Writing Course Descriptions for Contracts

All PC undergraduates have the opportunity to customize their degree programs with courses they design themselves. Whether you are drafting an independent study contract or a mentored studies contract, you may feel a little unprepared to write your first study contract. This post begins a series of tips on writing study contracts, beginning with the course description.

Function of the course description

When you think of a topic for a self-designed course, there’s a tendency to think first of what you’re going do in the course: plant an organic garden, lead a book club, travel to a foreign country, etc. But the function of a course description in a study contract is to give the reader—not just your mentor or adviser but any reader—a sense of the focus, purpose, and scope of the learning you will do to earn academic credits (usually 4-semester credits). You are limited to about 250 words, so here are the questions you must answer in every course description you write:

• What is the topic of the course (stated as narrowly as possible—one sentence)?
• What approach will you take to studying this topic? (this might be from a theoretical perspective, or using a methodology such as ‘experiential’, ‘literature-based research’, or ‘experimental’)
• What are the most significant outcomes of this learning? (e.g., is it a prerequisite to more advanced study? does it fit into your competence/breadth area? or will it develop new insights in an emerging field?)
• What are the social or environmental justice aspects or applications of the course?

To help you achieve the tone of overview (the details will be spelled out in other parts of the contract), always write the course description in the third person. Make sure your course title distills your course description and doesn’t just name what you will do in the course. Keep the title short, so it fits into the space allowed. 

Importance of the course description

You are creating an element of your academic transcript that must be credible and professional for many years to come. Will your description and title stand up even if they were used for other students, at a future time? The reader should not have to know you personally to understand the value of your course in the world of higher learning.

You may find it easier to write a convincing course description once you have identified your learning objectives, activities, and materials, all of which are separate sections in your contract. Whatever your writing process, the course description should make sense on its own and not merely repeat what other sections of your contract state.

To get started on a study contract, get either the Study Contract Worksheet or the Study Contract form from the PC website and draft language for each section of your contract. Share these thoughts on paper with your mentor and/or advisor. They may offer detailed suggestions or directions for the course that you hadn’t thought of. Always check the course description just before you finalize the contract to be sure that it still matches what you have planned for the course. Only once your mentor and advisor have pre-approved your study contract should you submit it electronically to enroll in the course.

Next week: How course objectives differ from a course description