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robulousrebus

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  • Location
    Los Angeles
  • Application Season
    2017 Fall
  • Program
    Linguistics

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  1. Thanks so much for your helpful reply! I'm hoping some usable writing will come from the LSA this summer. Or I may attempt a re-write of this paper with more research to bolster it.
  2. So, quick background: my undergraduate institution didn't have a linguistics department, so I designed my own major. I was able to take some bona fide linguistics courses (masters level) when I studied abroad, and will be attending the LSA Institute this summer to bolster my experience. I'll be applying to graduate programs in linguistics this fall. My major concern at the moment is my writing sample. My undergraduate institution was a liberal arts college with very little research opportunity. My most well-received paper in undergrad was an term paper for an English class on Ulysses. The paper is all about Joyce's language, but it's sort of pseudolinguistics in the sense that it's not rigorously researched or cited (it's an English paper using a linguistics framework to back up a point about the novel.) I think the paper is conceptually solid, interesting and well-written, and gives a good sense of how I think. But I'm afraid that using it as a writing sample may backfire on me if it's too uncomfortably close to linguistics without actually being a linguistics paper. I know many people apply without a specifically Linguistics background and have to make do with only semi-relevant writing samples. Anyone who has experience with applying from outside the field and/or picking a writing sample, do you think that this one is a risky choice?
  3. Nate Sanders? Small world, indeed! I wish I'd been able to work with him, but from everything I've heard, he's fantastic. And historicallinguist, thank you for the suggestion! I haven't looked into Daivs yet but absolutely will now and have been interested in the other two.
  4. As far as the fields I mentioned being distinct, yes - it's hard to quickly and succinctly describe what it is what I want to do, but my hope is to do work that bridges disciplines. Essentially, in a few more words, I want to do work on theories of grammar and generative syntax, and ultimately use these models to better understand the psychological function of what we consider to be "effective", "persuasive" and even "aesthetic" language from a structural standpoint. Happy to explain this further, but hopefully that clarified a bit. Thank you for the comforting advice re: writing samples, as I was quite worried about that. I'm thinking that if I rework it well enough I will end up using one of my English papers.
  5. Hi all! Just registered here, so I"ll introduce myself. My name is Molly and I'm hoping to apply for general linguistics PhD programs this coming fall, 2017. I graduated from Williams in 2014 and did a sort of "create-your-own" major within the liberal arts curriculum. Williams lost its linguistics department right before I matriculated, so I ended up combining classes in cogsci, computer science, English lit, philosophy, German and Arabic to approximate a linguistics major. It was somewhat of a survey of theories of language across disciplines. I was able to take one introductory ling class at Williams (and actually became the TA for it) and then took a few masters-level ling classes when I studied abroad in Dublin. My GPA hovers around a 3.5, but is higher in junior/senior year and within my major. Now I'm hoping to study theoretical/generative linguistics, syntax, psycholinguistics and rhetoric. I've been aware for a while that I'll probably have to be ready to defend my readiness for a PhD given this self-designed major. This I plan to accomplish by preparing a killer statement of purpose and writing sample. My main concern is the writing sample. Coming from a liberal arts background, especially with no linguistics department, I had very little opportunity to do any serious research. My best papers from undergrad are theoretical explorations from English/philosophy, and don't have solid research underpinnings. I have a few linguistics papers from my time abroad, but they're nowhere near the quality of my papers done at my home school. I feel overwhelmed at the prospect of attempting a linguistics research paper on my own. Given my background, do you think it will be important for me to demonstrate my ability to do research by writing a new paper, or do you think it would be OK to rework a more theoretical paper I did in undergrad? Thanks so much!
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