Advanced Research and Documentary Writing

This course will focus on research as it supports those who write professionally. In particular, we are going to explore long projects that take up a subject and study it in some depth using observation, interviews and surveys as well as online and library research. The term "research" refers to substantially different activities in different professional settings. We will spend time looking at three particular types of research: literary journalism devoted to creating social change; research-based projects that attempt to create change in corporate practices such as management, customer relationships, and ethics; and documentary work that is designed to raise awareness, provoke conversation, and honor human and humane activity. All three of these areas yield many long and short projects—books and articles and scripts—that are created in the hope that the final product will have a real impact in the world. You will study some examples of research as it plays out in several books, articles, and a film documentary, and you'll plan and carry out a research project of your own.