Graduate Program (& Advanced Certificate) Status
This is a mandatory course for first-year Cultural Heritage students intended to foster academic research methods and writing skills that will enable students to participate fully in scholarly life and discourse as professionals. Besides providing a solid background in basic research methods and academic writing necessary for prospectus and thesis development, the course is designed to familiarize students with genres and types of writing that they will encounter in their academic and professional career.
The former includes working towards a clear statement of dissertation topics, research questions, a well-thought-out description of methodology, a consideration of potential primary and secondary sources, and a carefully prepared bibliography. The latter entails various aspects of writing, presenting and communicating as a cultural heritage professional, familiarizing with genres and writing for different audiences.
The standards and requirements of all assignments will reflect the goal of communicating one’s research and intellectual work to the international scholarly community and engage in professional projects in high quality English prose.
More information on the e-learning site.
By the end of this course, students will:
- understand the building blocks of successful academic writing beyond their proposed project and identify thesis- and research-specific questions of structuring and planning
- share ideas and improve data management and analytical methods and tools
- gain practice in structuring, writing and delivering presentations confidently
- understand the basics of reader-friendly writing: meta-discourse and paragraph level writing practice
- create a habit of writing, revising, rewriting and editing texts for professional purposes
- develop a reader friendly writing style and the ability to produce well written texts efficiently and in a timely manner
- think about the research proposal critically and plan a prospectus
30% - Preparation and class participation: reading the assigned texts for each class, ungraded assignments, presentations (1.a + 1.b), participation in discussions, etc.
30% - Mid-term assignment (2.a 15% + 2.b 15%)
40% - Final Assignment (3.a 15% + 3.b 25%)
Familiarity with the assigned reading is mandatory for each class. For the list of readings, see the Course Structure detailed in this syllabus below.
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