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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
Christine M. Daley, The Hixon Writing Center, 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, 6:00PM - 7:55PM, in 315 Baxter Hall.
Other than 10.14 and 12.2, in which the class will take place 2PM -3:55PM, in 315 Baxter.
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
survey paper can be written within
several weeks.
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 the Institute Science Writing Requirement and
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-reviews journals in economics are American Economic
Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, and Review of Economic
Studies (back issues available through Caltech
library or JSTOR).
To qualify, papers must be the students' original work and must be in a social
science discipline. Alternative target
audiences and writing projects may be considered in consultation with the
instructors.
Throughout the class, tutors from the Hixon Writing Center will be providing
detailed tutorials on different aspects of
written and oral presentations. 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 advisor and the course instructor.
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 instructor and
sometimes individually with mentors or
the
class instructor.
Main Tasks Throughout the Class
1. Creating a polished paper;
2. Oral presentation of the work;
3. Summarizing in varying depths others' papers.
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.
T E N T A T I V E C L A S S S C H E D U L E
Week 1 (class will meet together with LY)
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 (class will meet with mentors and LY individually, with CD collectively)
Week 3 (class will meet with CD and LY collectively)
10 min Presentations.
Week 4 (class will meet with CD)
Week 5 (class will meet with Hixon tutors individually, with CD collectively)
Week 6 (class will meet with LY individually, with CD collectively)
Week 7 (class will meet with CD collectively)
Week 8 (no class meetings)
Submit new draft of paper by Friday, 11.20, to mentors and LY. Comments will be given by e-mail.
Week 9 (class will meet with Hixon tutors individually, with CD and LY collectively)
Week 10 (class will meet with CD and LY collectively)
10 min presentations.
Final draft due by Friday, 12.11.
