SUNY Cortland

News Directory A-Z

Writing in Departments

Some departments have furnished the Writing Resource Center with guidance specific to SUNY Cortland to improve your writing. We've also tried to compile some resources that may help.

Art & Art History

Students in the Art and Art History Department paint, draw, sculpt, and write. The department provides many opportunities for students to write formally and informally. From research papers on artists and movements to more informal reaction papers, art and art history students explore the creative process on the page as they do on the canvass. Many opportunities exist for writing in the major. In addition to major research essays, students also write proposals, project outlines and intentions, self-critiques and artists' statements.

While the visual is often of primary concern to art and art history students, verbalizing art is also important. As such, all upper division courses in art history are designated as writing intensive courses

Resources:

  • University of North Carolina University of North Carolina discusses several common types of art history assignments, and talks about various strategies and resources that will help you write your art history papers.
  • Skidmore College Skidmore College demonstrates the process of writing an art history paper. Information on note taking and outlining is also available..

Back to Top

Biological Sciences

One of the most important aspects of working in the scientific disciplines is sharing knowledge with the larger scientific community and the non-scientific audience as well. Regardless of the specific field of biology you choose, writing will play a major role in your future career. For example, you will need to write grants based on extensive literature review in order to obtain funding for research. When you've completed a research project, you will write about your results in peer-reviewed scientific journals. You may write case studies for patients, or research reports for government agencies. You choose the important role of communicating scientific knowledge to the wider audience, and compose articles for popular literature or report on scientific developments for news publications. And if you become a biology teacher, you will instruct your own students in proper writing techniques for the discipline.

In order to prepare for your career in the biological sciences, you can expect to do a significant amount of writing while you earn your degree at SUNY-Cortland. In addition to traditional term papers and writing for exams, there are styles of writing unique to biology and other scientific disciplines. As a biology major, you will write scientific reports to convey your findings from experiments conducted in laboratory courses. You may be asked to write responses to published papers from the scientific literature.

If you work with a faculty member on a research project, you will likely write about your results for a presentation on Scholars' Day. You may even assist that faculty member in preparing your research results for formal publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

All biology majors will also complete a course in Biological Literature (Bio 319), which instructs students in library resource use, bibliography writing, and oral presentations. In addition, there is a wide variety of writing-intensive (WI) courses offered through the Department of Biological Sciences (see list below), through which you may meet your undergraduate WI requirements. Be aware, however, that not all sections in the listed courses provide WI credit. Be sure to check the course catalog carefully when registering.

List of Writing Intensive Courses Offered by the Department of Biological Sciences:

    Bio 210 - Cellular Biology
    Bio 412 - General Ecology
    Bio 304 - Microbiology
    Bio 422 - Biological Evolution
    Bio 324 - Mammalian Anatomy
    Bio 512 - Limnology
    Bio 402 - Biology of Vertebrates
    Bio 514 - Mammalian Physiology
    Bio 405 - Conservation Biology
    Bio 525 - Developmental Biology
    Bio 410 - Plant Physiology

Resources:

  • George Mason University George Mason University put together information to help undergraduate students develop and perfect the writing skills that are necessary in the biological sciences.
  • Presbyterian College Biology Department Presbyterian College Biology Department provides information on writing a Biology review paper.

Back to Top

Chemistry

Resources:

Back to Top

Communication Studies

Resources:

  • University of North Carolina explains what people write about in communications studies and describes the steps for planning and writing course papers.
  • SUNY Oswego provides “The Greatest Writing Tips the World has Ever Seen.”

Back to Top

Communication Disorders and Sciences

Resources:

Back to Top

Economics

Resources:

  • Marquette University Marquette University faculty answer student questions about writing in economics courses.
  • Economics Writing Guide Economics Writing Guide intended to help students with all aspects of writing in economics. You will find useful information on choosing topics for term papers, formulating a thesis, writing the thesis proposal, establishing a time table, searching library and Online resources, conducting empirical work, and writing the research paper.

