Topics
1. Introductions
2. Overview of course
3. Review of composition fundamentals: paragraph structure; claims; summary, paraphrase, and quotation; citation
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Week 2 (5 Oct - 9 Oct)
Topics
paragraphing
Required reading
Freire, "The 'Banking' Concept of Education"
Homework due
Self assessment
250 - 400 words
Essay 1 (Freire)
Applying Freire to Your Own Experience as a Student
800 - 1,000 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 1 - paragraphing
Divide the following text into paragraphs:
It is difficult to determine precisely when coffee was introduced to Arabic culture. According to legend, Mohammed was cured of narcolepsy with coffee. There are indications in Arabic medical literature that coffee was used medicinally as early as the tenth century. But in the Islamic world, too, it became a popular beverage relatively late, certainly no earlier than the fifteenth century. Although the dating may be vague, the logic of coffee drinking for Arabic-Islamic civilization is incontestable. As a nonalcoholic, nonintoxicating, indeed even sobering and mentally stimulating drink, it seemed to be tailor-made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics. Arabic culture is dominated by abstraction more than any other culture in human history. Coffee has rightly been called the wine of Islam. Until the seventeenth century, coffee remained a curiosity for Europeans, mentioned in accounts of journeys to the exotic lands of the Orient. They could not imagine consuming a hot, black, bitter-tasting drink – much less with pleasure. It reminded them too much of hot pitch, which was used in medieval times for battle and torture. The situation changed around the middle of the seventeenth century. Suddenly a whole set of hitherto unknown exotic substances became fashionable. Together with chocolate, tea, and tobacco, coffee made its entrance upon the stage of European luxury culture. It appeared in several different places at once, then spread in a quasi-strategic pattern of encirclement: in the south it surfaced in the Levantine trade centers, Venice and Marseilles; in the north, in the transshipping ports of the new international trade, London and Amsterdam. From these bridgeheads it quickly conquered the hinterlands. Around 1650 coffee was virtually unknown in Europe, at most used as medication. By about 1700 it was firmly established as a beverage, not, of course, for the entire population but certainly among the trend-setting strata of society.
Schivelbusch, W. (1993). Tastes of Paradise: A social history of spices, stimulants, and intoxicants. New York: Vintage.[Translation of Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft (1980).]
paragraphing
Required reading
Freire, "The 'Banking' Concept of Education"
Homework due
Self assessment
250 - 400 words
Essay 1 (Freire)
Applying Freire to Your Own Experience as a Student
800 - 1,000 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 1 - paragraphing
Divide the following text into paragraphs:
It is difficult to determine precisely when coffee was introduced to Arabic culture. According to legend, Mohammed was cured of narcolepsy with coffee. There are indications in Arabic medical literature that coffee was used medicinally as early as the tenth century. But in the Islamic world, too, it became a popular beverage relatively late, certainly no earlier than the fifteenth century. Although the dating may be vague, the logic of coffee drinking for Arabic-Islamic civilization is incontestable. As a nonalcoholic, nonintoxicating, indeed even sobering and mentally stimulating drink, it seemed to be tailor-made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics. Arabic culture is dominated by abstraction more than any other culture in human history. Coffee has rightly been called the wine of Islam. Until the seventeenth century, coffee remained a curiosity for Europeans, mentioned in accounts of journeys to the exotic lands of the Orient. They could not imagine consuming a hot, black, bitter-tasting drink – much less with pleasure. It reminded them too much of hot pitch, which was used in medieval times for battle and torture. The situation changed around the middle of the seventeenth century. Suddenly a whole set of hitherto unknown exotic substances became fashionable. Together with chocolate, tea, and tobacco, coffee made its entrance upon the stage of European luxury culture. It appeared in several different places at once, then spread in a quasi-strategic pattern of encirclement: in the south it surfaced in the Levantine trade centers, Venice and Marseilles; in the north, in the transshipping ports of the new international trade, London and Amsterdam. From these bridgeheads it quickly conquered the hinterlands. Around 1650 coffee was virtually unknown in Europe, at most used as medication. By about 1700 it was firmly established as a beverage, not, of course, for the entire population but certainly among the trend-setting strata of society.
Schivelbusch, W. (1993). Tastes of Paradise: A social history of spices, stimulants, and intoxicants. New York: Vintage.[Translation of Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft (1980).]
Week 3 (12 Oct - 16 Oct)
Topics
identifying and evaluating claims
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 1
In-class assessment
Quiz 2 - identifying and evaluating claims
Identify the key claim (thesis statement or topic statement) of the paragraph below:
The years since the early 1970s are unprecedented in terms of the volatility in the prices of commodities, currencies, real estate and stocks, and the frequency and severity of financial crises. In the second half of the 1980s, Japan experienced a massive bubble in its real estate and in its stock markets. During the same period the prices of real estate and of stocks in Finland, Norway, and Sweden increased even more rapidly than in Japan. In the early 1990s, there was a surge in real estate prices and stock prices in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and most of the nearby Asian countries; in 1993, stock prices increased by about 100 percent in each of these countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the United States experienced a bubble in the stock market; there was a mania in the prices of the stocks of firms in the new industries like information technology and the dot.coms.
Kindleberger, C.P. (2005). Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A history of financial crises. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Identify the better thesis statement, and explain why it is better than the others:
Queen Victoria set the tone of the British Empire, and she allowed powerful prime ministers to take political control of Britain.
Victoria set the tone for later monarchs by ruling through a series of prime ministers.
The United Nations Organization has major weaknesses and cannot prevent a major war.
