Course Description: This course introduces students to the basics of social science writing in professional and educational contexts. It will cover proposal writing, library research, internet research, organization of the paper, outlines, drafts, and documentation. The course guides students through the entire process of writing from gathering sources to formatting papers in APA style. It moves beyond the use of books and periodicals to stress the importance of computer technology and the Internet in modern research. As academic writing is inseparable from reading, a good part of the course will be devoted to the skills of critical reading and argument analysis. Special attention is given to the techniques of exposition by means of examples and illustrations, analogy, comparison and contrast, classification, division, process analysis, and definition. Students read and write theoretical essays, empirical research papers, proposals, and literature review in the social sciences. The course will also review microelements of paragraph structure, sentence construction, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics.
- Teacher: April Davis