Im going into 3rd year biochemistry and ive never taken an essay writing course in university before...ive only really taken science courses. I feel like it is important for me (and i guess anyone really) to exercise skills in researching and obtaining large amounts of information and organizing an opinionated response with that information.. in other words, essay writing. However, it is very important for me to maintain a high GPA, so I am posting this thread to ask for any recommendations for any thought-provoking courses that involve essay writing that are not going to kill my GPA given my inexperience.

Thanks

I'm going to recommend Philosophy 1E03, but be careful. I know me and a few other science/engineering students found it very easy, its very interesting, and its a great way to practice your essay writing. Every week you'll get a reading, and then you'll do a short 1 page writeup about it. Because of this if your essay skills are poor near the beginning it won't kill your mark, and you'll have the chance to get help. You'll also have 1 large essay, and the exam is writing 2 essays (you'll get the possible topics ahead of time). It doesn't involve as much research as some other courses, but most courses will give you 3 essays at most, all worth large amounts. This could completely kill your mark, and your GPA, before you have a chance to get help.

However, I'm also pretty sure the science students who did well did so because they had a strong english background. My friend who didn't have a good English background did pretty poorly.

If you don't mind me asking, is English your first language? How did you do in high school English?

What are your interests?

One of my roommates took an English course (I think long genres) for the same reason you're looking to take an essay course. She enjoyed it. Religious Studies have several courses that require essays, I'd recommend 3D03 (God, Evil and Reason) or 3Y03 (Love in Western Civilization) if you don't want something overly religious (the prof. doesn't like talking about God). I took 3D03 (and I heard 3Y03 is organized the same way), and there were two essays during the semester. I'm sure History and English have several good courses as well.

Originally Posted by bhumm02

Im going into 3rd year biochemistry and ive never taken an essay writing course in university before...ive only really taken science courses. I feel like it is important for me (and i guess anyone really) to exercise skills in researching and obtaining large amounts of information and organizing an opinionated response with that information.. in other words, essay writing. However, it is very important for me to maintain a high GPA, so I am posting this thread to ask for any recommendations for any thought-provoking courses that involve essay writing that are not going to kill my GPA given my inexperience.

Thanks

Hey, I just finished 2nd year of bio so I guess I also have not had much exposure in essay-writing courses either. You might consider some first year courses.

Two courses that I did well in and had good essay marks were Indigenous Studies 1a03 and 1aa3. The topics were really interesting and the courses covered topics that most people didn't know much about. There was one essay involved with each course. This is a social science type course as well. Anyways, I hope you find the course for you.

P to the S : check out the course reviews

I'd look at courses that are about something you're interested in, or else writing essays about it will be incredibly boring and you probably won't do well on them.

Political Science 1G06 involves a lot of essay writing, in fact, that's pretty much all you do. I wouldn't call it an easy course, it depends on how interested you are, and quite frankly, how your TA marks your assignments.

Sociology 1A06 also involves some essay writing, I believe we wrote two or three essays, and you had to do a fair amount of research to complete them as well. The content isn't as dry, but of course, that depends on your interests again.

English is my first language and I ~85s in grade 11 and 12 english. I think I'm a decent enough writer, I'm just very hesitant to venture into such a different course style...which is why I'm trying to be very cautious about it all.

As far as my interests go, I was thinking more along the lines of philosophy, cultural anthropology, and maybe religious studies..not so much in the direction of english courses. Some of those upper year courses do sound very appealing to me, but will I be in over my head busting into upper year essay writing courses?

Also, are there any courses where you write essays during the term but not during the final? I dont do well with writing under time constraints and would like to avoid it if i can.

Thanks for all the advice, Im gonna take a closer look at some of the courses you've all suggested. More advice/suggestions are welcomed.

I'd definitely recommend doing a first year course first. They tend to be a bit more lenient with mistakes since people are coming out of high schools of varying qualities, so you won't be far behind. I don't know of any essay courses where the final isn't an essay though, sorry.

As far as I know, most classes that have an essay assignment have an essay on the final exam; however, "essay" is quite loosely defined in essay-writing classes. For example, the essay I had to write on my Philosophy, Law and Society final exam was really answering a series of questions with sequential paragraphs, which is not really your typical essay.

Here again I have to recommend Classics 1A03 (Classical Archaeology), like I do on every thread lol. But seriously, it's a very interesting course, and is extremely well taught. The course consists of tests (consisting of multiple choice and the like) and one short essay. It would be a good course to practice essay-writing, but it also does not demand an extensive amount of writing. Of course, this all depends on whether you're even mildly interested in Ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture.

Hey ! I will recommend English Shorter Genres 1A03. English is my second language. So I wanted to have some course that had strict requirement for writing in my first year. I took English 1A03. We talked about short stories and poems in the lecture, which there was not lots of reading.I really enjoyed that course and got lots of help. As long as you invest your time on it and ask for help when you need, you can do very well in this course. The most important thing is that you can improve and enhance your writing skills.

I second Philos 1E03.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

Sociology 1A06 also involves some essay writing, I believe we wrote two or three essays, and you had to do a fair amount of research to complete them as well. The content isn't as dry, but of course, that depends on your interests again.

I think that depends on the professor. That course is taught by several different professors, and I think they rotate. I had Dr. Shaffir for that course, and we wrote one essay the entire year.

As for the two courses I recommended earlier, I don't think you'd necessarily get blown away even though they're upper years. It really depends on your TA! I've had some first year TAs that have marked harder than some third year TAs, and all of my TAs have marked much harder than any of the professors I've had for my fourth year courses. Essays are so subjective, and what one marker likes, another can dislike.

If you're interested in a religious studies course, I'd recommend 2VV3 (Bible as Literature). Dr. Carter is incredibly friendly and approachable if you have any questions. We wrote two essays, and the final was an open book essay (she'll sometimes give you a study sheet before an exam that will pretty much be the entire exam). You can check out the religious studies department website and the course outline for the class might be up there. It was a great course! I really enjoyed it, and it's fairly easy. I'd say it's a first year level course.