Reading, Writing & Reasoning for Sociology

By Dr. Aditya Ranjan Kapoor | Assistant Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda

Learners enrolled: 166

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.

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Not Applicable
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Sociology
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	15 Jan 2025
End Date :	30 Apr 2025
Enrollment Ends :	28 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	25 May 2025 IST
NCrF Level	5.0
Course Exam Shift :	II

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1
Lecture 01: The World of Reading and Writing in Academia

Lecture 02: Introduction to Reading

Week 2
Lecture 03: Reading an Academic Text
Lecture 04: What to Read? Sources of Reading
Lecture 05: Thought Process for Reading and Writing a Research Manuscript

Week 3
Lecture 06: Developing Critical Approaches towards Reading
Lecture 07: From Understanding a Text to Planning for Writing
Lecture 08: Managing the Literature Review

Week 4
Lecture 09: Selecting a Topic, Planning and Getting Started
Lecture 10: Paraphrasing/Quoting/Citation Rules
Lecture 11: Data Measurement Scales and Their Types

Week 5
Lecture 12: Developing and Interpreting Graphical Representation of Data
Lecture 13: Organising the Write-Up; Working with Blocks
Lecture 14: Coping with Writers’ Block

Week 6
Lecture 15: An Overview of Plagiarism and Its Prevention
Lecture 16: Techniques for Concluding an Article

Week 7
Lecture 17: Re-Writing and Proof Reading
Lecture 18: The Procedure for Choosing a Journal and Promoting an Article

Week 8
Lecture 19: Understanding the Peer Review Process
Lecture 20: Coping with Rejection

Books and references

Bailey, S. (2005). Academic Writing. London: Routledge

Becker, Howard Saul and Pamela Richards. Writing For Social Scientists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Creme, P. and Lea, M. (2006). Writing at University. Berkshire: Open University Press

Dillard, A. (1995). The writing life. New York, NY: HarperPerennial

Fairbairn, G. and Fairbairn, S. (2010). Reading at University. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Graff, Gerald, (2014) "They Say / I Say" – The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing 3e, New York: W. W. Norton & Company

Johnson, William A. Et. Al. The Sociology Student Writer’s Manual. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Becker, Lucinda and Pam Denicolo (2012). Publishing Research Articles. Sage Publication.

Yan Zheng (2020). Publishing Journal Articles: A Scientific Guide for New Authors Worldwide. Cambridge University Press.

Instructor bio

Dr. Aditya Ranjan Kapoor

Assistant Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda

Dr. Aditya Ranjan Kapoor is working as Assistant Professor in Department of Sociology at Central University of Punjab, Bathinda. His area of interest includes the interface between politics and religion in context of South Asia, sociology of minority communities and research methodology. He is the course coordinator for two MOOC on Swayam portal: Political Sociology and Reading, Writing and Reasoning for Sociology.