The organization of the UN makes it incapable of preventing a war between major powers.
There are serious objections to today's horror movies.
Because modern cinematic techniques have allowed filmmakers to get more graphic, horror flicks have desensitized young American viewers to violence.
Although the timber wolf is a timid and gentle animal, it is being systematically exterminated.
Although the timber wolf is actually a timid and gentle animal, it is being systematically exterminated because people wrongfully believe it to be a fierce and cold-blooded killer.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using statistics.
In order to ensure accurate reporting, journalists must understand the real significance of the statistics they report.
In this paper, I will discuss the relationship between fairy tales and early childhood.
Not just empty stories for kids, fairy tales shed light on the psychology of young children.
We must save the whales.
Because our planet's health may depend upon biological diversity, we should save the whales.
Hoover's administration was rocked by scandal.
The many scandals of Hoover's administration revealed basic problems with the Republican Party's nominating process.
Because the Montessori method was thought to weaken school discipline, it aroused much opposition in the 1930s, but interest revived and many schools adopted it in the 1960s.
I will never forget the two years I spent attending a Montessori school.
The Bonus March in 1932 was a spontaneous uprising by unemployed veterans.
Suppression of the Bonus March was a major reason for Herbert Hoover's defeat in the election of 1932.
Insistence on economy and efficiency and ruthless pressure on competitors enabled John D. Rockefeller to dominate the early years of the oil refining industry.
John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Richford, New York.
American English and British English are very different.
Different terms for the same professions illustrate differences between British and American English.
This paper will discuss the sodhouse days on the central plains of the United States.
The sodhouse illustrates the pioneers' ability to adapt to their environment and to use what nature provided.
The polygraph was developed by Dr. John A. Larson in 1921.
Even under the most controlled conditions, the polygraph test has not been proved reliable; this is why its use by employers should be banned.
identifying and evaluating claims
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 1
In-class assessment
Quiz 2 - identifying and evaluating claims
Identify the key claim (thesis statement or topic statement) of the paragraph below:
The years since the early 1970s are unprecedented in terms of the volatility in the prices of commodities, currencies, real estate and stocks, and the frequency and severity of financial crises. In the second half of the 1980s, Japan experienced a massive bubble in its real estate and in its stock markets. During the same period the prices of real estate and of stocks in Finland, Norway, and Sweden increased even more rapidly than in Japan. In the early 1990s, there was a surge in real estate prices and stock prices in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and most of the nearby Asian countries; in 1993, stock prices increased by about 100 percent in each of these countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the United States experienced a bubble in the stock market; there was a mania in the prices of the stocks of firms in the new industries like information technology and the dot.coms.
Kindleberger, C.P. (2005). Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A history of financial crises. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Identify the better thesis statement, and explain why it is better than the others:
Queen Victoria set the tone of the British Empire, and she allowed powerful prime ministers to take political control of Britain.
Victoria set the tone for later monarchs by ruling through a series of prime ministers.
The United Nations Organization has major weaknesses and cannot prevent a major war.
The organization of the UN makes it incapable of preventing a war between major powers.
There are serious objections to today's horror movies.
Because modern cinematic techniques have allowed filmmakers to get more graphic, horror flicks have desensitized young American viewers to violence.
Although the timber wolf is a timid and gentle animal, it is being systematically exterminated.
Although the timber wolf is actually a timid and gentle animal, it is being systematically exterminated because people wrongfully believe it to be a fierce and cold-blooded killer.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using statistics.
In order to ensure accurate reporting, journalists must understand the real significance of the statistics they report.
In this paper, I will discuss the relationship between fairy tales and early childhood.
Not just empty stories for kids, fairy tales shed light on the psychology of young children.
We must save the whales.
Because our planet's health may depend upon biological diversity, we should save the whales.
Hoover's administration was rocked by scandal.
The many scandals of Hoover's administration revealed basic problems with the Republican Party's nominating process.
Because the Montessori method was thought to weaken school discipline, it aroused much opposition in the 1930s, but interest revived and many schools adopted it in the 1960s.
I will never forget the two years I spent attending a Montessori school.
The Bonus March in 1932 was a spontaneous uprising by unemployed veterans.
Suppression of the Bonus March was a major reason for Herbert Hoover's defeat in the election of 1932.
Insistence on economy and efficiency and ruthless pressure on competitors enabled John D. Rockefeller to dominate the early years of the oil refining industry.
John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Richford, New York.
American English and British English are very different.
Different terms for the same professions illustrate differences between British and American English.
This paper will discuss the sodhouse days on the central plains of the United States.
The sodhouse illustrates the pioneers' ability to adapt to their environment and to use what nature provided.
The polygraph was developed by Dr. John A. Larson in 1921.
Even under the most controlled conditions, the polygraph test has not been proved reliable; this is why its use by employers should be banned.
Week 4 (19 Oct - 23 Oct)
Topics
Outlines
Sign up for next week's individual meetings.
Required reading
Freire, "The 'Banking' Concept of Education"
Rodriguez, "The Achievement of Desire"
Homework due
Essay 2 (Freire and Rodriguez)
how would Freire read Rodriguez's story?
800 - 1,000 words
Critique of Essay 2
Critiques of Essay 2 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 26 October.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 3 - outlines
Below are lists of specific items; fill in the blank with a general heading that accurately describes the list provided.
Calculus, European History, Macroeconomics, Human Biology
book, newspaper, magazine, journal
[Adapted from Langan, J. (1999). English Skills with Readings, 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.]
