FSP
111:H3: The Persistence of Memory
TF
10-11:20 Bliss Hall 233
Felicia
Jean Steele
Department
of English
Bliss
Hall 207 609-771-2698
Office Hours: MTF 1:00-1:50, Check schedule for availability.
Email: steele@tcnj.edu
(Worldviews and Ways of Knowing/Cognitive
Science Concentration)
Course
Description:
Almost
every discipline touches upon memory somehow. Psychologists and doctors
investigate (and try to compensate for) memory loss, while writers and artists
exploit memory as a trope or delve into it for inspiration. Meanwhile,
technologists and inventors devise machines to make memory obsolete.
In
our first year seminar, you will read and write about the work in these
disciplines and the intersections between them, with particular focus on the
intersections of neuroscience and the arts in both the contemporary and
historical spheres (literature, painting, and philosophy). You will write three
short papers (5-7 pages, in two drafts), a multimedia presentation, and a culminating
research project that draws specifically on two disciplines. In addition, you
will complete other write-to-learn activities, including in-class writings,
discussion postings, and annotated bibliographies.
In
the first unit of the course, you will read, write about, and discuss the
"science of memory" as presented in popular press books written by
academics and literature. You will investigate the "pathologies of
memory" and what disease states tell us about normal memory. In your own
papers, you may write about memory loss, memory research, medications for
memory, or false-memory phenomena. During this unit, you will read three books:
Daniel L. Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and
Remembers; Eric R. Kandel, In Search of Memory; and John
Bayley, Elegy for Iris.
In
the second unit of the course, you will discuss the "cultural
constructions of memory," contemplating the effect that arts of memory
have had on literature and other arts. During this section of the course, you
will read two books that complement one another. We will begin with sections
from Frances Yates, The Art of Memory and move into selections from
classical, medieval, and renaissance texts on memory drawn from Mary Carruthers
and Jan M. Ziolkowski, The Medieval Craft of Memory. You will be asked
to create your own "Art of Memory," using landmarks from TCNJ as
mnemonic devices, mimicking the strategies of Simonides and his followers. You
will put together a multi-media presentation (in addition to the paper for this
unit) that describes this mnemonic and perform it for the class as well.
The
third unit will address the topic of
"Memory and the Arts." We will read poems, short stories, and
extracts of novels drawn from James McConkey’s anthology The Anatomy of Memory.
We will also be reading selections of poems from Anna Akhmatova and Rainer
Maria Rilke. You will research (and present on) a short novel, collection of
short stories or poems, or a work of visual or musical arts that has not been
assigned as part of the class work, analyzing the function of memory in that
work of art.
For
your final research project, you will extend the scope of one of your earlier
papers across a disciplinary divide. For example, if you wrote about about
memory loss or false memories from a psychological perspective in your first
paper could extend your topic to include developments in oral history archives
or recent controversies about popular memoirs. You may also take on a new
topic, as long as it covers at least two disciplines. For example, you might
focus on the technological commodifications of memory: PDAs or emerging
memory-enhancement treatments and technologies.
In
all, the course will have the following learning goals:
In
this course, you will:
·
Engage complex intellectual questions, such as the relationship between
science and the arts or the natural of cultural memory;
·
Become more thoughtful and efficient communicators in both oral and
written discourses required for success in academic endeavors;
·
Become ethical and engaged researchers, capable of approaching difficult
questions from a variety of viewpoints;
·
Become more reflective and self-aware writers, willing and able to edit,
proofread, and revise thoroughly your own work and to provide meaningful,
constructive feedback to your peers about their writing.
By the end of this course,
you will be able to:
With
these goals and outcomes in mind, you will complete a number of learning
activities beyond your four major writing assignments. You will also maintain
an interactive editing log through the SOCS C-Docs section. After giving
initial feedback on their papers, I will ask you to respond to my concerns,
discover the relevant sections your writing handbook (I have a list of
recommended titles later on in the syllabus) that may address my concerns,
discuss how you have internalized those readings, and demonstrate your ability
to integrate this feedback into a subsequent draft. You will also share these
drafts with your peers in an in-class workshop, soliciting further feedback,
and then turn them in for a grade. All your writing will be evaluated using a
SOCS-based rubric based upon the rubric for first year writing. Please examine
this rubric (available under the “Syllabus” heading in the SOCS “Resources”
section) and use it during the preparation of your papers. You will also
complete two annotated bibliographies, one for your presentation and one for
your final researched paper. Because of uncertainties with scheduling at the
conclusion of the semester, you will have no final examination; you will simply
turn in your final researched paper through the SOCS dropbox when our final examination
would have been held.
