The First Year Seminar
Founded at Bard College, 1953
FYS 211 / 216 (FYS II)
香蕉影视
Spring Semester 2017
Office:
Hours:
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General Course Description
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The First Year Seminar is a multidisciplinary course that brings students and faculty together in the exploration of specific issues or topics of interest. The exploration is usually centered on a theme: What is the 鈥渟elf鈥? How do we interpret human experience? Is wo/man a 鈥榩olitical animal鈥? The theme for spring semester 2017 is human nature.
FYS is the core of the first-year experience at 香蕉影视. It is designed to encourage students to explore important questions raised by a variety of texts--ranging from novels and poetry to classical texts in philosophical and scientific reasoning.
FYS gives first-year students a valuable opportunity to experience the benefits of college-level learning through seminar-style investigation. We have chosen works that range from ancient drama to modern investigations of race, class, political ideology, and gender.
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A seminar is a question-based class in which the instructor will expect students to participate actively in discussing assigned texts and raising additional questions about their meaning or implications. For that reason, the writings chosen for the seminar are designed to be challenging and thought-provoking. Instructors may pose questions directly to the students or invite students to pose their own questions to the members of the class.
A key element in the FYS is 鈥渋nterrogation鈥: you should learn to read and analyze a text on the basis of asking a range of questions that affect its interpretation or meaning: When was the text written? What does it say about its historical location, its author, ideology, its view of the past or vision of the future.
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The most important skill is to be able to read closely and proactively. This will often mean not simply reading for the sake of knowing what the writer has said, but in a 鈥渄ialogic鈥 way that makes you an attentive listener and respondent to the work at hand. We sometimes say that FYS is 鈥渢ext-based.鈥 This does not mean that we use texts as authorities to settle problems--often quite the reverse. We use to texts to raise questions and as the basis for a thorough investigation of the subjects they embody.
In the spring semester you will also be introduced to the basics of academic research and writing. A topic will be assigned by, or negotiated with, your FYS instructor in the second week of term and you will begin almost immediately to focus on this project through individual reading, selection of library and electronic media, developing a bibliography and reporting the results of your investigation in a well-developed research essay.
The 香蕉影视 is committed to encouraging clear, concise and sophisticated writing skills in all subject areas and majors. FYS is the foundational course in developing a high level of competence in academic writing. The course devotes a substantial portion of class sessions encouraging students to 鈥渢hink on paper,鈥 in exercises designed to stress the relationship between thinking about what you have read and communicating your thoughts in clear expository style. These exercises may range from 鈥渇ree writing鈥 (unstructured periods of random written work) to responsive writing, reflective pieces on assigned topics, and summaries, definitions, and short interpretations.
In the Spring Semester, 2015, you will write:
The due-dates for submission, given on the schedule below, should be regarded as approximate. Instructors are free to adjust dates to suit the pace of individual classes.
6.1 Procedure and Conduct
6.2 Academic Honesty
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础鲍颁础鈥檚 Code of Conduct describes the rights and responsibilities of all students at 香蕉影视. Students in FYS should pay particular attention to the section on plagiarism:
A student must not adopt or reproduce ideas, words, or statements of another person without appropriate acknowledgment. A student must give credit to the originality of others and acknowledge an indebtedness whenever he or she does any of the following:
3.1. Quotes another person's actual words, either oral or written;
3.2. Paraphrases another person's words, either oral or written;
3.3. Uses another person's idea, opinion, or theory; or
3.4. Borrows facts, statistics, or other illustrative material from work of the other student, unless the information is common knowledge.
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If you are found to have plagiarized any portion of an assignment, you will fail that assignment. Multiple instances of plagiarism may result in the student failing the course. FYS instructors are authorized to use plagiarism-detecting technology (TURNITIN) to support their findings when plagiarism is suspected.
6.3 Assessment:
Assessment is based on a cumulative average of the following activities:
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Penalties for late submission: An instructor may deduct a letter grade from any assignment submitted, without explicit permission for extension or without valid documented excuse, up to one week late and another letter grade for each subsequent week late.
