IREn5500 Academic skills review

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2023
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Vratislav Havlík, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Martin Jirušek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Lukáš Lehotský, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Anežka Konvalinová (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. Vratislav Havlík, Ph.D.
Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Olga Cídlová, DiS.
Supplier department: Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Mon 16:00–17:40 U23
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! EUP435 Academic skills review && !NOW( EUP435 Academic skills review ) && ! IRE103 Academic Skills && !NOW( IRE103 Academic Skills )
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course is focused on explaining the basics of academic writing and research design. The course brings the students the elementary information about such topics as structure of an academic thesis, working with sources, ethics in research etc.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course the students should be able to formulate research questions for his/her research and to propose a basic research design. The student should be also able to work with academic sources in an appropriate way and should be aware of issues on the field of academic ethics.
Syllabus
  • Session 1 (September 21, 90 minutes)
  • Aims of the course, Requirements, Essentials of academic writing
  • Session 2 (October 5, 180 minutes)
  • Part A: The sense of academic work/academic writing. Why do political scientists write papers? Ethics in academic writing. What is plagiarism and how can we avoid it? Part B: Work with sources. When should we use direct quotations? When should we paraphrase and how can we do it?
  • Session 3 (October 12, 180 minutes)
  • Part A: Structure of academic papers. How should an introduction look like? How to formulate a research question? What is the literature review? Part B: Critical thinking in academic work. Descriptive vs. analytical skills. What is the value added of an academic work?
  • Session 4 (October 19, 180 minutes)
  • Part A: Theory and Methodology. Why do political scientists use a theory? Why is the use of research methods so much important? Part B: How to write a good literature review?
Literature
    required literature
  • CRESWELL, John W. Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. International student editio. Los Angeles: Sage, 2014, xxix, 273. ISBN 9781452274614. info
Teaching methods
lectures, class discussions, short homeworks
Assessment methods
The total evaluation includes 1/ Final test (max. 45 points) 2/ Book review (max. 15 points) and 3/Position paper (max. 30 points)
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2020, Spring 2021, Autumn 2021, Spring 2022, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Spring 2024, Autumn 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2023/IREn5500