Academic Writing - JMM020

• Anglický název: Academic Writing
• Zajišťuje: Katedra severoamerických studií (23-KAS)
• Fakulta: Fakulta sociálních věd
• Platnost: od 2017 do 2017
• Semestr: zimní
• E-Kredity: 3
• Způsob provedení zkoušky: zimní s.:
• Rozsah, examinace: zimní s.:0/2, Z [HT]
• Počet míst: neurčen / neurčen (20)
• Minimální obsazenost: neomezen
• 4EU+: ne
• Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu: ne
• Stav předmětu: vyučován
• Jazyk výuky: angličtina
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Poznámka: předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán; povolen pro zápis po webu; při zápisu přednost, je-li ve stud. plánu
• Garant: doc. PhDr. Mgr. Francis Raška, Ph.D.
• Záměnnost : JMMZ345

Anotace

Poslední úprava: Dr. phil. Lucie Kýrová, M.A. (01.10.2016)

This course focuses on the fundamentals of academic writing with the goal of improving students’ critical reading and writing skills in the English language. By the end of this course, you will have tools necessary to conduct research, analyze sources, craft an original argument, and present that argument to others. While we will concentrate on the researching and writing history, many of the skills you will learn will be applicable to other fields of scholarly pursuit.

The secondary aim of this course is to introduce students to the existing literature on women and gender history. Since this is a writing course, the historiographical and topical coverage will not be comprehensive or chronological, but students will gain some awareness of the topics discussed by scholars of women and gender history.

Literatura

Poslední úprava: Dr. phil. Lucie Kýrová, M.A. (01.10.2016)

Most of the articles we will read are available through the Jinonice library databases (JSTOR, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Central). Book chapters and unavailable articles will be posted on SIS and/or Moodles.

Besides the assigned and required class readings (listed in the sullabus), there are two recommended sources: Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers and John M. Swales and Christine B. Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English. These are your go-to resources to consult on anything from grammar to argument construction and narrative. Scanned copies will be posted on SIS and/or Moodles.

 

 

Sylabus

Poslední úprava: Dr. phil. Lucie Kýrová, M.A. (03.10.2016)

Academic Writing

(JMM020)

Tuesdays, 9:30 – 10:50, room # J1035

 

Lucie Kýrová

[e-mail]

Office room 3080

Office hours: Mondays, 15:00 – 16:00

                 Tuesdays, 11:00 – 12:00 and by appointment via email

 

This course focuses on the fundamentals of academic writing with the goal of improving students’ critical reading and writing skills in the English language. By the end of this course, you will have tools necessary to conduct research, analyze sources, craft an original argument, and present that argument to others. While we will concentrate on the researching and writing history, many of the skills you will learn will be applicable to other fields of scholarly pursuit.

The secondary aim of this course is to introduce students to the existing literature on women and gender history.  Since this is a writing course, the historiographical and topical coverage will not be comprehensive or chronological, but students will gain some awareness of the topics discussed by scholars of women and gender history.

 

Readings

Most articles are available through the Jinonice library databases (JSTOR, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Central). Book chapters and unavailable articles will be posted on SIS and/or Moodles.

Besides the assigned and required class readings, there are two recommended sources: Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers (available in the Jinonice library) and John M. Swales and Christine B. Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English. These are your go-to resources to consult on anything from grammar to argument construction. Scanned sections will be available on SIS and/or Moodles.

 

Writing assignments

* Summary of class readings – you will write a summary of one of the assigned articles and one of the assigned book chapters. Due in class October 18^th. Writing these summaries is part of your participation grade. Be prepared to present one or both in class.

*Research paper – you will select a primary source and built a research paper around it. The selection of the primary source is up to you, but it should be tied to American history and/or society. You will build / write your paper in stages, some of which will be graded. Detail instructions for the paper will be posted on SIS and/or Moodles.

 

Paper stages:

- primary source(s) and questions – you will email me by October 14^th, 8 pm, your selection of a primary source(s) you want to use for your research paper and the questions you plan to interrogate. This is not a graded assignment – you will get comments and suggestions for research from me.

