아이비리그 뿐만 아니라 미국의 대부분의 대학들은 core curriculum (필수과목제도)를 운영하여, 자신의 전공과 상관없이 반드시 몇개의 타 전공 수업을 들어야 합니다.

이를테면, 전공이 정치외교학과(political science)라고 해도, 졸업하기 전까지는 반드시 수학이나 통계, 과학에 관련된 수업을 일정 수준 이상 들어야 한다는 것입니다.

그러나 비슷해 보이는 인문학이나 사회과학 과목들 내에서 마져도 원하는 writing 스타일이 다 다르며, 이를 숙지하지 않은 대학교 freshman, sophomore들은 상대적으로 낮은 GPA를 받게 됩니다.

후에 박사과정, 로스쿨 혹은 취직 등 대학 이후의 과정에 이러한 대학교 새내기들이 겪는 writing의 ‘시행착오’ 는 큰 걸림돌이 됩니다.

Let’s say that you are a college freshman mainly studying politics. But you were interested in philosophy and history too,

Since all of those seemed somehow ‘interconnected’. When you submit a paper, however, your world-renowned professor in history would say this: “hmm.. Interesting ideas, and I can see you know how to write. But you don’t know how to write a history paper.”

And then you soon realize you don’t know how to write a philosophy paper. How about psychology and economics?

The list continues. Your institution would assure you, “No worries, you will improve!” But at the end of all those ‘trial-and-error” processes, your college GPA would be no longer recoverable. Bye-bye Harvard law school and all the fancy jobs at the Wall Street. Now you should be dying to know the secrets of writings at college!

(1) Political Science

• a. The importance of the ‘lens’ (realist, constructive, individualist etc)
• b. Why my professor’s ‘lectures’ are important and how can I integrate
• c. How to find ‘the right answer’ in political science

(2) Philosophy

• a. The important of ‘definitions’ and ‘assumptions’ in philosophy writings
• b. How to re-phrase the philosophical statements

(3) Literature

• a. How to write literature ‘response’ papers
• b. How to find and utilize the opposing concepts

(4) Psychology

• a. How to tackle the untold assumptions embedded in different theories
• b. how to link to our every lives and to make broader assumptions

(5) History

• a. How to make an ‘argument’ when every single event is something already happened
• b. the effective use of hypothesis / assertions / counterarguments

(6) Biology, Chemistry, Physics

• a. How to write Lab reports
• b. How to write in the most straightforward way

(7) Economics

• a. How to utilize your own research/regression results
• b. How to combine qualitative and quantitative components in a balanced way
• c. How to cite statistical information in the right way

(8) Research Paper

• a. How to organize your 20 (or more so) pages
• b. How to effectively utilize the college research tools
• c. Differing ways to structure research paper
• d. How to pick an interesting research paper topic
• e. JSTOR, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost), LexisNexis Academic, etc