Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics curriculum
Required courses and credits
See the required courses and electives.
Writing-intensive requirement
In one of your last two or three semesters, you must register for LIN 5993 Writing-intensive Requirement (zero credits) in conjunction with a linguistics course that has a paper requirement. It may make sense for you to fulfill this requirement by continuing to work on a paper that you wrote for a class that you have already completed. In this case, you would consider your completed term paper as the first draft of your writing-intensive paper.
You must ask the instructor of the course if they would be willing to help you make this paper read like a linguistics paper. A lingstuics paper should involve:
- Analysis of language data
- Argumentation appropriate to the field
- Presenting the goals and the conclusion "upfront, etc.
Plan to work through several drafts of this paper. Grades recorded for LIN 5993 will receive either an S (Satisfactory) or U (Unsatisfactory).
Download the Writing-intensive Requirement Form and present it to your instructor for his or her signature, indicating their willingness to help you pass this requirement. Return the signed form to the student advisor for your file. Once your final paper is completed to the satisfaction of your instructor, it should also be submitted to the Linguistics Program office for your file.
Exit interview
In your last semester, we will arrange for you to be interviewed by as many of your instructors as we can assemble. The interview lasts about 45 minutes. During this time, we will first ask you to explain what you are taking away from your experiences as a linguistics majoryour view of language, the things you learned that surprised you, the threads that connect the work you did in different courses, the contradictions you encountered.
We will also ask you about your plans for work or study after college and will ask you to advise us on how to improve the major. You must submit a completed exit questionnaire and a selected set of papers demonstrating how you have met the undergraduate learning outcomes at least a week before the interview. This will allow us to ask you for more appropriate questions about your experiences here. So don't throw away any of your syllabuses, term papers, final exams, or interesting assignments! You should get a large file and remember to put portfolio materials in your file at the end of every semester.
AGRADE program
Wayne State has a program that makes it possible for undergraduates with high GPAs to count up to 15 credits of undergraduate work in their major toward an M.A. degree at WSU in the same field. If you think you might want to stick around and get an M.A. from us, too, this is the best way to do it.
In fact, if you are a major right now, it is difficult to do an M.A. with us without double-counting: we simply do not offer enough courses for you to find 30 credits for your B.A. and then 30 more for your M.A. easily. See the graduate student advisor if you would like to discuss this possibility. If you would like to pursue graduate studies in linguistics at another university after graduation, any member of the faculty would be happy to tell you what they know about programs elsewhere.