Honors 172: The Human Event
Spring 2004 T/TH
Instructor: Dr. Karen Bruhn Office Phone: 727-6721
Office: 211 Irish A Honors College Phone: 965-2359 email:
Office Hours:
Monday 12-1, Tuesday 2-3
And By Appointment
NOTE: Successful completion of this course requires a thorough knowledge of this syllabus. Please read it carefully and get in the habit of bringing it to class; you are responsible for the information contained therein..
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Honors 172 is the second-semester portion of a two-semester interdisciplinary seminar entitled “The Human Event,” open only to those students who have been admitted to the University Honors College. This course will center around works that have investigated the nature and purpose of human experience--both individual and communal--from earliest times to the present. These writings are drawn from a variety of disciplines: literature, history, religion, philosophy, political theory, psychology and the sciences. Honors 172 focuses on texts written from approximately 1600 to the present.
This course is designed to encourage participants to think critically and to express these thoughts in an effective and lucid way. Participants are not expected to “memorize” the assignments, although a command of the author and title, principle ideas, and general context of each work must proceed effective analysis of the works. The class is conducted as a seminar; the instructor will not deliver extended lectures. Participants must come to class prepared to discuss that day’s assigned reading. Always bring assigned readings to class. Active participation is required. The objectives of the course can be categorized as follows:
- To broaden the student’s historical and cultural awareness and understanding
- To improve the student’s skill in analyzing written material.
- To improve the student’s skill in expressing ideas, both orally and in writing.
- To encourage the student to think critically and seriously about the nature of human existence and to formulate his or her own views and insights regarding ethics, philosophy, religion, history, literature, etc.
- To instill intellectual breadth and academic discipline in preparation for more advanced honors courses.
GRADING
Grades will be assigned based on the following criteria:
Three out-of-class essays: 60% (20% each)
Class participation 20%
Quizzes on assigned readings 20%
PREPARING FOR CLASS
Quizzes: There is a reading assignment for each class (schedule follows). You must read the assignment before class. Approximately 9-12 quizzes will be given during the course of the semester. Each quiz will be given at the beginning of class and address the reading assignment for that day. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped before the final quiz grade is computed.
Participation: I will provide some historical/cultural background, but the majority of class time is devoted to discussion of the assigned readings. Discussion can include ( but is not limited to) an analysis and/or critique of the author’s position, a comparison of the assigned work to another text, debate as to the meaning or merit of a given work, or an assessment of how historical and/or cultural context may have influenced (or been influenced by) a particular text.
Class participation is evaluated on quality rather than quantity. Comments need not mirror the position of the author (or the instructor, for that matter). You are graded not on the “correctness” of your position, but rather on your grasp of the material and your ability to communicate your ideas. You don’t have to be at the center of every debate, but students who make little or no effort to enter discussions will receive a lower participation grade. Discussion can become lively, heated even. Please respect the rights of others. Do not interrupt; give everyone a chance to express their opinions. While other people’s opinions are fair game, other people are not. When you disagree with someone, be sure to criticize the idea and not the person.
Attendance: It counts. Roll is taken, and more than a week of unexcused will lower your grade considerably. You will fail the course if you miss 2 weeks of class.
Essays: Three out-of-class essays are required (See section following the reading and assignments schedule in for specific requirements concerning length and format, grading criteria, etc.)
Exams: There is no midterm. The third essay is treated as a take-home final exam.
Required Texts
You must acquire the editions listed below
The Classics of Western Thought: The Modern World (Vol III) Edgar E. Knoebel, ed. (CWT)
Candide by Voltaire (Penguin edition)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Dover Thrift)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman (Dover Thrift)
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Bantam)
Marx for Beginners by Rius (Pantheon Books)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Anchor Books)
The Skin of our Teeth by Thornton Wilder (Samuel French)
The Chosen by Chaim Potok (Fawcett)
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (Harcourt Brace)
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut (Delta)
A Course Pack available from Alternative Copy (CP)
Reading and Assignment Schedule
Week 1 January 20, 22
T: Introduction
Th: Bacon and Descartes CWT 10-30
Week 2 January 27, 29
T: Hobbes and Locke CWT 31-42, 59-82
Th: Pascal and Pope CWT 43-58, 83-94
Week 3 February 3, 5
T Candide
Th: Rousseau CWT 131-153
Week 4 February 10, 12
T: Smith CWT 166-178 plus Web Assigmnent TBA
Th: Marx for Beginners
Week 5 February 17, 19
T Marx in CP
Th Darwin Sumner in CP
FIRST PAPER DUE ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20 BY 5:00 P.M.
Week 6 February 24, 26
T: Nietzsche and Doestyevksy CWT 421-459 plus CP
Th: Freud CWT 546-559 and in CP
Week 7 March 2, 4
T: Gilman and Cather
Th: Metmorphosis
Week 8 March 9, 11
T: Conrad
Th: Things Fall Apart
SPRING BREAK
Week 9 March 23, 25
T: Things Fall Apart
Th: Sartre CWT 616-634 and “The Guest” in CP
Week 10 March 30, April 1
T: Holocaust lit and Bruno Bettelheim in CP
Th: The Skin of Our Teeth
SECOND PAPER DUE FRIDAY APRIL 2ND BY 5:00 P.M.
