Reading, Writing & Reasoning for Sociology

Reading an academic text and effectively writing a good academic paper is a big challenge for the students of social sciences which relies on multiple methods of data collection. In context of Indian academia this issue is more aggravated because of insensitivity among students about ethical issues and plagiarism. This course attempts to address these issues and will equip students to handle academic paper efficiently.The course will enable students to read academic texts and identify the central argument(s) and grasp the content of the texts. It will facilitate them to organize ideas, to structure their arguments, style and tone of the author and author biases. To seeks to enable students to identify standard elements of writing and equip them to express in different genres of writing such as summaries, critical reviews and essays. It is expected that the students will be able to approach writing as a form of reasoning, with specific organization of ideas, style and perspective and develop critical thinking through reflecting on various texts consciously keeping cross-cultural perspective in background.This course aims to enhance skills of reading, writing and reasoning for students from Sociology. It aims to equip the students with the necessary skills of writing and publishing a research paper. Important ethical issues while writing a research paper like the issue of plagiarism, and the peer review process is also discussed in this course which will help the students to inculcate good academic writing habits.

Lecture no.

Title of the lecture

1

The world of reading and writing in academia

2

Introduction to reading

3

Reading an academic text

4

What to read? Sources of reading

5

Reading and note taking

6

Developing critical approach towards reading

7

From understanding a text to planning for writing

8

Managing the literature review

9

Selecting topic, planning & getting started

10

Paraphrasing/quoting/citation rules

11

Data measurement scales and their types

12

Developing and interpreting graphical representation of data

13

Organising the write-up; working with blocks

14

Coping with writers’ block

15

Know about plagiarism and how to avoid it

16

How to stop your article

17

Re-writing and proof reading

18

Choosing a journal & promoting your article

19

Understanding the peer review process

20

Coping with rejection