Writing in the Social Sciences

Catalog description

Through a combination of class activities such as lectures, discussions, workshops, guest speakers, and assignments, students will develop proficiency in various forms of academic writing, critical thinking, and research techniques specific to their fields of study. The course will also emphasize ethical and responsible writing practices in the social sciences. The course covers four broad areas: (1) the social context of academic writing; (2) the structure of academic writing; (3) searching the social scientific literature; and (4) the production of original literature reviews. Students in this course will workshop the deconstruction of journal articles and the production of a literature review on a topic of their choosing. The scaffolded literature review will involve peer review in writing groups and in-class writing workshops, as students move from writing a statement of interest, research question, annotated bibliography, outline, and full paper in APA format.