Week 11 April 6, 8
T: The Chosen
Th: The Chosen
Week 12 April 13, 15
T: Alexie, Diaz, Jen in CP
Th: David Morris and Amy Hempel in CP
Week 13 April 20, 22
T: Heisenberg and Snow in CP
Th: Cosmicomics
Week 14 April 27, 29
T: Galapagos
Th: Galapagos
Week 15 May 4
T: Conclusion
FINAL PAPER DUE FRIDAY MAY 7
Essays for Honors 172
Three out-of-class essays are required (the topics for these essays are handed out approximately 2 weeks before the due date). These are to be critical, evaluative essays that develop a clear thesis in response to the issue being investigated. The essay needs to offer a coherent and logically-presented argument, each paragraph adding a relevant contribution or qualification to your thesis (An outline can provide invaluable help in achieving this). This is not a research project; please confine your sources to those assigned in class. While some summary is necessary, the essay will do more than summarize the work. You will be graded on the quality of the writing, the clarity and rationality of your arguments, and the coherence and originality of your essay as a whole. If you have any questions about the nature of the assignment or have trouble getting started, please see me as soon as possible.
Essay Requirements: All essays are to be typed double spaced. Use one-inch margins and 10 or 12 point font. Provide a title page that includes your name, the date, the title of the course, the instructors name, the title of your essay (“Essay #1" is not a title), and the time and day when your section meets. Number all pages except the title page. No table of contents or preface is required or desired. All quotations must be cited; use parenthetical documentation rather than endnotes or footnotes. Make sure quotations are exact and from the assigned texts (I’ll check for accuracy). For quotations longer than three lines, indent and single-space the quotation. Paraphrasing is allowed, desired even, but must also be cited.
Length: Essays should be between 1300 and 1900 words. Essays of fewer than 1250 words will receive a reduced grade as will essays of over 1950 words. If you have trouble keeping within these parameters see me before the due date.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the borrowing of words or ideas of another and presenting them as your own. This includes looking over a neighbor’s shoulder during a quiz, buying a paper over the Web, using your brother’s/sister’s/friend’s paper, turning in a paper that you have composed for another class, or paraphrasing published material without a proper citation. Since these essays are not research papers, it is assumed that other secondary works will not be used. If you wish to use such material, please speak to me first. The university (and your instructor) considers plagiarism a very serious offense. This is an Honors College, and I expect honorable conduct. Any plagiarized assignment will result in a grade of zero with no opportunity to make it up. Furthermore, I reserve the right, in accordance with University policy, to award a grade of XE (failure due to academic dishonesty) to any student who is caught cheating. The violation will also be reported to the Dean of the Honors College for further action. To protect yourself, please keep notes, rough drafts, outlines, etc. until the end of the semester. You may be required to submit them to the instructor on short notice. NOTE: Such a request does not constitute a charge of plagiarism. I also collect them in order to identify certain writng habits and/or techniques.
Important Notes and Considerations
An outline is not required, but can prove enormously helpful. It is particularly useful if you wish to discuss your work-in-progress with the instructor.
Late papers lose 5 points a day (not a class). While computers and word processing have provided us with many shortcuts, they also present problems. Hard drives crash, disks erase, printers fail. I don’t care. You are responsible for backing up your work and allowing adequate time for your work to print. Computer mishaps are not a valid excuse for late papers.
This is a formal essay. Traditional rules of grammar and sentence structure apply, and careful proof reading is essential. Don’t rely on your Spell Check; it can knot awl weighs bee truss Ted. Underline or italicize titles of books, long poems, and plays. Use the active voice whenever possible, i.e. “Gilgamesh states. . .” is better than “It is stated in Gilgamesh. . .” Write concisely. Define your terms and stick to those definitions.
Write from an objective point of view. No doubt the position you take in your essay will be influenced by your religious, political, and philosophical beliefs, but try to neutralize these beliefs for the duration of the paper. Above all, do not parade these beliefs uncritically before the reader as unquestioned truths. Do not try to prove a point simply by citing “the authority.” When thinking critically, a statement is not true simply because the Bible or Charles Darwin says it is. Back up claims with evidence and reasoned argument.
The introduction
The introduction needs to indicate the topic under discussion, the specific issues involved, and your thesis. Every essay your write for this class must have a clear thesis, stated in the introduction, that sets forth your argument. A thesis in an answer to a question. Beware of questions that seem easy to answer--there may be possibilities that you have not explored. You should be able to state your thesis in one or two sentences.
The body
The man portion of your essay defends your thesis. Each paragraph should be organized around a single idea that relates to your argument. Each paragraph needs to have a topic sentence (near the beginning of the paragraph) and everything in the paragraph needs to relate to that topic sentence. When you edit your paper ask yourself after every paragraph, “Is it clear how this paragraph supports my thesis?”
The number and length of paragraphs will vary, but aim for one or two paragraphs a page. If notice a tendency to have more than 2 paragraphs, you probably are not developing (explaining, justifying, citing evidence for) the main idea in each paragraph. Exceptionally long paragraphs may indicate that you have drifted from your topic sentence.
Conclusion
A good conclusion summarizes the evidence supporting the thesis contained in the body of the paper, and can then restate the thesis in a more insightful and/or more forceful way.
Criticism and Grading of Essays
The University Honors College is committed to very high standards of writing and critical inquiry in all honors courses. Standards in HON 172-172 exceed those in non-honors freshman sections. You should, therefore expect a great deal of critical input on your papers when they are returned. This criticism is meant to be constructive; I assume that you possess the academic accomplishment and the emotional maturity to understand the importance of such input, and hope you will consider my serious (and time-consuming) attention to your work a compliment to your academic potential. These criticisms are given in the expectation that they will help you improve your subsequent work.