Summer Technical Writing Institute

Howard University

Summer, 2006

This writing institute will be hosted by Howard University from July 10 – August 9, 2006 and will be available to all partner institutions within our SBE Alliance. (An initial meeting with students and the institute director, Dr. Angela Cole will be held on July 5, 2006 at 11am in room C-133 of Howard University's Johnson School of Communications. This meeting is not mandatory, but all students who are able are encouraged to attend.)

Institute Goals & Learning Units

The goals of the institute are to provide students with technical writing training in order to increase the rates of proposal funding, conference presentation/paper proposals, and manuscript submissions among doctoral students in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.  Learning units in this seminar will include (a) development of the argument, (b) preparing successful IRB applications, (c) preparing successful funding applications, (d) writing the empirical article, (e) writing the review article, and (f) preparing conference papers/ posters/ presentations.  Seminar assignments will be tailored to each of the learning units. Taken together, the activities will be designed to generate more extensive research and publications. An important tangible outcome of participation in the institute for dedicated, focused students will be development of a research proposal, concept paper, conference proposal, or manuscript for submission to a scholarly journal. 

Registration

Please complete the registration form attached to this email if you are interested in participating, and return it via email to apcole@howard.edu by Friday, July 7, 2006.  There is a no fee for participation in the institute.  However, students will be required to use the following six books while participating in the institute:

1. The Clockwork Muse : A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books by Eviatar Zerubavel. (available used and new at a cost of $5.45 - $11.95 on amazon.com )
2. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , Fifth Edition -- by American Psychological Association; Paperback (available used and new at amazon.com from $21.50 - $26.95)
3. The Elements of Style , Fourth Edition -- by William Strunk Jr., et al (available in paperback used & new from: $4.39-$9.95 at amazon.com )
4. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper : 6th Edition by Robert A. Day & Barbara Gastel (available in paperback at amazon.com for $29.86) .
5. From Numbers to Words or From Words to Numbers
   1. Students who use quantitative data primarily:  From Numbers to Words : Reporting Statistical Results for the Social Sciences -- by Susan E. Morgan, et al; Paperback (Used & new from: $27.02 to $39.00 on amazon.com )
   2. Students who use qualitative data primarily:  From Words to Numbers : Narrative, Data, and Social Science (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) -- by Roberto Franzosi, Mark Granovetter (Series Editor); Paperback (Available on amazon.com used & new from: $29.89-$34.99)
6. The "How To" Grants Manual: Successful Grantseeking Techniques for Obtaining Public and Private Grants (Hardcover) by  David G. Bauer  (available on amazon.com from $.99 to $48.95)
   

A recommended, but not required, text is Mastering APA Style: Student's Workbook and Training Guide Fifth Edition -- by Harold Gelfand, et al; Spiral-bound (Used & new from: $14.00-$24.95 on amazon.com).

To give you a sense of the total estimated cost for books, using amazon the cost range is as follows: between $89.21 (all used) and $166.66 (all new) for a student who uses mostly quantitative data; and between $92.08 (all used) and $162.65 (all new) for a student who uses mostly qualitative data. Most of these books are available also at students' home university bookstores (costs may vary depending on the vendor).

Course Credit & Web Access

For those of you who are graduate students at Howard, you can enroll in and receive a grade and course credit for participating in the course, through the Bison Web system.  The course number for which you need to register is (crn#52716) PSYC 410 Graduate Research, section 81.  In addition to registering via Bison Web, you must complete the attached registration form.

For those of you who are graduate students at the University of Maryland or any other Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area school, you need to contact the Consortium office at your university to enroll in and receive a grade and course credit for participating in the course. In addition to registering via your university Consortium office, you must complete the attached registration form.

Graduate students from non- Consortium universities are encouraged to participate fully in the institute and attend all of the sessions.  However, there will be no cost to these students for enrolling in the institute, except for the cost of books/materials described above, and course credit will not be available. 

Finally, if you are interested in participating, but cannot attend in person, digitized materials from the institute will be made available through an institute/course website.  If you are interested in participating only using the website, please indicate that by checking the “Web Only” box on the registration form.

Meeting Times & Places

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
10am – 12pm

Howard University
Johnson School of Communications
Room C-133
525 Bryant St NW
Washington, DC 20059

For Additional Information

Please contact Dr. Angela Cole at apcole@howard.edu with questions and/or concerns as soon as possible.

SBE Alliance Support

This summer writing institute is one of several summer institutes that is being hosted by an AC-SBE partner institution. If you are interested in participating in this institute and require financial assistance, please contact the SBE-AGEP Principal Investigator at your respective institution immediately, and ask if there is any funding available to help you defer the cost of participating. Funding opportunities differ by institution.

Summer Writing Institute - Registration Form (Microsoft Word Document)

Overview of Topics

• Weeks 1 - 2 (Microsoft Word Document)
• Overview of Topics - Weeks 3 - 5 (Microsoft Word Document)

Writing Assignments (Microsoft Word Document)

Reading Assignments

• A Classroom Strategy for Teaching (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• Writing a Review (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• Summarizing a Research Article (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• Writing a Dissertation (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• Writing the Empirical Journal Article (Adobe Acrobat Document)

Supplemental Materials

• Guidelines on how to write a scientific paper (Microsoft Word Document)
• How to Write a Good Proof (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• How to Write an Outline
  • Example 1 (Adobe Acrobat Document)
  • Example 2 (Adobe Acrobat Documen)
  • Example 3 (Adobe Acrobat Document)
• NSF Postdoc Fellowship Request for Proposal (Microsoft Word Document)