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Welcome to Communication and Rhetorical Studies
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Comprehensive Examination Policy
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Welcome to
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the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies’ Graduate Program
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.
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Overview
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This page is intended to give you a "big picture" of graduate studies in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies
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(CRS)—to set an ethic and give you an idea of what we expect of our graduate students. In addition, it is offered as an advising tool and should be
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used as a guide to program requirements, progress toward your degree, deadlines, and other important standards
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. We want you to succeed in our program and look forward to an exciting and productive adventure with you.
Mentorship and Advising
You will be assigned a temporary faculty advisor when you enter our program; this person will be your acting advisor until you designate your permanent faculty advisor in April of your first year of studies. In addition, you will be assigned at least one peer mentor (a second-year CRS graduate student) as another resource. The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will also offer guidance and be available to answer questions throughout your course of studies. It is your responsibility to consult publications of the Graduate School and the College of Visual and Performing Arts for deadlines and requirements.
You should introduce yourself to CRS faculty members as soon as possible. We encourage you to meet with each of them during their office hours or at another suitable time to learn about their areas of expertise and let them know about your interests.
Coursework
All students are required to complete a minimum of 33 credit hours of graduate level coursework. In addition:
- At least 24 credit hours must be Communication & Rhetoric
- CRS courses.
- At least 15 credit hours must be 600 level or above.
- A maximum of 6
- six credit hours of "Independent Studies" are allowed.
All students are required to complete the following
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six credit hours of core coursework:
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- CRS 603 Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric
- CRS 607 Critical Media and Cultural Studies
Students may take a maximum of
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nine credit hours from other graduate programs within the University. These
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courses should be clearly related to the student's individual emphasis and cannot be taken as substitutes for
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CRS courses.
Exit Options
Students completing the MA program may take either a thesis option or a non-thesis (comprehensive exams) option.
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To complete the master's program, students can opt to either write a thesis or take comprehensive exams. Each option is described in more detail later.
- Thesis — Students must complete 27 credit hours of coursework plus 6
- six credit hours of thesis work. Students electing to take the non-thesis option
- Comprehensive exams — Students must complete 33 credit hours of coursework and pass a comprehensive examination consisting of
- written and oral components
- examinations in areas of the student’s choice.
Appropriate Progress Toward the Degree
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To continue in good standing in
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CRS, all students are expected to make appropriate progress toward completion of the degree. At the
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end of the second semester of studies,
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students receive a written evaluation of
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their general performance from
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their advisor and/or the DGS. Students will continue to receive regular input on the state of their degree progress and general professional development thereafter
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(see Form A).
To remain in good standing in the program
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, students must meet the following minimum expectations:
- A grade point average in Communication and Rhetorical Studies
- CRS courses of "B" (3.0) or better, and an overall grade point average of "B-" (2.67) or better.
- Coursework where a grade of "Incomplete" is assigned must be finished by the end of the next semester. A petition must be submitted stipulating the date when the work will be completed. The grade of "Incomplete" is assigned only in unusual circumstances (for example, protracted illness). Otherwise, it is expected that students will complete their coursework within normal deadlines.
- Full-time status ( 9
- nine credit ours
- hours per semester) must be maintained. Six thesis credit hours in the final semester is considered full-time status.
- By April 15 of the first year, students must declare in writing to the Graduate Program Coordinator
- submit the Exit Option Declaration Form (Form B) to the DGS, indicating whether they are taking the thesis or non-thesis (
- comprehensive exams )
- option and the name of the professor who has agreed to be their major
- the advisor (chair
- of their thesis or comps committee )
- . There is an Exit Option Declaration Form appended to this document.
- All students are expected
- required to take required core-courses --CRS 601 and CRS 603--during
- the core courses—CRS 603 and CRS 607—during the fall semester of the
- their first year.
Timeline
- By April 15
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- of the first year
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- Submit Exit Option Declaration Form (Form B) to Director of Graduate Studies. This form should identify the student’s advisor, the selected exit option,
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By December 15—Defense of thesis proposal deadline.
By April 15—Defense of the Master’s Thesis or Comprehensive Exams (to ensure May graduation). Note: Defense meetings will not take place during summer as faculty members have no contractual obligations to the university during the summer months.
Financial Aid
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- potential committee members, and the proposed thesis topic or comprehensive exam areas. In consultation with their advisor, the student should also designate one course (previously taken or upcoming in the fall) that provides their methodological training. Any course within or outside of CRS can be designated as the “methods” course, but it should substantially inform the student’s thesis project or comprehensive exam areas.
- By Oct. 1 of the second year
- Submit Thesis/Comprehensive Exam Committee Members Form (Form C) to Director of Graduate Studies. In consultation with their advisor, the student should decide on the members of their thesis or comprehensive exam committee and get permission from each member. This form can be resubmitted at any time to request changes to committee composition.