Overall,
the grading breakdown of the course will be as follows:
Three short papers: 60%
Writing log: 5 %
Presentations 10%
Annotated Bibliographies: 5 %
Participation (including write to
learn exercises): 15%
Peer Reviews: 5%
The term grade will be calculated using
the SOCS grade book. The following percentages will be used to assign a letter
grade to your work:
|
100 – 93.5 %= A |
79.4 – 76.5 %= C+ |
Descriptions
of Types of Class Work and Expectations for their Completion
Written
Work
Over
the course of the semester, you will produce three researched argumentative
essays (5-7 pages double-spaced), and one final researched paper (10-12 pages
double spaced). You will compose all of
your formal essays according to the process method; in other words, you will
present a topic proposal to your peers and to me, then a draft that you will
revise based on feedback from your peers and from me, and then a final version.
Your topic proposal and draft will not be graded separately. If you fail to
turn in one of these elements on time, you will not get credit for the entire
assignment. While this policy may seem draconian, its purpose is to make sure
that all students in the course have the opportunity to receive (and to
provide) timely feedback on their writing. If the final version of your essay
is late and there are no mitigating circumstances, your grade will be docked
one letter grade for each day it is late.
Although
each essay will have specific requirements, I maintain these expectations for
all your written work. Minimal Expectations: Each researched assignment will require you
to construct an argument, appropriate for a given audience and purpose, in
clear and understandable prose. Your sentences must be grammatically
constructed, punctuated correctly, and state their ideas in an understandable
manner. Your essay must be organized and
coherent from beginning to end. In order to present a reliable authorial voice,
you must document all sources of information correctly and reliably using MLA
style. Further Expectations: You should create a clear and understandable
structure for your essay, which will allow you to create a consistent pattern
of assertion and support to coordinate the various parts of the argument. A
logical progression of thought should be apparent from sentence to sentence and
from one correctly structured paragraph to the next. Supporting evidence should be relevant and
deployed effectively. In addition, your essay must reflect your efforts to
evaluate and interpret sources to determine their credibility. Higher Order Goals: The best essays will
have style and originality and all essays should cultivate such virtues. The ability to control and vary voice and
tone, as well as the ability to devise original arguments and construct them in
fluid and interesting prose, should be your ultimate objective.
Additionally,
all (formal) essays should be submitted double spaced formatted for 8.5" x
11" pages, using 1" margins left and right, top and bottom. Font size should be 12 pt. (serif font, such as
Times New Roman), and pages should be numbered. All essays must have titles.
You should consistently use a citation style appropriate to your major. If you
plan to work in psychology or the sciences, you should use APA style. If you
plan to work in the humanities or the arts, you should use MLA. You must cite
sources! All work done outside of class (formal essays and brief assignments)
should be submitted through the SOCS dropbox and turned in on paper in class on the day that
they are due. The only exception to this rule will be your final researched
paper, which will be turned in only through the SOCS dropbox. Everything that
you turn in through the dropbox must be in a readable format. If you do not use
Microsoft Word as your wordprocessing program, please make sure that you turn
in your work in Rich Text Format (RTF).
Preparation
and Participation in Class
This
course serves as one of your introductions to college work. The foundation for
college is the academic community. You have a unique opportunity to share both
your class and your housing community with one another, although you will also
face unique challenges as a result. I
intend for us to create a welcoming environment, where each of us will find an
open-minded audience willing to provide us with reasonable and tactful feedback
on our written work. I also expect that you will commit yourself to treating
your peers (and, by extension, me) with respect and dignity. The course will
not succeed in creating a functioning community of writers and thinkers if you
are habitually absent, either physically or otherwise. I expect you to be in
class, on time, awake, aware, and participating to the best of your ability. In
exceptional circumstances, such as illness or emergency, please contact me
(771-2698) or the English department (771-2298) immediately. It is not
sufficient for your peers to convey a message for you. If you are ill, I need
to hear it from you. I will take attendance at each class period. We will also
have a reading quiz at the beginning of many sessions. Your participation in
in-class activities will also be recorded and your attendance records submitted
to the registrar in the sixth week of class. If you accrue an unreasonable
number of unexcused absences before the sixth week, you will receive notice
from the Records and Registration. If you must be absent for a week or more,
you must contact the Office of Student Life (771-2201).
