This post is primarily aimed at PhD students in systems that require them to take taught seminars and classes as part of their PhD programme. This set-up is common in the United States; the tips and advice in this post are based primarily on my own experience of taking classes as a PhD student at the University of Michigan (2017-2019) across multiple departments in the Humanities.
One. Make sure that you are taking the correct number of classes and that they are at the graduate level
Typically, graduate programmes in the Humanities require between one and three years of coursework at the start of a student’s time in the programme. The number of courses that you have to complete will depend on the number of credits that your department requires and, in some cases, if you arrive with an MA degree and whether your department will accept any of the work you did towards that as transfer credits. As a rough guide, if your department accepts credits from an MA that you completed elsewhere, you will usually have to complete between one and two and a half years (two to five semesters) of coursework; if you do not have an MA, expect to spend between two and three and a half years (four to seven semesters) on coursework.
Classes are typically measured in credits. For full-time students who wish to remain eligible for their funding package and who do not have any extenuating circumstances such as illness or disability that might mean that they need to register for fewer credits, you may need to sign up for whatever your university defines as a full course load each semester until you have completed all your coursework requirements. Additionally, maintaining a valid F1 immigration status as an international students requires you to meet certain conditions, including a full course of study. Always check with the International Office or Centre or the equivalent campus unit for what this requirement means for you and how it is defined at your particular university.
Definitions of a full course load vary across institutions. I’m going to use my own experience at Michigan to illustrate how planning your course load can work in practice; pay attention to the terms and concepts that I use and find the equivalent for your own institution and department to work out what is required of you specifically. These terms are not necessarily the same in all departments and programmes!
To be considered a full-time PhD student at Michigan, you must register for at least eight credits at the graduate level per semester when you are not teaching and six credits per semester when you are teaching. At Michigan, graduate level refers to courses listed at the 500, 600, 700, or 800 level in the course guide; in some cases, you can also take 300 or 400 level classes for graduate credit if you agree on a plan that will allow you to produce extra work at the graduate level within the context of the class with the professor.
For the moment, we are only thinking about the first two or three years of the programme before you attain candidacy and when you are taking seminars; future posts will address life after coursework. Almost all graduate seminars at Michigan are worth three credits. In my first year, I wasn’t teaching so I registered for three three-credit classes in my first semester which ensured that I met the requirements for full-time enrolment. I also took a Latin language class, but this was at the 100 level therefore it did not count towards the number of graduate-level credits that I required.
I began my programme with an MA therefore I had to complete 30 credit hours of coursework; students entering without an MA needed 45 credits. I easily met this requirement by the end of my second year by registering for the number of credits that were required for me to maintain full-time enrolment each semester; I took 21 credits during my first year (three classes in the first semester and four in the second), and 15 during my second year (three classes in the first semester and two in the second) while I was teaching. I actually took more classes than I needed to because of my personal interests; at Michigan, we could take more credits than the minimum without being charged extra, although that may be different at other institutions.
In short, consult your department’s handbook or the equivalent document as soon as possible to make sure that you have signed up for enough classes during your first semester to meet both enrolment and programme requirements! These requirements and your personal timeline may of course look different if you are studying part-time or following a reduced courseload for other reasons.
Two. Consider breadth and depth when choosing your classes, as well as any requirements you need to meet and your possible future plans
Depending on your programme, you may or may not have a lot of choice over the courses that you take. One of the reasons that I chose my programme was that I could choose any course I liked within my own department or any other department in Literature, Sciences, and Arts at U-M for which I met the prerequisites, aside from two seminars, the Introduction to Graduate Studies course in my first semester and the Teaching Romance Languages course in my third semester, namely my first semester of teaching.
Not all programmes are like this. Many Humanities programmes require students to take all or most of their courses in their own department and to cover a specific temporal and/or geographical breadth across their coursework. They may only allow students a couple of elective courses, or even none at all.
If you get at least some degree of choice over the courses that you take, think about what you want to prioritise. Depending on availability, you can use this opportunity to take classes that will give you a grounding in methods or theories that you plan to use in your dissertation, or classes that will give you time to explore, for example, the historical and/or political context of the literature that you work on in more detail, or classes in other disciplines that focus on the period that you study so that you gain new perspectives on your chosen field. Or you can concentrate on improving your knowledge of other areas of your own field or discipline.
Remember to explore other options for expanding your knowledge during the first few years of your programme. If you need to learn a new language or practice or improve one that you already know, you can often audit undergraduate-level language classes free of charge. Some departments and universities may allow you to replace one or more of your required seminars with an independent study or a similar, self-designed project with a professor of your choice. It may be harder to find time to learn research skills and to work on your language skills later in your programme, so it is good to start thinking about these things during your first couple of years.
