Doctor of Philosophy
DOCTORAL PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
English Department
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Effective Fall 2006
Qualifications for Taking the Exam
The preliminary examination for the PhD in English is taken after you have completed course work and satisfied the foreign language requirement and other conditions or research skill requirements. The examination is preliminary in that you must pass the examination, both the written and oral parts, before being officially admitted to candidacy for the degree by the Graduate School.Purpose of the Preliminary Examination
It is important that you understand the nature and purposes of the preliminary examination. Such knowledge will aid in your preparation and will enable you to make the examination a significant part of study for your degree.The purpose of the written exam is multi-fold. When drawing up the reading lists, you and your advising faculty advising should bear in mind the possibilities of the current job market, the focus of your anticipated dissertation topic, the logical integration of the various parts of the exam, your interests, and the faculty's expertise. Successful completion of the exams strengthens the faculty advisor's ability to certify to potential employers your teaching and research competence in the areas of examination. In grading the exams, faculty members will ask themselves, "Does this student seem to know the material and understand the concepts that all competent professors teaching in this area should be expected to know and understand?" The examiners will assess your ability to respond appropriately to the questions by integrating and synthesizing large amounts of information and expressing it in coherent and persuasive prose.
The Structure of the Preliminary Examination
Areas of Specialization (exam areas and reading lists)Your exams and reading lists are based on your choice of one primary area and two secondary areas of specialization for teaching and scholarship.
I. Primary Areas
Choose one of the following areas
II. Secondary AreasOld and Middle English
Renaissance/Early Modern English
Restoration and Eighteenth Century British
Nineteenth-Century British
Post 1900 British and Anglophone Literature
Postcolonial Literatures and Theory
American Literature Before 1900
American Literature After 1900
African American Literature
Rhetoric and Composition
Literary Theory
Choose two of the following
A. An examination in a different area selected from the list above (Fixed lists of authors).
B. A third examination in a different area selected from the list above (Fixed lists of authors).
C. A cross-period of critical problem examination (Negotiated list of primary works, of equal weight to the fixed lists in reading of authors/works).
Although a list may repeat authors, it may not repeat works on the other two lists.
Fixed reading lists (attached) provide the basis for the primary list in your selected field of specialization. These lists are intended to represent traditional areas of expertise in the fields of literature, literary theory, theory of language, rhetorical theory, composition theory, and pedagogy. The fixed lists of authors or schools represent, however incompletely, the canons of textual material that all professors of those specialties are expected to know thoroughly. The Graduate Faculty in each of these areas have selected authors and schools whose works they judge to be the minimum essential reading for professionals intending to teach at the undergraduate level in those areas.Literature primary exam: In consultation with your advisory committee, you will draw up the reading list for the primary area by adding works to the fixed list that reflect your particular interests, but also represent all the genres important to the period. The primary list must be approximately double the length of the fixed list. If you are taking secondary exams in literature you are responsible for the entire fixed list, although it may be supplemented.
Rhetoric and Composition primary exam: In consultation with your advisory committee, you may delete half of the rhetorical history list, half of the composition and pedagogy list, and then add to the combined list approximately the same number of works. If you are taking a secondary exam you are responsible for either the entire rhetorical history section or the entire composition and pedagogy section of the Rhetoric and Composition fixed list, although each may be supplemented. If you are taking the Rhetoric and Composition primary exam, you may not choose secondary exams in these areas.
Literary Theory exam: In consultation with your advisory committee, you will draw up the reading list for the primary exam by covering the “Classic Theory” list and by choosing four additional lists. With the approval of your advisory committee, you may add up to ten authors. A secondary exam covers the “Classic Theory” list plus two additional lists, and you may add up to five additional authors.
Negotiated reading list for the cross-period or critical problem exam will be drawn up in consultation with and approved by your advisory committee. Because this exam is intended to allow you to pursue a specialized interest within a context that is broad enough to constitute a secondary teaching area, the list should adhere to the following principles:
A. The list should represent one of the following
(i) preparation for a career specialty or subspecialty not represented by the other exams (e.g. homiletics, gender studies),
(ii) concentration upon a particular genre that cannot be covered by a traditional historical exam (e.g. romance, the novel, tragic drama), or
(iii) a critical problem that transcends the traditional historical categories (e.g. What is the relation of German aesthetics to nineteenth-century American and British poetic form? What was the impact of the colonization of America upon British literature? How might ethnography be used to study multi-cultural literacies in academic and non-academic contexts?)
B. In general, the list for such an exam should provide the appropriate background for the specialized research anticipated for the dissertation, but should not represent works confined to a single historical period. The list should include authors from at least two historical periods (as defined by the categories for the primary list) or two nationalities. In the case of genre, the list must include authors from three historical periods and/or nationalities.
C. A negotiated list exam should require a thoroughness of reading and study equal to a fixed list.
D. As support for your negotiated reading list, you will write a 400-600 word rationale that explains what authors and what works you chose and why, what theoretical questions you are examining with this list, how the list meets the criteria above, and how the list supports your future work in the doctoral program and in your areas of specialization.
