PURPOSE AND PREREQUISITES OF THIS COURSE

This course is designed to provide students who need one credit of general humanities an opportunity to read or explore material related to the content of that term. Papers and tutorial session required. Prerequisites: Six hours of humanities credit; evidence that students are capable of carrying out independent study; and approval of department chair or dean.

Students wishing to take this course should remember that it is designed as an independent study for those who need one additional credit to complete their General Education Humanities requirements.

PROCEDURES

The student should come in as soon as possible after the start of the semester to discuss with the Instructor his plans or wishes for the course, that is, any areas of interest he or she may have such as painting, sculpture, music, literature, philosophy, or architecture. Together we will settle on an area to be pursued for this study.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

The student will then go to the library and select at least five books on the area selected. Where possible he will also find a brief annotation or description of each book such as is found in Books in Print or Book Review Index. He will then bring the books and descriptions to the Instructor and we will select two books from the total.

READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENT

The student will then read the two books selected and will write a brief synopsis and analysis of each chapter. Each chapter report should be a paragraph or so, not much more.

CONTENT OF CHAPTER SYNOPSES AND CRITIQUES

In his reports the student should address the following questions:

1. What was the chapter about? That is, what is the specific subject matter of each chapter as distinct from the subject matter of the book as a whole?
2. What is the thesis of each chapter as distinct from the overall thesis of the book? Or in other words what was the argument or the author's point of view? In some ways the thesis is nothing more than the stand that the author takes.
3. Apply questions one and two above to the book as a whole. In other words describe the general subject matter of the book as a whole, as well as the thesis, explaining how well the author defended his point of view, and how enjoyable the book was.