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Writing and critical reading (Workshop)

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core SPG2PH502 1

Semester and Year Offered: Intersession between 2nd and 3rd semester

Course Coordinator and Team: N. Nakkeeran & Samik Chowdhury

Email of course coordinator: nakkeeran@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This workshop aims to build Critical thinking, communication and writing skills of students

Course Outcomes:

  • To build the ability for critical reading of public health and other texts
  • To develop the capacity to review diverse forms of public health literature to critically analyze and deploy them to conceptualize further research
  • To develop the skill of academic writing to produce high-quality research papers and reports

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Unit-I – Critical Reading: The workshop will introduce diverse forms of academic writing with a special focus on public health; will focus on critical reading skills – its meaning, key elements and strategies; link critical reading with critical thinking. This will be transacted in the form of lectures and exercises on critical reading and analysis of diverse forms of public health and epidemiological texts. 

Unit – II Academic writing:  This Unit will focus on academic writing as a skill; introducing to structure/formats and styles of writing, stages of writing and specific skills of academic writing. This Unit will also focus on ethics of academic writing, citation and referencing styles.

Assessment Details with weights:

Reading List:

  • Bell, J., Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science, 4thEdn. Open University Press, Berkshire England, 2005 (Chapter 13 - Writing the report).
  • Creswell, J. W., &Tashakkori, A. (2007). Developing publishable mixed methods manuscripts. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 2(1), 107–111.
  • Gilgun, Jane (2005), ‘’Grab” and Good Science: Writing up the Results of Qualitative Research’, Qualitative Health Research, 15(2): 256-262.
  • Hess, DR., “How to Write an Effective Discussion” Respiratory care, October 2004 Vol. 49 No. 10: 1238-41
  • Knopf, JW., “Doing a Literature Review” Political Science and Politics , Jan., 2006, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan., 2006), pp. 127- 132
  • Kurland, D., I Know What It Says...What Does It Mean? Critical Skills for Critical Reading
  • UTS. “How to read critically”,  https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/academic-skills/how-read-critically, University of Technology, Sydney.
  • Wallace, M., and Wray, A., Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates, (2ndEdn.) Sage: Los Angeles, 2011
  • Wiles, Janine L. PhD; Allen, Ruth E S PhD; and Butler, Rachael, Owning my thoughts was difficult: Encouraging students to read and write critically in a tertiary qualitative research methods course, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 13(1), 2016. Available at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol13/iss1/8

Additional Readings:

  • Academic writing workshops: https://www.csuohio.edu/writing-center/academic-writing-workshops
  • Aldrich, H., Write As If You Don’t Have the Data: The benefits of a free-writing phase, blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/01/22/write-as-if-you-dont-have-the-data/ (January 22, 2016)
  • Blettner, M., Heuer, C., Rasum, O., “Critical reading of epidemiological papers: A guide” European Journal of Public Health Vol. 11 , No.. 1: (2001) 97-101
  • Cleveland State University, “Critical reading: what is critical reading, and why do i need to do it?” https://www.csuohio.edu/writing-center/critical-reading-what-critical-reading-and-why-do-i-need-do-it
  • Critical thinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAXUkVT_ilo&t=245s
  • Lynch T., “ELTT Course 10: Writing up Qualitative Research” http://www.docs.hss.ed.ac.uk/iad/Postgraduate/PhD_researchers/Writing/3_Methodology.pdf (Last accessed 19.11.2021)
  • Mills, CW., “On Intellectual craftsmanship’ in Clive Seale (ed) Social Research Methods, 2004: 19-25
  • Oxman, A., and Guyatt, Guidelines for reading literature reviews, CMAJ, VOL. 138, APRIL 15, 1988:697-703
  • Pajares, F., “The elements of a proposal”, Emory University , (Undated)
  • Rafael Pichardo-Rodriguez, Liz B. Cordova-Cueva, Marcos Saavedra-Velasco. Critical reading of clinical studies. Practical bases for the resident physician in medical specialties. Rev. Fac. Med. Hum. July 2021; 21(3):623-630. DOI 10.25176/RFMH.v21i1.3166
  • San Francisco Edit, Fourteen Steps to Writing an Effective Discussion Section, https://jivasquez.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/discussion.pdf (Last accessed on 19.11.2021)
  • Stenius, K, et al., 2017. How to Write Publishable Qualitative Research. In: Babor, T F, Stenius, K, Pates, R, Miovský, M, O’Reilly, J and Candon, P. (eds.) Publishing Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, Pp. 155–172. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbd.h. License: CC-BY 4.0.
  • Tasnimi, M., “Critical Reading: An Introduction”, Humanising Language Teaching, Vol.19, No. 6, 2017.
  • Tong A., Sainsbury P., Craig J.,  “Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32 item checklist for interviews and focus groups”, International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 2007:19/6(349-57).
  • Whitesides, GM., “Whitesides’ Group: Writing  a Paper”, Advanced Materials, Vol.16, No. 5, 2004, 1375-77
  • Wilkinson, A. M. (1991). The scientist’s handbook for writing papers and dissertations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
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