Seminar 131: Roman, Christian, Medieval Thought, Spring 2007
Instructor: Ben Davis
Email: bdavis@stmarys-ca.edu
Web: http://galileo.stmarys-ca.edu/bdavis/
Office: Galileo 101 A
Office Phone: 631-8048
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30-11:30 am or by appointment.
Grades: Your grade is based half on participation and half on writing.
Participation will be assessed by the factual, interpretive, and critical quality of your comments in class, your answers on occasional pop quizzes, and the weekly submission of three typed interpretive questions based on the reading assignment for that day. The participation grade will be weighted 70% by comments and quizzes and 30% by typed interpretive questions.
Writing will be assessed using the Saint Mary's College Writing Standards on pages xxii-xxiii of the Greek, Roman, Early Christian, and Medieval Thought reader. The goal is to use writing as an exploratory tool and to express ideas effectively in a manner that is clear, coherent, intellectually engaging, well developed, and correct. You must explicate your interpretation of the texts with sustained, organized arguments and with proper references to the texts. You are required to complete three essays for the course. Deadlines for early stages of the writing process are to encourage you to rethink and revise essays prior to their final due date. The essay grade will be weighted 30% by the rough draft and 70% by the final draft.
Of the four assigned papers, you will write three. The Aeneid and final papers are required. After you turn in your Aeneid paper, you will schedule an appointment with me to go over your paper. You are then required to rewrite it. You may choose between papers 2 and 3 for the second of your three papers. If you do both, the higher scored paper of the two will count toward your grade. You must turn in at least a draft by the draft deadline for papers 2/3. If you are satisfied with your grade and receive at least a B-, you may opt not to rewrite. For the final paper, you may either write the standard 4-5 pages on one of our last writers, or you may instead choose to rework a previous essay and topic in much greater depth and detail. I expect it to be at least twice as long as the original and to add new insights into the topic.
The following distribution will be used to assign course grades: 100-93% = A, 92-90% = A-, 89-86% = B+, 85-83% = B, 82-80% = B-, 79-76% = C+, 75-73% = C, 72-70% = C-, 69-66% = D+, 65-63% = D, 62-60% = D-, Below 60 % = F.
Getting Help: Your are strongly encouraged to take advantage of all available writing resources including office appointments with me, feedback from fellow students, and the Writing Center Workshop. Additional tutoring may be requested from the Academic Support Center in Sichel 105.
Academic Honesty: The Saint Mary's policies regarding academic honesty detailed in the student handbook apply to this course. I encourage you to work with other students, but your essays should be in your own voice, and consist largely of your own work. Where your argument depends heavily on another's work, say so. All papers will be checked for plagerism using the Turnitin online service.
Course Calendar: The course calendar details the schedule of coursework, exams and breaks.
Announcements
Here are the Final Paper Prompts
Here are the Paper 3 Prompts.
Here are the Paper 2 Prompts.
Here are the Aeneid paper prompts.
The schedule of student seminar leaders is now available. If you have not yet signed up for a slot, or would like to reschedule, please contact the instructor.