About the Course
Graduate scholarly writing — from critical reader to participant.
Engaging the Scholarly Conversation (ESC) is an intensive seminar that prepares students to read, interpret, and contribute to scholarly conversations in psychology. Building on Graff and Birkenstein’s ‘They Say / I Say’ framework, the course moves in two arcs: the first week concentrates on the ‘they say’ — learning to read empirical and review articles closely and to summarize sources accurately and fairly; the second and third weeks shift to the ‘I say’ — using what we read to formulate and defend an argument in the form of a literature review.
Across three weeks, students work with primary research articles and narrative and integrative reviews, with sustained guidance on academic writing.
Main Assignment
From “they say” to “I say.”
An Argument-Driven Literature Review
Students write a literature review that formulates and defends their own argument — the “I say.”
Where & When
A three-week intensive for graduate students.
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Harvard Summer School
PSYC 300/300S (three-week graduate session)
Summer 2024 · March 2025 · Summer 2026 (June 22–July 10).
What Students Say
From end-of-term evaluations.
“The structure of the course is excellent. The articles he chose were very helpful. He organised a meeting with a librarian and strongly recommended we use the writing centre. He made himself available in the last few days for short one-on-one sessions. I cannot emphasise enough how useful Dr Piccolo was.”
Engaging the Scholarly Conversation · Harvard Summer School
“Mayron made complex issues accessible. He always made sure we had enough time to successfully complete our work and was passionately engaged, which made learning so much easier.”
Engaging the Scholarly Conversation · Harvard Summer School
“He was the most relatable and educational instructor I’ve had!”
Engaging the Scholarly Conversation · Harvard Summer School