The interdisciplinary character of the course reflects our belief that certain intellectual goals and methods are common to academic disciplines, including the creative arts. While students of modern dance, child psychology, 16th-century British poetry, and molecular biology analyze different objects, the work they do calls for similar intellectual skills, such as observing, comparing, and interpreting. You will choose a major and become familiar with its theories and methods later in your studies at Wells College. WLLS 101 will help you see the connections between the major you will choose and others.

The Organization of WLLS 101: This course is taught in a discussion and workshop format, which allows you to participate fully in class and to receive individualized attention for your work. On occasion, the entire class of 2004 will meet together for lectures and plenary addresses. Each section of WLLS 101 shares a common syllabus, and all first-year students will be reading the same texts and doing the same assignments. In addition, we will be developing a vocabulary for talking about writing that you can apply to all future assignments that feature critical essays. Due dates for writing assignments are listed below in the syllabus and, barring emergencies, should be consistent from section to section. Sections will vary in the pace at which material is covered, use of classroom time, and class policies. Because discussion and collaborative work are essential to building an effective intellectual community, your attendance at all class sessions is expected.

The professor of your assigned section will distribute her or his office hours and codes of conduct in the course. S/he will also serve as your academic advisor until you declare a major in your sophomore year. You should feel free to consult your WLLS 101 professor about not only your work in Core I but also other matters, such as your class schedule and concerns about college work.

WLLS 101 meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:05-12:20 and Fridays from 1:45-3:00.

WLLS 101 Faculty will meet on Thursdays, from 12:20 to 1:15.

Texts:

Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors. The Everyday Writer. (St. Martin's Press, 1997, or latest edition). ISBN 0-312-09569-4

W.E.B.DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk

Margaret Mead. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization [1928] (Morrow Quill Paperbacks, 1961) ISBN:0-688-30974-7

Galileo. Siderius Nuncius (Starry Messenger). Trans. Albert Van Helden. (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1989) ISBN: 0226279030

Mary Shelley. Frankenstein [1818]. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. W. W. Norton, 1996. ISBN 0-393-96458-2

Gombrich, E. H. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. Princeton University Press, 1972 (or latest edition). ISBN 0 - 691 -01-750-6.

Handout on Bach "Eighteenth-Century Landscape in Visual Art" (unpublished booklet of artwork) "Sistine Chapel Ceiling Art" (unpublished booklet of artwork) J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos and North Indian music (one cassette tape for each section)

Films: TBA

Course Requirements:

1. 10 cultural events--10%

Because we regard campus cultural events as part of the interdisciplinary experience of the course, we are also asking that you attend ten (10) cultural events over the semester. Three (3) of these are required: the two events sponsored by the Lecture and Arts Committee and Professor Sandman's concert in November. Your professor will circulate a sheet for you to indicate the events you attended. You should go to a broad spectrum of events, such as poetry readings, lectures, art exhibits, science colloquia, and music, dance, and theatre performances.

2. Writing exercises--30%

a. Short paper;

b. The Writing Project (a series of graded exercises--including library exercises, peer editing, an oral presentation with handout, drafts of thesis paragraph, works cited and bibliographical material, etc.--that results in an 8-10 page essay).

The Writing Project:

Students produce one 8-10-page essay during the semester and one revision of that essay. (Details on formatting, etc. to follow). In general, the paper is to emerge from the course's content, and it should experiment with topics in the process of becoming a final essay. This essay will be produced in steps and revisions. Writing exercises can be done on texts or questions the students may eventually abandon. These exercises will focus on the following stages in the writing process:

• the construction of a 250 to 300-word thesis paragraph that demonstrates the student's ability to create an argument (contained in a thesis sentence) as distinct from an observation only.
• the construction of well-crafted paragraphs (mini-essays), including an opening and concluding paragraph, focused by topic sentences that refer back to the thesis.
• the use of library exercises to refine the topic of the paper, construct the bibliography and the works cited page
• peer editing
• the presentation of oral remarks (which include a handout). Dates for oral presentations will be assigned by your professor and distributed throughout the semester. The oral presentation need not be on the actual subject of the student's final essay, since the essay topic may change, transform, be revised several times during the semester.

3. 1 revision of the writing project--15%

4. Midterm and Final exams--30%

5. Attendance/Participation--15%

Course Schedule:

WAYS OF KNOWING/ORGANIZING KNOWLEDGE

THURSDAY 8/31--Introduction to the course;
Distribute Library Self-Guided Tour;
Distribute directions for doing short paper (summary and analysis of Ellen Hall's plenary)

FRIDAY 9/1--Plenary in The Chapel: Ellen Hall ("The Liberal Arts"). Focus: What is "the liberal arts" and how does Wells College practice this tradition? (Click on this link for the text of Dean Hall's talk.)