Preparation for the Preliminary Examination
Preparation for the preliminary examination should be a joint effort between you and your advisory committee. Early in the preparation you must consult with your committee chair and schedule a meeting with your committee in committee session, not individually, to preview preparation for the examination. At this session you should present the tentative reading lists, previously drawn up in consultation with the individual committee members, for further revision and ratification by your entire advisory committee. If you are taking the cross-period/critical problem exam, you must submit the rationale for revision and ratification as well as the list. You are responsible for providing a copy of the final approved lists and, when appropriate, the rationale, to each member of your advisory committee within two weeks after this meeting.It is in your best interest that the faculty member(s) responsible for the negotiated list exam be confident of his or her expertise and reputation in the field or sub-field represented by the exam, and that she or he either already has sufficient knowledge of the texts and their secondary literatures or is willing to attain this knowledge prior to the examination date. For this reason, faculty members are not obligated to accept any proposal for a negotiated exam, in whole or in part.
In addition to discussion of the lists, you should gain the committee’s advice on such matters as the following:
1. Preferred texts or editions of items on the reading list, including useful introduction.
2. Secondary texts (critical or historical) to supplement the primary texts on the reading list. (Such additions and stipulations will reflect the particular views of the committee and your needs.)
3. Guidance in selecting emphases for study (these will vary according to your previous work and the predilections of the committee), including advice about which works are to be known intensively and which are to be known more generally (cf. Bacon: some books to be tasted, some swallowed, some few to be chewed and digested).
4. Guidance about ideas on which you should concentrate for further study.
5. Discussion about the general format of the written and oral parts of the examination.
6. Decisions on whether the committee will confer with you about responses on the written examination before the oral examination is taken.
This conference with your advisory committee in committee session during preparation is required; more conferences are advised should you and your committee see the need for sharpened counsel.
In addition, you should consult the file of the previously given sample preliminary written examination questions online. You will find the information to be a useful record of precedent and example for guidance in preparation.Conduct of the Preliminary Examination
The administration of the exams is as follows:For the primary exam, you will be given FIVE HOURS (of which, one hour should be reserved for revision) to answer three out of five questions; for a fixed list secondary exam, you will be given THREE HOURS to answer two out of four questions; for a negotiated list secondary exam, you will be given THREE HOURS to answer to answer one or two questions out of four. The questions will be answered on a computer, and your location will be established in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
The written preliminary examination will ordinarily be administered by the chair of your committee on three separate days within a seven day period at a time agreed upon with your chair. Upon your completion of the entire written examination, your chair will immediately begin circulating the examination for reading and evaluation by your committee. Your committee will individually make written evaluative comments on each question of the examination to evaluate your performance. Unanimous approval of the committee is required for passing the preliminary examination.
You should be advised informally whether you passed or failed all or part of the examination. If you fail one part (primary or secondary) and pass the others (primary or secondary), you may be re-examined only on the part failed. You are thus allowed one further opportunity to pass the examination, whether in part or in whole. At least one semester must elapse before re-examination is permitted. You are required to meet with the faculty member(s) who wrote the questions for the failed part of the examination to discuss weaknesses and methods of preparation for re-examination. You may not take the oral examination until all parts of the written examination are passed.
The Oral Examination
The oral part of the preliminary examination, normally scheduled two to four weeks after successful completion of the written examination, will also cover your primary and secondary fields. It is expected that many of the questions posed during the oral will derive from your performance on the written examination. Questions on additional matters relevant to your primary and secondary fields will also be posed.The oral examination is not limited to a repetition of the written questions. It provides opportunity for you to give evidence of long, thoughtful, and critical consideration of questions related to your primary and secondary areas. You will be called upon to consider both the intrinsic qualities of works and the relationships of those works to others, to the genres, their historical placement, and their authors. It is to your advantage to answer questions fully, with ample citation of examples, passages, or other details as well as with full consideration of literary and historical context. The preferred recognition is that you have much more to say than there is time to say it.
Time allowed for the oral examination is two to three hours. Ordinarily the chair of your committee will begin the questioning and continue uninterrupted by other questioners for an agreed upon period (about 20 minutes). The chair will then be followed by each member of the committee in a like manner for a similar period. Usually the committee will divide responsibilities in order to insure coverage of the major and minor fields. After a short break, the committee will re-open questioning on any matters earlier posed or on new lines of inquiry:
Upon completing the examination, you will be excused while your committee confers. Your committee may decide whether to render individual decisions by open discussion or secret ballot. If there is division within the committee, it is appropriate to discuss evaluations to see if agreement is possible. As with written examinations, unanimous approval of the committee is required for passing the oral examination.
Your entire committee should be present when you are told their decision. If re-examination is required, you should be advised about deficiencies in knowledge and/or presentation. During re-examination you will be responsible for answering on the primary and secondary fields.
You have a maximum of two opportunities to pass the oral part of the preliminary examination. At least one semester must elapse before re-examination is permitted.
Upon your successful completion of the entire preliminary examination, the committee chair will so advise the Director of Graduate Studies, who will report the examination and date as a matter of record to the Graduate School. The chair of your committee should also submit a copy of the examination questions and the written answers to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will place the questions in a public online file, and place the answers in your confidential file.
Also see Sample PhD Questions
For more information, contact:
Ms. Alyson Everhart
Administrative Assistant to Graduate Studies in English
3137 MHRA
(336) 334-5311
