Once you have chosen your committee and obtained each member's verbal agreement to serve, write a letter requesting formal appointment of your dissertation committee to Lisa Lynch, PhD Program Director. Please send the letter via email attachment to lmlynch@brandeis.edu and copy Nancy Leonard, the PhD Program Manager, at nleonard@brandeis.edu. Your letter should state: 1) your thesis topic; 2) what style dissertation you will be writing, monograph style or three publishable papers on related topics; 3) a brief general statement of the theoretical framework, type and expected source of data, and methods of analysis; 4) the names of members and the chair; and 5) a short description of how each member's theoretical, substantive, and/or methodological expertise is relevant to your topic (see Appendix 2 of the Dissertation Standards and Procedures). You should provide a vita on the outside person. Committee approval will be filed in your student record.