Northern
Arizona University University Honors Program
Honors 190 Fall 2003
Section 2
Class
Number 7095
Instructor: Bruce Fox, Ph.D. Director, Honors
Program. Professor of Forest Management
Office
Hours: Monday-Friday
10:00-11:00am and by appointment.
Class
Meeting Time: MWF 9:10-10:00am. Room 106 Cowden
Hall
Phone/Office/e-mail: 523.6636/Room
107 Cowden Hall/ Bruce.Fox@nau.edu
Course
Prerequisites:
Admission to the Honors Program. See also number 1
below, under “Course Requirements.”
Course
Description:
Honors 190 is a reading- and writing-intensive course
designed to introduce you to a liberal studies education. An important part of
this course is your acquisition of specific skills: close (i.e.
critical) reading, effective analytical writing, cogent speaking (effective
oral communication), attentive and active listening, and critical thinking. The
readings for this class, as well as the tasks required of you, have been
carefully chosen and arranged to make possible your attainment and enhancement
of these skills, within a learning environment that encourages your
understanding and appreciation of the key issues at the heart of a liberal
studies education. Your Honors 190 instructors come from a variety of academic
disciplines and professions. Your instructors will help you to define and
explore these key issues in a manner that reflects their unique training,
specialties, and perspectives.
Course
Orientation and Goals:
In this
course your readings, writings, and class discussions will address, both
broadly as well as specifically, the theme of the human condition, and the
ideas and issues arising from this theme: e.g., the nature and function
of being human; societies, communities, and communication; morals, ethics, and
ethnicities; power; gender; or identity, to name a few. Through your readings
and discussions this semester, you will work to clarify these issues, refine
your thoughts and attitudes about them, and consider these issues within the
context of the university and higher education.
By the end
of this course, you will:
§
Demonstrate refined capabilities in essential lifelong
skills, including close (i.e. critical) reading, effective analytical
writing, cogent speaking (effective oral communication), attentive listening,
and critical thinking.
§
Recognize the complexities of the human condition from a
variety of perspectives, including: literary, historical, cultural, moral, and
social.
§
Understand the roles and responsibilities you have as a
member of the honors and/or university community and as a citizen of the 21st
century.
The following represents minimum requirements common to each
section of Honors 190. All sections have
the same writing requirements. The reading requirements amount to approximately
70% of readings common in genre across all sections (although not the same
exact texts), with the remaining 30% unique to each individual instructor. Note also that each individual
instructor will provide guidelines for informal writing, formal writing,
portfolios, bibliographies, and class participation, and I will provide these
to you.
1. HON 190
and HON191 may be taken in any order. (a) If you are enrolled in HON190 as your
first freshman Honors course, you must take the English Composition Exam to
pass this course. If you do not pass
the English Composition Placement Exam, you must take ENG 205 co-registered
with HON191. (b) If you are enrolled in HON 191 as your first freshman Honors
course, you must take the English Composition exam to pass this course. If you
do not pass the English Composition Placement Exam, you must take ENG 205
co-registered with HON 191.
2. To
emphasize, all sections of HON 190 will read a selection of texts, taken from
the groups listed under “Course Texts” (see below). In addition to these
readings, I have selected two other texts to help achieve specific learning
goals.
3. You will
write a 3-page paper during the first two weeks of classes on the University-wide
Freshmen Summer Reading Letters from Yellowstone.
4. You will
write 3 formal, analytical essays (the first 3-7pages, the second and third 5-7
pages each) that explore topics and issues related to your readings and
discussions. You will also revise each of these papers through a peer-review
process.
5. You will
complete a minimum of 13 pieces of informal writing, each 1 ½ - 3 pages long.
6. You will
complete an annotated bibliography on a topic, book, or issue related to your
class readings or discussions, and containing a minimum of 5 secondary sources.
7. You will
submit a collection of informal writing at the end of the semester that
consists of 10 of your best revised informal writing assignments, and a
1-2 page “self statement.”
8. You are
expected to participate thoughtfully and intelligently in all class
discussions.
9. You will
submit 2 written assignments to the Freshmen Honors Program Assessment website.
The first assignment will be your 3-page paper on the Required Summer Reading
(see #3 above), and the second assignment will be your best formal essay. Your
instructors will clarify this procedure for you.
Assessment
and Grading:
The goals
and objectives listed above will be assessed and/or graded in the following
manner:
1. 15% of
total grade: 1 3-7 page formal essay on 1 text/reading.
2. 20% of
total grade: 1 5-7 page formal essay on 2 texts/readings.
3. 20% of
total grade: 1 5-7 page formal essay on 2 or more texts/readings.
4. 15% of
total grade: 1 5-item (minimum) annotated bibliography on a topic related to class
readings/discussion.
5. 15% of
total grade: participation. This portion of your grade will include some or all
of the following: class attendance; active and informed class discussions;
active and informed participation in study groups; write-ups of your study
group meetings; on-time submission of formal and informal writing assignments;
diligent attention to peer reviews of essays; an awareness of and respect for
differing opinions; one10-minute book report; submission of writing assignments
to the Honors assessment website; attendance at the sophomore/junior/senior
Honors Symposium in November, and other options as assigned by your instructor.
Individual instructors will specify the requirements for this aspect of your
grade.
6. 15% of
total grade: a collection of informal writing consisting of a minimum of 10
pieces of informal writing, revised; 1 copy of your best formal essay; and a
1-2 page “Self Statement.”