For the paragraph below, identify the topic sentence and create an outline for the paragraph using alphnumeric, sentence, or decimal outline format:
The years since the early 1970s are unprecedented in terms of the volatility in the prices of commodities, currencies, real estate and stocks, and the frequency and severity of financial crises. In the second half of the 1980s, Japan experienced a massive bubble in its real estate and in its stock markets. During the same period the prices of real estate and of stocks in Finland, Norway, and Sweden increased even more rapidly than in Japan. In the early 1990s, there was a surge in real estate prices and stock prices in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and most of the nearby Asian countries; in 1993, stock prices increased by about 100 percent in each of these countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the United States experienced a bubble in the stock market; there was a mania in the prices of the stocks of firms in the new industries like information technology and the dot.coms.
Kindleberger, C.P. (2005). Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A history of financial crises. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Outlines
Sign up for next week's individual meetings.
Required reading
Freire, "The 'Banking' Concept of Education"
Rodriguez, "The Achievement of Desire"
Homework due
Essay 2 (Freire and Rodriguez)
how would Freire read Rodriguez's story?
800 - 1,000 words
Critique of Essay 2
Critiques of Essay 2 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 26 October.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 3 - outlines
Below are lists of specific items; fill in the blank with a general heading that accurately describes the list provided.
Calculus, European History, Macroeconomics, Human Biology
book, newspaper, magazine, journal
[Adapted from Langan, J. (1999). English Skills with Readings, 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.]
For the paragraph below, identify the topic sentence and create an outline for the paragraph using alphnumeric, sentence, or decimal outline format:
The years since the early 1970s are unprecedented in terms of the volatility in the prices of commodities, currencies, real estate and stocks, and the frequency and severity of financial crises. In the second half of the 1980s, Japan experienced a massive bubble in its real estate and in its stock markets. During the same period the prices of real estate and of stocks in Finland, Norway, and Sweden increased even more rapidly than in Japan. In the early 1990s, there was a surge in real estate prices and stock prices in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and most of the nearby Asian countries; in 1993, stock prices increased by about 100 percent in each of these countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the United States experienced a bubble in the stock market; there was a mania in the prices of the stocks of firms in the new industries like information technology and the dot.coms.
Kindleberger, C.P. (2005). Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A history of financial crises. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Week 5 (26 Oct - 30 Oct)
No class meeting. Individual meetings in my office on the 3rd floor (L72).
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance thus far
2. Discussion of Essay 2
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance thus far
2. Discussion of Essay 2
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Week 6 (2 Nov - 6 Nov)
Topics
incorporating sources into your writing and avoiding plagiarism
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 2
In-class assessment
Quiz 4 - incorporating sources into your writing and avoiding plagiarism
Read the following text and the three examples of using the text in an essay. Which uses may be considered plagiarism, and why?
From page 233 of:
Grafton, A. (1999). The Footnote: A curious history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Historians' practice of citation and quotation have rarely lived up to their precepts; footnotes have never supported, and can never support, every statement of fact in a given work. No apparatus can prevent all mistakes or eliminate all disagreements. Wise historians know that their craft resembles Penelope's art of weaving: footnotes and text will come together again and again, in ever-changing combinations of patterns and colors. Stability is not to be reached. [12] Nonetheless, the culturally contingent and eminently fallible footnote offers the only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources. And that is the only ground we have to trust them. [13]
Notes:
12. Cf. N. Z. Davis, "On the Lame," American Historical Review, 93 (1988), 572-603.
13. I agree strongly with the discussion of problems of historical knowledge offered by R. Chartier, "Zeit der Zweifel," Neue Rundshau, 105 (1994), 9-20 at 17-19. Cf. also A. B. Spitzer, Historical Truth and Lies about the Past (Chapel Hill and London, 1996).
Examples using the text:
Footnotes can't support every statement of fact. There will always be errors and disagreements. The best historians know that their stories of the past will be continually written and rewritten. But footnotes give us the only reason to trust what historians say (Grafton, 1999, p. 233).
Footnotes "have never supported, and can never support, every statement of fact in a given work." But, as Grafton argued (1999), the "culturally contingent and eminently fallible footnote offers the only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources" (p. 233).
No amount of footnotes can prevent all mistakes or eliminate all disagreements. But the footnote is the "only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources" (Grafton, 1999, p. 233).
incorporating sources into your writing and avoiding plagiarism
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 2
In-class assessment
Quiz 4 - incorporating sources into your writing and avoiding plagiarism
Read the following text and the three examples of using the text in an essay. Which uses may be considered plagiarism, and why?
From page 233 of:
Grafton, A. (1999). The Footnote: A curious history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Historians' practice of citation and quotation have rarely lived up to their precepts; footnotes have never supported, and can never support, every statement of fact in a given work. No apparatus can prevent all mistakes or eliminate all disagreements. Wise historians know that their craft resembles Penelope's art of weaving: footnotes and text will come together again and again, in ever-changing combinations of patterns and colors. Stability is not to be reached. [12] Nonetheless, the culturally contingent and eminently fallible footnote offers the only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources. And that is the only ground we have to trust them. [13]
Notes:
12. Cf. N. Z. Davis, "On the Lame," American Historical Review, 93 (1988), 572-603.
13. I agree strongly with the discussion of problems of historical knowledge offered by R. Chartier, "Zeit der Zweifel," Neue Rundshau, 105 (1994), 9-20 at 17-19. Cf. also A. B. Spitzer, Historical Truth and Lies about the Past (Chapel Hill and London, 1996).
