In these classes, students learn to read more critically, to address specific audiences for particular purposes, to construct effective arguments and narratives, and to use and cite source material properly. Students in these courses write a great deal; they prewrite, write, revise, and edit their work for content, clarity, tone, and grammar and receive detailed feedback from instructors and classmates. Assigned readings are related to the thematic focus of each course, and are used as demonstrations of writing techniques. The pieces in Angles may be used as teaching tools and practical examples for other students and self-learners to emulate.

This version of the course deals with Irish literature, focusing on poetry and prose of living Irish writers. Included on the Study Materials page is a collection of advice for writing about literature, including sections on developing a thesis, general advice, literary analysis, and the dangers of paraphrasing.

This class introduces students to the methods and perspectives of cultural anthropology using case studies in very different settings (a nuclear weapons laboratory, a cattle-herding society of the Sudan, and a Jewish elder center in Los Angeles). The lecture notes for lecture seven are titled "Writing and Pain" and include tips for making writing a less painful experience. These notes cover common errors and bad habits to look out for, focusing on careful word choice, as well as tips for grammar, metaphor, tone, structuring, and argument.

This course treats a number of important philosophical questions in some depth. What are persons? Soul pellets, living bodies, brains, or what? Are moral standards absolute or in some sense "relative"? Is the truth about external reality absolute or relative to one's point of view? Included on the Related Resources page are links to writing resources, including Jim Pryor's "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper," a large document with a good amount of general paper writing advice, and Richard Holton's "How to Build an Argument and How to Write an Essay," which presents examples of a good and a bad philosophy paper as well as a document on structuring arguments.

The causes and prevention of interstate war are the central topics of this course. The course goal is to discover and assess the means to prevent or control war, and thus the focus is on manipulable or controllable war-causes. The Assignments page contains a Writing Tips document which provides a good overview of standard essay format, with sections on the introduction, the conclusion, argumentation, and tips for writing and organization.

This course provides the opportunity for students to engage with social and ethical issues that they care deeply about. Through discussing selected documentary and feature films and the writings of such authors as Maya Angelou and Charles Dickens, students explore different perspectives on a range of social problems such as poverty, homelessness, and racial and gender inequality. The Related Resources page contains links to several writing resources at MIT, including the MIT Writing and Communication Center and a list of Writing Resources on the World Wide Web.

This course examines how and why twentieth-century Americans came to define the "good life" through consumption, leisure, and material abundance. It explores how such things as department stores, advertising, mass-produced cars, and suburbs transformed the American economy, society and politics. The Study Materials page contains a document designed to help students write papers and overcome what Professor Jacobs refers to as the "blank-screen syndrome."

This course is a series of seminars focusing on common writing problems faced by professional engineers and scientists. Participants will tune up their writing skills and prepare a pair of technical documents under the guidance of the instructor. Included on the Study Materials page is an introduction to technical writing called "It's not just salad dressing," which covers organization and structure, style concerns (with many examples of original and rewritten sentences), use of graphics, and tips for oral presentations.

This course is designed to serve as a basic introduction to the practice of technical writing for those who work as scientists and technical researchers. Because scientific and technical fields are becoming more interdisciplinary and more globally connected everyday, it also considers intercultural communication issues at some length. Included on the Related Resources page is a guide to writing research proposals from the University of Michigan, as well as "Stephen's Guide to Logical Fallacies," which describes common errors in logical argument.

This course is designed to help develop skills for producing clear and effective scientific and technical documents. It focuses on basic principles of good writing and on types of documents common in scientific and technical fields and organizations. The Related Resources page contains links to TechComm Web, the online companion to the textbook used in the course; the Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing; the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL); and the MIT Libraries Writing page with links to online writing guides.

This course is an introduction to the history, the theory, the practice, and the implications (both social and ethical) of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion. The Study Materials page contains tips for writing persuasive essays from a rhetorical perspective, and the Related Resources page contains a wealth of resources for rhetoric and writing.

This class covers the analysis, design, implementation and testing of various forms of digital communication based on group collaboration. Students are encouraged to think about the Web and other new digital interactive media not just in terms of technology but also broader issues such as language (verbal and visual), design, information architecture, communication and community. The Related Resources page contains a link to "Writing for the Web," a guide to writing online content.

Description:This class focuses on the craft of the short story, which is explored through reading great short stories, writers speaking about writing, writing exercises, and conducting workshops on original stories. Included is a set of helpful lecture notes, along with five examples of short stories written by students in the class.

This course explores the scientific publication cycle, primary vs. secondary sources, and online and in-print bibliographic databases; how to search, find, evaluate, and cite information; indexing and abstracting; using special resources (e.g. patents) and "grey literature" (e.g. technical reports and conference proceedings); conducting Web searches; and constructing literature reviews. The Tutorials page contains six Flash tutorials covering these topics, with a focus on finding, evaluating, and citing information online and in print.

This is an engineering laboratory subject for mechanical engineering juniors and seniors. Major emphasis is on interplay between analytical and experimental methods in solution of research and development problems. The Guides page features a document with tips for delivering effective oral presentations.