- By Dec. 15 of the second year
- Defend thesis proposal and submit Thesis Proposal Defense Form (Form D) to Director of Graduate Studies.
- By end of April of the second year
- Defend Master’s Thesis or Comprehensive Exams. Note: Defense meetings generally do not take place during the summer. If extenuating circumstances require a defense after the end of spring semester, the student must obtain the explicit consent of all committee members and must abide by committee members’ scheduling constraints.
Conference and Research Travel Funding
All graduate students are encouraged to present scholarly papers at conventions or conferences.
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CRS offers up to $1,000 per graduate student per academic year for conference and research travel, and there is additional funding available through
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the College of Visual and Performing Arts
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and the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) to support this important dimension of graduate studies. Please contact the
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DGS for more information about how to apply.
Facilities
All graduate students have access to the
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department’s computer facility, kitchen, and copy/mailroom.
All graduate students will be assigned syr.edu email addresses and personal mailboxes in the
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CRS mailroom. Students are expected to check their
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email and mailboxes on a regular basis
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— important information is frequently delivered through email and campus mail
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. It is your responsibility to keep apprised of deadlines and other significant events
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sent through email and campus mail.
All graduate students
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will be assigned a work space in the
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teaching assistant suite. This is a community space for graduate students to work, study, and meet with their students, and should be treated as a shared professional environment.
Future Professoriate Program
The Future Professoriate Program (FPP) is a University-wide pedagogy program for graduate students
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which also includes CRS-specific programming. Approximately once a month, the CRS Director of Graduate Studies plans and schedules sessions
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about professionalization, pedagogy, and progress in the program. The CRS sessions are required of all graduate students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in FPP.
At the end of every year, students report on the sessions they attended, both
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University-wide and in the
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department. Each student completing
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FPP receives a $150 stipend.
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There is also an optional “Certificate in University Teaching” from the Graduate School
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that FPP participants can receive by completing a supervised teaching experience
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and producing a teaching portfolio.
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Some Encouraging Words
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We look forward to an exciting and productive adventure with you.
The Thesis Option
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Overview
Generally, students should take the thesis option if they intend to continue their graduate studies and pursue the Ph.D. In some cases, students with a specialized professional interest may take the thesis option as a way of gaining practical expertise. However, in either case,
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thesis should be viewed as a
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starting point for more advanced independent research or professional practice.
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Format of a Master’s
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Thesis
A
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master’s thesis is
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like a short book with an introduction, two or three substantive chapters, and a conclusion. Theses usually range in length from 50 to 125 pages
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, but the shape and length of the thesis
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should be determined (in consultation with your advisor) by the question you address and the method you employ
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. There are theses on file
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in CRS that can give you a good idea of what a
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master’s thesis should look like.
The question you address in your thesis should make a modest contribution to your chosen area of specialization. This usually entails
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extending
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existing research to address a unique object of analysis. The question and methodology of the thesis should emerge from
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your coursework; often, the thesis
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is developed
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from a
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seminar paper written during the first two semesters of graduate studies
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or from undergraduate or professional experience carried forward in graduate studies.
The subject matter and methods of a thesis can widely vary, from sustained analysis of primary texts or empirical data to mainly theoretical inquiry or even applied communication research. In all cases, students should consult in depth with their advisors to shape the best possible thesis project
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.
Usually, the first chapter of your thesis consists of a statement of the problem and an overview of the literature
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on the topic in the field of communication and rhetorical studies. Subsequent chapters will vary according to the question addressed and method employed, but the final chapter should discuss the implications of the study for future research.
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Process
By April 15 of your first year of graduate studies,
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you will choose a thesis advisor and submit the Exit Option Declaration Form (Form B). By Oct. 1 of your second year, in consultation with your thesis advisor, you will put together a thesis committee made up of two additional CRS faculty members and one faculty member external to the department (for a total of four committee members). The external member of the committee typically serves as the oral chair of the thesis defense and should be notified that they will be asked to play this role when they are invited to join the committee.
Next, in consultation with your advisor, you will write a thesis proposal. The proposal
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should overview your intended program of research.
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At a minimum, it should (not necessarily in the following order)
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provide a rationale for the study, establish the scholarly literature relevant to the project, explain how the study will be undertaken and completed, and
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lay out the chapters of the thesis. Your advisor will provide more specific information and examples of successful thesis proposals.
When the proposal is complete it must be approved by your committee at
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a proposal defense meeting prior to Dec. 15 of your third semester. You will submit the Thesis Proposal Defense Form (Form D) to the DGS after your successful proposal defense. If you do not defend a thesis proposal by Dec. 15 of your third semester
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, you will automatically default to the comprehensive exam option.
