SOCY7761.01: Second Year Graduate Writing Seminar
Academic Year 2015-2016
Alternate Wednesdays, 9:30 am – 12 pm, McGuinn 413 (Spring)
Professor: Sara Moorman
Office: 404 McGuinn Hall
Office hours: Tuesdays 10:30 am - 11:30 am and by appointment
E-mail: moormans@bc.edu
Spring Schedule
Date
Topic
Reading
January 17
Time Management
(day-to day, and your
time overall in grad
school)
1) Milardo chapters 7-8 (Crafting Scholarship
in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, ebook online through the BC libraries)
2) Silva chapters 2-3
February 3
Grants and
Fellowships
1) http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Win-aGraduate/46782/
2) http://chronicle.com/article/Grant-WritingTips-for/125301/
3) Rajan and Tomal chapters 2-3 (Grant
Writing, e-book online through the BC
libraries)
February 17
Writing the Results
Section
1) Bloomberg and Volpe chapters 4-5
(Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation,
e-book online through the BC libraries)
2) Belcher 190-198
3) James and Slater chapters 11-12
March 2
Making Tables,
Figures, and .ppt
Slides
1) http://chronicle.com/article/The-Truth-IsYou-Gave-a-Lousy/46627/
2) Becker chapters 8 and 13
3) Wolcott, section called “Packing More In”
(Writing Up Qualitative Research chapter
5, e-book online through the BC libraries)
March 23
Defenses and
Conference
Presentations
1) http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index
.php/publications/observer/2007/april07/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-aconference.html
SOCY7761 Second Year Graduate Writing Seminar
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2) http://www.psychologicalscience.org/obser
ver/0401/notebook.html
3) http://www.evalefkowitz.com/prof-devblog/how-to-give-an-engaging-conferencepresentation
4) Becker chapters 9 and 11
April 6
Question-Answer
Sessions
1) https://chroniclevitae.com/news/922-theprofessor-is-in-the-job-talk-q-a
2) Becker chapter 12
April 20
Writing the Discussion
Section
1) http://chronicle.com/article/Your-ThirdYear-in-a-PhD/143853/
2) Bloomberg and Volpe chapter 6
(Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation,
e-book online through the BC libraries)
3) Wolcott, section titled“How Do You
Conclude a Qualitative Study?” through the
end of the chapter (Writing Up Qualitative
Research chapter 5, e-book online through
the BC libraries)
Assessment
Grading scale
A
93 – 100%
B
83 – 86%
F
0 – 59%
AB-
90 – 92%
80 – 82%
B+
C
87 – 89%
60 – 79%
Your grade is based on attendance, participation, and assignment submission.
• Attendance: You are allowed to miss one class session per semester with no grade
penalty. After that, you will be penalized a half-grade per class missed (i.e., 0-2 misses =
A, 3 misses = A-, 4 misses = B+, etc.).
• Participation: The meat of this course involves discussing the reading, doing in-class
activities and exercises, and workshopping one another’s work. If you sit on the sidelines,
that hurts everyone’s experience. I don’t expect problems in this arena, so assume you’re
doing A work unless I notify you otherwise.
• Assignment submission: This class is about practice, so I’m going to give feedback on
your work but I’m not going to grade it. Your job is to submit complete assignments on
time. This bar is really low, so you get one late or incomplete assignment for the entire
year and then you’ll be penalized a half-grade for each subsequent assignment that is late
or incomplete (i.e., 0-1 late or incomplete = A, 2 late or incomplete = A-, 3 late or
incomplete = B+, etc.).
SOCY7761 Second Year Graduate Writing Seminar
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Dates To Keep In Mind:
• March 17-21, 2016: Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston MA
• April 1, 2016: Deadline for having defended and submitted a thesis/paper for a spring
master’s degree
• August 1, 2016: Deadline for having defended and submitted a thesis/paper for a summer
master’s degree
• August 20-23, 2016: Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle
WA
• September 30, 2016: Deadline for 2nd years in the PhD program to have defended an MA
thesis such that they are eligible for continued funding in Spring 2017
Academic Honesty
Cheating, plagiarism, collusion, and other academic offenses will result in (a) automatic failure
of the assignment, and (b) a report to the Dean and the Committee on Academic Integrity. For
further information, please review BC’s policies on academic integrity at: www.bc.edu/integrity
Accommodations
If you are a student with a documented disability seeking reasonable accommodations in this
course, please contact Kathy Duggan, (617) 552-8093, dugganka@bc.edu, at the Connors Family
Learning Center regarding learning disabilities and ADHD, or Paulette Durrett, (617) 552-3470,
paulette.durrett@bc.edu, in the Disability Services Office regarding all other types of disabilities,
including temporary disabilities. Advance notice and appropriate documentation are required for
accommodations.