SSCI E-110/W Exploring Research Methods and Writing in the
Social Sciences This course provides a concise overview of the
major genres of social scientific writing and their associated
research methods, modes of argumentation, standards of evidence,
and rhetorical conventions. It is intended for students wishing
to pursue further study in the social sciences, and aims to give
students an introduction to the basic writing skills involved in
social research. The first part of the course sketches the
fundamental ways in which social scientific writing tends to
differ from writing in the humanities and the natural sciences.
The second part of the course surveys the major methodological
approaches in the social sciences—ethnography, qualitative
research approaches, and quantitative analysis—with particular
emphasis on differences in the presentation and analysis of
evidence. In order to give the course greater coherence, our
models focus on social scientific research on race drawn from
the disciplines of anthropol