One Course Several Ways

Greetings again. I’m now giving a 3-week intensive course in research writing, mainly for researchers from Mexico. The researchers are here at Texas A&M University for the course.

Julie Walker, of AuthorAID, has encouraged me to provide “kits” to help others give courses in research writing. Therefore I’m providing the syllabus for the course I’m now giving.

This syllabus is relatively detailed. For each day, it lists topics discussed, reading due, and writing due. It also contains other information. People can use or adapt this syllabus to give courses of their own.

The presentation topics resemble those in AuthorAID workshops. Therefore, those teaching courses based on this one can use or adapt PowerPoint presentations available in the AuthorAID Resource Library. (These presentations are available in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese. We hope to have them available in other languages soon.)

If the textbook that is listed in the syllabus is not available, the course can be given without reading (as AuthorAID workshops are). Or another book covering similar topics can be substituted.

The current course meets daily and has 14 sessions. (The university is closed for 1 day for a holiday.) If desired, one can instead give 3 sessions per week (for an approximately 1-month course), 2 sessions per week (for an approximately 2-month course), or 1 session per week (for an approximately one-semester course). Likewise, the syllabus can be the basis of a self-study course.

I hope that others will adapt this syllabus and give courses similar to this one.