Academic writing Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

In this course you will learn to write an academic research proposal (main course goal), and learn to:

1. Collect and analyze theoretical and empirical literature on a scientific topic;
2. Detect gaps in the literature;
3. Formulate a scientific research question;
4. Draft a hypothesis/thesis statement to answer the research question;
5. Design a methodologically sound research proposal;
6. Write a reflection on the ethical aspects of your research and data collection process.

In order to achieve these goals, students will write a research proposal which consists of an introduction and method section. Students can ask questions during small-group sessions and will receive feedback from their supervisor as well as their peers on their written assignments.

In the course Academic Writing ISS, students will write a research proposal that fits within an existing (or to be developed) line of research. A list of research topics and approaches will be made available by the supervisors. The topics and frameworks available depend on the supervisors' area of expertise and/or available research projects. Students will be allowed to indicate their preferences for the available research topics and approaches.

Students will conduct a literature search in order to formulate a relevant social scientific research question. The research proposal is an individual product, and can be seen as the introduction and method section of a scientific article. During this course, students will either work in groups on a joint research project and report on this individually or work on a project individually – depending on the chosen topics.

The research proposal - when satisfactory - will function as the starting point for the thesis that will be written during the course Premaster Thesis.