COMM 6730

Graduate Writing Seminar in Communication

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

Academics are in the business of creating knowledge. The way that academics in the social sciences typically share the knowledge that we create—the way that most often earns us credit in our universities and renown among our professional community—is through our writing. In the field of communication, specifically, our writing typically takes the form of journal articles, which may be preceded by conference versions of our papers. In this course, we will explore together the many tricks of the trade associated primarily with the writing of journal articles, given their predominance in the measurement and evaluation of our success, with the goal of improving both the quality and quantity of your writing. Given how important writing is to our work, our careers, and our identity as scholars, we want to make sure that we enjoy the time we spend on this task, and the best way to ensure our enjoyment is to become good at it. You should take this course if you are a graduate student (in communication or other social science fields) who has begun the writing stage of a project, be it a second-year paper, a research paper, a dissertation chapter (that you intend to later convert to a paper), or a conference or journal paper. We will dedicate the semester to improving your academic writing, providing you with new skills and knowledge that we will hone on the vehicle of your paper.

When Offered Fall.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: graduate students.

• Students will be able to write clean, crisp sentences with few grammatical errors.
• Students will be able to provide transitions between sentences and paragraphs that form a cognitive roadmap for your reader.
• Students will be able to adopt an academic style of writing that identifies you as a member of your professional community.
• Students will be able to situate your research clearly within an academic literature, showing a contribution.
• Students will be able to argue concisely but thoroughly, with ample, specific evidence.
• Students will be able to follow good writing habits that should help you be productive.
• Students will be able to differentiate among types of academic papers, including the styles of writing and argumentation present within each type.
• Students will be able to construct parts of a paper that are well suited to do the specific work of each part.
• Students will be able to provide constructive criticism and feedback on others' writing, and receive and respond positively to constructive criticism of your writing.
• Students will be able to meet deadlines.

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