Professor Klemola's Seminar

Linguistics, especially language variation and change

My seminar is open for students interested in all kinds of linguistics topics. However, I would recommend the seminar especially for those students who are interested in corpus-based studies of variation and change in English. Possible seminar (and pro gradu) projects may focus, for example, on grammatical variation in regional varieties of English. The study of regional variation in English is facilitated by the recent International Corpus of English (ICE) family of corpora, which provide an easy access to a wide range of varieties of English from all over the English-speaking world.

The main task during the autumn term will be to write and present a research proposal (five to ten pages). In addition, each student will be expected to draft—in consultation with me—a personal study and research plan for the whole academic year. We will also focus on practical questions linked with writing a thesis, look at some examples of recent gradus completed in the English department, and read a number of articles linked with the topics you are working on.

During the spring term, each student will write a seminar paper (20+ pages), to be presented and discussed in the group. Ideally, the seminar paper will function as the first draft of your pro gradu thesis.

Lecturer McGinley's Seminar

This course is for students interested in literary study and is designed to help in writing your MA thesis and to give experience of academic literary analysis, discussion and debate. Throughout the course there will be classes addressing research methods, style, structure, and composition. But the predominant emphasis will be on the actual writing of your thesis.

The first half of the course will see you defining your topic and submitting an abstract for discussion with your supervisor early in the course, and building towards a presentation of the thesis proposal (12-15 pages) and discussion of it with other students. The second half of the course will involve writing a draft of your thesis (about 5000-7000 words), and again presenting it to the class for comment and discussion. During the presentation sessions, each student will also serve as commentator on another student’s thesis, giving constructive feedback on the presentation before the discussion is opened and the other students invited to share their thoughts.

Assessment will be by completion of assignments (abstracts, research proposals, and thesis drafts) and ‘participation’, which will include attendance, fulfillment of all presentation requirements, performance as commentator, and contribution to class discussions.

Lecturer Salmela's Seminar

The group is meant for students interested in research topics in literature and culture.

During the autumn term, you will first write an abstract, which describes your prospective thesis very concisely, and then a full research plan of about 1,500 or 2,000 words. During the spring term, you will work on your thesis as a whole and submit a seminar paper, which is a draft of a part of your thesis, ideally about 7,000 words in length. Both the research plan and the seminar paper will be presented for discussion in class, with each student serving as commentator on another student’s work. As the ultimate purpose of the seminar is to help everyone complete their thesis, asking questions and commenting upon other students’ papers is an essential part of coursework. Throughout the course, we will be addressing different particulars of the research process, the style and structure of the MA thesis, and the mechanics of academic writing.

Assessment will be by completion of assignments (abstract, research proposal, and seminar paper) and ‘participation’, which will include attendance, fulfillment of all presentation requirements, performance as commentator, and contribution to class discussions.