CIV 150W

CIV 150W-01

Freshman Writing Seminar:

Greek and Roman Private Life
Fall, 2000

Contents of this syllabus:

Instructor Information
Meeting Place and Time
Important Electronic Addresses
Course Description and Objectives
Required and Recommended Textbooks
Course Format
Assignments and Grading
Important Course Policies
Course Calendar

Instructor: William Hutton
Office: Morton 326
Phone: 221-2993
e-mail: wehutt@wm.edu
Office hours: MWF 11-12 noon and by appointment.

Time and place of Class: MWF 2-2:50; Morton 340

Important Electronic Addresses:

Class web page:

http://www.wm.edu/CAS/classical_studies/wehutt/150W.html

Class e-mail list:

grpl-l@wm.edu (for subscription instructions, consult the class web page)

Instructor's e-mail address: wehutt@wm.edu

Course Description:
In this course we will read about, write about and discuss the way ordinary and not-so-ordinary people lived in ancient Greece and Rome. Topics covered will include birth, food, work, sex, religion, marriage and death. We will read original sources (in translation) to learn what the ancients themselves thought about these aspects of everyday life. We will also consider how ancient attitudes compare to modern ones, including (especially!) our own.

Course Objectives:
Here is how the W&M Faculty defines the goals of the Freshman Writing Seminar:

"The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to help the student develop his or her ability to engage in critical thinking and independent learning. To accomplish this, the seminars provide the student with an active small-class experience that includes opportunities for discussion, writing, and other modes of expression appropriate to the subject matter of the course."

(For further information on freshman seminars, see the link on the class home page.)

To fulfill these goals, most of your work in this class will be devoted to researching, writing and re-writing various written assignments and preparing oral presentations. In addition, this freshman seminar naturally has more specific goals related to its subject:

To learn about two cultures that are different from ours, but also fundamental to our history

To introduce you to the problems involved in studying the ancient world and to the resources and methods used to approach these problems

To get you thinking in general about the phenomenon of culture: are there some aspects of human culture that are universal, or is the culture of every society determined largely by its historical circumstances?

Required Textbooks:

Joint Association of Classical Teachers, The World of Athens (Cambridge, 1984)

J. Shelton, As the Romans Did, Second edition (Oxford, 1997)

C. Carey, Trials from Classical Athens (Routledge, 1997)

J. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes (HarperCollins, 1999)

D. Hacker, A Writer's Reference, Fourth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999)

A Course Packet of photocopied material, available at the bookstore

Some additional required readings will be available through the reserve desk at SWEM library or on Electronic Reserve.

Course format:
In many ways this class will be different from most others you take at William & Mary. Only rarely will I be lecturing at you for a full 50 minutes. Most classes will consist of a brief lecture (or series of remarks) by me followed by discussion involving the entire class. Some of these discussions will be more formal than others, and some of them will be generated and punctuated by assigned oral reports by individual students. Our discussions will not only be on the assigned readings about the ancient cultures, but also on the process of writing and on the written work you will be doing throughout the semester. There is a heavy element of peer review in this course: the other students in the class will be reading a lot of what you write and, with any luck, helping you improve your writing. We will also continue our discussions outside of class in an e-mail discussion group. This course is designed to help you become an active learner rather than a passive receptacle into which the professor pours knowledge, and for this reason, I and the rest of the class are counting on you to come to each class prepared and ready to contribute.

Assignments and Grading:
Your grade will be calculated as follows:

Class participation: 20%
Short writing assignments: 20%
Midterm paper 15%
Major oral report 10%
Final research paper 35%
(there are no exams)

NOTE: You must earn a passing grade on your final research paper to earn a passing grade for the course. Aside from that your grade will be calculated on a strictly numerical basis and converted to letter grades on the following scale: 93-100 = A; 89-92 = A-; 85-88=B+; 81-84 = B; 77-80 = B-; 74-76 = C+; 71-73 = C; 68-70 = C-; 64-67 = D+; 60-63 = D; 55-59= D-; Below 55 = F.

Explanation of Grade Components:

Class participation: Includes attendance, preparation, informal in-class writing, brief oral reports, participation in discussion, cooperative attitude. Your grade for class particiption will be adversely affected by the following (this is not an exhaustive list): Missing class without a very good reason (one percentage point for the first occurrence, two for the second, three for the third, etc.), frequent tardiness, obvious lack of preparation (i.e. not doing the assigned readings, etc.), not participating in discussions, not participating in e-mail discussions (see below), not giving constructive advice to your colleagues, sleeping in class (particularly if you snore), eating noisy food in class, in general, being inconsiderate.
e-mail discussion: to promote the use of this avenue of communication, each student is required to send at least four (4) substantial, paragraph-length (or longer) messages to the class e-mail list, at least two in each half of the semester.
Short writing assignments: These will occur on a more-or-less weekly basis, and will generally pertain either to the readings and topics discussed during the week or to an ongoing project the student is working on. The assignments will include not only formal expository essays, but more informal and imaginative activities such as short stories and role-playing exercises. The average length of these papers will be 1-3 pages.
Midterm paper: A medium-length research paper (1000-1500 words) on a topic to be agreed upon in consultation with me. In general this paper should focus on interpreting an ancient work of literature (such as a play, a biography or a court speech) in the context of what you know and can find out about ancient Greek society. You will be required to submit a brief proposal for this paper and a preliminary draft which will be read and commented on by me and by other students in the class. No papers will be accepted without prior approval of the topic, and no papers will be accepted without the required proposal and draft having been turned in on time.
Oral Report: You will be giving a formal, ten-minute oral presentation on the topic of your final paper.
Final Paper: A longer paper (ca. 2500 - 3000 words) based on a broader problem, generally an aspect of private life considered over a span of time. There should also be, in most cases, an element of cross-cultural comparison, either comparing Greek society with Roman society or ancient society with modern society. As with the midterm paper, you will be required to submit a brief proposal for this paper as well as a preliminary bibliography and two rough drafts which will be read and commented on by me and by other students in the class. No papers will be accepted without prior approval of the topic, and no papers will be accepted without the required proposal, outlines and draft having been turned in on time. When you hand in your final paper, it will be published on the world-wide web for the whole world to see and admire.

Important Course Policies:
No late papers or assignments will be acceptable without verifiable evidence of dire circumstances. No special arrangements whatsoever will be made if you do not notify me of your dire circumstances within 48 HOURS after the deadline of the paper/assignment.

Attendance will not be recorded every day, but your absences will be noticed and will result in a lower class participation grade, if they are excessive or if they occur at particularly inopportune times (for instance, when you are scheduled to participate in group work or are supposed to be helping to critique your classmates’ work, they will SEVERELY affect your class participation grade.

Tentative Class Schedule: This schedule presents the main topics to be discussed each week, and important scheduled deadlines and activities. More specific information on topics and reading assignments will be given as we proceed through the semester, but the DEADLINES for drafts, papers, etc. will stay the same unless there is some unforeseen calamity.