The
evaluation for the course will be based on these items, out of a semester total
of 400 points:
Work due on a given day is due at the start of class, unless otherwise
noted. Missing a tutorial costs one full grade. Late (even barely late)
work loses the point equivalent of one full grade (=10%), and a further grade
for each additional twenty-four hours of lateness. Keep in mind this cost when
deliberating about taking more time in which to complete an assignment.
Tutorials
The tutorial papers, 5-8 pages each, will be run
as paired tutorials. You will be scheduled in pairs to come to my office and
read your paper to me and to the other student. We will talk about your paper,
interrupting you more than once. Then the other student will read her or his
paper in the same way. So that we may follow along as you read, hand in three
copies of your paper (including the original). Realize that it is your paper
which will be graded, not your reading of it or your
answering any questions which I or the other student may bring up. The purpose
of having you read the paper to me is that I can give you comments directly and
suggest ways to improve your future work. This is much easier for me to do and
much more helpful to you than having you read my comments in dried ink on a
dead piece of paper. Because I will have to schedule many tutorial sessions, I
am canceling class for the days during which the tutorials will be held.
You will have the opportunity to submit a substantive re-write (that is,
not only correcting mechanical errors—see next paragraph) of your first paper,
and the grade recorded will be the average of the grade on the first submission
and on the second submission.
Writing
Since writing is central to the course, both in
reading others' and in creating your own, respect for writing will manifest
itself even at the level of writing mechanics. You will be expected to take
stylistic and mechanical concerns most seriously in your three papers. As a
motivational aid to this end, you will be allowed two grammatical, spelling, or
punctuation mistakes per page (partial pages counting as full), after which you
will lose one point for each mistake. For example, if you have a 44-point paper
of five pages, and you have made thirteen mechanical errors, then you will
receive a 41 for the paper. N.B.: the same mistake (not just similar)
repeated will count as one mistake. You will be allowed to submit a revised version
with the mechanical errors corrected, and in these cases you will be assigned
the average of your original and revised grade.
You might consider spending a bit of time at my writing site.
Few would fail to benefit.
Literature reviews
You will write a 3‑4
page review of each of three journal articles (not something that is a chapter
of a book) of your choice as follows:
·
an
article about one or more Presocratic philosopher (from Thales through the
Sophists) or on Socrates or on Plato;
·
an
article about Aristotle;
·
an article about one
or more thinker from the Hellenistic or Roman periods.
All articles must be in peer-reviewed publications. If you have any question about this with regard to a given candidate, ask. A good database for this assignment is “Philosopher’s Index.”
You are (i) to provide a complete
bibliographic citation to the article above the start of the body of your
paper and, as an additional attachment, an electronic copy of the paper (or a
printed copy submitted in class), (ii) to describe in your own words the
problem or issue which the author is addressing (in other words, why have
written the article?), (iii) to summarize the author's treatment of this
topic, and (iv) to point out what you take to be the strengths and/or
weaknesses with the author's treatment.
Remember that scholarly articles are not written for undergraduates, and you
will be able to write more coherently about something you understand than about
something you don’t really get. If you
can’t follow the subtleties of an article’s argument, or you can follow it but
it doesn’t interest you, then you have not chosen wisely. The most common reason for such unwise
choices is not having started early enough.
Desperation is not a strategy for flourishing, so leave yourself time to
be able to go back and look for another article or two.
Stoic Week journal
For the week after our first class on Seneca, you are to keep a daily,
reflective journal as if you were a Stoic, though alive today. You will try
living as a Stoic, and keep a journal of your reflections of where Stoicism
seemed easy to adopt, where the challenges were, what this tells us about
Stoicism, or what this tells you about you.
(If you already consider yourself a Stoic, then the only added work of
this assignment is the writing.) Bear in
mind that keeping a reflective journal is not the same as a keeping a mere
diary.
Personal
electronics
This seminar requires a
free-flowing exchange of ideas, between you and the authors, as well as among
us. Laptops create a literal vertical barrier among us, and even the use of
flat-laying devices (like tablets, e-readers, or phones) create distracting
barriers to giving one’s full attention to our class. Therefore, the use of
electronics is not allowed in class, except by those with documented needs of
which I’ve been notified by the Office of Academic Services.
Cell phones should be stowed away, and not simply on the table, even if turned
completely off. “Why,” you ask? Well, recent studies indicate the distracting
effect of even a cell phone not
one’s own, laying on a nearby table. In fact, of even a
drawing or a thought of a cell phone.
