The goal of the seminar is to (1) help students produce very good publishable student articles, and at the same time (2) teach students better writing and editing skills by having them edit each other’s works, both for substance and for writing quality. This seminar is open to all students, but CRS students will receive priority in enrollment. Each student should select a topic that engages race, gender, sexuality and/or another aspect of identity or discrimination. This seminar is particularly geared toward students that may be interested in pursuing a career in academia, although that is not a prerequisite. Initial sessions will focus on the writing process, including (1) topic selection; (2) reviewing and discussing samples of successful student articles (sometimes known as Comments), and (3) interactively doing some editing exercises. The remaining sessions will involve students presenting their ideas and eventually their papers, at various stages of development. First, students will discuss their general ideas for what to write about and give each other feedback. A few sessions later into the semester, they will present their proposed central argument and give each other written and oral feedback on the arguments. A few sessions later, they will present draft Introductions and again give each other written and oral feedback. Finally, in the last several sessions, they will present rough drafts of their paper and give each other written and oral feedback. For the pre-draft sessions, everybody will be expected to read and comment on everyone else’s work. For the sessions that discuss rough drafts, everybody will be expected to read and comment on three or four other papers. The professor will also provide comments on everyone’s work.
The seminar will meet mostly in the Fall Semester, but there will be three or four meetings in the Spring Semester. The final paper will be due for grading at the end of the Spring Semester. The seminar will be graded. There will be an enrollment cap of 12 students, with no priority for 3Ls. There are no prerequisites, but students will have to apply and state on their application what topic(s) they expect to write about (described as specifically as possible). All students should be committed to producing a publishable article, since that’s the focus of this seminar.