Why is there a Generals paper requirement?

From the start, a unique feature of the MIT program has been its strong focus on original research (guided and advised by faculty) as the best way for graduate students to become linguists. That is why our department asks students to write and defend two Generals papers as our program’s version of the “General Exam” that each MIT department must administer as a milestone on the way to the PhD. The General Exam requires every graduate student to show the ability to formulate a significant research question of real interest to the field, carry out the research necessary to investigate that question, and report the findings in a paper written to a professional standard. By successfully completing your General papers, you are demonstrating your readiness to participate in the field, to help the rest of us figure out how language works.

We require two Generals papers, rather than just one, so that students acquire professional-level research expertise in more than one subdiscipline of linguistics, and also so that general lessons learned in writing the first Generals paper may be applied to the writing of the second.