UNM Department of Linguistics

The Dissertation

Each candidate for the Ph.D. must prepare a dissertation that demonstrates ability to do independent research and competence in scholarly exposition. It should present the results of an original investigation of a significant problem and should provide the basis for a publishable contribution to the research literature in linguistics. The responsibility of the dissertation committee (especially the director) includes the evaluation of the substance and methodology of the dissertation as well as an assessment of the candidate's competence in scholarly exposition.

Dissertation Committee

The dissertation committee is charged with the supervision of your dissertation activities, including approval of the dissertation proposal. You initiate the process of selecting the dissertation committee by first arranging for a qualified faculty member to serve as the director of the dissertation and the committee chair. You and your faculty director jointly select the remainder of the committee. The committee should be established shortly after completion of the doctoral comprehensive exam. The "Appointment of Dissertation Committee" form must be processed to officially establish the committee.

The composition of the dissertation committee must meet the following requirements: (1) The committee must consist of at least four members approved for UNM graduate instruction. (2) At least two members, including the director, must hold regular full-time faculty appointments at UNM. (3) At least one member must be from the Department of Linguistics. (4) A required external member must hold a regular full-time appointment outside the UNM Department of Linguistics; this member may be from UNM or from another accredited institution. (5) One member may be a non-faculty expert in the student's major research area.

Students who select an external member from another institution are responsible for any transportation or other costs that may be associated with that person's participation on the committee.

Dissertation Proposal

The first stage in the dissertation process after establishing the dissertation committee is the dissertation proposal. You are expected to develop this proposal within six months of successful completion of the doctoral comprehensive examination. Once the written proposal has been given preliminary approval by the dissertation committee, the candidate will give a public oral presentation of the proposal as part of the department's colloquium series. Subsequent to the oral presentation, final approval by the dissertation committee is required. A copy of the approved dissertation proposal containing the signatures of the dissertation committee is to be provided to the Graduate Advisor for placement in the student's file in the department.

The dissertation proposal is expected to be 20-25 double-spaced pages (approximately 4,000 to 7,000 words) in length. It should provide a concise summary of the intended scope of the dissertation topic (including a preliminary table of contents) and its scholarly significance (established with appropriate reference to the literature). The feasibility of the topic should be demonstrated by evidence from a pilot project or sample data analysis. The proposal must also make explicit the theoretical framework of the dissertation as well as the methodological procedures to be employed in data collection and analysis.

Dissertation Hours. During the course of your dissertation work, you are required to enroll for a minimum of 18 hours of Dissertation (Ling 699) credit. Enrollment in 699 may begin during the semester in which you plan to take the doctoral comprehensive examination. However, only those hours gained in the semester during which the comprehensive examination is passed can be counted toward the 18 hours required. If you fail the comprehensive exam, you cannot count any 699 credits until the semester in which the exam is retaken and passed.

Enrollment for Dissertation (699) may be for 3, 6, 9, or 12 hours per semester. The specific number of hours taken should reflect the amount of time you devote to the dissertation. Minimum enrollment in 699 for one semester is 3 hours; this number is appropriate when you are working full-time off campus while continuing to make progress with the dissertation. Six hours of 699 represents a half-time commitment.

Once you have enrolled for dissertation (699) hours, continuous enrollment is expected in subsequent semesters (exclusive of summer sessions) until the dissertation is accepted. This rule applies whether or not you are enrolled for other credit hours. If you enrolled for 699 and subsequently stopped enrollment for one or more semesters (not including summers), you must petition for reinstatement and pay the tuition for each missed semester. You must be enrolled for 699 during the semester (including Summer) in which degree requirements are completed.

Final Examination (Dissertation Defense)

The doctoral final oral examination is the last formal step before the degree is awarded and is conducted with due respect to its importance. It is scheduled as a department colloquium and is open to the UNM community.

You are responsible for providing each member of your dissertation committee a complete final draft of the dissertation in ample time (e.g. two weeks) for review prior to the defense.

At least two weeks before the final examination is held, the "Announcement of Final Examination for Doctorate" form must be filed.
The focus of the final examination is the dissertation and its relationship to the field of linguistics. Its purposes are (1) to provide an opportunity for you to communicate your research results to a wider group of scholars, (2) to afford an opportunity for the members of the dissertation committee and others to ask questions, (3) to ensure that the research reflects your independence of thought and accomplishment rather than excessive dependence on the guidance of a faculty member, and (4) to ensure that you are thoroughly familiar not only with the particular focus of the dissertation, but also its setting and relevance to the linguistics discipline.

At the conclusion of the examination, the dissertation committee members will confer to complete the "Report of Final Examination for Doctorate" on which they make one of the following recommendations, which must be agreed upon by at least three of the committee members: (1) that the dissertation be approved without change, (2) that the dissertation be approved subject only to minor editorial corrections, (3) that the dissertation be rewritten or revised before approval, or (4) failure. If either the first or second recommendation is made, the committee may decide that no further meetings are needed. In the second instance the director of the dissertation will be responsible for seeing that all necessary corrections are made before the dissertation is submitted to OGS. If the third recommendation is made, the full committee may elect to meet again to determine that the concerns have been addressed.

Each member of the dissertation committee must also complete the department's "Assessment of Doctoral Dissertation" form for student outcomes assessment.

Final Form and Submission of Dissertation.

You are responsible for preparing a dissertation in proper format, of high reproduction quality, and free of grammatical and typing errors. Detailed guidelines are available from the OGS; see http://www.unm.edu/~ogshmpg. To verify the satisfactory quality of typing and format, to ensure acceptability of copies, and for any technical advice and guidance, you are urged to contact and to submit sample pages to the OGS Manuscript Coordinator well in advance of the thesis submission deadlines. The Manuscript Coordinator holds a very useful workshop on thesis mechanics several times each year.

You must obtain from the UNM Bookstore or the Web three sets of red-bordered pages, each including an Approval page, a Title page, and an Abstract Title page. One set of these pages must be included with each copy of the manuscript submitted to OGS and the department.

Two copies of the unbound dissertation, each with an abstract of not more than 350 words, all in perfect form and approved by at least three members of the dissertation committee, must be submitted to OGS by November 15 for Fall graduation, April 15 for Spring graduation, or July 15 for Summer graduation. The following forms must be submitted with the manuscript: (1) a "Certification of Final Form" completed by the dissertation director, (2) a confidential "Report on Thesis or Dissertation" ("gray sheet") completed by each committee member, (3) an "Information Cover Sheet" attached to the box in which the manuscript is placed, and (4) a "Survey of Earned Doctorate".

An additional copy of the dissertation must be submitted to the Department of Linguistics for binding and placement in the department library.

A $15 fee is charged to cover the cost of binding the two dissertation copies submitted to OGS and forwarded to the university library, one copy to be placed in the library archives and the other in circulation.

All doctoral students must, as part of graduation requirements, have their dissertations published through University Microfilms International (UMI). This involves completion of a contract, available from the OGS Manuscript Coordinator, and payment of a fee to UMI. The fee, currently $50, is subject to change.