Three. Preparing for class and required vs. recommended reading
Depending on the amount of reading assigned in a class, you may not be able to read everything in a huge amount of detail. Do not pile pressure onto yourself to read absolutely everything from cover to cover if it is not possible within a reasonable number of hours per week. It can be impossible to read everything thoroughly and you need to strike a balance between doing your best work, other parts of your academic and professional life, and making sure that you have enough time to rest and relax. If you do not have as much time to spend on the readings for a seminar as you would like, consider using some of the following techniques:
If a professor classifies each text as required or recommended or uses other terms such as essential/necessary or symbols such as asterisks, to mark texts that everyone needs to have read as the bare minimum to participate in the class, allow yourself to only do the minimum required reading when it works for you. You can check out the recommended texts when it makes sense for you… Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t; don’t pressure yourself to read every single “nice-to-have” text every week! You might want to skip them if you are unwell or have extra commitments such as appointments and meetings in certain weeks; conversely, you might find yourself prioritising the recommended texts for certain classes if they speak particularly to your own interests and possible directions for your research.
Concentrate on understanding the key points of each article, chapter, or book: the main arguments and concepts that are debated and/or developed if it is an analysis-, theoretical-, or discussion-focused piece; and the plot or message and key concepts if it is a primary text such as a novel, set of poems, or play. If the writer uses examples to illustrate their points, look at how these are being used and note a few that you think are significant and contribute to the overall shape of the argument. For a primary text, pull out a few scenes, lines, or other parts of the text that you think are significant or examples of theories, concepts, or other key discussion points. Make clear notes that you can use during the seminar about your thoughts in these areas.
If an entire book or lengthy article has been assigned, read the introduction, conclusion, and any paragraphs where the writer focuses on summarising their argument or a key term or concept in detail. Make sure you have a general idea of the content of the remaining chapters or paragraphs; if you end up with more time than you thought, you can then spend more time on them.
Some professors will provide you with discussion questions or framework for in-class time ahead of time. If that is the case, use the material that they have provided to structure your reading and preparation. In the future, if you need to look at the text in different ways for other projects, you will have time to do that then; you do not necessarily need to explore a text from all possible angles before a graduate seminar.
If there are published reviews or summaries of the assigned texts in academic journals or other academic spaces, read these to get an overview of how the text fits within the field and how it relates to other texts and major theories, if applicable.
Meet up with other students in the class to talk about any parts of the text or concepts that may be difficult to grasp. You can work through challenging passages together and may be able to help each other with references and context.
If you have not completed a lot of independent or open-ended assignments before entering your PhD programme, the amount of reading each week and deciding how to approach it can be daunting. Alternatively, if your previous experiences as a student involved a heavier workload and/or multiple independent projects, the workload at the start of your PhD may be comparatively lighter. In all cases, give yourself time to adjust to graduate school and to develop your reading habits and expectations of how much you can and should be reading.
Four. Meeting class requirements
Before the first meeting of a graduate class or during the first class itself, the professor should distribute information about the format of the class, its schedule, required and recommended readings or other preparatory activities, class policies such as attendance, office hours, and how grades will be assigned, and what students will need to do to pass the class.
Make sure that you understand the information that is shared with you. If you have questions, either ask them during class, send an email to the professor, or attend office hours or schedule an in-person meeting. It is particularly important to understand what you will need to do to pass the class. Many graduate seminars in the Humanities are assessed primarily based on a seminar paper, submitted at the end of the semester. In some cases, the main assessment may take other forms, for example an extended project or several smaller papers. Some professors assign grades based not only on a final paper or project but also on several smaller tasks that must be completed throughout the semester, such as annotating texts, in-class presentations, reactions papers, short papers, and group tasks. Sometimes part of the grade is based on in-class participation, including discussion contributions and group work.
Some professors provide detailed information about what is expected in the syllabus or are happy to talk about expectations in more detail in class. For example, I took a class in which we spent time during the first meeting discussing what adequate seminar participation could look like, and another in which we took it in turns to share drafts of sections of our papers with the group over the course of the semester, learning about academic conventions and improving our work along the way. In other cases, the expectations may not always be explicitly articulated. Don’t hesitate to ask for clarification if anything is unclear, to use campus services such as writing centres and language institutes for additional support, and to talk to your peers and to students who are further ahead of you in the programme if you want support in understanding what may be expected in terms of seminar contributions and written work.
Note any deadlines for written work, presentations, and other seminar tasks so that you can make sure that you submit work on time and that you leave yourself adequate time to prepare.