So I hereby prohibit you during class even to think of a cell phone.
As for note-taking, consult this
study, which found superior recall in students who took notes by hand
compared to those who took them by typing, and this
recent article sums up some of the research findings.
Those unable to abide by these
rules need to find themselves another class.
Students with documented disabilities
“Students are admitted to St. Mary’s College based on their potential for
academic success, irrespective of physical or learning disabilities.
Administrative staff and faculty work cooperatively to assist students
with disabilities in their educational endeavors and adjustments to the College
community. The Office of Academic Services works to ensure that
educational programs are accessible to all qualified students. Student
with physical or learning disabilities should contact the Office of Academic
Services for specific information and assistance regarding potential special
needs.” --SMCM catalog
If you have a disability documented with the Office of Academic Services, you must schedule a meeting with me to discuss how to address any potential modifications mentioned by the Office of Academic Services. Please note that this meeting must take place during the first two weeks of classes. The purpose of this meeting is not to justify or explain the reasons for any potential modifications (that’s the business of the Office of Academic Services), but to discuss what reasonable modifications for this course will be and to work out the logistics of these. For example, if Academic Services indicates that you qualify to have a certain amount of additional time on tests, we will discuss whether you will get this time, and if so, then where and when you will get it.
Academic integrity
Academic integrity: The College’s definitions and policies
on this matter are laid out here. Ignorance of such matters is no excuse.
Good samples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrases can
be found at a page put up by Indiana University: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
Cornell has a quiz you can take to see how well you
understand what sorts of material needs to be sourced: http://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/exercises.cfm
(Click on “Introduction” on the left-hand side if you want to see their
discussion leading up to the quiz.)
Grading standards
Adapted from Maxine Rodbury,
“A Grading Rubric,” Harvard Writing
Project Bulletin, p. 11: https://www.usfca.edu/uploadedFiles/Destinations/Office_and_Services/Academic_Support/Learning_and_Writing_Center/HWP.responding.pdf [accessed 30
March 2015]
a grade of A
Excellent in every way (this is not the same as
perfect). This is an ambitious, perceptive essay that grapples with
interesting, complex ideas; responds discerningly to counter-arguments, and
explores well-chosen evidence revealingly. The discussion enhances, rather than
underscores, the reader’s and writer’s knowledge (it doesn’t simply repeat what
has been taught). There is a context for all the ideas; someone outside the
class would be enriched, not confused, by reading the essay. Its beginning
opens up, rather than flatly announces, its thesis. Its end is something more
than a summary. The language is clean, precise, often
elegant. The reader feels surprised, delighted, changed. There’s something new
here for the reader, something only the essay’s writer could have written and
explored in this particular way. The writer’s stake in the material is obvious.
a grade of B
A piece of writing that reaches high and achieves many
of its aims. The ideas are solid and progressively explored, but some thin
patches require more analysis or some stray thoughts don’t fit in. The language
is generally clear and precise but occasionally not. The evidence is relevant,
but there may be too little; the context for the evidence may not be
sufficiently explored, so that the reader has to make some of the connections
that the writer should have made clear for the reader.
OR: A piece of
writing that reaches less high than an A essay but thoroughly achieves its
aims. This is a solid essay the reasoning and argument of which may nonetheless
be
rather routine. (In this case the limitation is conceptual.)
a grade of C
A piece of writing that has real problems in one of
these areas: conception (there’s at least one main idea but it’s fuzzy and hard
to get to); structure (confusing); use of evidence (weak or non-existent—the
connections among the ideas and the evidence are not made or are presented
without context, or add up to platitudes or generalizations): language (the
sentences are often awkward, dependent on unexplained abstractions, sometimes
contradict each other). The essay may
not move forward but rather may repeat its main points, or it may touch upon
many (and apparently unrelated) ideas without exploring any of them in
sufficient depth. Punctuation, spelling,
grammar, paragraphing, and transitions may be a problem.
OR: An essay that is largely plot summary or
“interpretive summary” of the text, but is written without major problems.
OR: An essay that is chiefly a personal reaction to
something. Well-written, but scant intellectual content—mostly unsupported
opinion.
lower grades
These are efforts that are wildly shorter than they
ought to be to grapple seriously with ideas.
OR: Those that are extremely problematic in many of
the areas mentioned above: aims, structure, use of evidence, language, etc.
OR: Those that do not come close to addressing the
expectations of the assignment.
Send me mail: mstaber at smcm dot edu
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Go to Michael Taber's home page.
Go to the SMCM home page.