In your final semester, you may register for
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six hours of thesis credit and proceed with your
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project. The
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six hours of thesis credit count toward the 33 credit hours
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needed to complete the
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master’s degree.
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If you do not defend a thesis proposal by December 15 of your third semester, it will be assumed that you are taking the comprehensive exam option.
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You will write your thesis in close consultation with your advisor
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(and with your committee members, as relevant). You must distribute your completed thesis to your committee and schedule a thesis defense according to the timeline established by the Graduate School. During the last weeks of your final semester you will
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defend your thesis
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There is a style manual available at the Graduate School (303 Bowne Hall). The style manual outlines the way your thesis and/or faculty-guided research project should be formatted and explains the procedures for submitting final copies of the thesis to the library, and for the conduct of the oral defense of the thesis.
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at an oral exam and submit the thesis to the Graduate School. The Thesis Defense Checklist is a helpful guide to this process; the Graduate School’s website also includes a style manual and more instructions about submitting the final version of your thesis.
Comprehensive Examination Option
Overview
The comprehensive examination is the second of two available exit options
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for master's degree candidates. Comprehensive exams are intended to be a culmination of
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a student’s educational experience
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and may be a productive option for students not intending to continue on to a Ph.D. program or to pursue further scholarly research.
Students may take their comprehensive exams only after successful completion of prior degree requirements, including the
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two required
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- CRS 601 Language, Interaction & Culture
- CRS 603 Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric
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CRS courses (CRS 603 and CRS 607). You should plan your comps areas in the fall of your second year, but the entire comprehensive examination process takes place during the final semester in the program.
Because there are no course credits for comprehensive exams
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Committee
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, students must register for six credits of coursework in the spring of their second year to reach a total of 33 credits to graduate.
Decision to Take the Exam Option
The decision to take comprehensive exams may occur in one of three ways:
- A student may wish to take this exit option from the beginning of their time in the program, and submit that intention
- You may indicate your intention to take comps on the Exit Option form
- Declaration Form (Form B) due by April 15 of the first year. A student
- You may intend to take the thesis option in order to complete his or her degree
- write a thesis but decide, in subsequent consultation with his or her
- your faculty advisor, that the comprehensive examination is a more fitting exit option for his or her personal needs. If a student does
- . In this case, you can resubmit the Exit Option Declaration Form (Form B) to the DGS at any time between April 15 of your first year and Dec. 15 of your second year.
- If you do not pass an oral defense of a thesis proposal by the end of their third semester, it will be assumed that the student has selected the
- Dec. 15 of your second year, you will automatically default to the exam option.
- The decision to take the comprehensive exam option must be final by December 15 of their third semester in the program.
Format
- Students will be allowed the entire semester to prepare for and write their exams. Committee members will present the student with questions near the start of the student’s last term. The exam will include 2 questions to be based on the literatures
Committee
Committee members should be declared by Oct. 1 via the Thesis/Comprehensive Exam Committee Members Form (Form C); if you are switching from the thesis option to the exam option after Oct. 1, the form should be resubmitted with the new committee composition. Comprehensive exam committees should include:
- One CRS faculty member representing one of the two required courses ( 601 and
- CRS 603 or 607). The professors of the 2 required courses will write one question each based on the required course material and submit them to the Graduate Coordinator for distribution to the student. The student will ask a third professor to submit a question in a third area of their choosing. These professors will also comprise the committee for the student’s oral defense of the exam.Answers will
- Generally, the student’s instructor for 603 or 607 will serve in this role, but another CRS faculty member can also be selected.
- One CRS faculty member representing an elective course the student has taken.
- One CRS faculty member representing another course OR another area of emphasis defined by the student and faculty member.
Please note: The student’s advisor coordinates the exam process and also fulfills one of the three committee member roles described above. There is no external member on comps committees.
Process
At the start of your final semester, each committee member will write an exam question related to the area they represent on the committee. If the faculty member represents a course, the course syllabus serves as the reading list; if you are defining an area of emphasis of your own, you and the faculty member develop a reading list together. Your advisor receives the committee members’ questions and decides on a timeline for distributing the questions to you and for collecting your written responses. Usually questions are distributed one at a time, with a period of two to three weeks to respond to each one. Responses should take the form of 12-15 page papers that answer the question by engaging extensively with the reading list.
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All responses are distributed to all committee members and then defended by the student at an oral defense.
You should schedule an oral defense
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after completing all parts of the written exam; the defense date must allow adequate time for committee members to read your responses and occur no later than May 1.
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To graduate on time
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, master's degree candidates must successfully pass their comprehensive examinations according to annual degree requirement dates established by the Graduate School
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. Upon successful completion of a student’s examinations,
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the advisor will notify the DGS, who will inform the Graduate School
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.