Research Methods and Critical Thinking: Foundations for University Essay Writing

Welcome to Research Methods and Critical Thinking: Foundations for University Essay Writing! This course is designed to introduce students to the essential skills they will need throughout their academic careers. This is a 10-week semester course, during which time we will focus on three units: research methods, critical thinking, and writing and editing. 

The course will provide students with instruction in the essentials of approaching the research work of writing university essays. This course assumes that students have experience with writing high school essays and will focus on the executive skills necessary to develop college and university research papers. By the end of the course, students will have learned the foundations of effective essay-writing and can choose the option to complete a university-level essay paper,  and receive feedback to keep for their own reference. It is not necessary to do the essay in order to benefit from the methods and lessons taught in this course, so do join us if you are simply looking for tips and best practices in your essay writing assignments!

The syllabus will cover the elements of: 

- setting up a research essay workflow strategy
- selecting essay topics 
- finding and evaluating sources 
- research methods for exploring a topic
- developing arguments 
- critical thinking 
- essay development
- the technical aspects of writing and editing essay papers
- citation, academic style, and formatting 
- understanding plagiarism and other issues in essay writing

The course will consist of a weekly one-hour lecture and interactive discussion and an online course forum for us to reflect on the week’s topics, and to submit weekly exercises, questions, and assignment feedback. The course site also contains a resource library of trusted links to guides, instructions, and demonstrations relevant to the course content. The majority of these resources are provided by academic institutions. During the lesson, I will provide students with slides and other resources to support their learning, which they are free to refer to as the essay project develops.


Who this course is for: 

Research Methods and Critical Thinking: Foundations for University Essay Writing is for high school students who intend to pursue college or university and want to prepare for the next stage of their schooling. It is also for any high school student who is motivated to take their papers further, whether for personal fulfillment or to improve their confidence in their current school work.

This is a research methods and critical thinking-focused course. Students should have experience with writing essays at the high school level. Since we will take a project management approach to performing essay research, the skills taught in this course are widely applicable in school and in the workplace and will be of help to anyone who wants to learn how to organize a complex project and communicate the main points of their work effectively.

Basic requirements for this course:

This course is designed for students in their upper years of secondary school. Your student should be able to understand, read, and write fluently in English, although we will be covering technical aspects of writing and editing in the last unit. Your student should be comfortable with the basics of writing sentences and paragraphs in English for high school assignments. 

You will need to make time each week to attend the lecture and complete the milestones of your essay project. You should be familiar with how to save and locate your work on your laptop, but I will be teaching how to do that in the lectures. Younger students who feel they are motivated and ready for the challenge are more than welcome!

Technical requirements for this course: 

Students need a laptop or desktop computer and a reliable internet connection to access our lecture sessions on Zoom, and to access the online course forum on Outschool Classroom.