A separate listing of procedures is provided by the Area that describes the procedures for completing the comprehensive exams. The following section describes two assessment activities doctoral students must complete to pass their comprehensive examination requirement. The goal of this activity is to assess thinking and writing ability as well as ability to comprehend and summarize literature in an area of current interest. A limited number of topics are identified by faculty each term the literature synthesis is offered.
Students choose from among a range of topics reflecting departmental programs and student interests.
Students may receive a reading list upon enrolling in the doctoral program that contains many sources faculty believe to be important or seminal in various fields. Students should retain reference lists and bibliographies from the Area coursework and, ideally, arrange such references in an electronic format for easy access subsequently. This activity is not designed to cause students to have to read a large amount of new material to complete it successfully, if they have read extensively throughout their doctoral coursework and kept track of what they have read. The final product is a paper written in APA or any other recognized style. A bibliography must be included and properly formatted, as must in-text citations.