Creating a Syntax Syllabus at the Graduate Level

How do you write a syllabus for the introduction to syntax at the graduate level (Syntax I, II)? This blog post poses some basic questions, and provides some preliminary suggestions, based on my experience in writing such syllabi over the last thirty years. I got my PhD 1993, and have been teaching Syntax I and II regularly ever since. 

Although the framework I teach is Minimalism, most of the suggestions I make below could be used for a course based on a different syntactic framework. Most of them could also be used for an introductory course in a different subfield (e.g., phonology, semantics, acquisition, etc.).

Table of Contents

1. Definition of Subfield

2. Preparation

3. Teaching Goals

4. Topics

5. Readings

6. Evaluation

7. Miscellaneous

The first two sections below, ‘Definition of Subfield’ and ‘Preparation’ are just to get you into the right frame of mind. The real work of creating a syllabus begins in the third section ‘Teaching Goals’.

1. Definition of Subfield

What is syntax?

What topics define the field?

What are the most important results in the field?

What are the foundational issues in the field?

(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2025/07/on-foundational-work-in-syntactic-theory.html)

How has the field reached its current state?

Is it possible to define the borders with semantics, morphology, and other subfields?

2. Preparation

What topics and results are represented in recent journal publications?

Advice: At the very least, check the last few years of Syntax, Syntactic Theory and Reseach, Linguistic Inquiry, Glossa and Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. The purpose of this task is to give you a sense of what is being done in the field, and where the field is going. It is also a great opportunity to catch-up on reading.

What topics and results are represented on Lingbuzz and in conferences?

What topics and results are represented in recent syntax monographs?

(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2022/10/places-to-publish-syntax-monograph.html)

What interesting new work is being done on standard topics?

Advice: Use this opportunity to reach out to your syntax colleagues and to ask them what they have been working on.

3. Teaching Goals

What do you want the students in the class to learn?

Advice: The primary goal of the class should be to teach the students how to do syntax. A course focused on memorization of definitions is not very valuable, unless it feeds into learning how to put together a syntactic analysis.

What are the fundamental theoretical concepts a syntactician needs to learn?

What are the basic skills a syntactician needs to learn?

Advice: Try to make a list of concrete skills a syntactician needs. These skills range from basic academic writing skills, to data elicitation skills, to skills in applying syntactic diagnostics. The more aware you are of the skills needed, the more you can help your students develop those skills.

How will these skills be taught in the class?

How do you teach syntactic argumentation?

What kinds of hands-on activities do you have planned?

Advice: Have the students draw most or all of the trees in class. Use any mistake that they make as learning opportunity for the whole class. Emphasize the fact that people learn by making mistakes, and fixing them.

What kinds of controversies are there in the field? 

Which controversies would it be useful to put on the syllabus?

4. Topics

How do you divide up topics between Syntax I and Syntax II?

Advice: The following is from my Syntax I syllabus. This general division of labor works pretty well. From year to year, the particular topics and emphasis might change.

“Syntax I is concerned with phrase structure (Merge), argument structure (unaccusatives, unergatives, transitives, double object constructions), Case and agreement (Agree), A-movement (passives, raising constructions), head movement, binding and control. 

Syntax II will cover A’-movement, the left periphery (cartography), differences between A- and A’-movement, weak and strong crossover, remnant movement, successive cyclic movement, general constraints on movement (islands, phases, relativized minimality), that-trace effects, the adjunct/argument asymmetry and covert movement (QR, Wh-in-Situ).”

Does the order of the topics you have chosen make sense?

Is your syllabus too crowded with topics? Are you rushing?

Advice: Ultimately, you will have to make some decisions about content. You cannot teach all the relevant topics. For example, psych-verbs are an important topic in argument structure, but I do not usually teach them (except when they come up in discussions), because of limitations in time. Similarly for morphological and periphrastic causatives. The field is very rich and with many topics and interconnections between those topics. At some point you need to choose a set of topics to focus on.

If your syllabus is crowded, can some topics be dropped?

Have you left enough time for discussion and integration and classroom activities?

Advice: Plan out your syllabus day-by-day and week-by-week. This will help you to see exactly how the time is being used. But make sure to leave enough time for discussion and classroom exercises. Also, don’t be rigid about the syllabus. If you need more time for something, just take it.

5. Readings

What are the classic works of the field?

(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2019/09/golden-oldies.html)

Which of the classics is particularly well-written?

Which of the classics fit well on the syllabus?

Does your syllabus have the appropriate balance classical papers with cutting-edge papers?

Is it important to choose a syntactic framework?

Advice: Yes, it is. You cannot really teach effectively if you need to present several basic frameworks (e.g., Minimalism, Construction Grammar, LFG, Relational Grammar, HPSG, etc.). It is best to adopt a set of assumptions and teach within that set of assumptions (e.g., minimalism). Of course, you can make comparisons here and there where appropriate, especially concerning the history of ideas in the field. 

Is your syllabus gender balanced?

Note: The point is not to exactly balance the number of publications (11 male, 11 female), but rather to make sure both male and female contributions to the field are properly represented, and that no implicit biases are sneaking into the syllabus creation process.

Do you have too many readings on the syllabus?

Advice: Try to limit the number of readings to one per class period. Any more than that, and the grads will not be able to read them. Remember, they are taking several other courses, each with large workloads. For each week, you can divide up the readings into “Readings” and “Optional”. You can put as many readings as you like under “Optional”, while still restricting the required readings for the week. This also let’s students know what the important articles for the topic are.

6. Evaluation

How can you evaluate whether a student has learned how to do syntax?

How many problem sets are you assigning?

Advice: Don’t assign anything problem sets in the second half of the semester. Reserve that part of the semester for working on paper topics.

What are your goals for the final paper?

How can you structure the syllabus to help the students write interesting papers?

Advice: Plan a workshop on paper proposals around mid-term. This is by-far one of the most effective ways to help students with the paper writing process.

(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2019/09/golden-oldies.html)

How do you get graduate students to do the readings?

Advice: Resist the temptation to give little tests on the readings at the beginning of class. Testing at the graduate level is completely artificial, and does not teach them how to do syntax, which is the main overarching goal.

Advice: One requirement of the syllabus is that each student should do a presentation of one of the readings on the syllabus. They should also meet with you about the paper they are presenting before the presentation. The presentation gives the student an opportunity to go deeply into one of the readings.

7. Miscellaneous

How do you accommodate different background levels in class?

How can you make syntax fun and interesting for everybody in the class?

How do you get students involved in class (instead of surreptitiously reading e-mail and playing with their smart phones)?