Welcome to the second half of COMPOSITION 2. The aim of this class is to teach you how to write a research paper. This is a 16 weeks journey during which you will delve in depth on a single topic of your choosing, probing academic journals and books (but no websites), and, in the end, compose an original argument. This is a challenging but not insurmountable endeavor: in the class, I will break down all aspects of the research process, from a description of the scientific method in the first day, down to the minutiae of writing footnotes.

As with all tasks, writing a research paper is a process, it is not, to cite the great Umberto Eco, “simply a gathering of information,” but rather, it is “the critical elaboration of an experience.” The idea (and again I am citing Eco), is to “acquire the capacity to identify problems, confront them methodically, and articulate them systematically in expository details.” Our class is built around the acquisition of three skills: to identify problem, to confront them, and to articulate your solutions.