- Book review – you will write a book review on one of your books you are using for your research paper. Due by November 1^st by 8 pm.

- Introductory paragraph and outline – write your introductory paragraph and make sure you have a good thesis statement. Follow with an outline for the rest of your paper that will indicate how you plan to develop your topic and argument. Due November 16^th by noon.

- Draft – you will swap paper drafts with a classmate, read and comment on it. You will then return your comments, suggestions for improvement, and a suggested grade to the author (and receive your own draft back). You will send me a summary of your critique and the suggested grade. There will be no formal grade from me on this draft. This is an opportunity for you to have a peer to review your writing and make suggestions for revisions for the final draft. As a reviewer you will send me a summary of your comments and a grade you would give the paper. Due December 6^th by 8 pm.

- Final draft - revised draft based on your classmate’s comments and recommendations. Due

January 12^th by 8 pm.

 

* A short presentation of your research in class at the end of the semester. December 13^th and 20^th.

 

Grading

Class participation = 10%

Writing assignments = 80%

                Book review – 20%

                Introductory paragraph and outline – 20%

                Draft – peer review by classmates, no formal grade

                Final draft – 40%

Research presentation – 10%

 

Schedule

Week 1                Course introduction, sources, their types and where to find them

October 3            May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold Era. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1999. Introduction – read the first two paragraphs on page ix and analyze the photos on pp. x and xi.

                        Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village.” William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 1 (January 1991), 19 – 23. Pay attention to the sources the author used.

 

                      Recommended: Turabian, chapter 1, pp. 3 – 11, and chapter 3, pp. 24 – 36.

 

Week 2                From a topic to a question to a hypothesis

October 11          May, Homeward Bound, finish the introduction.

                        Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1980. Preface, pp. xi – xii, introduction, pp. 3 – 12;

                        Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750 – 1800. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980. Both prefaces, pp. xi – xx.

** How did these writers go from an idea and/or source to their thesis for their books? What was the process?

                      Recommended: Turabian, chapter 2, pp. 12 – 23.

 Email me by October 14^th, 8 pm, your primary source and questions for your research paper.

 

 Week 3                Engaging sources - writing summaries, annotated bibliography

October 18          (Don’t worry – you’re not reading all of these, only one article and one book chapter.)

                        Dayton, “Taking the Trade.”

                        Jeffrey, Julie Roy. “The Liberty Women of Boston: Evangelicalism and Antislavery Politics.” The New England Quarterly, Vol. 85, No. 1 (March 2012), 38 – 77.

                        Anderson, Bonnie S. “The Lid Comes off: International Radical Feminism and the Revolutions of 1848.”NWSA Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), 1 – 12.

                        Harris, LaShawn. “Playing the Numbers: Madame Stephanie St. Clair and African American Policy Culture in Harlem.” Black Women, Gender + Families, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 2008), 53 – 76.

                        Smith, Andrea. “Native American Feminism, Sovereignty and Social Change.” Feminist Studies, Vol 31., No. 1 (Spring 2005), 116 – 132.

                        Fisher, Kirsten. Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina. Ithaca, NY: Cornel University Press, 2002. Chapter 1, “Disorderly Women and the Struggle for Authority,” 13 – 54.

                        Norton, Liberty’s Daughter, Chapter 6, “We Commenced Perfect Statesmen,” 155 – 194.

                        Kerber, Women of the Republic, chapter 8, “We Own That Ladies Sometimes Read’: Women’s Reading in the Early Republic,” 233 – 264.

                        May, Homeward Bound, chapter 1, “Containment at Home: Cold War, Warm Hearth,” 10 – 29.

                        Enstad, Nan. Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1999. Any chapter of your choice.

 

                        Recommended: Turabian, chapter 4, pp. 37 – 48; Swales and Feak, Unit 5, “Writing Summaries,” 105 – 130.

                        Article and chapter summary due in class.

 

Week 4                Engaging sources - book and literature reviews

October 25          (Yes, you are reading all of these, but they are short. I promise.)

