Katherine Schaefer
M/W 4:50-6:05
4 credits
Prerequisite: Successful Completion of the Primary Writing Requirement
Why take this course?
- You want to better understand the expectations of your audiences, particularly in the natural, social, and health sciences
- You want to develop strategies to better meet those expectations
- You are interested in attending graduate school or joining the health professions
Key skills and experiences
- The ability to identify key patterns and stylistic choices in a text
- The ability to understand what communities value through analysis of how their texts are constructed
- You will interview experts in your field
- You will analyze texts to explore the “why” behind the words
Full course description
Drawing on the concepts of discourse community and rhetorical genre analysis (e.g., Bazerman, Berkenhotter & Huckin, Swales), this course investigates ways of understanding the choices writers make when communicating about the natural, social, or applied sciences, with the goal of better understanding how to read and write as an insider in your chosen discipline. You will develop a technical vocabulary and set of skills that allow you to describe recurring patterns and writer choices within those patterns. Using these tools, and talking to experts in your chosen discipline(s), you will investigate disciplinary and interdisciplinary boundaries, how writers convey meaning in different situations, and why they make the writing choices they do. Through a final research project of your choice, you will practice using what you have learned to communicate the results of your own research. This course is especially suitable for dual-major students, or those heading to graduate or health professions schools.