Handbook

SUMMARY OF PROCEDURES FOR E695 (INDEPENDENT STUDY) AND E699 (THESIS)

1. E695 (2 credits): Only students who have fulfilled these requirements may enroll in E695 or stand for oral examination on Plan B.
   1. E695, a two-credit unit, is an independent study with close supervision by the instructor (and, in the case of Plan B, of the candidates entire graduate committee) at crucial stages of the project. Plan A students may and Plan B students must take one (but ordinarily only one) such unit.
   2. The scope and quality of the work must be commensurate with or go beyond that expected in regular courses. The study must not duplicate the content of a regularly scheduled course: rather, it will be a further development of an English course on the 500 or 600 level.
   3. A student registering for E695 must have completed nine credits in residence and must have filed a GS Form 6 plan of study recording a graduate program and a graduate committee.
   4. Each E695 project for Plan B degree requirements must be approved, before the student registers for E695, by the student's permanent advisor and graduate committee, and by the Graduate Coordinator. Other E695 projects must be approved by the instructor and the Graduate Coordinator. Approval has been secured when a candidate submits a properly-signed, written proposal on the Department form. When the completed form is submitted, the English office will release the hidden reference number to the student.
   5. E695 projects will ordinarily result in a substantial paper. E695 projects for Plan B degree requirements must result in a substantial paper which meets the approval of the candidate's graduate committee.
   6. Under Plan B, success of the E695 project is critical, for the final oral examination is based on the paper that results from the project--its implications, sources, conclusions, and relationships to other important issues in the candidate's field. Since each member of a student's graduate committee must approve a Plan B project, the student and the student's advisor should work closely with the entire committee during the entire course of the project. Candidates and committee members are obligated to review the developing Plan B project and paper regularly so that a candidate can anticipate the committee's final reaction. A candidate must furnish each member of the committee a copy of the completed paper at least ten days before the date of an oral examination.
   7. In TESL/Linguistics, several additional procedures are necessary:
      1. Members of the TESL/Linguistics Committee serve as temporary advisors to all candidates accepted into the TESL specialization. Since a candidate in TESL does not ordinarily select a permanent advisor and plan an E695 project before the GS Form 6 plan of study must be filed with the Graduate School, the temporary advisor will sign the GS Form 6 as advisor.
      2. After a student has been in the TEFL/TESL program for some time, but before any E695 project or thesis project is formulated, the candidate, in consultation with the temporary advisor and other members of the TESL/Linguistics faculty, will choose a permanent advisor and a committee. When the candidate does choose a permanent advisor and prepare an E695 proposal, a change of committee (GS Form 9A) form should be filed with the Graduate School, and the permanent committee then recorded will approve and sign the E695 proposal before it is submitted to the TESL/Linguistics Committee.
      3. Ordinarily, in order to achieve as much integration as possible between the TESL and the Linguistics portions of this specialization, one TESL person will serve on a candidate's committee (either as advisor or as committee person) along with one linguist. The third member of the committee will be from outside the Department, (as Graduate School policy dictates). A candidate may have additional committee members if he or she wishes.
      4. The TESL/Linguistics Committee will review each E695 proposal both in order to furnish as much guidance as possible to the candidate and in order to coordinate any research that must be done in Intensive English Program classes.
      5. After the TESL/Linguistics Committee reviews a proposal, the general procedures for E695 will apply as candidates undertake their E695 projects, consult regularly with all members of their committee, and complete the project in sufficient time for all members of the committee to review it.
2. E699
   

   Generally the procedures that apply to E695 projects apply to E699, thesis, as well. To be eligible to register for E699, Plan A students must:

   1. complete nine hours in residence;
   2. file a GS-6 Plan of Study recording both a program and a graduate committee, including a permanent advisor who will direct the study;
   3. complete a thesis proposal (on the Department form) and gain the approval of the advisor and other members of the student's graduate committee in a formal meeting to be held near the end of the first year of study or early in the second year.
   4. TESOL/Linguistics students must submit their proposal to a review by the TESOL/Linguistics committee.
   5. All Plan A students will return the thesis proposal to the Graduate Coordinator during the semester before first registering for E699.

Thesis candidates and their committees should clarify the proposal and mutual expectations (timeline for completion of the project, functions of various committee members, advance notice for scheduling examinations, etc.) during the formal meeting noted in item c above.

The thesis must by typed according to the requirements of the Graduate School. For instructions, the students should check the CSU Bulletin and the Thesis Manual. The student shall give copies of the thesis to all members of the student's graduate committee no later than two weeks prior to the date of the oral examination.

Note: Forms for E695 and E687 are available online on the Forms page.