Examples using the text:
Footnotes can't support every statement of fact. There will always be errors and disagreements. The best historians know that their stories of the past will be continually written and rewritten. But footnotes give us the only reason to trust what historians say (Grafton, 1999, p. 233).
Footnotes "have never supported, and can never support, every statement of fact in a given work." But, as Grafton argued (1999), the "culturally contingent and eminently fallible footnote offers the only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources" (p. 233).
No amount of footnotes can prevent all mistakes or eliminate all disagreements. But the footnote is the "only guarantee we have that statements about the past derive from identifiable sources" (Grafton, 1999, p. 233).
Week 7 (9 Nov - 13 Nov)
Topics
revising for concision and clarity
Required reading
Geertz, "Deep Play"
Homework due
Essay 3 (Geertz)
The Anthropologist as a Person with a Way of Seeing
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 3
Critiques of Essay 3 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 16 November.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 5 - revising for concision and clarity
Rewrite the following sentences for concision and clarity:
The author is supporting a very unique policy: a public works administration. The reason why is due to the fact that she grew up during the time of the Great Depression. The policy is designed to put people to work. The policy is supported by several of her friends.
revising for concision and clarity
Required reading
Geertz, "Deep Play"
Homework due
Essay 3 (Geertz)
The Anthropologist as a Person with a Way of Seeing
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 3
Critiques of Essay 3 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 16 November.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Quiz 5 - revising for concision and clarity
Rewrite the following sentences for concision and clarity:
The author is supporting a very unique policy: a public works administration. The reason why is due to the fact that she grew up during the time of the Great Depression. The policy is designed to put people to work. The policy is supported by several of her friends.
Week 8 (16 Nov - 20 Nov)
Topics
abstracts
Required reading
Homework due
Mid-term retrospective essay
250 - 400 words
Revision of Essay 3
In-class assessment
None.
Notes
Examples of abstracts
Most conventional accounts of India’s recent economic performance associate the pick-up in economic growth with the liberalization of 1991. This paper demonstrates that the transition to high growth occured around 1980, a full decade before economic liberalization. We investigate a number of hypotheses about the causes of this growth—favorable external environment, fiscal stimulus, trade liberalization, internal liberalization, the green revolution, public investment—and find them wanting. We argue that growth was triggered by an attitudinal shift on the part of the national government towards a pro-business (as opposed to pro-liberalization) approach. We provide some evidence that is consistent with this argument. We also find that registered manufacturing built up in previous decades played an important role in influencing the pattern of growth across the Indian states.
Rodrik, D., & Subramanian, A. (2004, March). From "Hindu Growth" to Productivity Surge: The mystery of the Indian growth transition. NBER Working Paper. Cambridge, MA.
The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between self-reported depressive symptoms, intelligence, and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 635 school children (304 boys and 331 girls) aged 9-11 years. The variables were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the grade point average. The data indicate that depressive symptoms are related to academic achievement, in boys also to intelligence. The relationship between depressive symptoms and school grades reached statistical significance in both sexes. In boys, the CDI total scores were associated with full-scale and verbal IQ. Academic achievement was significantly related to full-scale, verbal, and performance IQ in both boys and girls. No gender differences in depressive symptoms or academic achievement were found. Significant gender differences in favor of boys emerged in full-scale and performance IQ.
Preiss, M., & Fráňová, L. (2006). Depressive symptoms, academic achievement, and intelligence. Studia Psychologica 48(1), 57-67.
abstracts
Required reading
Homework due
Mid-term retrospective essay
250 - 400 words
Revision of Essay 3
In-class assessment
None.
Notes
Examples of abstracts
Most conventional accounts of India’s recent economic performance associate the pick-up in economic growth with the liberalization of 1991. This paper demonstrates that the transition to high growth occured around 1980, a full decade before economic liberalization. We investigate a number of hypotheses about the causes of this growth—favorable external environment, fiscal stimulus, trade liberalization, internal liberalization, the green revolution, public investment—and find them wanting. We argue that growth was triggered by an attitudinal shift on the part of the national government towards a pro-business (as opposed to pro-liberalization) approach. We provide some evidence that is consistent with this argument. We also find that registered manufacturing built up in previous decades played an important role in influencing the pattern of growth across the Indian states.
Rodrik, D., & Subramanian, A. (2004, March). From "Hindu Growth" to Productivity Surge: The mystery of the Indian growth transition. NBER Working Paper. Cambridge, MA.
The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between self-reported depressive symptoms, intelligence, and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 635 school children (304 boys and 331 girls) aged 9-11 years. The variables were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the grade point average. The data indicate that depressive symptoms are related to academic achievement, in boys also to intelligence. The relationship between depressive symptoms and school grades reached statistical significance in both sexes. In boys, the CDI total scores were associated with full-scale and verbal IQ. Academic achievement was significantly related to full-scale, verbal, and performance IQ in both boys and girls. No gender differences in depressive symptoms or academic achievement were found. Significant gender differences in favor of boys emerged in full-scale and performance IQ.
Preiss, M., & Fráňová, L. (2006). Depressive symptoms, academic achievement, and intelligence. Studia Psychologica 48(1), 57-67.
Week 9 (23 Nov - 27 Nov)
Topics
identifying audiences
Sign up for next week's individual meetings
Required reading
Geertz, "Deep Play"
Homework due
Essay 4 (Geertz)
Seeing Your Own World through Geertz's Eyes
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 4
Critiques of Essay 4 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 30 November.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
None.
