Course Meeting Time and Place
This course will meet synchronously online through Google Hangouts on Tuesdays at 1:00.

Contact Information
Instructor: Dr. Jenny Sheppard
Office: English 207
Phone: 575-646-2341
Email: jasheppa@nmsu.edu (best way to reach me)

Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30-4:00 Milton Hall Design Center
and by appointment

Required Materials
Foss, Sonja, & Waters, William. (2007). Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Course Description
This course is designed for PhD students in the Rhetoric and Professional Communication program who have completed coursework and are preparing for comprehensive examinations. Students will develop exam reading lists in three of the four core areas (Composition, Rhetoric, Critical/Cultural Studies, and Technical/Professional Communication), as well as in an area of specialization. In addition to working on exam reading, students will also work with the instructor and their committee members to finalize exam questions and to prepare for writing the exam responses. We will also discuss dissertation planning and proposal writing.

Course Objectives

• To prepare for and take comprehensive exams within one year after completing coursework
  
  
• To select exam questions for three of the four core areas within the RPC program
  
  
• To write/revise an exam question for the specialized area of study that help you to use this process to establish your grounding in the core areas
  
  
• To develop reading lists that capture both central texts/authors and work of interest to you within each core and specialized area
  
  
• To develop a working knowledge of foundational/key ideas within your chosen core areas of study, as well as how those ideas intersect across areas
  
  
• To develop sufficient background and knowledge in core areas so you can:
• understand what questions in the discipline need to be answered
• propose and undertake a dissertation
• understand how you can shape your dissertation to contribute productively to disciplinary conversations
  
  

Assignments

• Timeline for studying, finalizing questions, taking written exam, and scheduling oral exam
  
  
• Weekly contribution to class annotated online bibliography tool (create new or add if citation is already posted)
  
  
• Weekly mini-report to class/group on progress (may include any of the following):
• Share the key argument or an interesting idea from what you read
• Share thoughts on how reading or set of ideas is relating to your research interests
• Share new reading list additions
• Offer feedback and ask questions on comprehensive questions
• Outline responses to questions
• Discuss next steps (dissertation prospectus, research, IRB, etc.)
• Discuss reading of Destination Dissertation
  
  
• Minimum of two meetings within the semester with committee chair to review progress

Evaluation
To earn a grade of " PR" (progress) in this class, you must complete all assignments, contribute to class, and make progress in your exam preparation on a weekly basis.