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WRDS 150 (Arts): Writing and Research in the Disciplines

Theme: Do You Believe in Science? Science, Politics, and Belief

Contact Information

Instructor: Dr. Andrew Connolly

Email: [email protected]

Office: Buchanan Tower 214

Mailbox: N/A

Office Hours: By appointment via Zoom

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Vancouver campus of UBC is located on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. The land it is situated on has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam people, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next on this site.

SPECIFIC COURSE DESCRIPTION 

This course introduces you to scholarly discourse and prepares you to take your first steps in participating in that discourse. You will learn how to do scholarly research: how to find the information you are looking for, how to understand it, and how to evaluate it. You will also learn how to write and present your findings in a way that engages with scholars in a particular discipline or disciplines. In addition to instruction in the classroom, you will have multiple written assignments that will give you a chance to experiment with different aspects of academic research and writing and receive attentive feedback on your work. This training will help prepare you to succeed in your academic career. To make this introduction more engaging, the readings will focus on a theme: climate change denialism.

“I don’t believe it.” That was Donald Trump’s response to a report on climate change prepared by more than 300 leading climate scientists. Trump is hardly the only person in the contemporary world to reject scientific findings. People dismiss evolution, the health benefits of vaccines, even that the earth is a sphere. This rejection of science can seem perplexing, especially for those who understand the rigorous process of producing scientific knowledge and theories. So why is it that some people simply do not believe in science?

This course looks at the ways scholars from various departments seek to answer that question. Some of the scholars develop wide ranging theories about why people believe what they believe. Others focus on specific people and the complexity of their belief systems. Some scholars even raise their own doubts about science and scientific methods. The approach each scholar takes to this question sometimes relates to the disciplines they are from. These scholars come from Political Science, Sociology, Philosophy, and English departments. Each of these disciplines has its own methods and conventions. In other words, a particular discipline influences what scholars ask questions about, how they phrase the questions, how they answer the questions, and how they present their findings. As a result, this course will not only introduce you to the academic study of science, politics, and belief, it will also introduce you to the various disciplinary approaches to research and writing.

NOTE: This course will have a mixed format. Most classes will be held in person. Some asynchronous material, including lecture videos and documents, that students can review on their own time, will replace some class time. There will also be assignments to accompany these asynchronous course materials. A weekly schedule will be posted on or before Sunday indicating which parts of that week’s classes are in person and which parts are online/asynchronous, as well as required readings, assignments and due dates.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Working with scholarly sources to read and interpret academic discourse in context

1. You will work with scholarly articles to recognize how the conventions of communication within academic disciplines, including forms of argumentation and what counts as evidence, reflect and shape the types of knowledge associated with research cultures in the university. This will be done by:

a. Reading, summarizing, comparing, and critically evaluating scholarly articles, retaining the key arguments/findings and emphases of the originals.

b. Recognizing forms of argumentation and identifying the rhetorical moves made by members of specific academic research disciplines, such as practices of positioning, definition, attribution, hedging, and presupposition/assertion.

c. Recognizing the goals, methods, and citation practices of specific academic research disciplines.

Engaging in apprentice scholarly research

2. You will participate as apprentice members of academic research communities by identifying and tracing the scholarly conversation around a research problem and by developing questions, collecting evidence, and constructing arguments through ethical and collaborative practices of scholarship. This will be done by:

a. Developing a research project that addresses a gap in knowledge within a particular research community, and which implements relevant discursive features and rhetorical moves in a variety of genres, including a research proposal and working bibliography, a presentation, and a final paper.

b. Gathering relevant and credible primary and secondary sources, using appropriate tools and methods, including UBC Library resources.

c. Engaging responsibly with and within research communities, using appropriate citation practices that meet the expectations of academic integrity and adhering to ethical standards of data collection with research collaborators.

d. Engaging in constructive and collaborative practices of knowledge production, including performing peer review and integrating feedback.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS

· Portfolio (10%)

Students are required to keep a portfolio of all exercises and reading questions. These portfolios will be submitted on the last week of classes. They will be graded based on completion and demonstrated effort.

· Participation (10%)

The participation grade will come from attendance, participation in class discussion (including individual round table presentations), and group work. Students will be required to do two group presentations in the course. Students who miss a class will still be able to gain participation grades by posting on the discussion board. If you miss a class, contact the instructor for details.