Notes
Identify the audience:
Describe the audience of the following texts. Support your claim with specific reasons and examples drawn from the text.
Text 1
Vaillant brings a healthy dose of subtlety to a field that sometimes seems to glide past it. The bookstore shelves are lined with titles that have an almost messianic tone, as in Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. But what does it mean, really, to be happier? For 30 years, Denmark has topped international happiness surveys. But Danes are hardly a sanguine bunch. Ask an American how it’s going, and you will usually hear “Really good.” Ask a Dane, and you will hear “Det kunne være værre (It could be worse).” “Danes have consistently low (and indubitably realistic) expectations for the year to come,” a team of Danish scholars concluded. “Year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Of course, happiness scientists have come up with all kinds of straightforward, and actionable, findings: that money does little to make us happier once our basic needs are met; that marriage and faith lead to happiness (or it could be that happy people are more likely to be married and spiritual); that temperamental “set points” for happiness—a predisposition to stay at a certain level of happiness—account for a large, but not overwhelming, percentage of our well-being. (Fifty percent, says Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness. Circumstances account for 10 percent, and the other 40 percent is within our control.) But why do countries with the highest self-reports of subjective well-being also yield the most suicides? How is it that children are often found to be a source of “negative affect” (sadness, anger)—yet people identify children as their greatest source of pleasure?
The questions are unresolved, in large part because of method. The psychologist Ed Diener, at the University of Illinois, has helped lay the empirical foundation for positive psychology, drawing most recently on data from the Gallup World Poll, which interviewed a representative sample of 360,000 people from 145 countries. “You can say a lot of general things from these data that you could never say before,” Diener says. “But many of them are relatively shallow. People who go to church report more joy. But if you ask why, we don’t know. George has these small samples—and they’re Harvard men, my goodness, not so generalizable. Yet he has deep data, and he brings so many things together at once.”
Text 2
Do You Want To Be Cool Like Barak Obama?
A Key Happiness Habit is:
Don't hand control of your thoughts, actions or feelings over to outside forces or people who try to hurt or harass you.
Don't Give Them Emotional Control Over You.
Decide How You Are Going To Think, Act and Feel.
Choose Your Mood and Your Attitude.
Emotional Independence, Freedom and Balance are key Happiness Habits.
This does Not mean that you don't get angry or that you don't decide to take decisive corrective action when necessary.
It does mean you weight your options carefully, decide when and how you will act and that you don't automatically react in anger.
Choose the timing, the place and substance of your response.
We all have an Optimal Best Self - a sweet spot or optimal zone where we feel our best, do our best and perform our best. Habitually Happy people try to maintain their optimal Best Self State all of the time. Getting angry and irrational is not part of the process.
Much has been written about Barak Obama’s Cool calm demeanor. His actions and reactions epitomize Emotional Independence. He decides how he will act, react and project himself. He doesn’t let outside forces control his emotions easily.
If you let another person make you angry, you’re giving them control of you, your thoughts, actions, feelings and your well-being. Don’t do it!
The next time someone tries to hook you into an angry response, simply think, I’m not giving them control. It’s that easy.
This does not mean stuffing your feelings or suppressing your emotions. It means not giving them control over you, your attention or your emotions.
Channel Anger To Achieve Positive Goals.
Choose Emotional Independence and Spiritual Freedom. It’s that easy. Decide how you’re going to act, don’t simply react to them. Take command and lead them where you want to go. Make this a Happiness Habit.
Don’t give them control.
It’s a great way to stay cool and happy!
Text 3
An emerging branch of economics has begun to examine the empirical determinants of happiness (for example, Easterlin 2001 and Frey and Stutzer 2002). This paper continues that avenue of research in a different sphere. It focuses on the - still relatively unexplored - links between income, sexual activity and wellbeing.
Human beings are interested in sex. There are also scientific reasons to study it. For example, recent work by Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwartz and Arthur Stone (Kahneman et al 2003) finds, among a sample of 1000 employed women, that sex is rated retrospectively as the activity that produces the single largest amount of happiness. Commuting to and from work produces the lowest levels of psychological wellbeing. These two activities come top and bottom, respectively, of a list of 19 activities.
In this paper we estimate what may be the first econometric happiness equations in which sexual activity is an independent variable. Like the rest of the recent wellbeing literature, we study the numbers that people report when asked questions about how happy they feel with life. Our data set is a randomly selected group of approximately 16,000 Americans. Although, for the sake of persuasive identification, it would be desirable to have instrumental variables for sexual activity, in this paper we follow the simpler route of providing single-equation estimates with no adjustment for possible endogeneity. Our instinct is that solving the endogeneity problem - working out whether sex causes happiness or causality runs in the reverse direction - will be particularly difficult here. Future work will have to return to this issue.
References:
Easterlin, R.A. (2001). Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory, Economic Journal 111, 465-484.
Frey, B.S. and Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and Economics, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A, Schkade, D., Schwarz, N. and Stone, A. (2003). Measuring the Quality of Experience, Princeton University, working paper.
Text 4
The two cerebral hemispheres play different roles not only in the recognition of facial expressions, but also in the expression of positive and negative emotions. This specialization is apparent in infants (Davidson, 1992). Regions of the left hemisphere appear to be specialized for the processing of such positive emotions as happiness, whereas regions of the right hemisphere are specialized for such negative emotions as fear and sadness. Damage to the left hemisphere tends to produce excessive anger or depression; damage to the right hemisphere is associated with excessive displays of mania and laughing. Even in people without brain damage, those who are clinically depressed have less activation in the left frontal regions than non-depressed people do (Henriques & Davidson, 1991).
