhD qualifying examinations are designed to test a candidate鈥檚 knowledge of his or her declared area of specialty. The reading that is normally done in preparation for these exams is expected to serve the candidate as a foundation for his or her professional career as both teacher and scholar within this specialty. Such reading should therefore not be treated as preparation merely for writing the dissertation, but as an important step toward gaining a thorough knowledge of the primary materials that are taught and studied in any one of the main specializations currently recognized within the discipline of English.

By January 15, students must submit an 鈥淚ntent to Qualify鈥� form to the Graduate Co-ordinator specifying the list on which they choose to be examined. By the end of the year of coursework, PhD candidates should seek out a supervisor for the qualifying examinations (this supervisor is normally the same as the supervisor of the thesis).

The Department makes available to candidates standard lists of such primary materials in each specialty. These lists are designed to reflect current thinking in the specialty as to the nature, selection and proportions of these materials. Candidates should use these lists in order to guide their reading in preparation for the exams, with the understanding that the scope of their examinations will be restricted to the materials identified on these lists. Most current lists include on average the equivalent of about 75 full-length items (novels, plays, collections of poetry, prose works, works of criticism, etc.) This figure can vary considerably between specialties, as some fields have traditionally required preparation in a broad array of material, while others have demanded more concentrated study of a smaller number of items. Candidates, in consultation with their supervisors, may revise and 鈥渢ailor鈥� up to a quarter of the standard list within their declared specialty鈥攐nce again, with a view not to the dissertation but to their particular professional interests. Any revisions must be formally approved by the supervisor and the Graduate Committee; proposed revisions must be submitted to the Graduate Co-ordinator by April 15 of the first year in the Ph.D. program.

Preparation for the qualifying exams should be conducted as a collaborative effort between the student and his or her supervisor. Students should expect to meet with their supervisor at least once a month during the reading year; some supervisors may recommend more frequent meetings, especially as the exams draw nearer. Students are also encouraged to meet with other members of the examining committee. These meetings are opportunities to measure and plan progress through the reading list, to benefit from the expertise and guidance of faculty members, and to practice the kind of critical discussion expected in the exams themselves. Students and supervisors share the responsibility of developing a productive schedule.

These examinations must be taken no later than May of the second year. They take place over three days. On the first and second days, the candidate writes a three and a half hour examination set by three examiners expert in the field, one being the supervisor. After the second day鈥檚 examination, supervisor and second and third examiner evaluate the two scripts and decide (by majority vote) whether the candidate has passed or failed. The supervisor notifies the candidate of the results. If the candidate has failed, she or he may take the examination again within six months. If the candidate has passed, she or he proceeds the next day to the oral examination. The oral portion is approximately two hours long. It is normally chaired by the Graduate Co-ordinator,or a designate. There are four examiners, the three experts in the field and a fourth member of the Department, the list of whom must be approved by the Graduate Committee; the Chair of the examination is also entitled to ask questions. After the examination, the candidate is asked to withdraw, and the examining committee immediately discusses and votes on the performance. Decision is by majority vote of the four examiners, with the Chair of the examination voting only to break a tie. The candidate is immediately informed if the result is pass or fail. If the candidate has failed, he or she may take the oral examination again within six months; a candidate will not be allowed to go on to work on the thesis until the examinations are passed. A second failure in either the written portion of the examination or the oral portion disqualifies the candidate from the program.