Back to Top

English

Writing in Professional Writing at SUNY Cortland

In their classes, Professional Writing students practice writing and also study how writing works and evolves. One challenge of being a Professional Writing student is developing flexibility: that is, instead of having to perfect one type of writing (the research paper, for instance), a student in a PWR course will often have to practice writing different types of papers (responses, summaries, minutes, resumes, arguments, research papers, stories, poems, essays, weblogs, memoirs, reflective pieces and more). Writing in these many styles, media, and genres is a challenge, but it makes one familiar with how to go about writing in any situation, in any timeframe, for any audience. Simultaneously, PWR writers work to develop a personal style that will be instantly recognizable to others. Students write individually and collaboratively, in workshops, projects, and papers.

The program of Professional Writing teaches almost exclusively Writing Intensive courses. Some of the most common papers are listed below (thanks to Dr. Victoria Boynton for this list):

  • A paper that explicitly refers to rhetorical principles
  • A new media text (Web page)
  • An analysis of a community's discourses
  • A document exemplifying a technical genre: set of instructions, a grant proposal, a technical report, a feasibility study, a progress report, a business plan, a public relations document, a public service announcement, a white paper.
  • A problem-solving document (such as a recommendation paper)
  • Creative work in poetry, fiction, new media and/or creative nonfiction
  • On-line reviews of your peers' work in professional writing
  • A reflective piece on the contents of your end-of-semester (or end-of-major) portfolio.
  • A paper that reflects on your writing process and explicitly examines how you revise
  • Resumes and applications adapted for particular audiences and purposes.

Professional Writing students will be asked to develop the following sorts of understandings and abilities in their writing (depending on the class, of course):

  • understanding the principles of rhetorical theory, with attention to purpose, audience, motive, scene (context), genre.
  • acknowledging audience, purpose, and image (ethos).
  • writing on many levels, from poems to essays to technical reports
  • using computer resources and applying technology to writing situations.
  • writing in a variety of well-defined genres, such as belletristic essay, poem or short story, review, investigative report, evaluative report, manual, and grant proposal.
  • recognizing the relationship between form and content (how a change in one causes a change in the other)
  • taking relevant historical, biographical, and/or social contexts into account in the interpretation of reading and the composition of written texts
  • understanding, summarizing, and synthesizing critical arguments
  • evaluating varied critical views
  • exhibiting conventional spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, grammar, and usages when appropriate

 

Resources:

  • "Getting an A on an English Paper" by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University. Lynch gives students helpful advice on thesis writing, research, class reading, style, and mechanics.
  • Web English Teacher provides advice for writing eight different types of essays about literature.

Back to Top

Geology

Writing is considered the single most important skill our students master in the course of their preparation as geoscientists and teachers. Through experiences gained during the required composition courses as part of the core curriculum, and in other courses in the General Education program at SUNY Cortland, Geology Majors gain the rudimentary skills required for advanced writing assignments in their science major courses, for independent study, internships and student teaching. Many courses in the department require a combination of research papers, literature reviews, position papers, laboratory write-ups, short essays and full research project reports, all designed with “real-life” experiences in mind, which students require for employment and graduate school opportunities upon graduation. Indeed, the 2002 Geology Department Assessment results revealed that our “practicing” alumni rated “writing skills” as the highest priority for graduates of the program.

Resources:

  • Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College offers hints for writing scientific papers, suggestions for organization and style, guidelines for bibliographies in geoscience papers, and guidelines for citing electronic sources.

Back to Top

Health

Resources:

Back to Top

History

Historians are writers. History students are also writers. Writing is a central part of history classes. Regardless of the level of the course, from introductory survey courses covering sometimes centuries of the past to upper-division seminars focused on particular moments, students write about the ideas, events, and persons that gave shape to the human experience. The most common writing assignments in the major include research papers derived from primary and secondary sources, critical analyses of primary documents, book reviews, and historiographical essays. Our secondary social studies majors also devote considerable attention to the writing of lesson plans, observations of practicing teachers, and reflections on the craft of teaching.

