The course work option requires 30 hours of graded course work. It allows none of the 30 hours of credit required for graduation to be in CS5990, and permits no more than 3 hours of CS5999 credit to be applied to the 30-hour requirement (An Example Course Plan ). In addition to completing 30 hours of credit in approved courses, a student following the course work option will prepare and present a research paper. The research paper will be an essay answering one or more questions posed by the examining committee. The length and focus of the essay will be determined by the examining committee.

The student will be given a fixed length of time to complete the essay and answer the research questions. The duration of the time given for the essay is to be determined by the examining committee. During this time period, the student will be allowed one review of the essay by the student's advisor. At the end of the essay period the examining committee will review the essay to determine if the essay is acceptable. There are three possible outcomes:

1. the research essay is acceptable
2. the research essay is not quite acceptable and the student must either modify the essay and/or possibly address a new but related research question.
3. the research essay is completely unacceptable and an essay addressing different questions must be prepared.

Once the essay has been written and accepted by the examining committee, the essay will be made publicly available and the student will make an oral presentation on the topic of the essay. While this talk will certainly elucidate the major points of the paper it is NOT to be a reading of the essay, but rather a presentation of the important points of the essay. This presentation will be open to the MTU academic community and all CS grad students are expected to attend. The presentation should take roughly 30 minutes, allowing time for substantial questions by the audience in a 1-hour time slot. After questions from the general audience have ceased, the examining committee will meet in closed session with the student for any additional questions and a determination of whether the student passed the oral exam.

There are two possible outcomes for the oral presentation:

1. the presentation is acceptable
2. the presentation is unacceptable and the student must redo the presentation with modifications as suggested by the examination.

In choosing essay question(s), the examining committee normally will provide the student with 1 or more research papers and write a question designed to allow the student to demonstrate skill in assimilating the paper(s) and evaluating the impact of the paper(s) on some aspect of computer science theory or practice. Of course the student would be expected to draw on such courses and other materials as seem appropriate in answering the essay question(s). As an example, a student might be given three papers describing "competing" methods for detecting deadlock in distributed operating systems, and then be asked to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each within a context of recommending one of the approaches for some specific hypothetical (or real?) operating system.

Given the goal that students be able to finish a masters with a course work option in two academic years (aiming to finish in May of year 2), the department recommends the following time-table for the milestones along the way to a course work masters. This timetable is aimed towards students pursuing full-time studies while working half-time as a supported graduate assistant. It is also predicated upon the idea that a student following the course work option may well want to finish the research essay and oral defense before their last term, in part to be better able to concentrate on courses and job-hunting during their last term and in part because we see the research essay as being a useful part of a student's vita. (Note: items marked with a `+' are milestones; items marked with a `*' are `requirements'.)

	+ A student should select an advisor and committee before the end of the 3rd term in residence (not counting summers.)
	+ A student should ask the examining committee to provide the "research question" and any accompanying papers before the start of the 4th term in the masters program.
	+ A student should finish a complete draft of the research essay before the middle of the 4th term in the masters program.
	* Before scheduling the oral presentation of the research essay, a student will obtain approval of the research essay by the examining committee. This will require, at a minimum, that the committee have two weeks to critique the research essay.
	* Once the examining committee has approved the research essay, the student will schedule an oral presentation for no sooner than two weeks after committee approval of the essay.