ClassInfo

Students in this workshop will serve as the graduate student board for The Society Pages, an online social science journalism project housed at the University of Minnesota. Participation is based on application. In addition to experience and qualifications, the board is selected so as to involve students from different stages in the program, substantive interest areas, and methodological specialties. Most participants are expected to make a year-long commitment to the project, though membership will rotate on an annual basis.

• To deepen students' substantive research expertise
  by engaging cutting edge sociological scholarship. Students will unearth the most interesting findings and best evidence from new research in their areas of study. This provides students with a broader vision of the sociological field and offers an opportunity to diversify their reading in the prelim and dissertation processes.
  

• To develop writing and communication skills
  in addressing academic and non-academic audiences. Grad board members regularly write for the website, and our supportive, professional editorial team gives direct feedback designed to improve these skills as the pieces are published online.
  

• To gain deep, practical appreciation of the process of editorial decision-making
  and public scholarship.
  TSP
  had almost 11 million unique page views last year. Working with the site allows students to engage in critical and constructive discussion of the field of sociology, while participating in a collaborative public outreach project by shaping and improving the site as an online vehicle to disseminate great research.
  

  
  

Secrets of Successful Research Proposals: A Hands-On Workshop

This course provides insights and hands-on help in developing a research proposal requesting funding from an external foundation or agency or a within-university opportunity. It will also be helpful to students writing proposals for their dissertation. Research proposals are very similar, whether one is seeking funding or a PhD. This is a collaborative project involving writing and reviewing each piece of a proposal draft and rewriting each piece - several times. The central requirement of the course is participation. Skills to be learned in this workshop include; clarification and communication of ideas orally and in writing; writing in active, interesting voice; ways of making an argument; focusing on big picture in research proposal as well as on exact techniques; building and aligning questions/theories/data/methods/funding possibilities; and broadening issue while simultaneously narrowing scope.