PhD in English Language and Linguistics: Courses
Credit enrollment
A normally enrolled student must carry a full graduate course load, 8-12 credits (or 6-8 credits if the student is a teaching assistant teaching 44% or more of full-time, the maximum number of credits varying according to the teaching load), until the English Course Requirements (B) have been completed. In the semester in which these requirements are completed, and thereafter, the course load may be reduced. A student may take English 999 (reading for prelims) for the first time in the semester in which that student is completing the English Course Requirements (B). Until the English Course Requirements have been completed a student must obtain permission from the Graduate Committee in order to take English 799 (independent reading) and may take it only on a graded basis (rather than S/U).
English Course Requirements
- All English course requirements must have been completed with grades of B or better before the student takes the preliminary examination.
- Students entering the PhD program will be expected to have had the following courses, or their equivalents; if not, the student must take the course(s), which will not count toward the seven-course "English Course Requirements" listed below.
- English 323 History of the English Language
- English 331 English Dialects
- English 708 Advanced English Syntax; prereq. English 329
- English 709 Advanced English Phonology; prereq. English 330
- A minimum of seven graduate courses or seminars beyond course work taken for the MA degree and approved by the ELL PhD advisor. At least four of these courses/seminars must be taken in the English Department.
Grades
In all post-Master's courses (or, if the student does not have the Master's degree, in all courses following the first 21 credits of graduate work in English) taken at UW-Madison, a normally enrolled student in the PhD program must maintain at all times at least a 3.50 GPA in English courses (and other courses counted in satisfaction of B.3. above) and an overall GPA of at least 3.25, and a G.P.A each semester of at least 3.00. (In computing the GPA, an Incomplete will be counted as a B. The grade of P--for Progress--will be treated as a B in any course except English 990. The grade of S will not be counted in computing the GPA) A student who fails to meet this requirement will be placed on Departmental probation (See Section I below). It should be noted that a grade of BC or lower cannot be used to meet an English Course Requirement.
Incompletes
Incompletes will be allowed only in extraordinary circumstances and they must be removed within eight weeks of the following semester of registration. If they are not removed within that time they will revert to a failure unless special dispensation is granted by the Director of Graduate Studies. At no time may a student have more than six credits of Incompletes. The preliminary examination may not be taken by a student who has an Incomplete.
(rev. 8/2005)