· Quizzes (5%)

Students will write five multiple-choice quizzes based on academic articles they are required to read. There are also two quizzes based on other course material. These quizzes will be available online via Canvas. This grade will come from the top five quizzes.

· Academic Integrity Test (5%)

This short test will evaluate your understanding of academic integrity. Details to follow. 

· Writing Assignment(15%)

Students will revise one of their exercises (exercise 1 OR exercise 4) and submit it as a first writing assignment. There will be a different rubric depending on which exercise students choose to revise. 10% of this grade will come from the content of the assignment. The other 5% will come from adherence to MLA format. Details will be provided later in the semester.

· Proposal for Research Paper (15%)

Students are required to write a proposal for their final research paper. Students must achieve a passing grade on this assignment before being able to submit their final research paper. Students who fail the proposal will need to revise and resubmit it, until it is approved. Proposals will identify the research question of the project, summarize current academic discourse related to the research question, outline the research methods, and list potential sources, including at least six academic sources.

· Peer Review (5%)

Students are required to provide written feedback on a proposal by one of their peers. This assignment will be evaluated based on the quality of feedback students offer the author.

· Research Paper of Between 1200 and 2100 Words (35%)

Students will write a research paper. The paper will include at least six academic sources. Through both the research proposal and in-class assignments, students will receive feedback on their work related to the papers leading up to the deadline.

REQUIRED TEXTS

The following articles will be provided via Canvas

Discourse Analysis
Zehr, Stephen. “Public Representations of Scientific Uncertainty About Global Climate Change.” Public Understanding of Science, vol. 9, no. 2, 2000, pp. 85–103.

Political Science
Harrison, Kathryn. “The United States as Outlier: Economic and Institutional Challenges to US Climate Policy.”  Global Commons, Domestic Decisions: The Comparative Politics of Climate Change, edited by Kathryn Harrison and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, MIT Press, 2010, pp. 67-104.

Ethnography
Norgaard, Kari Marie. “‘We Don’t Really Want to Know’: Environmental Justice and Socially Organized Denial of Global Warming in Norway.” Organization and Environment, vol.
  19, no. 3, 2006, pp. 347-70.

Philosophy
Hansson, Sven Ove. “Science Denial as a Form of Pseudoscience.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 63, 2017, pp. 39-47.

Indigenous Studies
Whyte, Kyle P. “Indigenous Science (Fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral Dystopias and
Fantasies of Climate Change Crises.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, vol. 1, no.1-2, 2018, pp. 224-42.

Recommended Reading Material
Giltrow, Janet, et al. Academic Writing: An Introduction. 3rd ed., Broadview, 2014.

University policies

UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions. Details of the policies and how to access support are available on the UBC Senate website (https://senate.ubc.ca/policies-resources-support-student-success).

COURSE POLICIES

LAPTOP POLICY 

Students may use laptops and electronic devices to take notes during lectures. Please note that the use of laptops and other electronic devices will not be permitted during student presentations unless a student has special permission. At the beginning of the semester, one student per class will volunteer to take notes (on a laptop) for the entire group (these students will receive extra credit for taking clear and well-organized notes). These notes will be posted to our Canvas site.

ATTENDANCE POLICY 
If you are sick, it is important that you stay home. In this class, the marking scheme is intended to provide flexibility so that you can prioritize your health and still succeed.

If you miss class because of illness: Contact the instructor as soon as possible. The instructor will send you links to pre-recorded lecture videos when available and instructions on a discussion board posts that will help you gain participation grades. You should also review the notes recorded by other students when they are posted. If you have any questions about the material, contact the instructor.

If the instructor feeling ill: An announcement will be posted on Canvas as early as possible before class time. The announcement may include links to pre-recorded lecture videos and instructions on a discussion board posts. It may also include other arrangements to make sure all material in the course is covered.

Conflicts with WRDS 150 Classes: If you are taking a course that schedules a common mid-term exam that takes place outside of regular class sessions, and that scheduled exam conflicts with this WRDS 150 class, university policy requires the instructor of the other course to offer a make-up exam or other accommodation to students who are in a course that conflicts with the midterm, as that course (i.e, WRDS 150) gets priority and students are expected to attend their regularly scheduled classes. Students must alert the instructor of the other course by the deadline that instructor has set in order to be accommodated. These accommodations are especially important for students in an evening course as missing one class is the equivalent of a full week of classes, and students will therefore miss significant content that will affect their understanding of course material.