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Letter Grades only are to be given, rather than numerical grades:
A |
袙- |
D+ |
袗- |
小+ |
D |
袙+ |
C |
D- |
B |
小- |
F |
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Course Outline
SPRING SEMESTER 2016
HUMAN NATURE
鈥淥n the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.鈥
鈥 George Orwell.
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鈥淢an is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.鈥
鈥 Albert Camus
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听 Week |
听 Reading |
听 Writing Schedule* |
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听 1. January 16 |
听 Introduction to the Seminar (M) Epic Studies Part 1 (W-F) 鈥淭he Birth of Manas鈥 |
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听 2. January 23 |
听 FYS Research Topic to be Discussed Epic Studies, Part II: Gilgamesh You may view in class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTsFe1PVs |
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听 3. January 30 |
听 听 Epic Studies, Part III: Gilgamesh |
Instructors are free to set their own topics. Suggested Argument Essay Topic: In The Euthyphro, Socrates presupposes that there must be a real definition of holiness in terms of that which all instances of holiness have in common. Argue for or against this presupposition and in doing so pay close attention to the arguments in the dialogue. |
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听 4. February 6 |
Plato, The Euthyphro 听 |
听 听 Argument Essay Draft due Friday; revision 听 听 |
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听 听 5. February 13 |
Simone Weil, 鈥淭he Needs of the Soul,鈥 from The Need for Roots |
听 听 Argument Essay Final draft due Friday 听 听 |
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听 6. February 20 |
Ludwig Feuerbach, 鈥淭he Being of Man in General鈥 and 鈥淭he Essence of Religion in General鈥 |
听 Library workshops to reprise basics of research and citation
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听 7. February 27 |
Daniel Dennett, 鈥淓xplaining the Magic of Consciousness鈥 |
Library workshops continued. 听 |
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听 8. March 6 |
Stephen Jay Gould, 鈥淲hat Is a Species?鈥 |
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听 9. March 13 |
听 Sally Haslanger, 鈥淲hat Are We Talking About? The Semantics and Politics of Social Kinds鈥 |
听 Note Spring Break March 20 to March 24 |
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听 10. March 27 |
听 Prospectus Writing and Research Week (Library and WARC Tutors). Classes do not meet. |
听 Research Essay Prospectus (draft) due March 27 |
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听 11. April 3 |
听 Human Nature in Short Fiction Unit Begins: Flannery O鈥 Connor, 鈥淎 Good man is Hard to Find鈥 |
听 听 Final prospectus due; Composition of research essay begins |
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听 12. April 10 |
Vladimir Nabokov, 鈥淪igns and Symbols鈥 |
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听 13. April 17 |
听 Shirley Jackson, The Lottery and W. W. Jacobs, the Monkey鈥檚 Paw鈥 |
听 听 Abstract of research essay due 听 |
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听 14. April 24 |
听 E M Forster, 鈥淢r. Andrews鈥 and Roald Dahl, 鈥淭he Man from the South鈥 |
听 听 听 听 Kurt Vonnegut on 听 |
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听 15. May 3 |
听 Note: Monday May 1 is Labor Day |
听 Research Essay and all related written work must be submitted by Wednesday May 3 |
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听 16. May 8 |
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听 Revision 听 |
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ANNEX:
Learning Outcomes:
The FYS Seminar is designed to facilitate the following outcomes:
5.1 Reading, Interpretation, and Discussion
5.2 Writing and Reporting
To be familiar with the basic grammatical and syntactical conventions of formal English
To be proficient in the basic elements of essay development: viz.,
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To produce essays that show structure, purpose, and significant content
To use standard writing processes, genres and modes to generate a final essay
To develop, proofread, revise, and rewrite your own work on the basis of your own critical review and that of peers and instructors
To reflect on the writing process and your own rhetorical effectiveness as a writer, and to integrate comment, correction, and criticism into the revision of essays.
To develop basic skills in the craft of academic research, scholarly reporting, and citation, using a 鈥渂ody of knowledge鈥 and supporting material inside a written work--paraphrase, quotation and description, using the APA style sheet. [Note: unless otherwise indicated, the preference in FYS211 and FYS 216 is the APA Style sheet]. The specific dates and exercises will be determined by individual FYS instructors.
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