References:
Davidson, Richard J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the nature of emotion. Brain and Cognition, 20, 125-151.
Henriques, Jeffrey B., & Davidson, Richard J. (1991). Left frontal hypoactivation in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 535-545.
identifying audiences
Sign up for next week's individual meetings
Required reading
Geertz, "Deep Play"
Homework due
Essay 4 (Geertz)
Seeing Your Own World through Geertz's Eyes
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 4
Critiques of Essay 4 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 30 November.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
None.
Notes
Identify the audience:
Describe the audience of the following texts. Support your claim with specific reasons and examples drawn from the text.
Text 1
Vaillant brings a healthy dose of subtlety to a field that sometimes seems to glide past it. The bookstore shelves are lined with titles that have an almost messianic tone, as in Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. But what does it mean, really, to be happier? For 30 years, Denmark has topped international happiness surveys. But Danes are hardly a sanguine bunch. Ask an American how it’s going, and you will usually hear “Really good.” Ask a Dane, and you will hear “Det kunne være værre (It could be worse).” “Danes have consistently low (and indubitably realistic) expectations for the year to come,” a team of Danish scholars concluded. “Year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Of course, happiness scientists have come up with all kinds of straightforward, and actionable, findings: that money does little to make us happier once our basic needs are met; that marriage and faith lead to happiness (or it could be that happy people are more likely to be married and spiritual); that temperamental “set points” for happiness—a predisposition to stay at a certain level of happiness—account for a large, but not overwhelming, percentage of our well-being. (Fifty percent, says Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness. Circumstances account for 10 percent, and the other 40 percent is within our control.) But why do countries with the highest self-reports of subjective well-being also yield the most suicides? How is it that children are often found to be a source of “negative affect” (sadness, anger)—yet people identify children as their greatest source of pleasure?
The questions are unresolved, in large part because of method. The psychologist Ed Diener, at the University of Illinois, has helped lay the empirical foundation for positive psychology, drawing most recently on data from the Gallup World Poll, which interviewed a representative sample of 360,000 people from 145 countries. “You can say a lot of general things from these data that you could never say before,” Diener says. “But many of them are relatively shallow. People who go to church report more joy. But if you ask why, we don’t know. George has these small samples—and they’re Harvard men, my goodness, not so generalizable. Yet he has deep data, and he brings so many things together at once.”
Text 2
Do You Want To Be Cool Like Barak Obama?
A Key Happiness Habit is:
Don't hand control of your thoughts, actions or feelings over to outside forces or people who try to hurt or harass you.
Don't Give Them Emotional Control Over You.
Decide How You Are Going To Think, Act and Feel.
Choose Your Mood and Your Attitude.
Emotional Independence, Freedom and Balance are key Happiness Habits.
This does Not mean that you don't get angry or that you don't decide to take decisive corrective action when necessary.
It does mean you weight your options carefully, decide when and how you will act and that you don't automatically react in anger.
Choose the timing, the place and substance of your response.
We all have an Optimal Best Self - a sweet spot or optimal zone where we feel our best, do our best and perform our best. Habitually Happy people try to maintain their optimal Best Self State all of the time. Getting angry and irrational is not part of the process.
Much has been written about Barak Obama’s Cool calm demeanor. His actions and reactions epitomize Emotional Independence. He decides how he will act, react and project himself. He doesn’t let outside forces control his emotions easily.
If you let another person make you angry, you’re giving them control of you, your thoughts, actions, feelings and your well-being. Don’t do it!
The next time someone tries to hook you into an angry response, simply think, I’m not giving them control. It’s that easy.
This does not mean stuffing your feelings or suppressing your emotions. It means not giving them control over you, your attention or your emotions.
Channel Anger To Achieve Positive Goals.
Choose Emotional Independence and Spiritual Freedom. It’s that easy. Decide how you’re going to act, don’t simply react to them. Take command and lead them where you want to go. Make this a Happiness Habit.
Don’t give them control.
It’s a great way to stay cool and happy!
Text 3
An emerging branch of economics has begun to examine the empirical determinants of happiness (for example, Easterlin 2001 and Frey and Stutzer 2002). This paper continues that avenue of research in a different sphere. It focuses on the - still relatively unexplored - links between income, sexual activity and wellbeing.
Human beings are interested in sex. There are also scientific reasons to study it. For example, recent work by Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwartz and Arthur Stone (Kahneman et al 2003) finds, among a sample of 1000 employed women, that sex is rated retrospectively as the activity that produces the single largest amount of happiness. Commuting to and from work produces the lowest levels of psychological wellbeing. These two activities come top and bottom, respectively, of a list of 19 activities.
In this paper we estimate what may be the first econometric happiness equations in which sexual activity is an independent variable. Like the rest of the recent wellbeing literature, we study the numbers that people report when asked questions about how happy they feel with life. Our data set is a randomly selected group of approximately 16,000 Americans. Although, for the sake of persuasive identification, it would be desirable to have instrumental variables for sexual activity, in this paper we follow the simpler route of providing single-equation estimates with no adjustment for possible endogeneity. Our instinct is that solving the endogeneity problem - working out whether sex causes happiness or causality runs in the reverse direction - will be particularly difficult here. Future work will have to return to this issue.
References:
Easterlin, R.A. (2001). Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory, Economic Journal 111, 465-484.
Frey, B.S. and Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and Economics, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A, Schkade, D., Schwarz, N. and Stone, A. (2003). Measuring the Quality of Experience, Princeton University, working paper.