MLA FORMAT
This course uses formatting and citation rules from the Modern Language Association. All assignments must be in proper MLA format. Students will have a quiz and a test to evaluate their adherence to MLA format. Adherence to MLA format will also be a small percentage of the grade on other assignments.

It is possible that that you will not use MLA format ever again. You will, however, encounter various, and often idiosyncratic formatting rules with journals, publishers, funding applications, instructors in other courses, lab directors, companies where you work, etc. Following MLA format will train you to follow a style sheet and pay attention to small formatting details, a skill that may give you a competitive advantage in the contexts listed above.

ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE POLICY 
There will be no extensions for quizzes, however, you may be granted an exemption. Students may be granted extensions on all other assignments provided they contact the instructor BEFORE the day the assignment is due. Rare extensions may be granted after the due date in emergency situations. In the case of longer extensions or absences, students may need to consult Academic Advising for concessions. Late assignments that do not receive extensions will be assessed a 5% late penalty per business day.

STATEMENT REGARDING ONLINE LEARNING FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

The shift to online learning greatly altered teaching and studying at UBC, including changes to health and safety considerations. Keep in mind that some UBC courses might cover topics that are censored or considered illegal by non-Canadian governments. This may include, but is not limited to, human rights, representative government, defamation, obscenity, gender or sexuality, and historical or current geopolitical controversies. If you are a student living abroad, you will be subject to the laws of your local jurisdiction, and your local authorities might limit your access to course material or take punitive action against you. UBC is strongly committed to academic freedom, but has no control over foreign authorities (please visit http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,33,86,0 for an articulation of the values of the University conveyed in the Senate Statement on Academic Freedom). Thus, we recognize that students will have legitimate reason to exercise caution in studying certain subjects. If you have concerns regarding your personal situation, consider postponing taking a course with manifest risks, until you are back on campus or reach out to your academic advisor to find substitute courses. For further information and support, please visit: http://academic.ubc.ca/support-resources/freedom-expression

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

We – your instructors, WRDS, UBC and the scholarly community at large – share an understanding of the ethical ways that we use to produce knowledge. A core practice of this shared value of academic integrity is that we acknowledge the contributions of others to our own work, but it also means we produce our own contributions that add to the scholarly conversation: we don’t buy or copy papers or exams, or have someone else edit them. We also don’t falsify data or sources, or hand in the same work in more than one course.

Because it is so important that research be done ethically, I expect WRDS 150 students to meet these expectations. The University requires that any instance of cheating or taking credit for someone else’s work, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will result in at minimum a zero for the assignment, and these cases will be reported to the First-Year Programs Chair and the Faculty of Arts Associate Dean, Academic. See the UBC Calendar entries on “Academic Honesty,” “Academic Misconduct,” and “Disciplinary Measures,” and check out the Student Declaration and Responsibility.  See “Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism” from the Chapman Learning Commons, and bookmark the OWL website for how to use MLA citation style.

TUTORING SERVICES AND WRITING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

Some students hire tutors or use a tutoring service on an occasional basis to assist them with specific assignments. Others work with a tutor on a regular basis. While we recognize that tutors are sometimes helpful, we have also observed that some tutors misdirect WRDS 150 students and thus impede their learning, as well as their success in the course. Using tutors may even inadvertently result in questionable academic conduct. We therefore encourage students interested in tutoring to seek support through the following:

* UBC Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication (CWSC). The CWSC offers online writing feedback from peer writing consultants. Visit their website to request written feedback on your work (asynchronous) or book an appointment for a virtual consultation (synchronous): https://learningcommons.ubc.ca/improve-your-writing/writing-consultations/

* WriteAway, UBC’s eTutoring platform: https://ikblc.ubc.ca/resources/write-away/

*UBC Centre for Accessibility. If you have an ongoing medical condition or disability that impacts your campus activities, or if you have received academic or other disability-related accommodations at another educational institution, then the Centre for Accessibility can assist in removing barriers to your learning at UBC. They are currently conducting appointments via phone or Skype and can be reached at [email protected] and at: https://students.ubc.ca/about-student-services/centre-for-accessibility

