Prospectus

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LUCAS Writing Seminar

Course
2021-2022

Admission requirements

Students have finished a BA in the form of Literary Studies or Art History, and they have been admitted to the LUCAS Research Master Literary Studies or Arts and Culture.

Description

First, students will consider the various types of funding bodies that are open to them, investigate their respective requirements, and learn how to develop an initial idea into a viable research proposal, and how to turn a viable research proposal into a fundable grant application.

With the research now ‘funded’, the seminar will move onto stage two: the scholarly conference. The students will go through each stage of such a conference, from responding to the call for papers by preparing an abstract and on to the final presentation itself. Students will mimic the actual conference process from both sides of the fence, as they submit their own work while judging that of their peers. They will practice presentation, chairing sessions, dealing with feedback and other vital (but invariably unhighlighted) skills. In order to get the most from this process, it would be helpful if students come prepared with at least an idea of a subject that they would like to work on – this may be their thesis subject or a topic they may wish to pursue following their graduation from the ResMA.

After the hurly burly of the conference has provided students with detailed critiques of their papers, they will move to the final stage: the publishable article. Rather than merely providing critique and moving on to the next topic, students will learn how to judge the critical response to their papers and incorporate what is useful into them. The process of drafting and re-drafting the article will follow the standard peer review model, working both with and as an editorial board providing initial comments and latterly through to copy-editing and final proofs.
Once the ‘final’ article has been written, re-written and ‘published’, students will learn how to distill their article into a pitch that can be presented to a journalist. The final session will comprise the comparison of these pitches with the abstracts as they were initially presented.

Course objectives

This seminar is designed to provide students with skills vital to their careers in academia. Students will learn how to

  • Consider the opportunities available for funding their research

  • Translate their ideas into viable and compelling grant proposals

  • Present their work to a scientific panel or international conference audience

  • Produce the promised output in the form of a publishable article.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

Seminar

Assessment method

Assessment

The module will be assessed partly through written work as presented and partly through student interaction in workshops:

  • 50% of the grade will be attached to the written output, namely Grant Proposal (10%), Abstract (5%), Article (30%), and Pitch (5%).

  • 50% of the grade will be attached to live interaction, namely Presentation (30%), Peer Review (10%), Moderation (5%), and Audience (5%).

Weighing

  • Written assignments 50%: Grant Proposal (10%), Abstract (5%), Article (30%), and Pitch (5%)

  • Participation 50%: Presentation (30%), Peer Review (10%), Moderation (5%), and Audience (5%).

Resit

Only the grant application and the article can be part of a resit.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

Not applicable.

Registration

Via uSis is mandatory.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal

Remarks