The department provides a number of opportunities for students to develop writing skills in its writing intensive courses. All majors must take the seminar in history, a capstone course that requires substantial research and writing. Students produce an original piece of scholarship, based on primary sources, typically numbering twenty-five to thirty pages. Before plunging into the seminar, however, students have other opportunities to fulfill their writing intensive requirement. These courses, including Girish Bhat's Russian history course, include substantial writing practice.

Resources:

Back to Top

International Communications and Culture

Writing is infused throughout the curriculum in French, Spanish, and German. Students are encouraged to develop basic writing skills at the beginning and intermediate levels of language instruction; those that continue their study at the upper-levels develop writing skills quite comparable to the outcomes expected from a person writing in College-level English.

The French section does not have a designated writing intensive class; the idea is that since writing is such an integral part in all of the upper-level offerings, any class may be designated any semester for WI credit. The philosophy holds true in Spanish, but there is a specific course that all students are required to take for the major, which is the SPA 308 Spanish Composition.

Resources:

  • Chinese
    "How to Write Chinese Characters," a writing tutorial for the beginning students.

    •  

  • English as a Second Language
    Purdue University assists students by answering questions about the English language. Contains ESL resources, handouts, and exercises.
    Ohio University provides writing resources for English Language learners. Find information on writing activities, writing process, organization and style, research and writing, and writing for special purposes.

    •  

  • French
    "How to Write Directly in French" facilitates the ability to write directly in the French Language without translating from English to French.

    •  

  • German
    Vanderbilt University offers resources for German language and literature including German search engines and many other items of interest to Germanists.

    •  

  • Spanish
    Askoxford Askoxford includes hints and reminders to aid students in making their written Spanish more acceptable to the Spanish reader

    •  

  • Japanese
    Jim Breen's "Japanese Page" from Monash University provides a wealth of resources for learning about Japanese language and culture.

    •  

  • American Sign Language
    Michigan State University ASL browser allows you to view videos of thousands of ASL signs and learn interesting things.
    Deaf Resource Library contains information on ASL linguistics, ASL as a foreign language, learning ASL and ASL educational programs, and ASL dictionaries.

    •  

Back to Top

Mathematics

Mathematics is more than numbers and calculations. The study of mathematics involves logical reasoning and problem solving, and one of the most important skills that mathematics students need to develop is the ability to communicate mathematical ideas effectively. Professional mathematicians write for a variety of purposes and audiences, including journal articles for other professionals, grant proposals, expository writing for students, and informal explanations to accompany calculations.

Mathematics has been described as the language of science and as such, students need to learn the rules of that language, including the correct use of mathematical notation. The precise use of mathematical terminology is also important, and students need to be aware that many ordinary words (such as continuous, linear or basis) carry specialized meanings in mathematics, and that these meanings can change in different contexts.

Writing in Mathematics, Westfield State College Writer’s Guide

Back to Top

Performing Arts

Writing in Musical Theatre at SUNY Cortland

The Musical Theatre major requires both performance and scholarship; writing is involved with both processes. All acting, musical theatre performance, and even dance classes require written analyses, self-evaluation, and critiques. The more traditionally academic courses, such as Introduction to Theatre and Theatre History, also require written critiques, essay tests, and evaluation papers.

Two writing intensive courses are included in our program: Introduction to Musical Theatre involves five to seven short papers and one longer term paper that is revised over the last weeks of the semester; the Musical Theatre Seminar is more writing-intensive, involving seven to nine papers and a final research paper. Tests in both courses are all essay, and both classes require written critiques of theatre productions attended during that semester.

While the major in Musical Theatre does place emphasis on performance, students are asked to analyze, observe, critique, and express themselves through writing as well.

