YEARLONG HONORS THESIS COLLOQUIUM

Click here to download the syllabus.

W, 4:10-6:25 PM, MCH
Code 5843 SCP 85

Office hours: W, 2-4 PM
Office: 3rd Floor, Macaulay

Telephone: 646-602-6062
Email: leequinby AT aol DOT com

This 2-semester course provides an opportunity for in-depth research and analysis of a topic that stirs your curiosity and motivates your desire to share what you learn about it with others.  The weekly assignments are geared toward fostering intellectual community as well as cultivating skills in writing and techniques of inquiry.

Over the course of both semesters, you will meet in consultation with a faculty advisor in your research field.  Much of your work will be done individually as you gather sources and data about your topic.  As a class, we will meet to brainstorm about topics, focus and refine ideas, and offer advice on research, revision, and reorganization.  In addition, each of you will attend at least one Great Issues Forum Event at the CUNY Graduate Center as a way of placing individual topics within a wider intellectual context.

During the second semester, each student will present an in-progress oral report to the class. At the end of the spring term, students will present their findings in formal presentation in a conference format. Students should invite their advisors to attend their oral report and the Conference.

Required Textbooks

Please purchase the third edition of Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research (University of Chicago Press, 2008).  It is available in paperback. Your citations should be in accordance with the conventions of your field of research.  You may purchase a style manual or use a CUNY Library Internet Reference Guide.  Be sure you use the most recent Guide, since internet citations have been updated.

Course Requirements

Attendance is required for all class meetings and one GIF event as designated on the syllabus.  In the event of an illness or unavoidable reason for missing class, please notify me in advance if possible or provide an official excuse to avoid a grade penalty.  Lateness is disruptive to the flow of discussion and will be considered an absence.

Class participation is vital to the discussion format of this course.  Your ideas and respectful critiques provide valuable support for your colleagues. Your class participation will be judged on the basis of the quality of the ideas expressed and the force of your arguments, your respect for other class members’ and my points of view (as shown in the way you respond to others’ ideas), and your attentiveness to the discussions.  Participation also includes peer evaluation (oral and written).

Portfolio:  long-term projects are aided by keeping a record of your research and writing with comments from me and your advisor. Your portfolio is to include all formal assignments listed below, reflections on anecdotal materials that touch on your topic, and annotations of and responses to sources. Your portfolio allows you to keep such materials ready at hand and will serve as a record of shifting arguments.  It must be kept up to date.  Please bring it to class and be prepared to turn it in on occasion.

Writing Assignments: over the course of the first semester, you will submit the following to me and to your advisor by the dates stipulated on the class schedule.  These are to be placed in your portfolio with our comments.  On occasion, you may need to revise or rewrite these assignments.

• Autobiographical Statement:  2 pages
• Blog Response to Great Issues Forum Event
• Proposal of Topic: 2 pages
• Annotated Bibliography:  10-12 sources
• Position Papers:  length stipulated on schedule
• First Semester Draft:  25 pages with full citations

Second Semester Conference:  this is the culminating event of our year-long course.  Participation is required to complete the class.

Course Evaluation

First semester grades are based on your class participation and your Portfolio, which should include each of the writing assignments listed above.

Second semester grades are based on your class participation and Portfolio, Oral Report, Honors Thesis and Self-Evaluation, and your Conference Presentation.

For both semesters, I will determine your final grade in consultation with your advisor.  This includes your advisor’s written reports.

Course Objectives

Knowledge Bases

Students should:

• develop ability to evaluate texts that provide material for their research projects
• develop understanding of a variety of types of discourse and print and visual media in their interdisciplinary contexts (e.g., cultural, social, historical, scientific, psychological, and political)
• develop an understanding of rhetorical strategies
• develop the ability to discern ideological inclinations of texts
• develop ability to understand and apply theoretical formulations to their issues

Academic Skills

Students should:

• be able to reason, think critically, evaluate, use evidence, and make judgments
• be able to write clearly and imaginatively in a form appropriate to their field of interest
• use appropriate conventions of language, including correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
• be able to revise and reorganize for clarity
• be able to use the library to find appropriate print and electronic sources
• develop a sense of fairness, objectivity, and accuracy in reporting
• understand the ethics of research and writing, including the proper citation, and integration, of source materials into their work and the meaning and consequences of plagiarism
• develop listening skills
• develop ability to speak effectively

Social and Personal Skills

Students should:

• learn to be self-reflecting
• develop ability to work independently and collectively
• learn how to brainstorm about ideas
• develop respect for both intellectual and cultural diversity