Students: Graduate Information

About Our Programs: The PhD program

Course Work

Students must complete a minimum of 45 hours of course work in advanced-level English courses (700 through 900-level); with the approval of their Ph.D. adviser, they may also elect courses in related fields. While there are no stipulated requirements, students should attempt to construct a coherent sequence of course work which will assist them in achieving the goals listed above.

English 903: Teaching College English

This is a teaching internship with a faculty member, which students must complete before they can be assigned to teach any of the 200-level literature, language, or folklore courses. English 881.02, 881.03, and 881.04 may be substituted for 903 by students whose teaching interests include basic writing, ESL, and/or business and professional writing. However, 903 will be a prerequisite for teaching the relevant 200-level courses (just as the 881 series is now a prerequisite for teaching the specialized writing courses).

English 903 carries 5 credit hours, which count as part of Ph.D. course work. The course may be repeated, but only five hours may be applied to the degree. Please consult the 903 Course description for more detail. In order to coordinate their teaching interests with scheduled courses, students planning 903 should also consult the undergraduate course offerings and faculty teaching them, available from the Undergraduate Studies Office, Denney 451.

Graduate Workshops in English Studies

The Graduate Workshops in English Studies provide opportunities to enrich the department’s formal graduate curriculum by regularly bringing in scholars from other institutions to discuss their recently-published and current work with students and faculty. The Workshops add an important dimension to the graduate training the department offers by helping students connect their course work to a more general participation in their chosen fields. They also help faculty and graduate students in each field maintain regular interactions and allow important scholars from outside the University to become familiar with the work of scholars within the Ohio State English department.

Each workshop meets once a year, either in the fall or in the spring, and is organized by a faculty coordinator. M.A. students must take one workshop; Ph.D. students must take two, one during the first two years in the program and one in the final two (or three) years in the program. The workshops are optional for M.F.A. students. Students enroll in a workshop by registering for two hours of independent study (English 993) under the call number of the workshop coordinator (M.A. and M.F.A. students should register for two hours of English 693). While students generally enroll in workshops in their chosen field, they are not restricted to that field and may elect to register for a workshop in another area. Credit for the workshop does not count toward the required course work for the M.A., M.F.A., or Ph.D.

The visiting speaker participates in two separate meetings of the workshop, one of which is reserved for students only. In general, the structure is as follows: well in advance of the visit, the invited speaker designates a text or group of texts for discussion (his or her own work or some other work relevant to the speaker’s current interests). The students read the selections independently, then submit short position papers (about 500 words) to the coordinator for evaluation. These essays, in combination with individual student participation, determine whether a student receives a grade of “S” (satisfactory) or “U” (unsatisfactory) for the workshop.

In 2002-2003 the workshop areas are (coordinators listed in parentheses):

Medieval and Renaissance literature (Ethan Knapp): Fall workshop, speaker Sarah Beckwith (Duke U.).
Eighteenth and 19th-century British literature (Frank Donoghue): Spring workshop, speaker Deirdre Lynch (Indiana U.).
American literature (Steve Fink): Spring workshop, Nancy Glazener (U of Pittsburgh).
Rhetoric and Composition (James Fredal): Spring workshop, Pamela Caughie (Loyola U, Chicago).
Folklore (Amy Shuman): special Winter workshop, speakers James Early and Peter Seitel (Smithsonian Institution).
Twentieth-Century Literature (Thomas Piontek): Fall workshop, speaker Michael Moon (Johns Hopkins U.).

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Foreign Language Requirement

To satisfy the foreign language requirement, a student must demonstrate a thorough reading knowledge of one foreign language (French, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish, or another language if permission is granted by the Director of Graduate Studies) by passing one of the regularly scheduled examinations (translation with the aid of a dictionary) or by completing the 571-573 sequence of prescribed reading courses in the student’s chosen language with a minimum grade of B. This requirement should be met by the end of the first year of enrollment beyond the M.A.; it must be met before any part of the Candidacy Examination may be scheduled. Students who do not pass the language examination on the first attempt are permitted two re-examinations. Those students whose specialties require it may be asked to show reading competence in a second language before taking the Candidacy Examination.

Students must consult the appropriate language department for course offerings. Since sequences often begin only in the Autumn Quarter, students should be sure to check well ahead of time when the courses will be offered. Students intending to take the translation exam should note that each language department has a particular set of deadlines that must be met in order to enroll for the exam. Students should contact the relevant language department during the quarter before they intend to take the exam in order to ensure that they do not miss the exam registration date. The Director of Graduate Studies provides a passage to be translated for the exam.

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