UNM Department of Linguistics

M.A. Thesis (Optional)

Plan I students must complete a minimum of six hours of Thesis credit (Ling 599). These hours are usually distributed across the last year in the M.A. program, three hours in the first semester when the research is typically undertaken, and three hours in the following semester devoted to writing up the thesis. The thesis must demonstrate evidence of the ability to do sound research and writing as certified by the approval of your thesis committee.

Only six hours of Ling 599 may be applied to the program of studies. Once initiated, continuous enrollment (excluding summer sessions) in Ling 599 is required until the thesis is accepted. Students who have enrolled in 599 and subsequently stopped enrollment must petition for reinstatement and pay the tuition for each missed regular semester. Thesis hours may be taken in the summer session, and the thesis may be defended during the summer with the approval of the thesis committee.

Thesis Committee

Your thesis is guided by a committee of three faculty members approved for graduate instruction, at least two of whom hold regular full-time faculty appointments at UNM. The thesis chair, who assumes the major responsibility for guiding your work, must be a regular UNM faculty member approved by the Graduate Advisor. You must complete the department's "M.A. Thesis Committee" (PUT ON WEB?) form and submit it to the Graduate Advisor at the beginning of the semester in which you plan to defend the thesis.

Final Examination for Thesis (Thesis Defense)

You are responsible for providing each member of your committee with a complete final draft of the thesis in ample time (e.g. two weeks) for review prior to the defense. This final examination is a public presentation of your thesis results in a department colloquium open to the UNM community. The focus of this hearing is the thesis and its relationship to the field of linguistics. Its purposes are:

1. to provide an opportunity for you to communicate the research results to a wider group of scholars
2. to afford an opportunity for the members of your 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
4. to ensure that you are thoroughly familiar with the focus of the thesis and its relevance to the linguistics discipline.At least two weeks before the final examination is held, the "Announcement of Final Examination for Thesis" form must be filed.

At the conclusion of the examination, the thesis committee members confer to complete the "Report of Final Examination for Thesis" on which they make one of the following recommendations, which must be agreed upon by at least two of the committee members:

1. that the thesis be approved without change
2. that the thesis be approved subject only to minor editorial corrections
3. that the thesis be rewritten or revised before approval
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 thesis is responsible for seeing that all necessary corrections are made before the thesis 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 thesis committee also completes the department's "Assessment of Master's Thesis" form for student outcomes assessment.

Final Copies of Thesis

You are responsible for preparing the final version of the thesis in proper format, of high reproduction quality, and free of grammatical and typing errors. Detailed guidelines are available from OGS. 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.

Each final copy of the thesis for OGS and the department must include a set of red-bordered pages (available from the UNM Bookstore or at http://www.unm.edu/~ogshmpg/manuscripts/templates.html#Sample), which includes an Approval page, a Title page, and an Abstract Title page.

Two copies of the unbound thesis manuscript, each with an abstract of no more than 350 words, must be submitted for approval to OGS by November 15 for Fall graduation, April 15 for Spring graduation, or July 15 for Summer graduation. An additional copy of the thesis must be provided to the Department of Linguistics for binding and placement in the department's library.

The following forms must be submitted to OGS with the manuscript: (1) a "Certification of Final Form" completed by the thesis committee chair; (2) a confidential "Report on Thesis or Dissertation" ("gray sheet") completed by each committee member; and (3) an "Information Cover Sheet" attached to the box in which the manuscript is placed.
A $15 fee is charged for binding the two OGS copies that are forwarded to the university library, one copy to be placed in the library archives and the other in circulation.