WRITING AND READING ACADEMIC TEXT

Rosario Forlenza, Andrea Capati

Instructional goals

This course aims to provide students with the knowledge and command of skills which are essential to write effectively and read critically an academic text and a piece of research. Students are expected to acquire the ability to elaborate a structured research proposal in line with a research question of interest to them.

Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites

Intended learning outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will have acquired the ability to: carry out an accurate literature review on a specific topic of interest; identify and formulate a sound research question; make sense of a theory or a theoretical framework to derive research hypotheses in response to the research question; collect, assess and make use of primary and secondary sources of data; properly structure an academic paper; effectively read academic texts.

Course Contents

This intensive course provides students with a grounding in essential skills related to the writing and reading of academic texts. It will enable them to expand their skills and build their self-confidence as academic readers, researchers, and writers. The course covers the fundamentals: how to write and read scholarly texts; how to read and write with a focus on logical validity and coherence as an academic writer; how to plan and organize a well-structured argument or explanation; how to find and cite sources; how to use Internet and social media for bibliographic research.

Reference Books

See the list of sessions below. Slides, recommended readings and in-class exercises for each week will be posted on the Luiss Learn page of the course.

Teaching Methods

This is an intensive course structured along four weeks. The teaching method will involve lectures by the instructors and by selected experts, discussions, and a writing/reading workshop.

Assessment Method

This is a pass/fail course. There are no formal assignments or grades.

Thesis assignment criteria

Not applicable

Week 1

Introduction, research design, from topic to research question, structure and format of a paper, how to read effectively, how to cite and quote properly

Week 2

Bibliographic research: resource and strategies, Internet and social media per academic research, references management systems (Zotero)

Week 3

Theories and methods of social sciences for academic writing and reading Reading: Sergio Fabbrini and Patrick Dibere Molutsi, “Comparative Politics” in International Encyclopedia of Political Science (London: Sage, 2011), 343–359

Week 4

Workshop

Week 5

Not applicable

Week 6

Not applicable

Week 7

Not applicable

Week 8

Not applicable

Week 9

Not applicable

Week 10

Not applicable

Week 11

Not applicable

Week 12

Not applicable