Proseminar in Linguistics

Ling 6001 — Proseminar in Linguistics
Autumn '14, F 4:10–5:30, Jennings 40 / Oxley 122
Spring '15, F 3:55–5:15, Jennings 60 / Oxley 122
Instructor: Michael White
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~mwhite/

Course Objectives

One of the requirements of all students in the doctoral program in linguistics is to take courses that are designed to give them an appropriate level of competence in the core areas and methods of the field as a whole as well as in core ideas and methods that are specific to their chosen area(s) of specialization. However, there are also many basic skills and attitudes that are not specific to linguistics but will be useful whether the student is preparing for a career in academia or industry or government or some other area of endeavor. These skills include, for example, the ability to present results and ideas to an audience of non-specialists in a variety of venues. A graduate who applies to a position in academia needs to be able to present a compelling job talk, a graduate who is hired in a research lab in industry or by an NGO needs to be able to present a compelling project proposal, and so on. This proseminar in linguistics is designed to help students acquire these more general skills. After each term's proseminar, students will have gained some of the range of skills needed to be a successful professional linguist.

Course Requirements

Required reading for the course includes Monica Macauley's Surviving Linguistics: A guide for graduate students (2nd ed.; Cascadilla Press, 2011); materials suggested by outside speakers constitute optional but recommended readings.

Class meetings will either consist of attending the Friday afternoon departmental seminar listed on the Linguistics Event Calendar or discussing a number of more practically oriented aspects of academic life, including LCC tutorials.

Students must attend the Friday meetings regularly. On non-talk days, students must take an active part in discussions, offering critiques of presentations, asking questions, and giving their own perspective on topics under consideration, based on their experiences in the department but also on the readings.

On days when a talk is scheduled, students should attend and take note of issues relating to both the content of the talk as well as how it was presented, then post at least one comment on the talk on the appropriate Carmen discussion forum by the end of the following Tuesday. Comments may consider, for example, whether the speaker conveyed the ideas in a jargon-free way, whether the organization of talk was effective, whether the talk was supported adequately by the handout or slides, how well the speaker responded to questions from the audience, and similar concerns.

Announcements will frequently be made by email, and for this reason students are expected to check their official OSU email address on a daily basis.

Possible Discussion Topics