Text 4
The two cerebral hemispheres play different roles not only in the recognition of facial expressions, but also in the expression of positive and negative emotions. This specialization is apparent in infants (Davidson, 1992). Regions of the left hemisphere appear to be specialized for the processing of such positive emotions as happiness, whereas regions of the right hemisphere are specialized for such negative emotions as fear and sadness. Damage to the left hemisphere tends to produce excessive anger or depression; damage to the right hemisphere is associated with excessive displays of mania and laughing. Even in people without brain damage, those who are clinically depressed have less activation in the left frontal regions than non-depressed people do (Henriques & Davidson, 1991).
References:
Davidson, Richard J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the nature of emotion. Brain and Cognition, 20, 125-151.
Henriques, Jeffrey B., & Davidson, Richard J. (1991). Left frontal hypoactivation in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 535-545.
Week 10 (30 Nov - 4 Dec)
No class meeting. Individual meetings in my office on the 3rd floor (L72).
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance thus far.
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance thus far.
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Week 11 (7 Dec - 11 Dec)
Topics
finding sources using online library resources
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 4
In-class assessment
finding sources using online library resources
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 4
In-class assessment
Week 12 (14 Dec - 18 Dec)
Topics
evaluating sources
Required reading
Percy, "The Loss of the Creature"
Homework due
Essay 5 (Percy)
Complex and Common Readings of "The Loss of the Creature"
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 5
Critiques of Essay 5 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 4 January.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
evaluating sources
Required reading
Percy, "The Loss of the Creature"
Homework due
Essay 5 (Percy)
Complex and Common Readings of "The Loss of the Creature"
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 5
Critiques of Essay 5 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 4 January.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Week 13 (4 Jan 2009 - 8 Jan)
Topics
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 5
In-class assessment
Required reading
Homework due
Revision of Essay 5
In-class assessment
Week 14 (11 Jan - 15 Jan)
Topics
Required reading
Homework due
Essay 6 (Freire, Rodriguez, Geertz, Percy)
On Experts and Expertise
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 6
Critiques of Essay 6 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 18 January.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Required reading
Homework due
Essay 6 (Freire, Rodriguez, Geertz, Percy)
On Experts and Expertise
1,000 - 1,200 words
Critique of Essay 6
Critiques of Essay 6 are due by email to me, with a copy to the essay's author, by Monday 18 January.
250 - 400 words
In-class assessment
Week 15 (18 Jan - 22 Jan)
No class meeting. Individual meetings in my office on the 3rd floor (L72).
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance
2. Discussion of final portfolio
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Topics
1. Review of participation and performance
2. Discussion of final portfolio
Required reading
None.
Homework due
None.
In-class assessment
None.
Final Portfolio assignment
includes:
all written work, including
for each essay, include:
first version (with my comments)
any critiques you received
revised version
should also include
self-assessment
mid-term retrospective essay
all written work, including
for each essay, include:
first version (with my comments)
any critiques you received
revised version
should also include
self-assessment
mid-term retrospective essay
Course Outline
Course: UNYP 41180 English Composition 2
Credits: 3 semester credits / 6 ECTS
Length: 1 semester (15 weeks)
In-class contact hours: 45
Language of Instruction: English
Level: Lower-level course in a bachelor's degree program
Pre-requisites: C- or better in English Composition 1
Teaching methods: Lectures, readings, discussion
Class times, rooms
Thursdays 09:00 - 12:00, PC Lab 2
Instructor
William Barnard, Ph.D.
Catalog Description
Continuation of English Composition 1 with a focus on longer, more complex writing projects.
Over the course of a semester, students will produce 3,000 to 5,000 words of revised prose, plus additional assignments. At least 40% of the final grade will be based on evaluation of revised prose.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
* write complex analytic arguments, well-supported by evidence/examples;
* use online academic databases to find relevant information for writing projects;
* incorporate material from external sources in their writing projects, using correct citation;
* understand the requirements of academic integrity;
* understand the concept of plagiarism and know how to avoid it;
* correctly use APA citation format.
To successfully complete the course, students will:
* develop coherent, sustained arguments or interpretations in writing, supported by appropriate examples;
* use research skills to discover material relevant for course work;
* articulate ideas, and respond to the ideas of others, in the context of group discussions;
* manage self and time to successfully meet course requirements, including preparation (homework and studying), attendance, active participation, and the timely submission of assignments.
General Education Requirements
A grade of C- or better in this course satisfies the General Education requirements in the following categories:
Basic Communication
Students will:
* produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms;
* demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts;
* research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details;
* develop proficiency in oral discourse; and
* evaluate an oral presentation according to established criteria.
The competencies of Critical Thinking / Reasoning and Information Management are infused throughout this course.
Critical Thinking / Reasoning
Students will:
* identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments as they occur in their own or others' work; and
* develop well-reasoned arguments.
Information Management
Students will:
* perform the basic operations of personal computer use;
* understand and use basic research techniques; and
* locate, evaluate and synthesize information from a variety of sources.
Required Readings, Viewings, Listenings
Bartholomae, D., & Petrosky, A. (2008). Ways of Reading (8th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
All readings are available on reserve in paper format in the UNYP library.
