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Candidacy Examinations

All Ph.D. students must pass three Ph.D. candidacy examinations: two written and one oral.

The two written examinations are selected from the following fields of study:

  1. Linguistics or philology
  2. Medieval literature (Old English literature and Middle English literature)
  3. English literature from 1500 to 1600
  4. English literature from 1600 to 1660
  5. British literature from 1660 to 1800
  6. British literature from 1800 to 1900
  7. British literature since 1900
  8. American literature to 1865
  9. American literature since 1865
  10. African-American literature
  11. British and American women’s literature since 1750
  12. Film and Literature
  13. Rhetoric
  14. A special field as determined by an examination committee and student in consultation.

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The oral examination shall be an explanation and defense of the student’s dissertation proposal, including its relation to the larger body of relevant knowledge and to the teaching of English or other professional pursuits.

Procedures for admission to the candidacy examinations

Written candidacy examinations are normally offered twice a year: in August, prior to classes in the fall semester; and in January, prior to classes in the spring semester. For admission to the examinations, students must:

  • Complete at least 20 of the 30 semester hours of graduate course work in the doctoral program of study
  • Pass foreign language requirements
  • Apply to the Director of Graduate Studies no later than the second Monday in March for the August examinations and the first Monday in November for the January examinations.

The Director of Graduate Studies checks the record of students who apply to make sure they have met all of the eligibility requirements for admission to the examinations, and then appoints appropriate examination committees to prepare the examinations.

Until one week before administration of the candidacy examinations, a student may request to withdraw his or her name from the list of students to be examined. This request must be made in writing to the Director of Graduate Studies.

Nature of the written candidacy examinations

Students are expected to demonstrate that they possess an adequate body of information and the ability to make use of standard critical methodologies and techniques. In the administration of the examinations, every attempt is made to emphasize the generally agreed upon aspects of each field. In preparation for the examinations, students may wish to:

  • Consult the file of previous candidacy examinations in the reserve area of Founders Memorial Library.
  • Consult with members of their examination committees prior to the examination (although students are in no way obliged to do so and may prefer to preserve anonymity). The Graduate Faculty wishes to emphasize that candidacy examinations are field examinations, designed in accordance with the demands of a field rather than the personal interests of individual examiners.

Administration of the written candidacy examinations

  • Students are informed in writing of their admission to the examination and of the examiners in each field.
  • The Director of Graduate Studies appoints three examiners for each field in which students have asked to be examined. Where there are more than three specialists in a field, assignments are generally rotated.
  • The identity of the students remains anonymous unless individual students choose to identify themselves to faculty in the process of consulting with them in preparation for the examinations. Frequently several students take the same field examinations, and examiners rarely know whose paper they are reading.
  • The examinations are administered over a period of a week. A period of four hours is allotted for the writing of each paper.
  • When the papers have been written, the Director of Graduate Studies circulates them (identified only by a letter code) to each of the three examiners. Each reader submits one of three grades, either “pass” or “pass with distinction” or “fail,” in a sealed envelope to the Director of Graduate Studies. If the results are not unanimous, the Director of Graduate Studies instructs the readers to confer and to issue a consensus ballot.
  • When all reports are in, the Director of Graduate Studies reports the results to the students, the Graduate School, and the Graduate Faculty of the department.
  • Students failing one or more fields may request a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies and the convener of the committee that has set the exam(s).

Nature and purpose of the oral examination

The third candidacy examination is an oral defense of the student’s dissertation prospectus.

The purpose of this examination is to further the student’s progress toward the start and completion of the dissertation by questioning the student, evaluating the student’s dissertation prospectus, and making recommendations to sharpen the project. (The examination presumes that well in advance of sitting for candidacy examinations, the student has selected a dissertation director and, in consultation with the director, a dissertation committee.) To this end, a committee selected according to the procedures outlined below will examine the student for a period of one hour and consider the following:

  • The clarity and viability of the hypothesis as something that will admit of development into a monograph–a 200-page study of a single subject.
  • The quality, scope, and depth of the ideas and questions around which the student will develop the monograph.
  • The student’s readiness to narrow or enlarge the scope of the project in order to allow the results of the investigation to shape the dissertation.
  • The student’s plan for completing the dissertation in a timely fashion.

Procedures for administration of the oral examination/defense of dissertation prospectus

In timely consultation with the prospective dissertation director and committee, the student will prepare a dissertation proposal.

  • The proposal shall consist of a brief essay that outlines and provides a rationale for the dissertation’s hypothesis, places it in the context of scholarship in the field, explains its anticipated methodology, and provides a tentative organization of the dissertation.
  • The proposal shall include, as well, a working bibliography. The bibliography must identify the primary works that will be the objects of study and the secondary works, theoretical and critical, that serve as the tools of analysis and constitute the scholarship in the area of the dissertation. The student must identify, with asterisks, at least five of the most significant secondary works that appear, in this early stage of the dissertation’s development, to be crucial to the proposed study. During the defense of the prospectus, the student should be prepared 1) to explain how these five works relate to the subject, hypothesis, and methodology of the study; 2) what has been done on the subject; and 3) the place of the hypothesis in the scholarly conversation.
  • The proposal must be prepared by the student, approved and signed by all members of the dissertation committee, and presented to the Director of Graduate Studies within 60 days following notification of successful completion of the written candidacy examinations.
  • Within the following two weeks, the Director of Graduate Studies shall appoint a 3-person examination committee. Normally, this committee will be identical with the dissertation committee.
  • Except where there are unforeseen difficulties, immediately following the examination the committee will report the results of the examination orally to the student and by ballot to the Director of Graduate Studies.
  • Should the student fail the examination, the examination committee shall supply to the student and to the members of the dissertation committee a written statement of recommendations for improvement of the prospectus.
  • The student shall then revise the original prospectus within 30 days of notification of failure and submit it to the dissertation committee for signatures.
  • The revised prospectus, signed by committee members, will then be delivered to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will schedule a second defense of the dissertation prospectus within one week.

In order to facilitate the student’s movement through candidacy examinations and toward completion of the dissertation in timely fashion (i.e., within the year following candidacy examinations), the oral examination process, including a second defense of the prospectus in the case of a failure, normally shall be completed in the same semester in which the written candidacy examinations have been passed.

Reexamination

Each failed examination, written and oral, may be retaken once. The procedure for reexamination is similar to that for the first attempt, except that even more detailed attention is devoted to the student’s preparation.

Should a student fail any one of the examinations a second time, the Graduate School dismisses him or her from the doctoral program.

In sum, then:

  • if a student receives a grade of pass or pass with distinction in each of the examinations, he or she is recorded as having passed the examination.
  • if a student fails one or more of the examinations, he or she is recorded as having failed the candidacy examinations and must repeat the failed fields.
  • if upon repetition of one or more fields the student passes, he or she is then reported as having passed the candidacy examinations.
  • f the student fails any field a second time, no additional opportunities to take the examination are permitted.

Upon notification that a student has successfully completed course work, foreign language requirements, and the candidacy examinations, and that a dissertation director has been appointed, the Graduate School formally recognizes the student as a candidate for the doctoral degree.