Ph.D. in English, with Emphasis in English and/or American Literature

This advanced professional degree requires a minimum of 60 credit hours beyond the baccalaureate. Typically at least 30 credit hours will have been earned in an M.A. program.
Major fields may be chosen from the following areas:

• Medieval, Renaissance, Restoration and 18th-Century English Literature, 19th-Century English Literature, or 20th-Century English Literature
• Colonial and 19th-Century American Literature or 20th-Century American Literature.

Minor fields may be chosen from any of the major fields as well as from Comparative Literature, Criticism and Theory, History of the Book and Authorship, Southern Literature, African American Literature, Women's Studies, Linguistics, Composition and Rhetoric, and Speech Communication. Ad hoc minors may be proposed in such areas as Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Film Studies, Creative Writing, Children's Literature, or in particular genres.

• Admission
• Advisement
• Curriculum
• Doctoral Committee
• Admission to Candidacy
• Qualifying Exam
• Comprehensive Exams
• Dissertation Prospectus
• Dissertation Defense
• Fellowships
• Assistantships
• Professional Opportunities
  -- At USC
  -- After USC

Admission

Applicants to the Ph.D. program in English and American Literature must have completed at least 30 hours of graduate credit in English or in a closely-related field. Preference is given to applicants demonstrating distinguished work in completed M.A. degrees and strong support from those who have taught them.

Admission to a Ph.D. program allows a student to work toward admission to candidacy for the degree.
Applicants should submit directly to The Graduate School

• online application forms,
• at least two letters of recommendation from teachers familiar with your academic achievement,
• transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions, and
• satisfactory scores on the GRE general test and subject tests taken no more than five years prior to the application date.

Applicants to this doctoral program typically have GRE verbal scores at or above the 75th percentile and a GPA of 3.5 or better.

You should send directly to the Department of English, attention Graduate Studies (address at left)

• a sample of academic writing (approximately 10-20 pages) and
• a statement of purpose.

Your application is not complete until all materials are received by The Graduate School and the Department. Admission decisions are based on all parts of an application, with especially close attention given to writing samples.

Application deadlines are January 30 for those wishing to be considered for fellowships or assistantships and April 15 for all others.

Advisement

Prior to registering for classes each semester, you should make an appointment to talk with an advisor. New Ph.D. students may rely on Noreen Doughty, graduate student coordinator, or Holly Crocker, director of graduate studies, for advisement. Within the first semester, however, students should identify an advisor among faculty members in their major field.

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Curriculum

• 24 hours (exclusive of ENGL701A/B), including at least two 800-level seminars and one class in critical theory (ENGL 732, 734, or an equivalent). ENGL 700 (Introduction to Graduate Study) is recommended for students who have not taken a research methods course during their previous graduate work.
• qualifying exam in the major field
• written comprehensive exams: one in the major field and one in the minor field
• oral exam in the major field
• 12 hours of ENGL 899 (dissertation writing)
• reading knowledge of 2 foreign languages
• completion of dissertation and oral dissertation defense

See also Course Descriptions, Residency, Language Competence, Time Limits for Degrees, and Frequently Asked Questions.

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Doctoral Committee

By the end of your first year, you should notify the Director of Graduate Studies that you have assembled a doctoral committee of three or four professors in your major field. In consultation with this committee, you will devise and file with the Graduate Office a reading list and a tentative body of course work that will become the basis of your formal program of study, to be submitted following your admission to candidacy.

Typically, the professor you have asked to direct your dissertation will become chair of the doctoral committee. You may change the composition of the committee at any time by written notice to the Director of Graduate Studies. No formal reason for changes need be given; however, as a courtesy, you should notify any members removed from the committee by letter, with a copy sent to the Graduate Director.

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Admission to Candidacy

Admission to the doctoral program does not constitute admission to candidacy. You will be admitted to full Ph.D. candidacy status after the following criteria have been met:

• passed a qualifying examination (see below),
• been fully admitted to the doctoral degree program, and
• filed an approved doctoral program of study with The Graduate School.

While the qualifying examination is often taken early in a doctoral program, a graduate student does not become a candidate for the doctoral degree until granted admission to candidacy by the dean of The Graduate School

The dean of the Graduate School admits the student to doctoral candidacy after completion of all three conditions. The Graduate School will notify the student and graduate director of the admission to candidacy. Completion of all three components of the admission to candidacy procedure should be at least one full academic year before granting of the degree.

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Qualifying Exam

The qualifying examination is a required component for admission to candidacy. The exam requires a 90-minute essay on your choice of one of three questions. You must take this exam no later than the semester in which you take your fifteenth credit hour. Qualifying exams are taken on the same day as the M.A. comprehensive exams, given twice a year. At the beginning of the semester in which you plan to take the qualifying exam, notify the Director of Graduate Studies in writing of your intention.

Three professors in your major field will evaluate your exam. You will be identified only by a number; your name will not appear on the exam. Two of the readers must pass you and recommend you for candidacy. You will have two opportunities to pass the qualifying exam. If you do not pass on the first attempt, you must retake the exam within one year.

