EFS 698B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Advanced Graduate Writing
EFS 698B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Advanced Graduate Writing
Is this the right course for you?
In addition to our basic writing fundamentals course (EFS 697), EFS offers three others: 698A, 698B,a nd 698C EFS698A, Writing Academic English, is the main course. Among other skills, in the 698A course you learn how to organize academic papers, paraphrase, summarize, work with sentence connectors, and recognize some of the specific language and style differences between writing in your field and others. For most master's and some PhD students 698A is the only required or recommended course.
Before attempting to enroll in
EFS 698B,
it is important to verify that this is the appropriate course for you. You
should take EFS 698B only if you meet all three of the
following conditions.
1.
You have taken EFS 698A or EFS 688/688B (the summer intensive
course).
If you have not, then you need to get
the instructor's permission to attend the course by a) demonstrating that you have taken a course equivalent to 698A,
such as Engineering 202W or b) presenting a recent, unedited piece of writing of a quality high enough to qualify for this course.
NOTE: If you have a 698A or 697 requirement, you must complete those before
enrolling in 698B. Under no circumstances may two writing requirements be taken
concurrently.
and
2.
You will be doing significant writing outside of this class during the
quarter.
You typically need to work on at least two
full papers (or thesis chapters) or several smaller papers or reports, and the work needs to be
spread throughout the quarter. You are required to have a minimum of four
meetings with the instructor to go over your writing, and these should not all
come in the second half of the course. Basically, you cannot expect to
improve your writing much if you only write a few pages toward the end of the
course.
and
3.
You are willing to commit to doing all of the outside assignments.
This means completing them on time
for class discussions and working hard to identify the weaker areas in your
writing and improve them. You recognize that the goal of the course is to make
you a stronger, more independent writer. You are not taking the course simply to
get free editing.
Again,
if you do not meet all three of these conditions, you should not take the class
this quarter.
Note
that the class is offered every quarter, including summer. If you have any
questions about your eligibility for this course, contact
efs@stanford.edu.