Comps Preparation Tips
You study for a few months. Then they put you in a little stinky room and you write for 3 or 4 hours non-stop. You do that 5 or 6 times. Then you go to another small room and defend what you wrote earlier in font of 3 advisers. Aside from them, nobody ever knows what you came up with during those countless hours in that stinky room. Maybe you put together a really nice synthesis in some Communication sub-field. Maybe you played around with some cool concepts. Whatever you wrote, chances are someone in the department might be interested in reading it. So why not post it here and make it available to people?
You don't have to include your name. It should also be clearly understood by everyone that these essays were written under stress, without the help of any notes. So they're far from perfect: ideas might be misrepresented or mis-credited. Such is the "academic text" :) Take a risk and be a "public intellectual!" :)
Previous comps questions are available in the mail/copy room. There is a thick, black binder next to the copier. It has questions from the past, organized by faculty.
In the meantime, here's the official description of the comps:
Upon completion and final grading of all courses in the Plan-of-Study, the student takes a Preliminary Comprehensive Examination. Successful completion of the comprehensive exam shows that the student is experienced in secondary research and ready to move on to original research.
The examination contains questions to be answered in 18 hours over a maximum of 2 calendar weeks. Responses must be written in the department, Monday through Friday. The examination is closed book.
At the discretion of the Committee, 3 of the 18 hours may be fulfilled by (1) substantially revising an article-length research paper, or (2) a take-home question to be completed within 24 hours, with a 10-page double-spaced maximum response. Under the closed-book format, committee members may provide or assign specific pieces or works to be available to the student during the examination.
The 18 hours will be distributed as follows: at least 6 hours in the student's specialty area, at least 6 hours in theories and methods, and at least 6 in areas defined by the committee and student.
At the initiation of the student, the examination structure and schedule will be determined by the Guidance Committee at least 3 months in advance of the examination dates. The exam committee must consist of at least 3 members of the Communication Faculty. (Examiners from outside the department are optional.) The content of the examination is not restricted to coursework in the Plan-of-Study; students may be required to prepare in areas not covered in their course work. Subsequent to determining the examination structure, faculty members will supply the student with study questions or other means for delimiting the subject areas.
At least 3 weeks in advance of the examination dates, the student must complete an "Approved Examination Schedule." This must be signed by the student, the advisor, and the Graduate Program Director and submitted to the Graduate Secretary, who will schedule an examination room.
Upon completion of the written examination, all members of the Guidance Committee will evaluate the entire examination (including take-home responses and articles, where applicable) and questioners outside of the Committee will evaluate answers to questions they submitted. In cases where answers are "Unsatisfactory," the student will have one opportunity for rewriting.
Once the student has satisfactorily completed the written examination, the Guidance Committee, chaired by the advisor, will conduct an oral examination. The examination must receive the unanimous approval of the Guidance Committee. It is the responsibility of the student's advisor to report in writing the results of the examination to the Graduate Program Director.
Comps Essay Samples
Concepts of Race and Ethnicity: Discuss: a) Marxist scholarship on race, ethnicity & class; b) how it can be/has been extended and applied to the American case from the 19th century-forward (e.g., Bonacich's "Theory of Ethnic Antagonism"); and c) the critiques of these Marxist theories and a delineation of competing theories. Conclude: d) with what kinds of challenges the Marxist race concept faces in the global and/or domestic environment of the 21st century. Sample essay (in a take-home exam format).
Audience Theory: Raymond Williams famously wrote, "There are in fact no masses; only ways of seeing people as masses [or audiences]." Why is it necessary to "construct" an understanding of audiences? Is it possible to escape the constructed nature of our understanding of audiences? What is gained and what is lost in creating these constructions? How do some of these constructions reflect the interest or priorties of the various stakeholders (scholarly or lay stakeholders) that create them? In what ways do you recommend that audience researchers be mindful of these constructions as they design and then carry out their studies? Readings; Sample essay.
Conditions of Queer Visibility: A familiar arc to the story of queer media visibility posits a change over close to 50 years (from the early 60s) from symbolic annihilation to conditional visibility. Is that an adquate frame? What does it describe and explain and, what, if anything, does it leave out or obscure? How might you trouble or complicate that art, drawing on the key terms from your reading lists (otherness, normalcy, deviance; sex and space; market formations; grassroots visibility)? Readings; Sample essay.
Media Technology, Identity and Community: Write a response in which you discuss how the authors from your reading list understand the relation between postmodernism and communication technologies. How is postmodernity/communication technologies related to the changes in notions of identity or self? If time permits, provide some critiques of early discussions of postmodern notions of self, either by you or by recent authors who write from postcolonial theory or political economy insights. In your discussion, use readings by authors such as Baudrillard, Jameson, Jenkins, Lyotard, McRobbie, Poster, Turkle, and Gergen. Readings; Sample essay.
Qualitative Inquiry Tradition and Its Challenges in ICT Research: Reflect on how scholars who do qualitative research online or in new media environments have provided a fresh look at some of the fundamental assumptions or issues that we face in implementing qualitative methods. These issues might include questions of ethics, both substantive and procedural; how we define field site, access, and rapport; what criteria we use to judge the validity of qualitative research; and what issues are involved in "writing culture." Address these issues (and others not mentioned if you think they are important) in an essay that puts the readings on your list into a productive dialogue. Readings; Sample essay.
Sexuality and Community: Despite a virtuous and often celebratory reputation, the idea of "sexual community" is layered, uneven, sometimes empirically adequate, other times mythical. Drawing from your bibliography materials, please prepare an essay about the different ways "sexual community" has been imagined and found, and how it might be partly reconceptualized. (Are there circumstances, e.g., when we can see the idea of "community" operating as a regime [or discourse of regulation] alongside its familiar "positive" value?). Readings; Sample essay not available.