                      Brown, Kathleen. Review of Sexual Revolution in Early America by Richard Godbeer. The American Historical Review, Vol. 108, No. 30 (June 2003), 826 – 827.

                      Perdue, Theda. Review of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia by Kathleen M. Brown. The American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 3 (June 1999), 896 – 897.

                      Bercaw, Nancy. “Gendering the Master Narrative.” Review of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia by Kathleen M. Brown. American Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 1 (March 1999), 228 –                         236.

                      Brinkman, Antoinette. Review of Sexual Revolution in Early America by Richard Godbeer. Library Journal, Vol. 127, No. 9 (May 2002), 108. Available through EBCOhost and posted on SIS and/or Moodles.

                      Review of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia by Kathleen M. Brown. Women’s Studies, Vol. 26, No. 6 (October 1997), 661. Available through EBCOhost and posted on SIS                               and/or Moodles.

                      Norton, Mary Beth. “The Evolution of White Women’s Experience in Early America.” The American Historical Review, Vol. 89, No. 3 (June 1984), 593 – 619. Read only pp. 593 – 595.

 ** Consider – what makes a good book review? How did these authors engage with the material? What did they comment on? What is missing from these reviews? What would you do differently?

 Recommended: Swales and Fake, Unit 6, “Writing Critiques,” mainly pp. 131 – 134.

 

Week 5                Building and presenting your argument

November 1       Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure. Introduction, 1 – 16.

                      + revisit introductions of the books and articles you already read (you don’t have to re-read all of them, just few).

 ** Consider how the authors build up and present their arguments. How do they engage with and position their work within the existing scholarship? What makes an effective introduction?

                               Recommended: Turabian, chapter 5, pp. 49 – 62.

                       Book review due by 8 pm.

 

Week 6                Constructing a Research Paper (hook, introductory paragraph, theses statement, outline, organization)

November 8       Review the articles, book introductions and chapters you already red. Find an effective opening line (one that makes you want to read the rest). Find an introductory paragraph you think is the best. Select an introduction that presents the  

                       best thesis statement. Select an article and a chapter that shows the best organization (easy to follow). Be prepared to explain your choices during class discussion.

  ** each of you should review at least two articles and two books (introduction and chapter)

                       Recommended: Turabian, chapter 6, pp. 63 – 72; Swales and Fake, Units 7 and 8, pp. 155 – 220.

 

Week 7                Treatment of sources – quoting, paraphrasing, citing, and plagiarism; citation format

November 15    Select two articles and two book chapters from our readings. Review the authors’ use of their sources (both primary and secondary). Do they use them effectively? Do the quotations support their arguments?

 

Turabian / Chicago Style citation format: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html This is a quick guide to the citation format you will be using for your paper.

                         Recommended: Turabian, chapter 7, especially pp. 75 – 82; Swales and Fake, pp. 125 –126.

                         Introductory paragraph and outline due by noon.

 

Week 8                Individual conferences – you will meet with me one on one during class time to discuss

November 22    your writing progress, challenges, problems and concerns you might have.

 

Week 9                Writing grant proposals

November 29    Kelsky, Karen. The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning your Ph.D. Into a Job. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2015. Chapter 51 and 52, pp. 337 – 348.

 ** After reading Kelsky, think about how you would write a grant proposal to get funding for your research. How would you persuade a committee to give you money for your project? What sets your project apart from others? Write down your ideas and be ready to present them to a “grant committee” in the class.

 

Week 10          Peer review and revisions

December 6       Turabian, chapter 9, pp. 100 – 103.

                      Since you just finished your draft and will be sending it today to your class reviewer, think about the potential problems your draft might have and how would you fix it.

                      Send your draft to your classmate for review.

               

Week 11         Presenting your research – oral presentations, panels, conferences

December 13     Turabian, chapter 13, pp. 124 – 130.

                     RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS

You will have 10 min to present your research topic, its main points and your findings, historiography, your methods, etc.

 

Week 12          RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS

December 20     Return your review comments to your review partner by December 22^nd, 8 pm.

 

FINAL PAPER DUE BY JANUARY 12^TH, 8 PM.