From Reader to Researcher: Critical Thinking for Graduate Study
The undergraduate asks what the study found; the graduate asks whether to believe it — and everything that separates a reader from a researcher lives inside that second question.
A master's passage through the critical mind of the researcher — from the disciplined skepticism that questions accepted answers and the honest weighing of what we call knowledge, through the critical reading of a literature and the finding of a gap that matters, the choosing of a lens and the building of an argument that stands, to the calibrated trust of evidence, the crossing of disciplinary borders, the conscience that holds when no one is checking, and the machine at the desk that may assist the hands but never replace the thinking — closing, as a graduate research course must, in a practicum where the habits become your own.
Course Overview
RES 421 is the University's first master's-level research course — an eight-lesson course in critical thinking and intellectual independence for students beginning graduate research. It moves through four modules: from the questioning mind and the nature of scholarly knowing, through critical reading, the true research gap, frameworks, and the building of arguments that stand, to the weighing of sources, thinking across disciplinary borders, and the researcher's wider conscience — closing with the responsible use of AI and a capstone practicum in which you appraise contradictory studies, defend a gap and a lens of your own, and argue a position at graduate standard. Where the undergraduate asked what a study found, the graduate asks whether to believe it — and by the end of this course, that question has become a habit.
Faculty & Resources
Recommended Books & Publications
All publications below are included with your course purchase at no additional cost.
This Course Costs an Affordable Fee of
ONLY $250.00
ONE-TIME
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