Section: 981 Call#: 98321 Credits: 4 / AGS 4992: Capstone Essay (or Project)
Section: 981 Call#: 92066 Credits: 4
Time & Place: Monday, 6:00-9:40 p.m., 122 Cohn, WSU Campus
Instructor’s Work Address: Moti Nissani, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Rm. 2134, 2nd floor, 5700 Cass, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 /Instructor’s Home Address: 28645 Briar Hill, Farmington Hills, MI 48336
E-Mail:
Tel.: 248.427.1957 (h) (12-10 p.m. every day) /
Instructor’s Internet Homepage:
Class Internet Address: :
Office hours: By appointment
Grading: 25% of your grade will be based on effort, quality of first complete draft of your essay/project, attendance in class and in one-on-one sessions, and effort. The other 75% will be based on the grade you will receive for the essay/project you will receive from members of your committee (25% for each member for Senior Essay, 37.5% for Capstone).
Things to Avoid:
Experience suggests that virtually everyone who has gone so far in his/her academic studies can finish this class. There are however, a few obstacles that must be carefully avoided:
Procrastination: You need to start working on this class right away and keep going, week after week, even if your final draft is only due months and months from now. Writing a senior essay is not the kind of thing that can be done in the last possible moment. Instead, you must steadily make progress. For example, by the first week, we must have come close to finalizing your topic. By the second week, a rough outline is due, and so on. Moreover, by May 2002 I may be out of the country, and may stay there for almost a year, so an I grade, especially for Senior Essay people, is not really an option. Another way of putting this: for the duration of this class, you and I are penpals who need to see each other, or write to each other, at least once every two weeks. If you vanish for three months, your degree will vanish too.
Plagiarism. The whole idea of the Senior/Capstone Essay is giving you a chance to assert yourself, to speak with your own voice, to present your own views, to bring your pertinent life experiences to bear on the topic you chose, to make mistakes and learn from them. Obviously, you will obtain a great deal of information and opinions from others, but these will only be minor bricks in the building that you will create. That means that you can’t simply take someone else’s words or ideas and call them your own. When the words are someone else’s, you put them in quotes and give the source (see Documenting Scholarly Essays elsewhere in this packet). When the ideas are someone else’s, you give that person credit. Failure to do so may lead to failure in this class.
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Week 1 /"White Veil," 1909, by Willard Metcalf, Detroit Institute of Arts.
Technical: Introduction to course, syllabus, schedule, requirements; personal information sheets, procrastination, plagiarism. Dividing class into temporary support pairs.
A note about computers: If you don’t have a computer already, seriously think about getting a laptop (or a desktop) for about $800 or so. It will pay for itself in a few months—in time saved, in higher grades, in spelling checks, in library trips, in consumer information . . . Likewise, I can’t overemphasize the usefulness of e-mail. I check my e-mail daily, so we can speed up the entire process immensely by having an e-mail account. Without e-mails, weeks pass by between writing a chapter and getting my input; with computers, the entire process can be condensed into days. Likewise, you’ll need to access information from WSU library, and with a computer, you can do it from home. I could go on, but really, the point is simple: a student, nowadays, must have a computer. Some university wisely give students laptops; since Wayne doesn’t, you will do yourself a great service by getting one yourself.
Instructional Philosophy (or, Consumer Information): I passionately want you to come out with something valuable, at the end of this class. I want you to look back on it, five years down the road, and to say to yourself, “Yes, I really learned something in that class.” Now, to achieve this goal you have to work hard; I’m not a miracle worker, and can only give you your money’s worth by requiring that you come to every class or appointment, that you submit your work on time, that you endlessly write and rewrite, and that you give this class everything you have got. Moreover, learning often involves open-mindedly considering (but not accepting) viewpoints other than your own, on any subject under the sun. If you are willing to work hard and question everything, you’ll enjoy yourself in this class and learn a lot. If not—well, this class will be offered again next term, I think, and you can drop it within the next two weeks without paying any penalty.
Discussion of this poem:
He ate and drank the precious words,His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his fame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book! What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!
--Emily Dickinson /
What’s Dickinson’s point? Is she right? Have you ever had a similar experience? Are you here because you are in search of precisely such experiences? (in that case, you are in the right place)
Assignment for Next Week:
- Send me an e-mail as soon as possible, with the title of your topic. We’ll continue the dialog we started in class until we reach an agreement on 1-2 topics.
- As soon as this is done, develop a tentative outline for your senior essay. If there is time, send this to me via e-mail. If there is no time, print it and bring it to class.
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Week 2
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Location: Undergraduate Library, Lab *
Rainelle Burton here to observe
First Topic: A Conversation with an ISP Graduate: OR, How do you Write a Senior Essay—a Student’s Perspective
Anyone I know, myself included, can nowadays learn something about accessing information. I you don’t have a Wayne State account (it’s free, it, and only it, can give you access to some vital information, and it is much more reliable than, say, AOL), stop by computer help desk on the first floor, present your ONECARD and registration card to them, and get the WSU diskette from them.
Then go up to Lab *. Along with your partner, and with my help, we shall then, step by step, gather some of the information you will need to write you paper.
Note: Make sure to bring 2-3 blank, IBM-formatted, computer diskettes to this class. You will then be able to download some of the information you’ll need for this class. As well, bring along a few single dollars, so you can use the photocopy machines to copy articles.
If we are done in time, you can check the books you will need for your project and photocopy some articles.
