There has always been a heavy writing component to the course. Professor Secor's English 421 can be substituted for the university-wide English 202 requirement, and is a course designed to improve students' writing in the area of argumentation. Professors Eisenstein and Secor believed that students would perform better in political science if they improved their writing and would be more likely to improve their writing if they had special expertise in the subject matter. Therefore, they have combined their courses, for a total of six credits, and meet in two consecutive one-hour class periods three times a week. For the first half of the course, students have reading assignments in the specific area of political science and write weekly papers, emphasizing a particular aspect of writing, which are critiqued by both professors and fellow students in workshop settings.
Students then revise three of their best papers to be graded.
For the second half of the course, students go on relevant field trips to expand their knowledge in the subject area, and finally break into groups for a final, longer project. By combining these two courses in this way, Professors Eisenstein and Secor discovered a way to help students to improve their writing skills substantially. By providing the students with specific and clearly worded assignments, models of good writing, frequent opportunities to practice writing, constant feedback on their writing, workshops to help one another, and chances to revise until it's right, this combined course truly does broaden students' knowledge of an area of political science, but perhaps more importantly, teaches them how to communicate more effectively in their discipline of interest.