A
Note on Preparation and Time Commitments
After
reading the description of the course requirements in the syllabus, you should
realize that you will be facing a wide range of different kinds of tasks over
the whole semester. I wanted to shed some light on my syllabus design process
to give you a sense of how I anticipate you will have to manage your time. In
general, faculty anticipate that students who will be most successful in their
undergraduate classes will spend between two and three hours preparing for
class for every hour they spend in class (8-12 hours per week). While I may not
have assigned nine hours worth of homework for every week of class, I
anticipate that you will want to spend considerable time doing independent
research, studying with other members of the class, or meeting with me to
discuss your research project or advising issues. Remember that the point of
this course will be to teach you what it takes to be a successful college
student. Please manage your time accordingly. Keep in mind that the faculty
members for your other courses likely use the same or a similar formula in
creating their courses. Thus, you should anticipate that you will spend
somewhere between 32 and 48 hours per week outside of class preparing for four
classes-worth of material. While this is an honors course, I do not anticipate
that the work load will be more onerous than that of other first year seminars
(at least those I have taught in the past). You will not have as much writing
as other sections, although you might have more challenging reading
assignments. With any luck, that also means that we will have challenging and
enjoyable discussions.
Accommodations
Any
student requiring accommodations will benefit from contacting the Office of
Differing Abilities (771-2571). You may read TCNJ's statement regarding
accommodations at http://www.tcnj.edu/~eesinfo/ada.htm. If you require special
assistance, I will make every effort to accommodate your needs and to create an
environment where your special abilities will be respected.
Academic
Honesty
The College has a detailed policy on Academic Integrity, which I encourage you to read. (http://www.tcnj.edu/~academic/policy/Academicintegrity.htm)
It details a wide variety of behaviors, but the infraction of academic integrity that becomes relevant in writing-intensive courses usually relates to plagiarism: "Using another author's words without enclosing them in quotation marks, without paraphrasing them, or without citing the source appropriately."
Even if you provide a citation to a source at the end of a text, you have still plagiarized if you haven't distinguished the material you've used from the text from you own words.
Plagiarism is a difficult subject to deal with, for faculty as well as for students. The College's policies mandate two things: that I report significant infractions to the academic integrity policy and that I discuss the matter with responsible students before I do that reporting.
If I suspect a student has plagiarized in one of his or her assignments, I will document that plagiarism using either Turnitin (software available also to you through the SOCS dropbox) or through another method that will produce physical documentation. I will then contact the student and ask for him or her to meet with me privately to discuss the issues in my office, or in the English department office.
If the issue arises at the conclusion of the semester, the issue is slightly more complex, because students may no longer be on campus. In that case, I will submit an incomplete for the semester and request the same face-to-face meeting. I will not rely on email or phone messages to reflect my concerns, because they are inherently not private and not as reliable as face-to-face communication.
I want to tell all of you the following, however: it's not my job to catch plagiarists, even if electronic tools make that a fairly easy endeavor. I'm much more interested in making sure that you're learning. Plagiarism usually happens when students are under pressure, anxious, or otherwise "not themselves." If you feel as if you are having difficulty keeping up with coursework in this class (or any other), please do not hesitate to talk with me about it. It's much better to negotiate an extension (even with a slight grade penalty for lateness) than it is to risk plagiarism and all its consequences. If you are having difficulty keeping up with other classes or responsibilities, I can also help you work through those concerns. I encourage you to keep these lines of communication open with the faculty members for all your courses.
Use
of Electronic Resources
We
will be using a variety of electronic resources both to facilitate our
communication with one another and as sources for objects of discussion. You
must have access to these resources by the second day of class:
* Your TCNJ email account must be activated
and you must know your login ID and your password. You will use this login and
password to access the SOCS system (http://socs.tcnj.edu), where you will find
various resources. Full descriptions of all assignments and worksheets to help
you as you guide your work are available on SOCS. You must also know your
Novell login and password. Call the HelpDesk (x2660) for assistance if you do
not have this information.
