What should you expect from The Lukeion Project College Level Research Writing Course?

Seminar Participants:
Our class time includes valuable nuts-n-bolts instruction on what your college professors want from your research writing, and also what they will expect from you.  This course may be the most practical class you attend before starting college. 

De-stress your first year at college by understanding exactly what's at stake now.

Warning:  this class is so good at preparing you for your first research writing assignment that you may just have enough time to sleep, eat and do your laundry, too!

College Level Research Writing Seminar

 

 

Why Research Writing?

St. Peter'sMany high-school parents and secondary school programs focus on creating a transcript that will give the student every possible advantage during the college application process. While this is understandable, it is essential that today’s college-bound student look beyond the application process. Before arriving on campus, students must begin to develop the skills that will help them succeed in the college or university environment. These skills include time management, goal-setting, tenacity in the face of disappointment and fatigue, the tools and, especially, the techniques of scholarly research, and how to write a research paper.

Both the academic community and the business world value the ability to research a topic and produce a persuasive and authoritative paper based on that research. Sadly, most first year college students are unprepared for this challenge. The dreaded research paper assignment strikes fear in the heart of most college students today, and many will spend several years floundering around before they begin to discover (through trial and error) what makes a good research paper.

This seminar is designed to help students understand the process and product of the research writing task. The ideal participant is either college-bound, or already enrolled in college. He or she already has composition experience (essays, reports, creative writing, or research papers), meets deadlines, possesses good study skills, gives and accepts constructive criticism in a mature manner, and is adventurous enough to try new things. This seminar is 6 weeks long. Class size will be between 4-8 to facilitate discussion and classmate evaluation. Students must have access to a college or university library. Tuition is $149.00.

Is your student ready for this seminar?

What will be covered?

libraryThe goal of this class is NOT to teach basic writing skills or concepts. Rather, it is to introduce the student to a particular type of writing, "research writing." We will not focus on proper paragraph construction, punctuation, or other basic skills, although these will all be considered as a part of the final evaluation. Instead, we will focus on elements of research writing that differ from other sorts of writing, like: using background research to develop and refine an appropriate topic, the selection and use of appropriate scholarly sources, proper tone and style, etc.

The instructor will also share personal insights and advice about surviving and thriving in the college/university environment.

Who are the participants?

The ideal participant is either college-bound, or already enrolled in college - preferably working at the junior or senior level in high school. He or she already has composition experience (essays, reports, creative writing, or research papers), meets deadlines, possesses good study skills, gives and accepts constructive criticism in a mature manner, and is adventurous enough to try new things.

Requirements for this seminar

The seminar participant is asked to:

Caveat:

There will be no accommodation or extensions for participants who fail to complete assignments on time, as assigned. 

Can participants devise a research paper topic or is one assigned?

This seminar simulates the requirements of the college classroom as closely as possible. We require students to write on a topic that is assigned on the first day of class for several important reasons:

  1. College students typically receive their writing assignments on the first day of class when they receive their syllabus. Everyone receives the assignment at the same time; no student has an advantage or any extra time in the writing process, and no student is able to avoid the writing process by re-working a paper that's been completed for another class.
  2. One of the student's assignments is to do background research and refine a topic on an assigned subject, even one about which they have little knowledge. When students come with their topics already picked out, they miss this important learning experience.
  3. Professors teach subjects in which they are experts. For this reason, college students write papers on subjects in which their evaluators are experts. When the evaluator is not an expert in the subject matter, the paper evaluation becomes little more than an exercise in grading mechanics and writing style. At The Lukeion Project our students write on Classical World topics. This allows us to better evaluate the student's use of sources, persuasiveness of argument, inclusion of essential lines of evidence, etc.
  4. We ask students to anonymously critique the papers of other participants. When students write on topics in the same general subject area, each student has additional help in evaluating the work of their fellow students.

Check course availability

The College Research Writing Seminar is offered only once each semester.  We limit the class size to no more than 8 participants and no fewer than 3.  This course is taught by Regan Barr.