Course Breakdown



You pick your research topic for the semester and then focus class readings, discussions and activities to help you write better papers.
Sept.8: Introductory lecture. Diagnostic. Course requirements. Acting and discussion of first part of No Exit. Appointments of expert consultants. Consultants get "stars" when they help out with work, assignments, lectures etc. without being asked. Even if they are not graded, all assignments are recorded, including myfolio entries, so make sure you are working every week. Questions, problems and comments should be aired BEFORE, not AFTER class so that something concrete can be done about them. Choose a topic that you want to research for the entire semester.
: Discussion and in-class writing on Sartre's No Exit. Introduction to web site, research and heaven or hell theme. Interactive writing in the Forum. Brainstorming on research topics.
Sept.15: 2 page paper on Sartre with at least one secondary source due. Discussion of research methodologies in different disciplines from the nonempirical model of theoretical physics, to the empiricism of medicine, to the textual analysis of literature; interview techniques, examples of original research. Online research strategies in the computer lab: alta vista, yahoo, excite, infoseek, etc. Bring online text book. Read Dante's Inferno. Remember to submit a copy of your myfolio entry every week, i.e. creative writing, tapes, pictures etc. on your topic.
Sept. 22: 2 page paper on Dante with at least two secondary sources due. Make sure you are using MLA documentation. In-class writing on Dante and the description of your hell. How do they differ? Read Blake's poems out loud as well as some selections from the Bible and Camus. More focused online research in the computer lab on your research project. Write a 3 page paper on your research project. Start reading Plato's Republic.
Sept. 29: Meet on the second floor, Avery Fisher Center in either the East or West room of the Bobst Library at 6:00 p.m. for a research strategies workshop with the librarian. Bring specific questions about your research. After the workshop we will have a library aerobics/browsing session combined with individual conferences. Study Plato's Republic and review other writings on the web site. Compile the bibliography for your final research paper.
Oct.6: 3 page bibliography due including books, articles, audio-video, online material and interviews. Plato symposium: Each of the three groups dramatizes a dialogue section, following by improvisation and commentary. In-class writing on your utopia. Study With Good Reason and bring in examples of inductive and deductive logic, 3 syllogisms, and 3 logical fallacies as they relate to your topic.
Oct.13: Discussion of logic and argumentation. Trends in nonlinear and "fuzzy" thinking and how these forms differ from traditional Aristotelian logic.
: Oct. 20: 3 hour midterm exam in the computer lab on class readings of Dante, Plato, Sartre, Nietzsche, the Bible, Blake and Camus, documentation, logic and argumentation, and your personal research strategies and interpretations of heaven and hell. Bring a tape recorder and tape to the next class!
Oct. 27: Oral presentations of research project followed by debate and rebuttal. You must have a tape recorder and tape.
Nov. 3: Oral presentations cont'd.
Nov. 10: Discussion of html, web design. Bring samples and drafts of webfolios.
Nov. 18: WEBFOLIOS DUE. Presentations on a big screen in computer lab.
Nov. 24: Discussion of different writing styles and rhetoric: converting html and oral presentations to a 15 page academic research paper with a 3 page bibliography. Bring rough drafts.
: Dec.1: Meet at the Violet Cafe for cross-editing of research papers.
: Dec. 8: Bring selections from your myfolios. Final research papers due. 15 pages double-spaced (a synthesis of all writing on your topic: descriptive, critical, creative, argumentative etc.) with a 3 page bibliography. Cross-editing.
August 5: Final draft of final research paper due. Make sure you have revised sufficiently and that you now have 15 well-written pages. Bring entire MYFOLIO. CLass evaluations. Career counselling.
Return to syllabus.