WRITING INTENSIVE (and COMPUTER PROFICIENCY II)
REQUIREMENT FORM
Linguistics Program
PREREQUISITE
Junior Standing
DESCRIPTION
In order to meet the university’s general education requirement for a Writing-Intensive course in each
major, the Linguistics Program has developed LIN 5993 for Linguistics majors. LIN 5993 must be taken
in conjunction with a co-requisite course (LIN 5210, 5750, 5760, 5770, 6720, or any linguistics course
at the 5000 level or above that requires a term paper; PSY 3090 may also be taken as the co-requisite
course). While LIN 5993 is non-credit bearing and thus does not require additional tuition, it does require
registration in order for a grade to be entered on the official record.
COMPUTER PROFICIENCY II REQUIREMENT
LIN 5993 also serves as a course fulfilling the Computer Proficiency II Requirement for Linguistics
majors. Computer Proficiency II is intended to assure that upon graduation all students are prepared to
effectively utilize technology appropriate to their academic disciplines/majors/programs. The LIN 5993
instructors should thus guide their students in acquiring and using the computer skills appropriate for that
subfield of Linguistics in which they are doing their WI project. More specific guidelines and instructions
on how to satisfy the Computer Proficiency II requirement are available from the Linguistics Program
Student Advisor. Below are some examples and excerpts:
When it comes to Computer Proficiency II, all the students graduating with a major in Linguistics should be able to format a
paper with a word processor following an appropriate style guide, such as the Linguistic Society of America stylesheet. In
addition, Linguistics majors are expected to be able to use the more specific tools of one or more subfields of Linguistics,
including the subfield in which they fulfill their Writing Intensive requirement. Different subfields of Linguistics rely on
different computer tools. Some representative examples are discussed below.
For phonology and phonetics, especially for experimental work, one should be able to write formulas in Excel to explore
data, to create graphs in Excel, and to use software such as Audacity and Praat to record speech, measure it and/or manipulate it
for experimental purposes. The students should also understand the concept of non-standard symbols, especially IPA-based
ones, and have the ability to insert phonetically represented materials using an appropriate UNICODE font, as well as to
represent at least some phonological rule formats with a word processor.
The ability to use a database is a required computer proficiency skill for doing field work in linguistics. The data
collected from a language consultant must be stored in such a way that it can be sorted and queried in multiple ways as the
students pursue hypotheses and raise questions about the language of study. To this end, students must learn to work with a
database program that is appropriate for linguistic data. There are database programs developed specifically for this purpose
(Lingua Links, FIELD) and there are also general-purpose database programs that can be adapted to store and search language
data well (Filemaker Pro).
Theoretical research in syntax and semantics has become increasingly empirically oriented in recent years.
Computer Proficiency Level II for syntax and semantics should include: 1. Introduction to the British National Corpus and/or
the American National Corpus, two of the largest electronic parsed corpora of English. 2. proper use of the corpora: tagging
conventions, use of logical operators in searches, searching by linguistic register. 3. introducing best practices for storage of
results, including an introduction to XML tagging and schemas. 4. proper assessment and use of results in the student's research
project.
For psycholinguistics, students should be able to use the PsycInfo database for finding relevant literature from the
field of psychology. They should also be able to write formulas for data exploration and create graphs, in some data analysis
program (Excel, SPSS, R, or similar). They should be able to use this program to conduct simple statistical comparisons such as
a t-test.
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For discourse analysis, projects require data management and analysis. The most common software package in
use is NVivo, which extracts, sorts, and helps code data hierarchically. Students should become familiar with programs like
NVivo when conducting research in discourse analysis.
PROCESS
Students must have the following form signed and turned in to the Student Advisor by the end of
the second week of classes of the term in which they are fulfilling LIN 5993.
By signing the form and having their instructor sign the form, majors are notifying the Program and their
instructor of their intent to fulfill the Writing Intensive requirement. The instructor of the co-requisite
course will evaluate the writing done in the course (usually a major paper 15-20 pages in length) to see if
it demonstrates an ability “to communicate effectively with specialized or professional audiences”
(Undergraduate Bulletin, General Education requirements) and that it shows “evidence of intensive
training in literature search, linguistic analysis, and the preparation of scholarly written work”
(Undergraduate Bulletin, LIN 5993 course description). In addition, the student’s WI paper should exhibit
evidence of Computer Proficiency II relevant for the specific subfield of linguistics, as per discussion
above.
If the writing meets these requirements, the student will receive the grade of S (Satisfactory) for
LIN 5993.
QUESTIONS
If the student, or the instructor, has any questions about the WI requirement in Linguistics, he/she should
contact the Student Advisor or the Program Director (Linguistics Program phone: 7-8642).
PROCEDURES AND FORM
The WI form is attached at the end.
PROCEDURES
*The student should register for LIN 5993 concurrently with one of the qualifying co-requisite courses
(see Description Section above) during a term in his/her junior or senior year.
*The student should present this form to the instructor for his/her signature during the first week of class.
The student should make two copies, one for the instructor, and the other for himself/herself. The student
should then deliver the original to the Linguistics Program Student Advisor before the end of the second
week of class.
*Before the end of the term, the student should remind the instructor that he/she is satisfying the Writing
Intensive requirement with the instructor’s particular course (the instructor will be contacted by the
Linguistics Program to record a final grade for the course).
*At the end of the semester, students are responsible for making copies of each Writing Intensive
assignment and submitting them to the Student Advisor.
If students do not submit copies of the WI papers for their files in the Linguistics Program, they will
not receive Program certification for graduation, and will not be able to graduate that term.
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WRITING INTENSIVE FORM
Linguistics Program, LIN 5993
Detach and return to the Linguistics Program Student Advisor during the second week of class.
The writing done in the course listed below, in conjunction with this form and instructor’s grade of S and
registration in LIN 5993, will be used to fulfill the student’s Writing Intensive requirement, as well as
Computer Proficiency II requirement.
_________________________________
Student’s name and ID#
______________________________
Co-req course, section, semester, year
_________________________________
Student’s Signature
______________________________
Instructor’s Signature
__________________
Date
__________________
Date
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