Course Syllabus

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 V499: Honors Thesis, Fall 2026, Section 8395

Course Description from the O’Neill School Undergraduate Bulletin

Required of seniors in the Honors Program. Research and paper to be arranged with individual instructor and approved by the campus SPEA Honors Program director. May be repeated for credit.

Course Introduction

This course will teach you to communicate research results to experts in your field of study and to other audiences of scientists, policy-makers, and the public. You will take the research findings you have generated under the guidance of your thesis advisor(s) and will communicate those findings to different audiences using appropriate formats and styles: a research manuscript (roughly 7,000-10,000 words), a 12-minute research presentation, and an 800-word "translational" blog post.

Instructor: Matthew Baggetta, PhD

Course Meeting Time: Tuesdays, 9:35-10:50am, SPEA PV-A203

Office hours: Tuesdays, 11:00am-1:00pm ET, SPEA 435

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, students should be able to…

  1. Understand the (sometimes dysfunctional) processes used by many professional researchers to produce research communication outputs.
  2. Create and implement a plan for producing written and oral outputs in a regular, consistent, and on-time manner.
  3. Recognize and emulate appropriate models of written and spoken research communication.
  4. Execute self-critiques of draft outputs.
  5. Provide useful, critical feedback to colleagues in a collegial manner.
  6. Accept and integrate critical feedback (from self and others) into improved, revised versions of draft outputs.
  7. Effectively communicate research findings in writing to experts in their academic subfield using the standard format and style of a journal article manuscript in the subfield.
  8. Effectively communicate research findings orally in 12 minutes (a standard conference talk length), with appropriate visual aids, to experts in their academic subfield using a better-than-standard format and style for an academic conference presentation (note: our goal is better-than-standard because, generally speaking, the standard in many fields is poor).
  9. Effectively communicate research findings in writing to interested members of the general public (which often includes policymakers) using an engaging (but still precise and professional) contemporary format and style.

Required Texts

  • Becker, Howard S. 2020. Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article. Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 022664393X
  • Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. 2024. They Say. I Say.: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (6th Edition). New York: W.W. Norton and Co ISBN: 9781324046219
  • Schwabish, Jonathan. 2017. Better Presentations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN: 0231175213
  • Silvia, Paul J. 2019. How to Write a Lot. Second Edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN: 1433829738
  • Tufte, Edward R. 1997. Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press ISBN: 9780961392130

Assignments & Grades

  • Attendance & Participation: 10%
  • Drafts: 15%
  • Manuscript: 40%
  • Presentation: 20%
  • Research Blog: 10%
  • Advice Blog: 5%

Course Schedule

  1. Unit 1: The Science of Scientific Writing
    • Tue, Aug 25: How do you write?
    • Thu, Aug 27: Why do you write how you write?
      • Reading: Writing for Social Scientists, Prefaces and Chapters 1, 3
    • Tue, Sep 1: How should you write?
      • Reading: How to Write a Lot, Preface & Chapters 1-4
    • Thu, Sep 3: What will you write?
      • Reading: How to Write a Lot, Chapter 6
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Preface & Introduction.
      • Reading: Previous students’ blog posts

 

  1. Unit 2: The Parts of a Paper
    • Tue, Sep 8: Data & Methods
      • Reading: USC Libraries Writing Guide, Section 6
      • Due: Writing schedule & outline draft
    • Thu, Sep 10: Literature Review & Theory
      • Reading: “What Can a Literature Review Do for Me?”
      • Reading: USC Libraries Writing Guide, Sections 5, 4.4, 11
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapters 1, 2, and 3.
    • Tue, Sep 15: Group day
    • Thu, Sep 17: Titles, Abstracts, & Introductions
      • Reading: USC Libraries Writing Guide Sections 2.2, 3, 4
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapters 4, 5, and 8.
    • Tue, Sep 22: Hypotheses, Results, & Conclusions
      • Reading: USC Libraries Writing Guide, Sections 4.4, 7, 8, 9
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapters 9, 10, and 17 (natural science) or 18 (social science)
      • Due: Draft “Front End”
    • Thu, Sep 24: Co-work Session
      • Reading: A peer’s draft “front end”

 

  1. Unit 3: From Paper to Presentation
    • Tue, Sep 29: Presentation Structure
      • Reading: Better Presentations, Introduction & Chapter 1
      • Due: Peer Feedback
    • Thu, Oct 1: Text Slides
      • Reading: Better Presentations, Chapters 2-4
    • Tue, Oct 6: Group day
    • Thu, Oct 8: Image slides
      • Reading: Better Presentations, Chapters 6-7
    • Tue, Oct 13: Data Visualization & Data Slides
      • Reading: Visual & Statistical Thinking (entire booklet)
      • Reading: Better Presentations, Chapter 5
      • Due: Draft Manuscript

 

  1. Unit 4: Feedback and Revisions
    • Thu, Oct 15: Co-Work Session
    • Tue, Oct 20: Presentation Planning
      • Reading: (review) Better Presentations, pages 14-23
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapter 7
    • Thu, Oct 22: Group day
      • Due: Revised Draft Manuscript for External Reviewer
    • Tue, Oct 27: Scholarly Peer Review
      • Reading: Example reviews and responses
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapters 6 and 12
    • Thu, Oct 29: Draft Presentations
    • Tue, Nov 3: Draft Presentations or Group Day
    • Thu, Nov 5: Draft Presentations or Group Day
    • Tue, Nov 10: Draft Presentations or Group Day
    • Thu, Nov 12: Draft Presentations or Group Day
      • Recommended: Revised Draft Manuscript for Advisor
    • Tue, Nov 17: Draft Presentations or Group Day
    • Thu, Nov 19: Editing for Style
      • Reading: They Say. I Say. Chapter 10.
      • Reading: Writing for Social Scientists, Chapters 2, 4
      • Reading: How to Write a Lot, Chapter 5

Tue, Nov 24: THANKSGIVING BREAK

Thu, Nov 26: THANKSGIVING BREAK

    • Tue, Dec 1: Proofreading & Co-Work Session
      • Reading: USC Libraries Writing Guide, Section 10

Wed, Dec 2: Final Manuscript Due

  1. Unit 5: Writing for Broader Audiences
    • Thu, Dec 3: Presentation Review & Co-Work Session

Fri, Dec 4: Honors Thesis Symposium: Final Presentations (~9:00am-12:00pm)

    • Tue, Dec 8: Academic Blogs
      • Reading: “How to Write a Blog Post from Your Journal Article in Eleven Easy Steps”
      • Reading: Three example research blog posts
      • Reading: One example advice blog post
    • Thu, Dec 10: Semester Debriefing
    • Tue, Dec 15: Exam Week; No Class
      • Due: Research Blog Post
      • Due: Advice Blog Post

The above schedule is subject to limited changes. Any changes will be announced in class.

For more details on all of the topics listed here (and more), see the information on the course Canvas homepage, the Course Documents linked from the home page, and on the daily module pages.