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

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).
  • 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):
  • “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

Faculty sample letters, posters, forms, etc.

Other helpful links