WELL-BEING

University is demanding at the best of times. Be sure to take care of yourself and look out for each other. UBC offers many types of support for students for a range of concerns:

* Wellness Centre: The Wellness website offers a range of resources to help you learn how to manage your mental health. These are available here: students.ubc.ca/health

* UBC Counselling Services: is currently offering individual appointments via phone. Call 604-822-3811 to book an appointment. They are also offering online group counselling programs. Visit students.ubc.ca/health/counselling-services

*Empower Me: UBC students also have free access to Empower Me, where, according to their website, you “can get support for issues of any kind, including relationships, family care, depression, anxiety, addictions, stress, work conflicts, and much more. Empower Me also offers a full suite of academic life services, such as life coaching, financial planning, and nutritional counselling.” Call the 24-7 helpline at 1-844-741-6389 or visit http://www.studentcare.ca/rte/en/UniversityofBritishColumbiaAMSGSS_EmpowerMe_EmpowerMe

*LGBTQ+ Students: Resources for sexually diverse students: https://students.ubc.ca/campus-life/diversity-campus/sexual-diversity

* Trans and gender diverse students: https://students.ubc.ca/campus-life/diversity-campus-0/trans-gender-diversity

SCHEDULE (Subject to change)

Dates	Topics and Readings	Assignments
Week 1: Sept. 4-8	NO CLASS SEPT. 4 Introduction Genre Theory
Week 2: Sept. 11-15	Reading: Krugman, Paul. “The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial.” Reading Articles Constructing Arguments Introducing Arguments Quoting/paraphrasing/summary	Exercise 1 (Argument) Exercise 2 (Academic Integrity) Reading Questions for Newspaper Article Group Work Part 1 Assigned
Week 3: Sept 18-22	Reading: Academic Article 1: Zehr, Stephen. “Public Representations of Scientific Uncertainty About Global Climate Change.” MLA format	Academic Article 1 Reading Questions Academic Article 1 Quiz Academic Article 1Group Presentation Academic Integrity Test Assigned MLA Format Quiz Exercise 3 (MLA)
Week 4: Sept. 25-29	Long Summary Research Approaches Finding and Evaluating Materials	Exercise 4 (Long Summary) First Writing Assignment Assigned Academic Integrity Test Due (Sept. 27) Academic Sources Quiz
Week 5: Oct. 2-6	NO CLASS OCT. 2 Reading: Academic Article 2: Harrison, Kathryn. “The United States as Outlier: Economic and Institutional Challenges to US Climate Policy.”	Academic Article 2 Reading Questions Academic Article 2 Quiz Academic Article 2 Group Presentation
Week 6: Oct. 9-13	NO CLASS OCT. 9; CLASS MOVED TO THURSDAY, OCT. 12 Proposals Presentations	Proposal Assigned Peer Review Assigned First Writing Assignment Due Oct. 13
Week 7: Oct. 16-20	Reading: Academic Article 3: Norgaard, Kari Marie. “We Don’t Really Want to Know’: Environmental Justice and Socially Organized Denial of Global Warming in Norway.” Presentations cont.	Academic Article 3 Reading Questions Academic Article 3 Quiz Academic Article 3 Group Presentation
Week 8: Oct. 23-27	Workshops
Week 9: Oct. 30-Nov. 3	Reading: Academic Article 4: Hansson, Sven Ove. “Science Denial as a Form of Pseudoscience.” Workshop	Academic Article 4 Reading Questions Academic Article 4 Quiz Academic Article 4 Group Presentation
Week 10: Nov. 6-10	Reading: Academic Article 5: Whyte, Kyle P. “Indigenous Science (Fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral Dystopias and Fantasies of Climate Change Crises.” Evidence and Analysis	Academic Article 5 Reading Questions Academic Article 5 Quiz Academic Article 5 Group Presentation Proposal Due Nov. 6
Week 11: Nov. 13-17	NO CLASS NOV. 13 -15 Introductions, Conclusions, and Outlines	Group Work Part 2 Assigned Exercise 5 Peer Review Due Nov. 17 (or one week after receiving proposal to review)
Week 12: Nov. 20-24	Review Group Presentations
Week 13: Nov. 27-Dec. 1	Round Table
Week 14: Dec. 4-7	Round Table	Portfolio Due Dec. 6