The Seminar in Academic Inquiry introduces students to the conventions of academic writing and the habits of critical inquiry they will need in university courses and beyond. Students read and annotate texts on a topic (or topics) selected by the instructor, develop original avenues of inquiry through classroom discussion, and transform their questions into well-supported academic arguments. Assignment sequences incorporate opportunities for research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection to help students find writing processes that can be replicated in future courses and workplace projects that require only polished work. Because different disciplines and career paths present different scenarios for critical thinking and writing, this course also teaches students how to adapt the conventions of academic inquiry to a variety of contexts.

Between each major writing assignment, students are introduced to Wikipedia by completing trainings through the dashboard and participating in short, in-class activities. The final assignment of the course asks each student to select an article in Wikipedia to improve, emphasising the difference between writing for an encyclopedia and writing an academic argument. We focus specifically on the role of argument in the creation of an encyclopedia article (particularly as it manifests in talk pages).