TUESDAY 9/5--Selected readings from E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation

THURSDAY 9/7--The Everyday Writer, pp. TBA;
Self-Guided Library Tour collected (turned into Louise Rossman);
The Writing Project is introduced and described in detail;
Short paper (summary and analysis of Ellen Hall's plenary) is workshopped through an in-class writing exercise (to be distributed). Focus: creating a short essay that contains a thesis paragraph, sections of summary and analysis, and a conclusion.

FRIDAY 9/8--Slide lecture, Cleveland Auditorium: Rosemary Welsh ("Modes of Human Understanding: Visual Thinking"). Focus: How do children and adults acquire visual knowledge?

TUESDAY 9/12--Gombrich continued;
Short paper due (to be graded, using Wells College's template for grading)

HUMANITY AND THE WHOLE FABRIC OF SOCIAL ORDER

THURSDAY 9/14--Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa

FRIDAY 9/15--Film (Ethnographic or documentary)

TUESDAY 9/19--Mead

THURSDAY 9/21--Mead

FRIDAY 9/22--Lecture: Victoria Muñoz and Ernie Olson. Focus: What does it mean to know through the computer? (presentation may include a discussion of the controversy about Margaret Mead and a discussion of particular websites, such as Teenage Diaries, Points of Viewing Children's Thinking)

TUESDAY 9/26--The Everyday Writer, pp. 45-51
Distribute Library Exercise #2: Basic Library Research
Writing Workshop. In-class writing exercise: Creating thesis paragraphs

THURSDAY 9/28--Mead

THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN UNDERSTANDING: THE MEANING OF RACIALIZATION

FRIDAY 9/29--W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk

TUESDAY 10/3--Film: Forgotten Fires (Subject: the burning of Southern American churches in the 1990s)

THURSDAY 10/5--Writing exercise due: Thesis paragraph (to be graded). Dubois continued

FRIDAY 10/6--Xerox: Martin Luther King, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" Xerox: "Becoming Indian"

THURSDAY 10/12--Xerox: Rollo May, "The Man Who was Put into a Cage" Library Exercise #2 due

FRIDAY 10/13--The Everyday Writer, pp. TBA
Writing workshop. In-class writing exercise: The Topic-sentence Tree.
Introduction to Peer Editing.

TUESDAY 10/17--Lecture and video demonstration: Rosemary Welsh and Susan Sandman ("Time in Indian Art and Music")

HUMANITY AND THE METAPHYSICAL

THURSDAY 10/19--Galileo, The Starry Messenger

FRIDAY 10/20--Lecture, Cleveland Auditorium: Rosemary Welsh ("The Concept of Time in Eighteenth-Century European Landscape Art")

TUESDAY 10/24--The Starry Messenger

THURSDAY 10/26--The Everyday Writer, pp. TBA;
Distribute Library Exercise #3: Using Databases
Writing Workshop: Peer editing of Thesis paragraph and "body" of paper.

FRIDAY 10/27--Film on Longitude (PBS)

TUESDAY 10/31--The Starry Messenger

THURSDAY 11/2--The Everyday Writer, pp. (TBA) Writing exercise due (TBA)

FRIDAY 11/3--Lecture: Susan Sandman ("The Concept of Time in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos")

TUESDAY 11/7--Additional Bach listening; Xerox: Bach listening guide

MYTHS OF ORIGIN

THURSDAY 11/9--Lecture: Professor Welsh ("Origin Myths: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling")

FRIDAY 11/10--Xerox: Myths of origin from different cultures--Hawaiian, Native American, Aztec
Library Exercise #3 due
Distribute Library Exercise #4: Searching the Net

TUESDAY 11/14--Frankenstein

THURSDAY 11/16--Frankenstein

FRIDAY 11/17--Film TBA: Lynch's The Elephant Man or Branagh's Frankenstein

TUESDAY 11/21--Writing Workshop: Draft of 8-10 page essay for peer editing

TUESDAY 11/28--Frankenstein

THURSDAY 11/30--Writing Project due

FRIDAY 12/1--Frankenstein

TUESDAY 12/5--Mellor's "Possessing the Female"

Final Exam (date TBA) Dec. 11-14

MONDAY 12/11--Revision of Writing Project due (with documents attached to demonstrate revision process)

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