SIL Current Students and Faculty Information
This page provides information about degree and certificate programs in linguistics at UND, with a focus on information needed by students who are already in the programs and by the program's faculty.
General information
- Undergraduate Minor in Linguistics (jointly sponsored with the Department of English)
- M.A. in Linguistics
- Graduate Certificate in Community-Based Literacy as Applied Linguistics
Making progress on the M.A. degree
- MA progress checklist
- Independent study approval form
- Resources for academic writing (advanced course papers, topic proposals, and the thesis itself; see especially the "Thesis and advanced paper master checklist")
- FAQ: writing an M.A. thesis in the SIL-UND program
- Linguistics thesis templates for XLingPaper and Word/LibreOffice.
- The XLingPaper templates are current as of January 2015. There is a steep learning
curve, but many people find that it is worth the effort in the long run. Technical
support for XLingPaper is provided, however, by its developers, not by the linguistics
program. To use them, you need to first download XLingPaper itself and the XMLMind
editor on which it is based; see the XLingPaper website. Direct questions about these templates to your thesis advisor or John Clifton.
- Standard version for XLingPaper: uses Charis SIL fonts with full Unicode support for phonetic characters and other linguistic symbols. Zip file containing necessary files. We assume that if you want to use XLingPaper, you know what to do with these files.
- Alternate version for XLingPaper: uses Times New Roman fonts, which come standard with Windows and are more compact horizontally but don't provide as much support for linguistics as does Charis. Useful if you don't have much need for special characters and need a lot of characters per line in examples.
- The Word/LibreOffice template has been updated as of December 2019. It is full of
instructions on how to use it. Unzip it after you download it, then open the .dotx
file. This will create a new document; you save it to start your thesis file, and
change it however you like. (You can always get back to the instructions in the original
by opening the template.) Direct questions about this template to your thesis advisor
or Albert Bickford.
- Standard version for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice: uses Charis SIL fonts with full Unicode support for phonetic characters and other linguistic symbols. Instructions are included for how to use other fonts, such as Times New Roman (which allows you to squeeze more text per line, but doesn't have support for as many special characters as Charis).
- The XLingPaper templates are current as of January 2015. There is a steep learning
curve, but many people find that it is worth the effort in the long run. Technical
support for XLingPaper is provided, however, by its developers, not by the linguistics
program. To use them, you need to first download XLingPaper itself and the XMLMind
editor on which it is based; see the XLingPaper website. Direct questions about these templates to your thesis advisor or John Clifton.
- Linguistics style guides that may be helpful to you when writing course papers and
the thesis (consult with your instructor or advisor about how closely you should follow
these in particular cases):
- Unified style sheet for linguistics from the Linguistic Society of America
- Generic style rules for linguistics by Martin Haspelmath
- Both of the above styles are available in Zotero. Under Edit > Preferences > Cite > Styles > Get additional styles; then search for "linguistics". If you want versions that don't automatically supply parentheses around citations, giving you more flexibility in where you place them within a document, contact Albert Bickford.
- Leipzig glossing rules from the Max Planck Institute and University of Leipzig
- “Before the defense” checklist
- “After the defense” checklist
- Thesis archiving and distribution consent form (submit this along with your thesis to the linguistics program director)
UND offices
- Registrar's forms
- Writing center
- Institutional Review Board (IRB, for reviewing research involving human subjects)
- School of Graduate Studies
Faculty sample letters, posters, forms, etc.
- Sample letter requesting remote participation at the defense by one faculty member (modify as needed)
- Poster for announcing the defense (modify as needed)
- Poster for congratulations on a successful defense (modify as needed)
- School of Graduate Studies forms for faculty
Other helpful links
- Bickford and Marlett: Graduate School: Is it for me?
- Martin A. Schwartz: The importance of stupidity in scientific research
(in HTML and PDF format) - Sidwell and Alves: Tips on publishing for graduate students and early career academics