Overview of the Doctoral Program in Technical and Professional Discourse

This guide provides a brief introduction to the Ph.D. degree as well as information about financial aid. You can request a more detailed guide by contacting the Department of English, Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. James Holte, by phone at 252-328-4291 or by email at holtej@mail.ecu.edu.

The East Carolina University Graduate Catalog offers further guidance about the Graduate School's requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Graduate School applications can be acquired by phone at 252-328-6012, by email at www.gradschool@mail.ecu.edu.

The Ph.D. in Technical and Professional Discourse enables students to contribute to the advancement of cultural, technical, and professional discourse. Discourse is an inclusive term that refers to the full range of texts and text types, both historical and contemporary, which occur in both public life and the professions. Discourse includes spoken as well as written texts, graphic representation as well as printed text, and electronic multi-media as well as more traditional publication techniques.

Through interdisciplinary course work and research in the theory, practice, and analysis of discourse, the program prepares students to

To help graduates achieve such promise, the program relies on current strengths in three major emphases:

Although these three areas constitute the primary focus of the degree, students can take advantage of other East Carolina University faculty strengths, both within and beyond the Department of English, through cooperative agreements with Affiliate departments, elective courses, collaborative research, and the dissertation.

Advising & Mentoring

The Ph.D. advising process assists students in creating a Plan of Study, in preparing for the Candidacy Examination, and in completing the Dissertation. The Director of Graduate Studies assigns each Ph.D. student an initial advisor upon admission to the program.

Sometime toward the end of the second semester of study or early in the second year, students should enter into an agreement with a graduate faculty member in the Department of English, who will most likely chair their dissertation committee. Students should establish this informal relationship early because the dissertation advisor will want to review and possibly modify their Plan of Study, as well as help assemble the remainder of the dissertation committee.

It is expected that the student and the committee will meet to discuss the Plan of Study and to help with three major tasks:

Review the proposed Plan of Study,
Conduct the Candidacy Examination, and
Review and approve the Dissertation Prospectus and the completed Dissertation.

Students are encouraged to obtain committee approval of the proposed Plan of Study as early as possible but no later than the time of registration for the final six credit hours of courses. Students should also begin drafting their Dissertation Prospectus as early as possible, although a formal Dissertation Prospectus may not be submitted until after the Language Competency requirement and Candidacy Examination have been completed.

The Ph.D. degree requires satisfactory completion of 60 credit hours beyond the master's degree. Graduate credits earned at other institutions may be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral program. Transfer credit will be evaluated individually by the Director of Graduate Studies in terms of Graduate School requirements, program requirements, and the student's Plan of Study.

2. Fifteen semester hours in the Department of English (15 s.h.) selected in consultation with an advisor and committee by constructing a coherent Plan of Study that moves students toward an identifiable goal. These courses will rely on the department's emphases in:

3. Nine hours of electives (9 s.h.) that focus on a student's particular interests selected from other courses at the 7000 level or above offered by any graduate faculty member in the Department of English, from similar courses in Affiliate departments, or any combination of these sources.

5. A dissertation--ENGL 9000 Dissertation--involving original and independent research (minimum of 18 s.h.).

1. The Director of Graduate Studies, in concert with the Graduate Admissions Committee, will evaluate each applicant's academic history to determine if earlier work can be used to waive certain courses, or to suggest additional work to remedy deficiencies.

2. Teaching assistants must complete ENGL 7625 Teaching Composition: Theory and Practice (3 s.h.) or a similar course. In some instances, evidence of previous teaching experience may allow a student to waive this requirement.

3. Foreign nationals should be aware of the Immigration and Naturalization Service requirements that mandate 12 s.h. per term. Creating a Plan of Study for such students will be addressed by advisors.

Since research often forces one to read texts published in languages other than English, the Ph.D. requires competency in one foreign language. That requirement can be fulfilled by:

In some instances, it may be more appropriate to demonstrate knowledge of a contemporary quantitative or social science programming language. An advisor can help in selecting the best approach for specific research needs. This language competency requirement must be completed before a student may commence work on the dissertation.

In consultation with the dissertation committee, students declare a major area and two minor areas in which they agree to be examined. The Candidacy Examination allows students to demonstrate that they can develop and defend a sophisticated position on important questions in their major and minor areas of study. The Candidacy Examination must be completed successfully before a formal Dissertation Prospectus can be submitted.

The dissertation committee chair has the responsibility for guiding a student through the research and writing of the dissertation. Typically, students submit individual dissertation chapters to their committee members for review and approval before they submit the completed dissertation. If and when a committee considers a dissertation to be defensible, the authoring student must defend the dissertation publicly.

Each year the department makes a small number of awards for financial aid in the form of teaching assistantships. These awards are based on scholarly achievement and promise. The department generally receives numerous applications for the limited resources. Thus, a financial aid award represents a considerable investment in a student's career. In return, we expect that students who receive awards will make a significant commitment to their studies. Continued financial aid depends on satisfactory:

Overview of the Doctoral Program in Technical and Professional Discourse Department of English East Carolina University
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