Center for Applied Liberal Arts
Writing and Social Science Research
In today¿s data-driven world, professional writers are often tasked with critically reviewing,
curating, and summarizing research findings across a range of documents for external and
internal audiences. Likewise, professional writers are often asked to partner with research
teams and data scientists to work on effective messaging of important findings for expert and
novice audiences. In this course, students will become critical reviewers of research while they
develop the skills to be ethical and persuasive writers of formal research documents.
Focused on qualitative methods for research in the social sciences, students will learn to write
about and with research in clear and effective ways. Though students will not be gathering data
in this course, they will complete weekly graded assignments and activities, culminating in a
final research proposal. In small groups, students will also build presentations of their research
proposals for a virtual showcase at the end of the semester. This is an elective course in the MS
in Professional Writing program.