* If you do not care to use your TCNJ email
account (for example, if you check a GMail or AOL account more regularly), you
may forward your TCNJ email to the public account. Log in to SOCS, click the
"Email" tab, and there you will find instructions about how to
forward your mail.
* Bookmark our website on your computer. I
will be updating the website constantly, posting assignments, resources, and
other information. You will also not receive copies of anything on paper. If
you wish to have paper copies of materials for this class, you will have to
print them out yourselves.
* A note on printing: many of our texts
will be available through SOCS or electronic reserve. You will need to print
them out. You are allotted 600 pages of free printing by TCNJ’s Information
Technology services. You will be charged for any printing in excess of this
amount. Please be aware of this as you print in the labs. Please let me
discourage you from printing out webpages or other material that may count
against your allotment.
Required Texts
ISBN 0393058638 Eric R.
Kandel, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, W. W. Norton (
ISBN: 0618219196 Daniel L.
Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers,
Houghton Mifflin (
ISBN: 0226950018 Frances
Yates, The Art of Memory,
ISBN: 0812218817 Mary
Carruthers, Jan M. Ziolkowski (Editors) The Medieval Craft of Memory: An
Anthology of Texts and Pictures,
ISBN: 0195078411 James McConkey,
Anatomy of Memory: An Anthology,
ISBN: 0312421117 John
Bayley, Elegy for Iris, Picador (
Recommended Texts
I strenously recommend
that you have a good desk dictionary and general writing handbook at your
disposal. I can recommend the following handbooks:
ISBN: 031239828X Andrea
Lunsford, The St. Martin’s Handbook, Bedford/St. Martins (2004)
ISBN: 0073228508 Janice H.
Peritz, A Writer's Resource; a
Handbook for Writing and Research, McGraw-Hill;
2nd edition (2005)
ISBN: 0131234714
Maxine Hairston, John Ruszkiewicz, and Christy Friend, Scott Foresman Handbook for Writers, Seventh
Edition, (Hardcover -
If none of these catch your
fancy, just make sure that the writing handbook that you purchase has the
following features: an extensive section on citation styles that has been
updated within the last three years; an extensive index; an extensive
discussion of stylistic and grammatical concerns (many handbooks class these as
ESL concerns, but they apply to any user of the English language, native or
not); a section on document design. A book like The Elements of Style is
not a sufficient reference work. Many publishing companies, such as Houghton
Mifflin, have desk reference sets that include a dictionary and writing guide.
They can be useful.
Preliminary Schedule of
August 29: UNIT ONE
September
1: Schacter, Seven Sins of Memory, 1-87
September
8: Schacter, Seven Sins of Memory, 88-206
September
12: Kandel, In Search of Memory, 1-52
September 15: Kandel, In Search of Memory, 53-149
September
19: Topic Proposal Paper One Kandel, In Search of Memory,150-207
September 22: Guest
lecture by Andrew Leynes; Kandel, In
Search of Memory, 208-261
September 26: Bayley, Elegy for Iris, 1-123
September 29: Bayley, Elegy for Iris, 124-275
October 3:UNIT TWO Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, xi-49
October 6: First Draft Paper One
October 10: Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, 50-128
October 13: Aristotle, On Memory (SOCS); Albertus Magnus, Commentary on Aristotle, 118-188 Final Draft Paper One Due
October 17: CLASS CANCELLED DUE TO DIZZINESS
October
20: Francesc
Eiximenis, On Two Kinds of Order that Aid
Understanding, 189-204; Thomas Bradwardine, On Acquiring a Trained Memory, 205-214; John of
October
27: Frances Yates, The
Art of Memory, 129-198 Topic Proposal Paper Two Due
October 31: Frances Yates, The Art of Memory,199-265
November 3: Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, 320-389
November 7: First Draft Paper Two Due
November 10: UNIT THREE Yeats, 123-125
November 14: Topic Proposal Paper Three Due
November
17: Wordsworth,
143-147; Proust, 190-200;
November
21: Hughes, 227-229; Angelou, 254-264;
November
28: Nabokov,
329-338; West, 355-366; Chekov, 479-490
December 1: First Draft Paper Three Due
December 5: Presentations Paper Three
December 8: Presentations Paper Three
FINAL PAPER DUE IN DROPBOX Friday, 12/15/2006 by 5pm.