The Professional Candidacy Examination

All doctoral students are required to submit a serious, mature (ideally, "publishable") research paper as part of their Candidacy requirements. The professional candidacy paper, which may originate in a course paper, is intended to give students further experience in producing scholarly research prior to the dissertation. In addition, it is hoped that it will allow them to test the viability of potential dissertation research projects. Ideally, the professional candidacy paper will serve as the basis of the student's prospectus or a chapter in the dissertation, thereby expediting progress through the doctoral program.

The professional candidacy paper must be a self-contained, article-length work of scholarship, which optimally should be based on new research and in any case must demonstrate the student's original/creative thinking on an intellectual problem. The professional candidacy paper must fulfill the following criteria:

• It must deal with a well-defined topic of scholarly interest;
• The essential questions to be asked in dealing with this problem must be delimited in the introduction;
• The paper must reveal a sophisticated knowledge of the primary and secondary bibliography on a given problem and must involve a critical assessment of the research to date;
• The paper must reveal the student's mature understanding of both fundamental and advanced concepts, theories, and methodologies pertinent to the problem;
• The paper must make an original contribution to the understanding or solution of the problem;
• The paper must end with relevant conclusions drawn from the discussion in the body of the paper.
• The paper must be in a consistent editorial style, to be determined by the students in agreement with their advisor.

Students are to choose the topic of their professional candidacy paper in consultation with their advisors on the basis of serious research interests.

Evaluation of the professional candidacy paper

The paper is evaluated and approved by the members of the student's advisory committee, who may ask that it be rewritten before it can be approved. The committee indicates its approval by signing the Professional Candidacy Paper Approval Form .

Deadline for submission of the professional candidacy paper

In order to be in good standing in the Department, students must complete the professional paper requirement no later than the last day of classes in their eighth quarter of enrollment in the doctoral program (post-M.A.), and ideally even earlier. In any event, the paper must be submitted in its final form, with signatures of the entire advisory committee, to the Graduate Studies Chair or designee by the last day of classes in the quarter before the one in which the student intends to take the candidacy examinations (Milestone 5).

Filing the professional candidacy paper

The copy of the professional candidacy paper that is submitted to the Graduate Studies Chair will be kept for the Department's records. The professional candidacy paper is a departmental requirement only and cannot be submitted to the Graduate School for approval.