Department of Linguistics

The next phase in the completion of your Ph.D. degree is the submission of the Outline of the Dissertation, commonly known as the 'Proposal'.  After successful completion of the Oral Examination, the student must form a dissertation committee and submit a dissertation proposal. The proposal is due early in the semester following the Orals, and should be reviewed and approved by committee members prior to formal submission to the Department. After the proposal has been approved, the candidate proceeds to dissertation research and writing under the guidance of the dissertation committee. When the dissertation committee agrees that the dissertation is complete, the candidate will participate in an Oral Defense of Thesis of approximately two hour's duration.

 First, an outline draft will be due to your mentor immediately following your Oral Exam. The formal submission of your dissertation proposal is due to the Department the semester immediately following the completion of your Orals. Students will normally submit two versions of the proposal: a detailed version for approval by the committee and the Department, and an abbreviated version for approval by the Graduate School. The mentor will provide guidance as to what the detailed version should contain. The abbreviated version must be submitted using the Dissertation Proposal form available from the Graduate School’s website: http://www.georgetown.edu/grad/forms/current-forms.html. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval of the proposed study is a required element of all dissertation proposals involving human subjects.

Several levels of review and approval are required; the following sequence is recommended:

1. You should obtain verbal consent of your proposed mentor and readers before officially submitting your proposal. The mentor and at least one reader of your dissertation must be regular faculty members of the Linguistics Department. The second reader may be from another department or outside the University (subject to the Director of Graduate Studies' (DGS) approval and only if warranted by the dissertation topic).

2. Departmental Approval of the Research Proposal: It is expected that the faculty you select to serve on your dissertation committee will have already been consulted about serving on your committee, and have seen a draft of your proposal. You must submit four copies of your detailed version to the Department (each committee member will get a copy with a memorandum for their approval of the proposal and of their appointment to your committee). Once the mentor and readers approve the proposal, the DGS reviews it for final approval. You will then receive a formal letter of approval from the Department.

3. IRB-C approval (where required).

4. Filing of the Graduate School’s Dissertation Research Proposal Form: You must complete the Dissertation Proposal Form, which can be found on their website http://www.georgetown.edu/grad/forms/current-forms.html. You need to submit only one copy of this form to the Graduate Program Assistant. The Graduate Program Assistant will distribute your proposal form to your committee members for their approval.

Once your proposal is approved by your committee and the DGS, you will receive the official approval letter. If at any point after your proposal is approved and you want to change a member of your committee, you must submit a request to the DGS.