Economics 286W
Honors Seminar
Spring
2004
Wednesdays, 2-4
Koons Hall 311
R. N. Langlois
322
Monteith X63472
Office
hours MW 9-12 and 1-2 or by appointment
About the course.
This course is intended
primarily for students in the university-wide Honors Program or in the
Department’s Economics Scholars Program (for both of whom it is a requirement),
although other students may enroll with consent of the instructor.
This course will not try to
teach any particular body of substantive economics. Rather, it aims at preparing students to write a senior thesis in
economics. It does this by providing
practice in the writing of economics and by surveying the field through the
eyes of various UConn economics faculty members. A representative number of faculty members will meet with us to
discuss some aspect of their own research, allowing students a glimpse of what
professional economists do and also helping students to choose a topic and an
advisor for the thesis.
The overall objectives of the
course, then, are three: (1) to give you a taste of what professional
economists do and how they do it; (2) to make you a better writer; and --
perhaps most importantly -- (3) to challenge you with new ideas and to provoke
you to think in new ways.
To help you with your writing, I’ve asked the
bookstore to order Deirdre McCloskey, Economical Writing. Waveland
Press, 2nd edition, 1999. See also my notes on writing.
Course requirements.
Course requirements are a
series of short papers focused on a class presentation by the instructor or a
guest speaker. Students will be
assigned an article or two to read on the subject of the presentation. Students will write a short (2 to 5 page)
essay on some aspect of the topic. The
faculty member will speak informally for 30 to 45 minutes, and then we will
turn to questions and discussion. The
reading and writing assignment is intended to prepare you to ask intelligent
questions during the discussion.
Toward the end of the semester,
I expect to schedule presentations by senior undergraduates who are completing
their thesis projects. These talks
should help you get an idea of what is expected in a thesis and the range of
topics that is possible. There will
also be one-on-one discussion of possible topics as appropriate.
N. B. No class meeting February 18