Course Requirements, with estimated workloads
* Essays (6) - 10 hours of preparation, writing, and revising per essay - 60 hours total
* Revisions (6) - 6 hours per revision - 36 hours total
* Critiques of student essays (6) - 2 hours per critique - 12 hours total
* Active participation in class meetings - 45 hours total
* Weekly readings - 20 hours total
Total estimated workload for the semester: 173 hours
Criteria for Determination of Grade, including evaluation methods
* 15 % Participation
* 15 % In-class quizzes
* 20 % Critiques of student essays
* 50 % Final portfolio
Criteria for evaluating specific assignments are included with the assignment.
General Requirements
* All course work is governed by the UNYP Honor Code, and students are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work. All students are expected to be familiar with the UNYP Honor Code.
* All readings / viewings / listenings should be completed before that week's class meeting; they form the basis of that week's work in class.
* Students should have a copy (paper or electronic) of the week's readings at each class meeting.
* Mobile phones should be on silent; no calling or texting during class meetings (wait until the breaks).
* All media and communication devices, including computers, may not be used in ways that distract you or other students from our work during class meetings.
* Unless otherwise specified, papers / essays are due by email.
* Late work is not accepted.
* Missed work / assignments / assessments may not be made up.
Students with disabilities
Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact their teacher as soon as possible to discuss reasonable accommodation.
Grading scale
A: Outstanding work
B: Good work, distinctly above average
C: Acceptable work
D: Work that is significantly below average
F: Work that does not meet minimum standards for passing the course
Specific grading criteria are included with each assignment.
Technology Expectations
* Regular use of word processing software
* Regular use of internet
* Regular use of online databases
* Regular use of UNYP NetLearn
* Regular use of email.
Please note that this course makes substantial use of a course blog and electronic communciation via email. Regular checking of the course blog and the email address listed for you in UNYP's database is required.
Credits: 3 semester credits / 6 ECTS
Length: 1 semester (15 weeks)
In-class contact hours: 45
Language of Instruction: English
Level: Lower-level course in a bachelor's degree program
Pre-requisites: C- or better in English Composition 1
Teaching methods: Lectures, readings, discussion
Class times, rooms
Thursdays 09:00 - 12:00, PC Lab 2
Instructor
William Barnard, Ph.D.
Catalog Description
Continuation of English Composition 1 with a focus on longer, more complex writing projects.
Over the course of a semester, students will produce 3,000 to 5,000 words of revised prose, plus additional assignments. At least 40% of the final grade will be based on evaluation of revised prose.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
* write complex analytic arguments, well-supported by evidence/examples;
* use online academic databases to find relevant information for writing projects;
* incorporate material from external sources in their writing projects, using correct citation;
* understand the requirements of academic integrity;
* understand the concept of plagiarism and know how to avoid it;
* correctly use APA citation format.
To successfully complete the course, students will:
* develop coherent, sustained arguments or interpretations in writing, supported by appropriate examples;
* use research skills to discover material relevant for course work;
* articulate ideas, and respond to the ideas of others, in the context of group discussions;
* manage self and time to successfully meet course requirements, including preparation (homework and studying), attendance, active participation, and the timely submission of assignments.
General Education Requirements
A grade of C- or better in this course satisfies the General Education requirements in the following categories:
Basic Communication
Students will:
* produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms;
* demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts;
* research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details;
* develop proficiency in oral discourse; and
* evaluate an oral presentation according to established criteria.
The competencies of Critical Thinking / Reasoning and Information Management are infused throughout this course.
Critical Thinking / Reasoning
Students will:
* identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments as they occur in their own or others' work; and
* develop well-reasoned arguments.
Information Management
Students will:
* perform the basic operations of personal computer use;
* understand and use basic research techniques; and
* locate, evaluate and synthesize information from a variety of sources.
Required Readings, Viewings, Listenings
Bartholomae, D., & Petrosky, A. (2008). Ways of Reading (8th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
All readings are available on reserve in paper format in the UNYP library.
Course Requirements, with estimated workloads
* Essays (6) - 10 hours of preparation, writing, and revising per essay - 60 hours total
* Revisions (6) - 6 hours per revision - 36 hours total
* Critiques of student essays (6) - 2 hours per critique - 12 hours total
* Active participation in class meetings - 45 hours total
* Weekly readings - 20 hours total
Total estimated workload for the semester: 173 hours
Criteria for Determination of Grade, including evaluation methods
* 15 % Participation
* 15 % In-class quizzes
* 20 % Critiques of student essays
* 50 % Final portfolio
Criteria for evaluating specific assignments are included with the assignment.
General Requirements
* All course work is governed by the UNYP Honor Code, and students are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work. All students are expected to be familiar with the UNYP Honor Code.
* All readings / viewings / listenings should be completed before that week's class meeting; they form the basis of that week's work in class.
* Students should have a copy (paper or electronic) of the week's readings at each class meeting.
* Mobile phones should be on silent; no calling or texting during class meetings (wait until the breaks).
* All media and communication devices, including computers, may not be used in ways that distract you or other students from our work during class meetings.
* Unless otherwise specified, papers / essays are due by email.
* Late work is not accepted.
* Missed work / assignments / assessments may not be made up.
Students with disabilities
Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact their teacher as soon as possible to discuss reasonable accommodation.
Grading scale
A: Outstanding work
B: Good work, distinctly above average
C: Acceptable work
D: Work that is significantly below average
F: Work that does not meet minimum standards for passing the course
Specific grading criteria are included with each assignment.
Technology Expectations
* Regular use of word processing software
* Regular use of internet
* Regular use of online databases
* Regular use of UNYP NetLearn
* Regular use of email.
Please note that this course makes substantial use of a course blog and electronic communciation via email. Regular checking of the course blog and the email address listed for you in UNYP's database is required.
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