ENGL 298 G: Intermediate Interdisciplinary Writing - Social Sciences

The goal of IWP is to launch you into a successful academic experience at UW by preparing you for the rigorous demands of university writing while enhancing your engagement in a specific academic discipline. This course is linked to SOC 270 (Social Problems), and in addition to constructing a solid foundation in writing skills, we will give you opportunity to use the sociological perspectives you learn in your lecture class as a lens whereby you may examine and explain the existence of contemporary social problems; specifically, we will explore social problems emerging in the areas of juvenile and criminal justice, poverty and inequality, and HIV/AIDS.

Our first of three course sequences will focus on building our writing skills. Since reading critically leads to better writing, our sequence will begin by exploring and analyzing the rhetorical strategies of skilled writers and speakers who wrote in different contexts and to different audiences. In our first major paper, we will explore the rhetorical strategies of one of America’s greatest social gamechangers as we read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, Letter from Birmingham Jail. Our second sequence will give you an opportunity to explore, in depth, a specific social concern related to one of the broad areas explored in your 270 lecture class. We will introduce research skills, including constructing an annotated bibliography, pursuing a line of inquiry, writing a proposal, and finally, writing a major research paper. In the process, we will practice our skills and test the depth and significance of our arguments in a highly interactive classroom environment. Our final sequence will focus on revision and polishing of our writing and will culminate with an exercise on presenting our research in conference-ready poster form. Prepare for an exciting journey as you grow as a reader, writer, and presenter in the world of ideas!