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BEM/EC/SS20 - S C I E N T I F I C W R I T I N G A N D O R A L
P R E S E N T A T I O N I N T H E S O C I A L S C I E N C E S
C O U R S E I N S T R U C T O R S
Christine M. Daley, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 12 Dabney Hall, cdaley@hss.caltech.edu
Leeat Yariv, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 301C Baxter Hall, lyariv@hss.caltech.edu
C L A S S M E E T I N G S
Wednesdays, 2:00PM - 3:55PM, in 315 Baxter Hall.
P R E R E Q U I S I T E S
A paper from a previous class or a very focused idea for a project for which a
paper can be written within
three weeks at most.
B A C K G R O U N D
This class provides the opportunity for students to improve their written and
oral presentation skills in the social
sciences. The class satisfies both Caltech's science writing requirement as well
as the HSS oral requirement. Students
will come prepared with complete drafts of papers from another course or a SURF
project, which they will substantially
revise and improve for a specific target audience. Alternatively, students will
arrive with a well formed idea for a project
they plan to work on and a list of relevant papers that they can write up as a
research proposal in several weeks. In
most cases, the target audience for the class essays will be the academic
community and students will revise their work
in line with the expectations and format of a designated peer-reviews journal in
their discipline.
Examples of top peer-reviewed journals in economics are American Economic
Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, and Review of Economic
Studies (back issues available at the Caltech
library or JSTOR,org, which Caltech subscribes to).
To qualify, papers must be the students' original work and must be in a social
science discipline. Alternative target
audiences and writing projects (such as business plans) may be considered in consultation with the
instructors.
In addition, each student will work closely with
an HSS mentor whose own research is close
to the student's paper topic. Mentors will supervise and comment on the
substance of the paper. Student work will be
evaluated jointly by the student's mentor and the course instructors.
Much of the work that goes on in this class will occur in a workshop context, so
students should consider attendance
mandatory. Students will sometimes meet as a group with the instructors and
sometimes individually with mentors or
one of the
the
class instructors.
Main Tasks Throughout the Class
1. Creating a polished paper;
2. Oral presentation of the work;
3. Meeting the requirements of a peer reviewed journal.
Useful Reading:
Defoe, Tory (2007), ``The Truth Is, You Gave a Lousy Talk,'' Chronicle of Higher Education, December 21.
McCloskey, Donald N. (1983), "The Rhetoric of Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, 21:481-517.
Thomson, William (1999), "The Young Person's Guide to writing Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, 37:157-183.
C L A S S S C H E D U L E
Week 1 - January 5
Students will bring 3 copies of their proposed paper or proposed project to the first class, as well as names of two potential mentors from the division.
Week 2 - January 12
Week 3 - January 19
Week 4 - January 26
Week 5 - February 2
Week 6 - February 9
Week 7 - February 16
Week 8 - February 23
Week 9 - March 2
Week 10 - March 9