We shall there find out the relevant references and some of the information for your capstone or senior essay.
Our road will consist of the following landmarks:
IM@GINE
DPL Library Catalog
Your Local Library Catalog
Surfing the Web (we’ll start with .edu and .gov, and them move on to .org—we’ll not visit any .com URL)
FIRST SEARCH
OTHER DATABASES—depending on topic. As we go along, you can print or save to disk the references, but will only save to disk full-text articles.
We shall also briefly visit the following extremely useful general references:
Merriam-Webster Dictioanry
Oxford Dictionary
CIA Fact Book
Statistical Abstracts of the United States
Week 3—Week 10: Individual Appointments
Rainelle Burton here as guest speaker.
Group A: Sign up, in pairs, for Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9
Group B: Sign up, in pairs, for Weeks 4, 6, 8, 10
Note: If you make excellent progress, and if you stay in touch with me via e-mail, two of your appointments can be waive. To obtain a waiver, send me an e-mail (but not on the day you are scheduled to see me and your partner). If you don’t receive a confirmation, come to the interview as scheduled.
Note: By this week, if you are a capstone student (or if you plan to complete your Senior Essay this semester), you need to get in touch with two examiners (usually, but not always, ISP professors) and secure their agreement to serve as your examiners. You then need to schedule the oral examination, by finding a time slot that can be attended by your partner, class instructor, and the two examiners. Then call She’re Davis and reserve a conference room as well.
The following list of ISP people should facilitate this task:
Name
/ phone #(313-577-XXXX) / E-Mail / Comments
For a more detailed description of faculty interests, see:**
Henry, Stuart / 6566 / / Faculty, Sociology, criminology
Finley, Howard / 0833 /
Hulbert, Linda / 6567 / / Faculty and Administrator, English, writing, literature, history of ISP
Johnson-Gardner, Antonetta / 0402 /
Brockway, Darrell / 4698 / / Advisor
Caffee, Pynthia / 0951 / / Advisor
DeMeyer, Roberta / 0834 / / Advisor
Flowers, Ruthie / 0835 / / Advisor
Hazell, Lois / 6580 / / Advisor
Koscielski, Frank / 6384 / / Faculty and Advisor, History, music
White, Derrick / 3114 /
Glaberman, Martin / 6584 / Retired Faculty, Labor history and issues
Goldman, Norma / 6582 / / Retired Faculty, Greek and Roman Cultures and Histories
House-Manna, G. / 6571 / Retired Faculty, English, politics, Minority issues
Kotila, Ted / 6583 / / Retired Faculty, History
Maier, Clifford / 6583 / / Retired Faculty, History, Science
Aronson, Ron / 0828 / / Faculty, Literature, Politics, Activism
Bockstael, Eric / 6590 / / Faculty, literature, globalization
Bowen, David / 1498 / / Faculty, Science, Computers, Internet
Chapleski, Elizabeth / 6585 / / Faculty, gerontology
Field, Mary Lee / 6585 /
/ Faculty, English (but may be overseas at the moment)
Friedlander, Peter / 6577 / / Faculty, sociology, Detroit, Coleman Young
Furtado, Andre / 5886 / / Faculty, computers, math, science, India, China
Klein, Julie / 6574 / / Faculty, interdisciplinarity, English
Lynch, William / 4614 / / Faculty (on leave, Winter 2001), Science, English, Urban issues
Maruca, Lisa / 6575 / / Faculty, English, Women’s issues
Michels, James / 6579 / / Faculty, literature, environment, English, media, politics
Moeller, Thomas / 6589 / / Faculty, Computers, math, media, economics, instructional technology
Moore, Percy / 0577 / / Faculty, music, DuBois, Education, Non-Profit organizations
Nissani, Moti / 6576 / / Faculty
Ntiri, Daphne / 7683 / / Faculty, Education, illiteracy, the Africans
Raspa, Richard / 6578 / / Faculty, organizations, literature, folklore
Richmond, Marsha / 6499 / / Faculty (on leave, Fall 2000), history of science, women issues, health
Schindler, Roslyn / 7762 / / Faculty, languages, Nazi holocaust
Shor, Francis / 6572 / / Faculty, intellectual history, political activism
Wacker, Fred / 6587 / / Faculty (on leave, *), law and society, minority issues
Asber, Sadie / 4687 / / Grade Administrator
Bailey, Diana / 2886 /
Hartsfield-Davis, She’re / 4612 / / Room Scheduling Contact
Jones, LaJoyce / 4613 / / Room Scheduling Contact
Patton, Terri / 4628 / / ISP Director’s Secretary
Weeks, Rose / 6586 /
Williams, Latisha / 0836 /
Week 11:
Meeting of Group A as whole. Plan to present a ten-minute progress report to the class. This will be followed by a Mock Oral Examination. Your instructor, and the class as a whole, will serve as examiners. Goal of this Exercise: Get you used to talking about your essay in public, and to being questioned about it.
Week 12:
Meeting of Group B as whole. Plan to present a ten-minute progress report to the class. This will be followed by a Mock Oral Examination. Your instructor, and the class as a whole, will serve as examiners. Goal of this Exercise: Get you used to talking about your essay in public, and to being questioned about it.
Note: Final draft of capstone essay is due (either as e-mail attachment to me and to two other members of your committee, or as four hard copies to me). Ambitious Senior Essay students wishing to finish their project and take the oral examination this semester, need to submit their