Seminar in Scholarly Inquiry 1 (SSI1 104) Why Travel? Tales from Far & Wide Sec A: Tues & Thurs 2-3:20pm (Wyatt 206) Sec B: Tues & Thurs 3:30-4:50pm (Wyatt 206) Fall 2018 Professor: Priti Joshi Office: Wyatt 338 Office Hours: Tues 1-2 pm e-mail: [email protected] Wed 5-6 pm Phone: 879-3515 Thurs 5-6 pm Mailbox: Wyatt 331 and by appointment Writing Advisor: Will Keyse Office Hours: Tues 6-9 PM; Wed 11-12 PM; Thu 2-4; Fri 11-1 PM; Sun 3-5 [email protected] We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets Overview and Objectives The purpose of this course is two-fold: I. To familiarize you with the critical reading, analytic, and writing, skills of the academic community; II. To do the above under the auspices of the topic “Why Travel?,” a focus that will introduce you to the ways humans have engaged the world beyond their immediate precincts. Why do people travel? Our ancestors, of course, were nomadic, and, as far as we can tell, settled humans have continued to feel the urge to explore and move beyond the boundaries of their known world. We travel so much that it would not be unreasonable to call our species homo peripateticus! This course will engage theories of travel – drawn from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, history, and philosophy – and examine some seminal instances of travel writing (from Herodotus, the “father” of travel writing to Columbus to contemporary writers such as James Baldwin and Orhan Pamuk). In each instance, we will “test” a theory against one or more case. In doing so, you are invited to enter a scholarly conversation and offer your own contribution to it. We will focus on developing and strengthening your skills of academic writing, a type of writing that is not discipline-specific. Such writing requires writers to make an argument by engaging in a critical dialogue with other (generally published) writers. Throughout the term we will work on honing three broad abilities: 1. Reading accurately, generously, and critically; 2. Making an argument that engages with others’ ideas by testing and extending them;Page 2 of 11 3. Using textual evidence to make your arguments and ensuring that you responsibly acknowledge, credit, and cite others’ ideas. In addition to these primary goals, you will also learn the following specific skills: • To EVALUATE SOURCES for reliability and appropriateness; • To distinguish between TYPES OF SOURCES (scholarly v. popular, primary vs. secondary) • To distinguish between SUMMARY, ASSESSMENT, ANALYSIS, and INTERPRETATION and to learn to use each effectively and appropriately in your writing; • To develop strong ASSERTIONS OR CLAIMS and provide EVIDENCE for them; • To SELECT TEXTUAL EVIDENCE judiciously and deploy it economically; • To distinguish between WAYS TO USE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE and to deploy a range of strategies; • To SITUATE AND INTEGRATE textual evidence into your arguments to best effect; • To ORGANIZE your papers effectively and clearly; • To eliminate GRAMMAR and SYNTAX errors in your writing; • To present your work ORALLY to an audience. If this sounds daunting, take heart; I do not expect you to know how to do all this at the start of the semester. We are together for 14 weeks during which time you will have many opportunities to develop these skills. (Thus, the final paper is worth more than the earlier two.) Course Requirements ➢ This is a reading-intensive course. The readings are neither simple nor quickly absorbed; hence, we will spend considerable time on each. Plan to return to the readings often and to re-think your initial responses to them. As your understanding of an essay develops, so will the complexity of your writing about it. ➢ In order to help you with the complex readings, prepare you for discussing and writing about them, and provide a low-stakes writing environment, I have assigned a Process Writing for almost every class. In order to receive credit, you must post your PW to Canvas prior to the start of class. The PWs constitute 15% of your final grade, and you must complete a minimum of 15 of 17 PWs (if you complete all 17, I will drop your two lowest grades). You will be assessed on your engagement with the text(s) and the thoughtfulness of your responses. A mere summary of the reading will receive a B- or C+ at best; a thoughtful engagement with the reading, an A. ➢ For each paper, you will submit a typed draft. If you miss the draft workshop (or come without a substantial daft), your grade on the paper will be lowered ½ a letter grade. ➢ We will workshop a lot in this class; peers will read your PWs and drafts and provide feedback for revision; you will also read peers’ work and be asked to respond to it constructively. Please be prepared to share your work with others and to be asPage 3 of 11 constructive and generous with your peers as you would like them to be with you. ➢ The focus of this class is on college-level critical reading, writing, and thinking. One of the tasks for all liberal arts thinkers is to “translate” ideas and issues from one sphere into another. To start you on this path, I will ask you to complete one informal project in which you take a journey and communicate it in a medium of your choosing. The journey can be a bus ride to a part of town unknown to you, a visit to one of Tacoma’s museums, attending a meeting of a group you are not a part of, etc.; the submission could be a map, a written review, an audio recording, etc. You are limited only by your imagination! The key is that you integrate the critical ideas of our class into another realm/medium. ➢ Grade Breakdown: Paper #1 15% Paper #2 20% Paper #3 25% Process Writings 15% Translation Project 10% Participation & Presentations 10% Peer Reviews 5% ➢ Required Texts o There is no textbook for this class; all readings are on our class Canvas* site. ▪ You should PRINT A COPY of each reading, mark and annotate it as you are reading, and bring your marked copy to class. ▪ You can print in the library or stop by the bookstore and request a copy of the readings via “Print on Demand.” You will pay for the packet
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