ILC-100 ORIGINS: A UGF Experience (in revision)
Fall Term, 2006
01-09-06 7:36 a.m. MDT
SCHEDULE
Ccontinuously updated program of the course: activities, assignments, topics
DESCRIPTION
Whatever is, has an origin. Or does it? There are , Religious, Theological, Biblical, Philosophical and Scientific stories of origins and their meaning and purpose: Why any stories of origins? What's the point? What, if anything, do the stories tell us about humanity and about being human? Our pursuit of will lead us to discuss what it means to be human, to be human and live in the world, and to be human and live in relation to transcendence. We will discuss what the humanities are, what is sacred about sacred texts; and all the while, we will be developing writing and other communications skills.
PURPOSE
Objectives of the course
We ask these questions: What is Humanity? What are Humanities? What are the stories of humanity and what do they tell - esp. those within the Western and Christian tradition? As we investigate our topics, we want to
· recognize and respond to the complexity of topics:
· develop claims with sufficient specific and relevant detail, often including secondary material, with appropriate citations for formal papers.
· practice a variety of rhetorical patterns, such as illustration, comparison/contrast, causal analysis, and argumentation.
· write engaging introductions and conclusions.
· vary sentence structure and choose words carefully in writing complete sentences relatively free of sentence errors.
· write a minimum of ten papers of varying complexity and length from 500-1250 words.
· revise at least two papers globally (improving development, organization, and coherence) as well as correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
PERFORMANCE
Demonstrate and advance learning, find and verify outcomes in relations to objectives
Several of the objectives of this class relate directly to writing skills. Effective writing on your part will contribute positively to your progress toward all the other goals of this term. Early in the semester the instructors and your classmates will help you recognize your strengths as a writer so you can gain more conscious control over them. You will be able to diagnose your bad habits as a writer and start reducing them.
The audience for most of your writing assignments will be other members of this community. In other words, you need to write with respect for curious, alert, perceptive readers. Revisions in particular need logical organization; clear transitions; detailed support of claims, opinions, and arguments; and conventional spelling; punctuation, grammar, and usage. Sometimes you will also need to quote published writers to back up or refute your claims.
The assignments and your instructors will expect and encourage you to experiment with sentence structure, vocabulary, figures of speech, organization patterns, integrating images, and alternative formatting to communicate your ideas clearly (and sometimes artistically). Most writing assignments will fit one of these types:
* Short, informal postings to the class online discussion board (http://faculty.ugf.edu/ilc100). These personal opinions and reactions to all sorts of topics and class work will address only other members of the community.
* Summaries of published articles (for community members, for curious general readers) We will discuss benefits, uses, techniques, and limitations of efficient third-person point of view and the illusion of objectivity. The finished documents will all be short, no more than 500 words (2 pages).
* Personal reactions to published articles (for community members, for the authors, for a wider community of participants in a controversy) We will develop control over our tone to show attitude through word choice, sentence structure, use of figures of speech, sentence length, sentence type (such as quotations, questions, commands, statements, exclamations), use of punctuation. Most of these finished documents will be short, between one and three pages. At least two of these reactions will develop into parts of extended analyses or argument.
* Careful analysis of published articles and ideas (for community members, for general readers interested in issues, for hostile readers with contrary beliefs) We will practice the skill of examining the parts of an issue, argument, article or decision. These documents will be of moderate length, between one and five pages.
* Scholarly argument defending a claim in light of opposing points of view. Only one or two of the assignments will develop into this kind of document. They will address academic audiences, careful readers who expect full documentation of the source of your supporting ideas and logical support of your claim. These formal papers will be in the range of 10 pages.
FEEDBACK
For assessment of progress and of learning, to see if outcomes are in line with objectives;
all course activities call for feedback marking progress in learning
Whenever you use the words or ideas of another person in something you are writing you must acknowledge your source. Failure to do so is called plagiarism and may result in severe penalties. Any paper containing plagiarized material or containing work you did not do yourself will receive a grade of ZERO. The instructor will keep the original paper and a copy will be sent to the Vice President for Academic Affairs with a letter explaining the nature of the offense. Consult your UGF Catalog for the University’s definition of ethical academic conduct.
READING LIST - The more you read, the more you learn
You are responsible for the required readings even if they are not specifically assigned or discussed in class.
Not yet trasncribed from paper.