Research Seminar

Linguistics 47900, Fall 2003

Tuesdays 1:30-4:20 pm

Gates-Blake 201

Instructor Jason Merchant

merchant@uchicago.edu

office phone: (773) 702-8523

http://home.uchicago.edu/~merchant

Office: Classics 305

Office hours: Thur 12-2pm

Course description

The aim of this course is twofold: one, to allow you to make progress on your research in a structured way and to help fulfill program requirements, and two, to present professionalization information crucial to success in the field. The prerequisites for enrollment are two: 1. graduate standing (you must be enrolled either as a PhD or MA student) and 2. the presentation to me at the first meeting of a draft of a research paper. The course is organized largely around working on the research paper, with the goal of making it a conference-presentable and journal-publishable work. Topics covered include abstracts, publishing, handouts, presentation skills, course design, creating and maintaining a cv, cover letters, webpages, and in general everything that is required for you to successfully compete for jobs in linguistics.

Course requirements

• writing a research paper: the paper may also (ideally, even) serve as the basis of the fulfillment of one Field Exam requirement, upon defense and approval of your committee
• preparing abstracts and handouts based on your paper
• presenting it to the class
• preparing a cv
• preparing a webpage
• preparing a graduate seminar syllabus

The final grade will be based on all of the above elements

Text

The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career, John Goldsmith et al., University of Chicago Press: Chicago.

Weekly schedule

Week	Date	Topic
1	9.30	intro
2	10.7	cv
3	10.14	abstract 1
4	10.21	webpage
5	10.28
6	11.4	abstract 2
7	11.11
8	11.18	syllabus
9	11.25
10	12.2	miniconference