Many students come to graduate work in linguistics from other fields and begin their study at the graduate level. These students are advised to do coursework. This can be in a Grad Dip, which is six units of coursework, in a Masters degree which can be entirely by coursework or by combination coursework and thesis, as well as by thesis only, or in an M Litt in Applied Linguistics, which is six units of coursework followed by a 15 to 20,000 word thesis. Students who want to do research for a thesis should make sure they are properly prepared in their coursework before they undertake this endeavour. Good research depends on good coursework.
Students doing research for a thesis each have a panel of supervisors and advisers.
They have expertise and research interest relevant to the topic they are working on. In addition students may consult any scholar in the university who is associated with the linguistics program. Students in descriptive linguistics are encouraged to study a previously undescribed or little described language by carrying out extensive fieldwork. Such work provides material for a grammatical analysis, a collection of texts, the beginnings of a dictionary, and information about the social contexts of language use. The aim is to provide a permanent record of these languages and to test hypotheses about typological generalisation and other theoretical issues.