TOTAL:
100%
Attendance. Seminars such as this are joint enterprises
and it is crucial that we come to speak, to listen, to contribute, and to learn
together. Much of the learning in this
class will take place during the scheduled class times as a result of our discussions
and various presentations. Students who
learn the most do so, among other reasons, because they participate and involve
themselves consistently and earnestly in class discussions with their
instructor, guests, and with other students.
These experiences are irreplaceable and impossible to replicate. Thus, class attendance is of the utmost
importance and students who miss class will be penalized. Therefore, to encourage attendance
a student with 4 or more unexcused absences, will
have his or her grade
lowered by one letter grade.
Academic dishonesty in all forms
violates the basic principles of integrity and thus impedes learning. More
specifically, academic dishonesty is a form of misconduct subject to
disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct and includes the following:
cheating, fabrication, fraud, facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism.
Academic dishonesty, as defined in the Student Handbook, will not be
tolerated in this class, and will be handled in the manner prescribed by this
handbook. Read more about University
policies at: ww4.nau.edu/stulife/StudentHandbook/TableofContents.htm
Course
Texts:
·
Summer Reading:
o
Diane Smith, Letters from Yellowstone*
·
Education Readings:
o
Mortimer Adler, "What Is A Liberal Education?" http://www.ditext.com/adler/wle.html
o
Cronon, “Only Connect…” http://www.csun.edu/~hfmgt001/education1.htm
o
Cousins, “How to Make People Smaller Than They Are” http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/students/ssw/Chap2-2.html
o
Bird, “College is a Waste of Time”
o
Postman, “Learning by Story”*
o
Malcolm X, selection from Autobiography of Malcolm X
o
Hirsch, “Cultural Literacy”* http://astro.temple.edu/~sparkss/hirschculture.htm
o
McCarthy, The Groves of Academe (selection)*
·
Greek Classics:
o
Sophocles, Antigone*
o
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
o
Euripides, Medea*
o
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
o
Aeschylus, Prometheus* http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/prometheus.html
o
Aristophanes, Peace* http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/peace.html
o
Aristophanes, The Frogs
o
Aristophanes, The Clouds
o
Plato, (selection)
·
18th Century Satire:
o
Voltaire, Candide*
o
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
·
Romanticism and the Gothic:
o
Shelley, Frankenstein*
o
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray*
·
Political Writing:
o
Thoreau, Civil Disobedience http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Thoreau/CivilDisobedience.html
o
Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” http://www.wmich.edu/politics/mlk/jail.html
·
Existentialism
o
Camus, The Stranger*
·
Environmental Ethics:
o
Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (selection)*
o
Nabhan, Cultures of Habitat (selection)
o
Thoreau, Walden (selection)
·
Writing Instruction
o
Maimon and Peritz, A Writer’s Resource*
·
Memoirs
o
Houston & Houston, Farewell to Manzanar*
o
Robinson, A Single Square Picture*
NOTE
1: texts with the * will be used in
this section of HON 190
NOTE 2:
some of the materials listed above will be available through Electronic
Reserve or through various websites.
TENTATIVE
Course Schedule:
Week 1: Required Summer Informal Writing #1
8/25 Reading for Freshmen;
Letters from Yellowstone
Selection from readings
on ethics and education
Week 2: Greek
Classics Informal Writing #2
9/1 Antigone
Week 3: Medea Informal
Writing #3;
9/8 Working
Draft of
Formal Paper #1;
Peer
Review
Week 4: 18th Century Satire Informal Writing #4;
9/15 Candide Final
Draft of Formal
Paper
#1
Week 5: Candide Informal
Writing #5
9/22
Week 6: Romanticism and the Informal Writing #6
9/29 Gothic
Prometheus Bound
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
10/6
Week 8: The
Picture of Dorian Gray Informal Writing #8;
10/13 Working
Draft of
Formal Paper #2;
Peer
Review
Week 9: The
Picture of Dorian Gray Informal Writing #9;
10/20 Final
Draft of Formal
Paper #2
Week 10: Memoirs Informal
Writing #10
10/27 Farewell
to Manzanar
Week 11: A
Single Square Picture Informal Writing #11
11/3
Week 13: Existentialism
Working
Draft of Formal
11/17 The
Stranger Paper #3;
Peer
Review Review
Week 14: Environmental
Ethics Informal #13
Final
Draft of Formal Paper
11/24 Sand
County Almanac #3
with Bibliography
due
Week 15: Educational
Readings Informal
#14
12/1 Postman, Hirsch
HON 190
TENTATIVE Formal and Informal Writing Assignments
Informal #1 journey
through writing
Informal #2 Letters
from Yellowstone
Informal #3 Ethics
Formal #1 your
favorite work of fiction or non-fiction…and why (3-5pp)
Informal #4 TBA
Informal #5 Medea
and Antigone: the nature of hubris
Informal #6 Candide
Informal #7 Frankenstein
Informal #8 Frankenstein
texts & contexts (presentation)
Formal #2 A comparison of texts, e.g.,
Frankenstein & Prometheus Bound, or Frankenstein & Antigone,
or Candide & Peace (5-7 pages)
Informal #9 Picture
of Dorian Gray
Informal #10 TBA
Informal #11 Manzanar/Single
Square Picture
Bibliography Annotations
for final paper
Formal #3 TBA
Informal #12 Stranger
Informal #13 Environmental
ethics/a special place
Informal #14 Educational
readings