Interpretation and Argument

Catalog description

Interpretation and Argument, an inquiry-driven writing course, is one of a number of first-year writing course options available to students at Carnegie Mellon. A full-semester course experience, 76101 introduces students to foundational practices for reading, synthesizing and producing scholarly knowledge within an academic context. Within the course, students learn transferable, genre-based skills applicable to a variety of different fields. Students use a comparative genre analysis method for using models to complete new writing tasks, including an academic research proposal and a research article that contributes to an ongoing academic conversation. Faculty who teach 76-101 typically select a range of texts (e.g., scholarship, journalism, film) about an unresolved issue, so that students can identify relevant questions to frame their own research projects. Students should expect explicit, research-based instruction within the course, reflecting upon their writing processes, as well as planning, drafting and revising drafts. Because the course emphasizes authentic stakes and purposes for communicating with academic audiences, students will regularly share their work with their peers in oral and written forms within an interactive and collaborative classroom environment. Due to the limits of our schedule, we are unable to meet each student's individual preferences for course topics, but we do offer a wide variety from which to choose. Course Website: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/academic-programs/writing-and-communication/index.html