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Online Placement Test

Prerequisites:
An undergraduate major in French or permission of the Program Coordinator.

Courses/Credits:
Students must complete a minimum of 30 credits including 3 credits in Graduate Language Seminar and the remaining courses in literature or a minor field with the approval of the graduate advisor.

Exit Requirement:
Students have the choice of either a Dossier or a written examination:

A) Dossier

Present and defend a Dossier consisting of three term papers, revised by the student and approved by each faculty member for whom they were originally written. The oral defense of the Dossier can be expected to take one hour.

B) Written examination

The examination consists of two sessions of three hours each. The examination is normally administered during the first two weeks in December or the last two weeks in April. All students who choose this option are required to take the exam no later than one semester after they have completed 30 hours of coursework.

1. What is a Dossier?

     a. A dossier is composed of three papers initially written for courses taken with three different faculty members and revised in light of their presentation as cumulative work. At least two of the papers will be written in French. One may be written in English. One paper may come from a graduate course taken outside the French Program. All dossiers additionally include a 4-8 page introduction (written in English or French) in which the candidate discusses and assesses the relations of the papers to one another and to her/his general course of graduate study. This introduction is understood to serve as a self-reflexive exercise, a way of bringing together the candidate's thinking about the intellectual framework governing the papers and her/his M.A. work as a whole. All dossiers are expected to conform to the MLA style (current edition). The French Program will open and maintain a file of sample dossiers for perusal by candidates.

     b. Completion of the dossier requirement involves two steps:
          1) acceptance of the dossier in its final form by the committee (see A, 3, a herein);
          2) an oral hearing on the dossier.

2. What is a Dossier Hearing?

     a. The dossier hearing is a conversation about the strengths, weaknesses, implications, assumptions, problems, and prospects of the work in an accepted dossier. It is not an examination in the usual sense. The candidate opens the hearing with a 5-10 minute presentation of the dossier and the issues she/he sees for discussion in it, from which the faculty can draw additional questions and responses. The hearing normally lasts 45 minutes to an hour.

     b. In general, the purpose of the dossier hearing is to allow some judgment of the work in the dossier as a foundation for further work in the profession. The committee will be interested primarily in the candidate's ability to see implications, examine assumptions, and locate her/his activity within the broader terms of disciplinary and professional engagement.

3. How is a Dossier Created?

     a. The candidate is expected to meet with the graduate advisor to form a committee in the semester (usually during the third semester of graduate work) prior to the proposed oral. S/he will choose two members of the committee, one of whom will serve as convener. A third member will be appointed by the graduate advisor. The members of the dossier committee are expected to work actively with candidates in revising the course papers toward their dossier form. Students may petition the committee at any time prior to the submission of the completed dossier to the committee.

4. When are Dossier Hearings Held?

     a. Dossier hearings may be held at any time during the fourth semester (or later) of graduate work.

     b. The completed dossier must normally be submitted to the committee for its approval or disapproval at least one month in advance of the request to schedule a hearing so that the candidate has enough time to revise in light of the committee's responses.

     c. Dossier hearings are not usually held or scheduled during the summer.

5. Under What Circumstances Would A Dossier Be Rejected?

     a. It is hard to cover all possibilities in advance, but the most likely reason would be that the candidate has failed to establish and maintain contact with her/his committee. Rejection of a dossier by a committee with which a candidate has been in active contact would, obviously, suggest some deeper special difficulty. In general, candidates are entitled to expect clear guidance from their committees and should have little occasion to be uncertain about the acceptability of their dossier prior to the oral hearing.