Advisory Committee
| Annual Review
| Dissertation Proposal
| Doctoral Degree Plan
Electives
| "Full-time"
| Minor
| Intent to Graduate Form
| Problem Statement for the Dissertation
| Program Directors
| Schedule Request Card
| Specialization
| TCR Worksheet
Your advisory committee is appointed in your first year of doctoral study. It will include two members of the faculty with specializations in technical communication and rhetoric. That committee conducts your annual reviews and will continue to advise you until you select a dissertation committee. The committee recommends courses and consults with you on other decisions affecting graduate study.
Each student's qualifying exams cover a body of materials related to the specialization, minor, and probable dissertation topic.
Although you will refine your dissertation topic as you read for your exams, you should have an idea of the topic and method when you prepare your reading lists. The dissertation proposal identifies the problem requiring research, reviews some of the basic literature regarding the problem, and outlines goals and methods of research for adding to the knowledge regarding the problem. The proposal will also serve as a rationale for the definition of examination fields and the items on the reading lists. It is probably 10-20 pages long. It can be the basis for a chapter in your dissertation.
If your idea for the dissertation is unformed when you prepare your reading lists, you may write a briefer proposal that serves as a rationale for your reading lists and then develop a more detailed proposal following the exams.
Sample proposal with reading lists and rationale: Brenda Orbell (PhD 1997): Discourse, Power, and Social Rupture: An Analysis of Tailhook 91 Download an rtf version
The doctoral degree plan is a form that specifies your plans for meeting the requirements of coursework, methods courses, dissertation topic and committee, and residence. It defines your dissertation area in general terms. You must prepare the doctoral degree plan, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies in TCR and your advisory committee, upon completion of the preliminary review but within one year of your initial enrollment. The Director of Graduate Studies in TCR forwards the degree plan to the Dean of the Graduate School for approval. Before you complete the degree plan for the Graduate School, you will probably use with the TCR worksheet to establish course distribution and requirements.
TCR electives are not electives in the undergraduate sense but rather are courses closely related to TCR that complete the 15 courses required for the specialization. A student does not have to choose electives; all courses may be completed from among the department's TCR courses. However, electives offer the possibility for broadening the background in an area of TCR and for developing an interdisciplinary perspective. For example, a student who wishes to research environmental writing for the dissertation may choose courses in History of Environmentalism (HIST) and Environmental Impact Statements (CE) for electives to complete a TCR specialization.
Courses in communication from the departments in COMS and MCOM can usually count as electives, but others as well may work for a degree plan in part depending on a student's interests.
Course choices should prepare students comfortably in the literature and methods of TCR and enable graduates to discuss the issues of the field with others who have completed advanced study in TCR.
When a student plans intensive study in one area, the courses may constitute a minor rather than electives.
Q: At the doctoral level, how many hours are considered full-time status? Part-time status?
A: It depends on who's asking. For assistantships, the state of Texas wants you to have 9 hours. For financial aid, various entities want you to have 6 hours. We don't have any local definition of "full-time", and we consider 3 hours full-time for distance students.
You must file an "Intent to Graduate" form with the Graduate School early in the semester in which you expect to receive your degree. You must be enrolled in the semester in which you will graduate for at least three hours.
A minor consists of 5 courses in a field other than TCR. The minor may consist of 5 courses in one department, or the cluster of 5 courses may be thematically related. The minor may provide an area of expertise that relates to the dissertation or provide a second teaching field, such as literature. A minor is not a requirement; students who do not choose a minor complete all 60 graduate hours (past the bachelor's degree) in TCR. Students who complete a minor in one department are subject to that department's requirements about exams.
All research is driven by the need to solve problems. "Problems" don't necessarily refer to something bad, but they do indicate a gap in knowledge and a need for the information that research can provide. The simplest form of a problem statement is an A BUT B statement, with "A" representing a goal or current situation, the "BUT" signifying that the goal has not been reached or some limitation in the current situation, and "B" indicating what stands in the way. For example:
A Communication is shifting rapidly from print to online documents even in conventional documents such as textbooks
BUT
B we don't know much about what constitutes effective page design for "reading to learn" hypertext documents.
In a proposal, a literature review will expand this sentence by giving evidence of the shift and up-to-date information on what we do know. The literature review will mark the context for the problem statement (say, online textbooks for chemistry students) and identify the gap in knowledge that the dissertation research will try to fill. It also connects you with other researchers in the field--an important step as no problem occurs in isolation.
The problem statement, developed in the literature review, sets up (becomes the reason for) the research question: What features of screen design and organization encourage attention, comprehension, and recall in online textbooks for undergraduate chemistry students?
Brainstorming "problems" rather than "topics" will help to launch you forward in your thinking about your dissertation. A problem implies a goal or solution and significance (and thus a reason for research and chapters), whereas a topic is static.
Locate these sources for more information on problems for research:
Michael Carter, "Problem Solving Reconsidered: A Pluralistic Theory of Problems." College English 50(1988): 551-65
Reviews the characteristics of "ill-defined problems." These types of problems, as compared to puzzles, lead to research and dissertations.
John Swales, "Research Articles in English." Chapter 7 in Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge UP 1990.
Analyzes introductions to research articles showing the pattern of defining a territory, defining a niche, and occupying the niche. Stating a problem is a way of defining a niche. Swales summarizes this pattern as "Create a Research Space" (CARS). In a way, your preliminary proposal creates a research space.
A number of faculty members in the department have administrative responsibilities. These people have particular responsibilities that concern graduate students in TCR or in English/Rhetoric:
| Title | 2005-6 | Responsibilities |
| Chair | Sam Dragga | Runs the department |
| Director of Technical Communication | Thomas Barker | Coordinates all technical communication activities. |
| Director of Graduate Studies in Technical Communication and Rhetoric | Joyce Locke Carter | Responsible for graduate writing programs in technical communication and rhetoric; advises students in TCR and MATC programs and completes other paperwork for students in these programs (degree plans etc.) |
| Associate Director of Composition | Rebecca Rickly | Administer first-year composition and other undergraduate composition courses |
| Associate Director of Composition | Susan Lang |
You will request courses in the fall (usually in November) for the spring semester and in the spring (usually in April) for the summer and fall semesters. If you are enrolled as a degree candidate in TCR, you must get the signature of the Director of Graduate Studies in TCR in order to register. The Director of Graduate Studies in TCR will seek the approval of your advisory committee before enrolling you.
Unless you have special registration needs (such as the need for an override from another department), the Director of Graduate Studies in TCR can register you from his/her office.
The "specialization" (or "major") is the subject area in which you will qualify for a Ph.D.--technical communication and rhetoric. The specialization consists of 15 courses beyond the bachelor's degree. Of these 15 courses, 9 must be departmental courses from the following list, including 5363, Research Methods in Technical Communication and Rhetoric. All students must complete a minimum of 5 of these departmental courses at Texas Tech University.
The remaining 6 courses in the specialization are TCR electives. The TCR electives may be additional courses from the departmental TCR courses, language and criticism courses in English, or courses related to technical communication and rhetoric from other departments such as Communication Studies.
Courses that you completed for your Master's degree will probably count toward your specialization or minor.
English 5365 and 5377 may be repeated for credit when the topic varies.
Your advisory committee will consult with you in the selection of specialization courses
(departmental courses and electives) and must approve them.
The TCR Worksheet is an internal form that outlines course requirements for the specialization, minor, and methods courses. Use it to determine that you have met course requirements before you complete the doctoral degree plan.
Last Updated by Joyce Locke Carter, September 18, 2008