All Write: Writing in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences

In college, you will read complex texts, analyze these texts and their contexts, and then construct arguments that focus your analyses. The larger goal is for you to gain exposure to real-world conversations, as well as the critical reading and thinking skills necessary for participating in these conversations.

Humanities

The thesis-driven essay dominates writing in the humanities.  So, for example, in a literature class you might study a particular text and then be asked to construct and defend individual arguments about that text. You generally write for an audience of other college-level students who have studied the same text, sometimes synthesizing scholarly arguments with your own to foster a broader dialogue about the text’s aesthetic, cultural, and/or metaphysical value. You are expected to read accurately, think independently, bring multiple sources together, and defend your insights with logic and evidence. Again, the larger goal is for you to recognize and enter real-world conversations, encouraging consideration of the different ways texts and their contexts matter.

Maria Brandt, English Faculty

 

Social Sciences

All disciplines use critical thinking and a process of inquiry and reasoning to attempt to understand the world around us. In the social sciences, such as the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, history, political science, economics, psychology, and geography, students use content-specific knowledge and the scientific method to examine the human or social world. Through writing, you are encouraged to ask “big” questions, think deeper, analyze and synthesize empirical data, and formulate relevant solutions to real world issues. Students engage in meaningful research at micro- and/or macro-levels, and may choose a variety of methodological approaches. Whether you are engaged in formal writing (perhaps  writing a research paper) or informal writing (perhaps writing in a journal or recording observations), you are engaged in the process of ordering your experience and communicating knowledge in a systematic way.

Nayda Pares-Kane, Sociology Faculty

 

Natural Sciences

In the natural science and engineering disciplines, students are typically expected to conduct hands-on research and then present their findings in a laboratory report. Reports are frequently very structured, and most include sections that provide background information gleaned from primary sources, a description of the research methods and results, and an explanation of the researcher’s analysis and conclusions regarding the validity and reach of the experiment. Another common writing expectation for students in the natural science and engineering fields is the production of a laboratory or field journal detailing observational and experimental data. The goal of these types of writing assignments is to convey accurate, factual information to other researchers so that they could replicate your experiments to validate your conclusions.

MaryJo Witz, Biology Faculty

 

“History and writing are inseparable. We cannot know history well unless we write about it. Writing history is more than a gathering of facts. It is the writer’s interpretation of facts that raises questions, provokes curiosity, and even makes the reader ask questions, transforming what would have been opinions into historical arguments.”— Verdis L. Robinson, History and African-American Studies Faculty and Coordinator of the Democracy Commitment