Instructor: Dan Mittag
Course: CAS105 [CRN 12209]
Office: Lattimore 526
Telephone: 275-8147
Email: dlmt@mail.rochester.edu
Course Webpage: http://mail.rochester.edu/~dlmt/courses/fall2003.html
Office Hours: Thursdays 11-12:30, and by appointment
| Course
Description | Texts | Objectives
| Policies | Resources | Requirements | Schedule
|
The events of September
11, 2001 brought terrorism to the forefront of our public consciousness. The effects have been both far-reaching
and significant. It has affected
our economy, our government’s policies and priorities, and our relations with
each other and the world. This
course will focus on the nature, effects, and motivations of terrorism, as well
as on the nature, function, and limitations of a just government. Some questions we will consider are the
following. What is terrorism? Do
American policies developed to guard against terrorism actually violate our
constitutionally guaranteed freedom?
More generally, how is freedom connected to terrorism? What justifies a government’s authority
over its subjects? Is revolting
against one’s government ever morally justified? If so, when and why?
Through writing, reading, and classroom discussion students will strive
to provide reasoned answers to such questions.
Careful reasoning and open and thoughtful classroom interaction will be an essential part of this course, whether during discussions, peer review, or individual writing exercises. Students will write and revise a series of critical papers of varying lengths, will continually evaluate their own work, and will produce clear, careful, academic prose. Through this process, students not only will come to better understand the complexity of the issues discussed in class, but also will come to refine their critical thinking, writing, and argumentative skills.
Late Assignments: All assignments must be
finished and turned in on time.
Late assignments will be marked down 1/3 of a grade for each day (not
class session) that they are late. If you do have to turn in something late, it
is your responsibility to make sure that
I have it in hand so that your grade will not continue to drop.
Rewrites: For this course you
are allowed to hand in an additional rewrite for two of the papers (i.e., each of
the first two critical papers). You will be limited to one rewrite per assignment, and in order to increase your grade you
must have done some substantial revision.
In order to encourage this, I am also requiring that you set up an appointment
with me to discuss the revision prior to your handing it in. Again, this is
required in order to increase your grade on the assignment that you are
revising. In this meeting we will discuss your ideas for revision, additional
revision strategies, target some areas of the paper which could be improved,
etc. If you have any other questions about this, please talk to me.
Attendance: It
is imperative that you come to class regularly and that you come to class
prepared. This is the only way to
be actively engaged with the material.
As a result, I do require that you come to class, and I will be keeping
track of who is missing each day.
You will be allowed two absences (regardless of reason) without
incurring a penalty. The third
absence will result in your loosing the benefit of the doubt. Four absences will result in your grade
being lowered by one full letter grade. For each absence greater than four,
your grade will be lowered by an additional full letter grade. Put simply, it is in your interest not to
miss class. The only exceptions to
this policy are for official University of Rochester excused absences. These require appropriate
documentation, and you will be responsible for making sure I receive that
documentation in a timely manner.
Participation:
Participation will be a significant part of this course. Good participation involves much more
than just saying something in class.
It involves giving reasons for your opinions or reasoned answers to
questions, raising thoughtful (and relevant) issues, asking questions about
things you don’t understand, explaining difficult points, arguments, or
theories, and exploring the issues of the class in more depth than a
superficial reading of the material will allow. (Remember: this class is to be active!) In order to do all of this, you must
have read the assigned material and spent some time sorting through and trying
to better understand it before coming to class. The reading is difficult, and many times you will need to
read articles twice in order to understand them adequately.
Plagiarism:
When you use another person's work or idea you must
properly document that you have done so.
Lack of documentation and improper documentation are forms of
plagiarism, and no form of plagiarism will be tolerated in this class. We will talk
more in class about how to document your sources properly. If you are caught plagiarizing
on an assignment in this class you automatically will fail that
assignment. Repeated instances, or
excessive forms, of plagiarism will result in automatic failure of the course
and official, university disciplinary action.
I should emphasize that
additional help is available by talking to me. Feel free to send me an email or call with questions or
concerns, or please stop by during my office hours.
Web Resources on Terrorism: This site is an avenue for you to learn more about the
issues relating to our course. I
want you to browse through this as soon as you have the chance. Poking around here should help ensure
thoughtful, educated, non-dogmatic class discussions on these topics.
The College Writing Center in Rush Rhees G-121 offers free writing help. They have College Writing Consultants (i.e., tutors)
available who can help you with every stage of the writing process. All of the consultants are graduate students
with lots of experience with CAS 105.
I can’t emphasize enough how helpful this can be, and I encourage you
all to schedule an appointment with a consultant whenever you think you can benefit from
it. You can schedule an
appointment by calling 273-3577.
Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper: I am requiring a couple of books on writing for this course,
but I have provided this link for your own additional benefit. I come from a philosophy background,
and it is only fair to let you know what I consider good academic writing. The focus of such writing is on argumentation, and it should be clear, careful,
and critical. Understanding both
what this writing is like and what producing such writing involves will help
you in this course, as this is exactly what I want each of you to be striving
for.
Suggestions for
Reading Philosophy: Much of
the reading for this class is very difficult. Your comprehension of it will be increased by, e.g., looking
up definitions of words you don’t understand, underlining those parts you take
to be most important, re-reading these parts after you have finished the paper
or chapter, noting questions you have in the margins, and generally reading
carefully and critically. (We will
talk more about this.) The link
provided recommends one general method for reading philosophy. You will likely find it helpful. Once you have read it, answer the
following question: “So, how do you read a philosophy paper?” [Suggestion: ask
similar questions of yourself when you are reading the material for this
course.]
How to Read Philosophy: Yes, I have provided two links on this
topic. This is that important. I
do recommend that you read both of them.
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Participation
|
15%
|
|
|
In-class
Writing & Extraction Essays |
5%
|
|
|
Critical
Paper #1 (4-5pages) |
10%
|
Due:
10/2 |
|
Revision
of Critical Paper #1 |
10%
|
Due:
10/14 |
|
Critical
Paper #2 (4-5 pages) |
10%
|
Due:
10/28 |
|
Revision
of Critical Paper #2 |
15%
|
Due:
11/11 |
|
Research
Paper (8-10 pages) |
35%
|
Due:
12/11 |
The daily schedule is
available at: http://mail.rochester.edu/~dlmt/courses/fall2003schedule.html.
(You may also link to it from the link provided at the top of the page.)