Five. Planning and producing seminar papers, or the equivalent
It is never too early to start thinking about seminar papers, if you will need to complete one or more for your classes. A paper of between 10 and 20 pages is a common assessment format for the bulk of the grade assigned for a graduate seminar. Try not to leave these papers to the last minute! You will get more out of the process if you leave yourself time to draft the paper, revise it, and edit it. In some cases, professors may build in structure to (attempt to) prevent students from doing everything at the last minute by inviting students to discuss their initial ideas earlier in the semester, organising in-class activities such as sharing rough plans and drafts, or offering to read drafts of papers before the end of the semester. If that is the case for a class you are taking, follow the proposed structure, unless you need accommodations or adjustments because of a disability, illness, or unexpected life event; the disability office or the equivalent space on your campus is the best place to start to get information about this process.
This section is intended for those classes where there is little or no scaffolding or interim tasks in preparation for the final paper. It is tempting to leave working on a seminar paper right until the end of the semester; deadlines are typically in or shortly after the final week of scheduled classes. Although this strategy can lead you towards a presentable or very good paper, leaving it until the last minute does not necessarily create the best learning experience. As you work through the weekly readings, start thinking about whether there are any ideas or approaches that you might like to use in your end-of-term paper, and how you might use them. For example, do you want to use a theory outlined in a reading to approach some primary texts that you plan to use in your eventual dissertation?
Spend a little time each week doing things towards the paper, increasing this time slot gradually as the semester progresses. You might read an additional chapter, start making notes about primary texts or sources, or start brainstorming about sections and topics. If your professors are amenable to this, consider going to office hours sooner rather than later to share your initial ideas; it can be better to find out early on if an idea is not workable or if the professor has any reading suggestions that may help you to develop your topic.
Try to produce a complete draft of your paper at least a few days before the deadline so that you have time to improve it and to reflect on your work. This timeline is not always practical, but it can be especially important to plan ahead if you are balancing multiple seminar papers and to try not to prioritise one over the other to a large extent.
Six. Making the most of your time in and outside the seminar room
You should use seminars to help set yourself up for the next part of your programme. Of course, you need to participate fully by doing the reading, completing assignments, and contributing to seminar discussions, but you can do all that while approaching each reading and project with your own research in mind.
First and foremost, you deserve to be in the seminar room as much as anyone else who is there! Ask questions should you have them and contribute whenever you feel comfortable and able to do so. Several people were probably sitting there wondering about the same thing that you were and are now relieved that you have asked the question that they wanted to ask…and if people are rude or critical about a question you ask, that response is about them and not about you. Don’t worry about sounding “less intelligent” compared to the other students; your contributions are valuable and we are often disproportionately critical of our own abilities and ideas. Sometimes people use a lot of jargon or draw on examples that may be unfamiliar to you when speaking in academic contexts; it can be hard, but try to avoid feeling intimidated by this and instead listen carefully to try to discern the main points that they are making…they may not actually be making significant or interesting points behind all that jargon!
On that note, there is nothing wrong with expressing yourself in whatever way you feel comfortable; there is plenty of time to learn new terms and words, but the seminar is a fleeting opportunity to try out your ideas and share your thoughts on the reading. Equally, if you do not feel comfortable speaking out or raising your hand at some points – or ever – in a class or seminar group, do not feel like you have to push yourself to volunteer for the sake of it. It may impact your participation grade, depending on the professor and their criteria, which is something worth thinking about and weighing up in deciding how much to push yourself in such situations.
If you have to read any articles or chapters that seem like they will be particularly useful for your own work, bookmark or save them. Scanning the references lists and footnotes of pieces that speak to your interests can also help you to put together your own reading lists for qualifying exams and for your dissertation; following footnotes attached to explanations of concepts and summaries of an approach or theory can also help you quickly find sources that will provide you with more context and details about these ideas.
If you can choose the approach, focus, and/or the materials in any papers you have to write, use it as an opportunity to try out theories and approaches that you may wish to use in your dissertation. You could adapt your work into conference papers, preparation for your qualifying exams, or even into parts of your dissertation. Some professors are happy to talk to you about how you might do this, even when the class has come to an end. Finally, if the professor mentions or provides any optional extra opportunities such as attendance at guest lectures or cultural events, giving guest lectures to their undergraduate classes, or assisting them with their research, and those opportunities speak to you, don’t hesitate to follow up and express your interest.
There you have it! Remember that it can take time to get used to graduate-level seminars, and even to each new class and group of students. Always keep in mind that some people absolutely thrive in the seminar environment, whereas others do better when they have more time to work independently on longer pieces of work. The coursework stage does not last forever so try to get the most from it in whatever ways make sense to you, and use it to set you up for later stages of the programme.
Feel free to add any comments or questions below, or to use this form to send anonymous feedback, questions, and suggestions for future content. Share this post with anyone who may find it helpful!
If you appreciate this post and have the means, click below to buy me a coffee to help support my work!
Comments