Comprehensive Exams & Dissertation Proposal

COMS 702 - Comprehensive Examination

The Comprehensive Examination requires students to demonstrate competency in an area of communication studies. Students are encouraged to designate an area of communication studies with application to their chosen area of thesis research, but this is not an absolute requirement. The Comprehensive Examination will ensure that students are familiar with a significant body of work within the field of communication studies, and allow them to demonstrate their ability to critically analyze and synthesize a body of literature.

The Comprehensive Examination consists of three parts:

  1. Students should prepare a bibliography of approximately 40 sources focused on a broad problematic or area of study within communication studies. This area should be agreed upon with a faculty advisor chosen for this purpose, typically the supervisor of the student's dissertation. The student and advisor will agree upon a second faculty member, who will approve the bibliography. These two faculty members will constitute the Comprehensive Examination committee. In certain cases, a third member may be added to provide additional expertise. If appropriate, a faculty member can be designated by the student from outside the Department. A copy of the bibliography must be submitted by email to the advisor, consulting professor(s), and the Graduate Program Coordinator (graduate.ahcs [at] mcgill.ca).
     
  2. The committee will prepare a question or set of related questions arising out of the bibliography. The chair of the committee will provide the question(s) to the student. The student shall then have 4 weeks from receipt of the questions to prepare a paper answering the question(s) on the basis of their reading, synthesis, and critical analysis of the material. This paper should be 30-40 pages in length (double-spaced, exclusive of bibliography and notes) and may address the questions separately or together. The paper must be submitted by email to the advisor, consulting professor(s), and the Graduate Program Coordinator.
     
  3. The student will orally defend the Comprehensive Examination before the committee within four weeks of the date of submission of the paper. Upon completion of the Comprehensive Examination, the student will proceed to the Dissertation Proposal.

The mark for the comprehensive exams will be Pass or Fail.

Upon successful completion, supervisors and students must complete the following form and send it to graduate.ahcs [at] mcgill.ca

PDF icon Comprehensive Exam and Dissertation Proposal Form

Students and supervisors should then meet to form the student's supervisory committee. 

The committee consists of a student's supervisor and one other faculty member. This member will also be required to sign the student's progress tracking reports. University guidelines regarding Graduate Student Supervision can be found in the eCalendar

Once the committee has been decided upon, students should notify graduate.ahcs [at] mcgill.ca so that this information can be added to the student's file in Minerva and so that the milestone can be marked as complete in myProgress.

Comps Timeline

  • Submit bibliography.
  • Committee has 2 weeks to give student questions.
  • Student has 4 weeks to submit the paper.
  • Oral defence within 4 weeks of submitting paper.

McGill Comprehensives Policy

COMS 703 - Dissertation Proposal

The objective of the Dissertation Proposal is for students to demonstrate their readiness to undertake their thesis project. It should be completed once the student has a well-defined research problematic, a preliminary theoretical framework, and a sense of how they want to conduct the thesis research.

The Dissertation Proposal will consist of a thesis proposal of approximately 40-45 typewritten, double-spaced pages (exclusive of notes and bibliography). It should specify the focused research problematic of the thesis, situate that problematic within the field, specify the theoretical framework/approach to be used, offer a well-developed methodological discussion of the program of research, and provide a preliminary title, chapter breakdown, schedule for completion and working bibliography.

It is anticipated that by the time of the preparation of the Dissertation Proposal, students will have designated a thesis supervisor. The Dissertation Proposal will be evaluated by a committee to be designated by the student in consultation with that supervisor. The committee is composed of three members: the supervisor, a second reader, and a third member, who may be from outside the department.

Upon completion of the Dissertation Proposal, the student should email their document directly to committee members, with the Graduate Program Coordinator (graduate.ahcs [at] mcgill.ca) copied on the email. Within four weeks from that date, the student shall orally defend the Proposal before the committee. The defence of the Dissertation Proposal shall be chaired by the student's thesis supervisor.

The Dissertation Proposal shall be graded as Pass or Fail. In the event of a failure, the student would have the opportunity to resubmit the proposal, bearing in mind that the university permits only two failures before the student is asked to withdraw from the program.

All written material must be presented in accordance with the stylistic regulations of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and must include appropriate documentation, footnotes and bibliography. Projects associated with confidential research may only be submitted in accordance with the regulations of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.

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