required readings: All required readings are listed below and are available as electronic texts linked to this syllabus.  Students who wish to access the readings electronically from off-campus computers will need VPN software to do so.  Students are expected to come to class having done the required readings, and may benefit from looking at some of the optional readings listed below as well. 

course requirements: Final grades will be based on a combination of written work, class participation, quizzes, and a final examination.  Students will be evaluated on their ability to explain and critique the arguments covered in the course, and not on whether they agree or disagree with them.
        1. papers (60 percent of final grade): students will write two 8-10 pp. papers, each of which is worth 30 percent of the final grade.  The first paper is due on Monday, October 12 and the second paper is due on Friday, December 11.  Papers must be submitted as Word documents (preferably as .doc rather than .docx documents) through Turnitin.com by 5:00 p.m. on the day they are due.  For information about how to submit a paper through Turnitin.com, click here.  Students may submit rough drafts for comments in advance of each deadline (by e-mailing them to me, not via Turnitin.com), and I will make every reasonable effort to provide such feedback in a timely manner, but students do not have the option of rewriting their paper or doing anything else to earn extra credit after the papers have been graded.  Papers that are submitted late without a legitimate excuse will be marked down one half-grade (e.g, from a B to a B-) for every day that they are late.  Be sure to include your name on the front page of the paper.  For further details on the writing assingments for this course, click here .
        2. class participation (20 percent of final grade): participation will count for 20 percent of the final grade.  Class participation requires, at a minimum, regularly attending class.  In addition, to earn full credit for participation, students must be actively engaged in the course, where this is construed broadly to include conversations with me during office hours, correspondence with me via e-mail and posting to the class e-mail list, as well as contributions to class discussion.
       3. final examination (20 percent of final grade): the final exam will count for 20 percent of the final grade.  The exam will involve a combination of short answer questions and short essay questions and will cover material from the entire semester, including material from the required readings as well as information that was provided in lecture and that arose during class discussion.  Students will be required to answer short essay questions about issues other than those they wrote their two 8-10 pp. papers on.  The exam will be held on Monday, Dec. 14, 7:30 - 10:00 p.m, in  Hellems 237..