BDIC 496C - Junior Year Writing in Interdisciplinary Studies

BDIC 496C fulfills the University's Junior Year Writing Requirement.*

Junior Year Writing in Interdisciplinary Studies introduces students to writing conventions in various professional fields. Because of the diversity of majors in interdisciplinary studies, students investigate various avenues of professional writing. In addition to completing genre analysis of professional documents, students complete a major writing project related to their field of study. Students are encouraged NOT to write a traditional academic paper, rather practice one of the many forms of writing relevant to their field of study. Junior Year Writing is not one of your BDIC Concentration classes. It fulfills the University junior year writing requirement.

Goals of the course:

Become knowledgeable of discourse conventions in your area of study. Practice writing using the terminology and conventions within your area of study. Complete a substantial written project in your area of study that reflect the conventions within that field.

Following, is a list of projects completed recently:

• A student interested in counseling and diversity education prepared a how-to manual that included legal and other background information about sexual harassment in the workplace along with a step-by-step format that human resource trainers could use to offer employees a workshop on the subject.
• A student interested in children's poetry wrote a collection of children's poems.
• A student interested in holistic health completed a research report on herbal abortions.
• Another student interested in holistic health and pre-naturopathy completed original research on a high-risk breast cancer area of Massachusetts. Her final project was a report on her findings.
• A student in science and environmental education completed a teaching journal about her experiences teaching. Her portfolio included examples of lesson plans, children's work, and her own insights in learning to teach.
• A student in marketing consulting completed a business plan for his start-up company.
• A student in historical preservation researched her family's 200-year old farm. Her project included extensive archival research. She used her paper as a graduate school sample.
• Other projects have included song cycles, sermons, screenplays, curriculum guides, research reports, marketing plans, and graduate school samples in a number of disciplines.

*Students may take junior year writing in another department other than BDIC. If you wish to take an alternative junior year writing class other than BDIC 496C, please inform the BDIC Coordinator who will then clear you from Junior Year Writing in Interdisciplinary Studies.

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