The Art of Living
Major Assignment Descriptions
Quizzes (three at 5% each; 15% total)
After each unit is complete, we'll take a quiz over the readings. The quizzes will (almost) invariably ask you to write a short answer in response to a specific question or identify a concept or individual from the text. Quizzes will also include a few select terms to strengthen your vocabulary.
Quiz dates: September 9, September 30, November 2
Blogs (10 entries, 15% of your grade)
One of your major projects will be your very own blog, consisting of at least 10 entries. Each entry must be carefully considered, well-constructed, and 500 words in length. Highly recommended topics for your entries are as follows:
1-2 interviews with individuals leading particularly thoughtful or deliberate lives
2-3 responses to outside events or readings
3-4 reflections on specific readings or discussions (for instance, you might develop an idea raised in class about, say, techne or instrumentality; you might also refute or support a concept from your reading)
1-2 discussions of the results you found by trying out a concept from class readings or discussion for a day, a week, or a month in your own life
Other topics and approaches for blog entries are possible; creativity is encouraged. Your entries will be vetted by fellow students for possible inclusion in a chapbook being jointly published with the PAR 400 course this semester.
Blog entries due: November 4
Seminar Paper (40% of the semester grade; presentations 10%)
The bulk of your efforts this semester should center on researching, conceptualizing, drafting, editing, and polishing a roughly 10-page seminar paper. This paper should explore a concept from or directly related to our class discussions and readings in significant depth, relying on painstakingly documented scholarly sources and your own rigorous thought. Sources should be documented using MLA style, with the possible exception of electronic sources, which may be documented using Columbia style. Type should be 10- to 12-point, seriffed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on all sides. Papers may be submitted electronically, but may not be submitted late.
A draft of the seminar paper will be due on November 16. To receive credit for the draft, it must be as long as or longer than the assignment requires. After working with drafts in class and receiving my feedback, you must submit the completed draft by the time of our regularly scheduled final exam.
Once the drafts are submitted, we will share our work through oral presentations. You will be responsible for preparing a 7-minute overview of your research project: how you chose your topic, the methods you used in your research, and what conclusions you were able to draw. At the close of your presentation, you should be prepared to answer your classmates' questions and submit the written component of your presentation.
Presentations will be given on November 16, 18, and 23.
Posters (20%)
One of our collaborative activities with the PAR 400 class will be a joint poster session in which we share some of the work we've been doing on our shared topic. On December 2, we will meet in Morton Hall, where students from both classes will display posters they have created that show connections between the readings in our classes and contemporary books about leading a successful life. We will create research posters together to display these ideas to their best advantage, with some help from our colleagues in the ENG 319: Document Design class.