Image credit: Michael Kahan
In the Writing in the Major courses in both Sociology and Urban Studies, students produce original arguments based on new research. In Urban Studies, students write a proposal in their junior year either for an academic paper or a synthesis project, which can be directed toward an audience of practitioners (designers or community partners, for example). They generally come to the senior seminar with research. By contrast, in Sociology, most students conceive, research, and write a paper in a quarter, which for some will be rolled into their honors thesis. Even though the students in Sociology and Urban Studies come to their WIM courses with diverse goals, the instructors who teach these courses have devised ways to help all students succeed as researchers and writers in their chosen disciplines. All students work toward writing excellence defined by clear learning outcomes and modeled through class analysis of exemplary scholarship.