Students who have earned an M.A. in the department may ask that the M.A. exam be reread for doctoral candidacy. Request additional information from Student Coordinator Noreen Doughty or Graduate Director Holly Crocker if you believe this option applies to you.  

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Comprehensive Exams

Doctoral candidates are required to take written comprehensive exams in both a major and minor field by the fall semester of their third year in the program. Questions for the exams are prepared by members of the doctoral committee (and, in the case of some minor field exams, by appropriate faculty in the minor area). Questions are based on reading lists for both the major and minor compiled by the candidate and approved by the doctoral committee. These reading lists must be on file in the Graduate Office at the beginning of the semester in which you take the exams. Formal notice of intent to take the exams must also be presented in writing to the Graduate Director at this time. Exams are given only twice a year.

The major and minor exams consist of six questions each, from which the candidate chooses two. On the first day of exams students will write for two hours on each of the two questions chosen for the major. A short break is provided between questions, and a full day separates the major and minor exams. The minor exam also requires four hours: two hours on each of two questions.

To pass each exam, you must receive passing grades on both questions from two of three readers. To receive a pass with distinction, you must receive grades of pass with distinction on both questions from two of three readers. Should you fail one exam or one question of one exam, you will have to retake that exam; if you fail one or more questions on both the major and minor exams, you will have to retake both exams. You have two opportunities to pass the written exam; you must retake any failed portion within one year.

Candidates who pass the major and minor exams must schedule an oral exam on the major within one month. The oral exam is conducted by the doctoral committee, including one examiner from outside the department. The exam covers only those texts on the major field reading list. Typically an oral exam lasts at least one hour and not more than two hours. You have two opportunities to pass the oral exam; if needed, a second exam must take place within a year following the first.

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Dissertation Prospectus

Within thirty days of passing the oral exam, doctoral candidates should submit and defend a dissertation prospectus laying out the significance, scope, research method, and theoretical approach to the dissertation topic, along with chapter summaries, and a timetable for completion.

The purpose of the prospectus defense is to gain advice and approval from your dissertation committee (your doctoral committee in its final form: dissertation director, at least two specialists in your research area or areas, and one faculty member from outside the department). Approval of the prospectus constitutes an agreement that committee members will not object to the finished dissertation if it fulfills the basic plan, methods, and theoretical approach outlined initially. Of course, committee members may object to the dissertation on other grounds, such as quality of writing, effectiveness of argument, sufficiency of documentation, and so forth. The director of your dissertation will supervise your 12 hours of ENGL 899.

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Dissertation Defense

At least two weeks prior to the oral defense of your dissertation, you should present a polished final draft of your manuscript to the dissertation committee. The dissertation must conform to standards set by The Graduate School, and its format must be checked by the Director of Graduate Studies prior to the defense. The defense is chaired by a senior member of your committee who is not your director. In preparation for a successful defense, you should have a correctly formatted title page prepared for signatures of the committee. Deadlines for defending and submitting the dissertation are set by The Graduate School. Careful planning is required to allow your committee sufficient time to read the dissertation before the defense date.

The dissertation committee has the options of passing the manuscript, passing the manuscript contingent on revisions, or failing the manuscript. A candidate who does not pass the dissertation defense is entitled to one more defense within a year.

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Fellowships

A limited number of fellowships are available from The Graduate School and the College of Liberal Arts. Applicants to this Ph.D. program are eligible for these fellowships if nominated by the Department of English. The selection process for nominees begins January 30 with awards announced mid-March.

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Assistantships

Each applicant admitted to this Ph.D. program should expect to be offered a teaching assistantship, renewable for four years. The teaching assistantship comes with a competitive stipend (currently $12,000 for 3 classes per academic year), in-state tuition status, and a tuition supplement.

Students awarded an assistantship by the Department of English are expected to

• carry no incompletes;
• earn no more than one grade below B during their academic career;
• perform assigned duties in a satisfactory manner;
• maintain a GPA of 3.5; and
• make steady progress toward the degree.

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Professional Opportunities

At USC

• Opportunities to present papers at conferences sponsored by USC graduate student organizations (see conference websites for the 19th-Century conference and the 20th-Century conference) and by affiliated programs such as Women's Studies.
• Modest financial support for paper presentations at other local, regional, national, or international conferences.
• Opportunities to teach undergraduate literature and writing courses.
• Eligibility for recognition and awards from The Graduate School(especially for presentations at Graduate Student Day).
• Opportunities for editorial or other career-advancing internships within the university (e.g., with USC Press, USC Office of Program Evaluation, TRIO Programs) or outside it (e.g., with the Commission on Higher Education and grant-funded agencies).
• Guidance through the job search by an expert faculty committee, including c.v. workshops, presentation strategies, and mock interviews.

After USC

Graduates with doctoral degrees have found satisfying careers in college and university teaching, publishing, corporate communications, banking, and in administrative positions of many kinds. For help with career options you should use the resources on campus like

• University Career Center
• College of Arts and Sciences career Development Program
• Resources for PhDs

Even in a depressed market for college and university teaching jobs, our graduates have consistently succeeded well above national norms. In the last three years new Ph.D.s have been offered tenure-track jobs in Alabama, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Our placement rate is approximately 80 percent within two years of earning the doctorate.

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