Books by Brooke Downs
Writing in the Social Sciences
Writing in the Social Sciences is an advanced writing textbook that focuses on skills specific to careers in the social sciences. Its authors employ a personable writing style and engaging instructional design to share their expertise. Unit 1 introduces discourse communities, the rhetorical situation, available writing tools, mindful writing, and the writing process. Students will master good grammar and mechanics and a more sophisticated, audience-oriented style including visual design and tables and figures. Unit 2 focuses on writing for academic audiences including finding and evaluating sources and discussing and citing sources. Students will define literature reviews and learn the steps of composing a literature review: taking notes, synthesizing, organizing, drafting, and revising. They will also learn how to create compelling proposals. In Unit 3, students will focus on writing for general audiences including applying for jobs and graduate schools and writing public texts such as emails, memos, social media posts, blogs, infographics, and opinion editorials. In the final chapter, they’ll learn how to create engaging oral and poster presentations.