Humanities 1003 Introduction to Humanities ----- Winter 2020
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30
Instructor: Neil Gardner
Telephone: Home 955-9300 Text 506-743-0329
E-Mail: gardner@stu.ca
Description and Objectives: Humanities 1003 introduces students to university level studies and disciplines. The course will enhance the students' abilities to research, think, read and write critically and produce essay-length compositions. Students will learn to use the databases to research and prepare to write university appropriate researched essays. Students will also learn and practise various oral communication skills and be expected to defend and support their arguments. The major essay for the course will require the students to read and analyze a book from a non-literary social perspective in order to discern the writer's intentions in writing it and how the work relates to society as it was at the time the book was written and how it might be relevant to today's society and the student's own life experience.
Methods: Students will be responsible for reading, watching and listening to a number of presentations from which they will acquire information to be used in their own essays. They will be expected to take part in class discussions, take notes from lectures, participate in a class debate and read a book.
Outcomes: Students will know the basic structure of an academic research essay and thesis. Students will be capable of researching and writing moderate well-organized essays. Students will be capable of taking and making notes, creating an outline and draft and writing a summary. Students will be able to edit their own and the work of others to produce a well polished final copy.
Evaluation:
One in-class essay 10%
3 Short essays (400-600 words) 30%
1 Longer essay (~2000 words) 20%
Midterm exam 15%
Final exam 25%
The paragraph and essay assignments are marked holistically, so meaning, logic, and development, as well as style, grammar, and punctuation are all considered in arriving at a final mark on an assignment.
The longer essay will be based on a non-literary critique of a text that the students will be expected to read during the semester. A list with choices of texts will be available during the first week of class.
Both exams will include questions based on readings that will be made available previous to the exams. Exams are open book and students may bring notes and texts to class; however, electronic devices will not be permitted. The exams will include various types of questions to reflect Bloom's taxonomy of learning.
Note the following Regulations:
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Prior approval is necessary before late submission of any written assignment. (10% penalty per class up to a maximum of 30% may be assessed for late assignments).
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Plagiarism: One component of the course is how to acknowledge source material when writing. All quotations and work not created by the student must be attributed to the original author. Failure to properly acknowledge a cited work amounts to plagiarism and can result in penalties ranging from a fail on the assignment to expulsion from the course. Plagiarism includes work copied, without acknowledgement, from the Internet.
4. In addition, unless otherwise directed, the following are policies for the class:
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All assignments must typed, 12 pt., in a plain font and double spaced.
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Assignments must be handed in at the beginning of the class they are due.
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Assignments more than one class late will lose 10%
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Generally I will not accept emailed assignments. If you have permission to email an assignment, it will be your responsibility to make sure that the assignment has been received.
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All assignments except for the final exam and possibly the last essay will be returned to you, usually within a week. You should keep all marked assignments until you have received your final mark.
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If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get any notes and assignments that were given during that class.
Required Texts:
Hacker, Diana. A Canadian Writer’s Reference, 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s 2015
In addition a good English dictionary would be helpful.
- Teacher: Neil Gardner