Curtis Brown
Spring, 2003

Louis P. Pojman, ed., The Moral Life (Oxford University Press, 2000)

Janie Porche 
lporche@trinity.edu 
210-262-8705

MW 8:00 - 10:00AM
TR 2:00 - 3:00 PM
or by appointment.

I am usually in my office during office hours, but occasionally a meeting or another commitment prevents this. If you just drop by during office hours, you will probably find me in; if you want to see me at another time, or if you want to be certain I'll be in, we can set up an appointment.

Listserv participation:  15%.  We will have a listserv mailing list for the class.  Sending an email message to the listserv will automatically send copies to everyone in the class.  This is potentially useful in a variety of ways -- to continue discussions begun in class; to suggest topics for class discussion; to call the group's attention to interesting news articles or web sites; to try out ideas and solicit comments on them.  I will keep all the contributions of everyone in the class, and at the end of the semester will assign a grade based on your level of participation.  Quality of contributions will be as important as quantity, but everyone will be expected to read new contributions as they arrive and to contribute at least weekly.

Short papers: 40%.  In addition to participation in the listserv discussion, each student will write three short (3-5 page) papers.  These should argue for a clearly stated position. Short papers are due Tuesday, February 11; Tuesday, March 4; and Tuesday, April 1. In addition, a rough draft of the first paper should be turned in by Tuesday, February 4.

In-class participation, including presentations: 20%. Class members will give regular brief presentations on the reading material; the grade for in-class participation will be based partly on these presentations and partly on other contributions to class discussion.

Final project: 25%. This should be a paper of eight to twelve pages. (If you wish to, you can present the paper as a web page instead of a conventional paper, but it should still be approximately the same length.) You should decide on a topic early in the semester and work toward the final project in stages. Except for the length, requirements are the same as for the shorter papers. (Note added in April: there is now some additional information about the final paper.)

Attendance and participation:  Attendance is required. This is reflected in the grade for in-class participation, but excessive absence is grounds for failure in the course, not merely on the participation portion of the grade.

You should be sure that you are familiar with the academic integrity policy stated on pages 1-2 of the Student Handbook. Note that violations of academic integrity include cheating, counterfeit work (i.e. turning in work that was done by someone else), unauthorized reuse of your own work ("turning in the same work to more than one class without consent of the instructors involved"), and plagiarism. The Student Handbook description of plagiarism is important enough to quote at length: "presenting as one's work the work of someone else without properly acknowledging the source. . . . Exact copying should be enclosed in quotation marks and be appropriately documented in footnotes or end notes that indicate the source of the quotation. Paraphrasing, when the basic sentence structure, phraseology, and unique language remain the same, is also plagiarism. When in doubt about these matters, it is the student's responsibility to seek guidance from the instructor of the course."

See the detailed schedule.