Readings

The bulk of the course reading consists of novels, supplemented with a few short stories. The following required readings are available from the Colby bookstore.

You should also purchase from the bookstore the reference book

The remaining readings can be found on reserve in a folder at Olin. These are also compulsory.

We will also be watching six movies

Policy

Attendance is compulsory. Students absent from more than one session without an acceptable excuse will be penalized or required to submit makeup work. Students absent from more than three sessions without an acceptable excuse will fail the course.

The breakdown of marks will be as follows:

Makeup

Class participation has a baseline mark of 50%. Additional points are earned through frequent participation in class discussions. 10% is subtracted for each session missed beyond one. Students planning absences can earn full credit for attendance and participation by emailing answers to discussion questions before the class to be missed. Medical or family absences do not require makeup.

Both absence and failure to participate may be made up after the class, but this takes more work. A student may prepare a four page paper, focusing on one of the posted discussion questions listed for a book under discussion. Other than this, follow the general guidelines given for the long papers, including the importance of formulating a thesis in answer to the question and the need for detailed reference to the book. An excellent paper (A or A- quality) will cancel the penalty for absence from one session and count for full participation in the discussion. Papers of lower quality will receive partial credit. If the paper is submitted only to make up for participation in a session (you came, but didn't say anything) then one excellent paper may count for full participation in two sessions.

Deadline for makeup items is the end of February 6th.

If you are curious about where you stand with your participation marks then ask me! Most people will receive very strong marks in this category.

Plagiarism Statement

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Papers and web projects must represent your own work and thought. Use of other people’s work without acknowledging their contribution is plagiarism and is a very serious offense in any discipline. This includes verbatim copying, paraphrasing (changing a few words here and there), and structural plagiarism (borrowing the structure or outline of someone else’s work without acknowledgment). Tenured professors have been publicly reprimanded and dismissed from their jobs in recent years for this practice, and otherwise promising careers have been utterly destroyed. Students submitting papers containing any plagiarized materials will receive an F in the assignment and may receive a failing grade for the course. Serious cases will be reported to the Dean of Students, possibly resulting in academic probation or suspension from the college, as noted in both the student handbook and the college catalogue. I can’t overemphasize the seriousness of this issue.

(Under the circumstances I should attribute this statement -- http://www.colby.edu/sci.tech/01_st112syllabus.pdf)

Page created by Thomas Haigh. Last edited  01/12/2002.