Resources:

Back to Top

Philosophy

Philosophy, the love of wisdom, and at Cortland, the love of writing. Words are important to philosophers. Without them, ideas have no meaning. So students in philosophy practice writing at every turn. It is not uncommon for students to keep journals (particularly important for chronicling an internship experience), write short essays and reflection papers, and to stimulate their thinking by completing impromptu in-class writing exercises. Of course, research papers are important vehicles for exploring ideas in depth. Students learn to write critically, summarize the author's argument and offer a critique, and present their written work orally as well. Some classes have e-mail discussions, so that students write and respond to each other, posting their comments on the faculty's web page. Objective testing is rare; students instead demonstrate their engagement with the material by writing take-home essay exams.

PHI 499 is often used for our Writing Intensive course. Otherwise, students petition to have another PHI class so designated. That's not hard to do since there is typically a great deal of writing in all philosophy courses.

Resources:

Back to Top

Physical Education

Resources:

Back to Top

Physics

Resources:

  • University of Sydney University of Sydney offers “Guidelines for Writing Physics Essays” providing guidelines to assist students in planning of essays.
  • University of Toronto provides a a guide, Writing about Physics

Back to Top

Political Science

The Political Science Department maintains a proud tradition of promoting writing skills throughout our curriculum. As critical thinking skills are essential to a liberal arts graduate, we rely on writing assignments not only to evaluate critical thinking, but also to develop reasoning and understanding of political issues. Many of our introductory courses (POL 100, 101, 110, 112) require written assignments, and the vast majority of our courses above the 200 level have a paper requirement. Many of our upper-division courses are offered on a regular basis as Writing Intensive. These include Constitutional Law, International Politics in Latin America, Civil Liberties, American Presidency, Legal Theory, and Comparative Politics of Europe.

 

Resources:

Back to Top

Psychology

The Psychology Department values skill in written communication. In the Experimental Psychology course, Psychology majors learn to produce journal-style research reports in APA (American Psychological Association) format. Students produce a number of such reports and are given the opportunity to revise their work. In the Senior Seminar course, majors produce a review-type manuscript in which they discuss the theoretical and empirical literature relevant to a particular topic in the field of Psychology. While the Experimental Psychology and the Senior Seminar courses are the two writing intensive courses in the major, Psychology majors also apply writing skills in other courses. The Psychology lab courses (Learning and Memory, Motivation, Cognitive Psychology, Sensation and Perception, and Behavioral Neuroscience) all require an APA-style research report based on course lab experiences. Some students write an Honors Thesis and others do a major paper as part of an internship or field experience.

Resources:

  • Writing-in-Psychology Web Guide from the George Mason University Department of Psychology offers all manner of resources concerning writing in the field of psychology. Although intended for psychology majors, it is also useful for non-majors who are required to do any sort of writing or research in psychology.
  • Psychology Writing Center, University of Washington

Back to Top

Recreation and Leisure Studies

Play, leisure, joy, recreation …. The human experience is not complete without these important experiences in our lives. And, in the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department, writing about leisure is as important as doing leisure. Students in this major will go on to important positions in their agencies and communities where they will be expected to write continuously to meet human and community needs for play. Whether it is a community master plan, a needs assessment, a well-justified budget, a grant proposal, a program plan, or a rehabilitation plan, the writing must be clear, compelling, and concise. In the courses in the Recreation major, students learn to write many reflective pieces as a part of their professional portfolio development or their field/professional experiences, using an action-reflection model. Students write theoretical or philosophical papers in some courses. Also, students will write program plans, policies and procedures, research proposals and reports, term papers, treatment plans, assessment reports, lesson plans, evaluation plans, press releases, program brochures, and many other practical, real-world pieces. Students present their work at research poster sessions, conferences, Scholars’ Day, and other presentation formats.

Back to Top

Sociology/Anthropology

Resources:

Back to Top