Academic Skills Workshop Political Science 2

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/S_ASWPS2

Course Objective

At the end of the course students have reached the following learning goals: Knowledge and understanding 
- The student has acquired knowledge and understanding of: What constitutes a concept, theory and school of thought How a scientific paper is structured the core debates within political science; Skills 
- The student is able to: Identify the structure of Political Science articles and read academic articles in a targeted manner search academic articles and newspaper articles in the VU Library databases, specifically Nexis Uni and Web of Science. correctly paraphrase and cite using APA. write an academic essay explaining a "puzzle". make a group presentation to fellow students presenting a case study and connecting it to political science theories. Attitude 
- The student displays: a proactive interest in political science topics in general and special interests within the discipline. appreciation for the insights of fellow students and different perspectives within political science.

Course Content

The objective of this course is to develop academic skills. Through reading assignments, writing assignments and active discussion, students learn how an academic text is structured, how concepts form the building blocks of theories and how to present arguments for a particular theoretical position. Furthermore, the course consists of several writing workshops emphasizing how to paraphrase and cite various sources as well as how to formulate an academic puzzle. The content for such a puzzle comes from several key debates in political science. The course introduces these debates and students are given the task to connect these debates to current affairs. Through these debates, students gain an understanding of the variety of subjects and subdisciplines within political science. The course aims to motivate students to develop their interests and orient themselves within the study programme. This course builds on the Academic Skills Workshop 1 and deepens many of the academic skills. In addition, new core debates in political science are discussed. The most important skills concern writing essays, academic referencing to used literature and presenting in a group. What is added is searching for your own literature and assessing whether this literature is reliable.

Teaching Methods

Seminars Attendance is mandatory

Method of Assessment

Written Assignments (two essays), an APA exam on Canvas, and a group presentation.

Literature

To be announced in the course manual (see CANVAS)

Target Audience

First-year Bachelor's students in Political Science, track Global Politics

Custom Course Registration

In this course, you cannot enroll for one of the study groups yourself, but you will be assigned by the course coordinator. The allocation will be announced via Canvas. Please note: You do have to register for the course and the other course components on VU.nl.