HUMANITIES 125: NEGOTIATING NATURE Syllabus, Fall Quarter 2015

Cara N. Stoddard | cstoddard@everettcc.edu | 425-259-8795

J Pod: Mon, Tues, Thurs 9:00am-10:05am & Wed 10:35am-11:30am K Pod: Mon, Tues, Thurs 10:10am-11:15am & Wed 9:00am-9:55am

Office Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 11:30am-12:30pm, or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION: “Why bother conducting an experiment at all if you know what results it will yield? Maybe every essay automatically is in some way experimental—not an outline traveling toward a foregone conclusion but an unmapped quest that has sprung from the word question. I don't know where the journey ends; otherwise, why call this action journey?” —John D’Agata This class is designed as a 10-week “quest” to critically examine the essential questions:

what is nature

what, if any, is the value of nature

and, how does a person’s unique experiences shape how they relate to the natural world

My goal is that through an immersion into some of the most beloved American nature essays of the past 200 years, you will expand your understanding of the varied and diverse perspectives on nature as well as begin to pinpoint what experiences and texts have shaped your own perspective and values regarding nature.

Humanities is an academic discipline that studies humanity and human culture through critical inquiry similar to what you will be doing in Ocean Teach this quarter, but the evidence you use in Humanities will come from the texts we read rather than the data you and your classmates have gathered on SOPS cruises. The end goal of humanities is less about finding the “right” answer or pinpointing a singular, concrete answer and more about what we can gain as individuals and as a group from the process of examining, critiquing, and empathizing with different authors’ perspectives and values. The name “humanities” is often used as an umbrella term to include many disciplines in language arts (foreign languages, world religions, literature, philosophy, and music) and the social sciences (anthropology, archeology, sociology, history, and the classics). In this humanities class, we will study American literature (nonfiction and poetry), history, philosophy, and visual arts.

“To think with any seriousness is to doubt. Thought is indistinguishable from doubt. To be alive is to be uncertain. I'll take doubt. The essayist argues with himself, and the essayist argues with the reader. The essay enacts doubt; it embodies it as a genre.” —David Foster Wallace

Through writing and revising several personal philosophical statements throughout the quarter, you will have the opportunity to try out new ideas, articulate what your gut tells you is the “right” way to think about nature, and, most importantly, to express doubt. I believe writing is a mode of critical thought that situates the self within the context of contemporary culture. So often our human impulse to connect with the world around us comes from personal relevance, so in reading each of the essays for this class, you should be searching for what in that author reminds you a little of yourself.

To do well in this class, you need only to have an authentic sense of curiosity to be constantly asking big, open-ended questions as you read and a sense of self-awareness—the ability to look at your own opinions and views as an outsider would. Throughout this class, you will continually reexamine where you are at in your thinking about the natural world that you grew up in. Essentially, you will begin to name your foundation or your starting place for how you think about nature.

“No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s own culture but within oneself. If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light.” —Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of the course, you should be very good at:

1. Creating a broad understanding of different perspectives on nature and the resulting differences in the value of nature

Analyzing multiple differing perspectives on a single topic

Reflecting on your own changing perspectives on a single topic re: nature

Detailing potential ramifications of your own and others’ perspectives on nature

Demonstrating an understanding of a holistic approach to negotiating nature

Demonstrating the ability to find connections between cultural understandings of the environment and quantitatively derived scientific understandings

2. Demonstrating capacity to build community through dialogue and consensus-building

Reflecting on efforts to find and capitalize on common ground

Demonstrating familiarity with different strategies for building consensus

Reflecting on value of building community through dialogue

3. Demonstrating critical thinking, reading, viewing, listening, and composing skills

Demonstrating capacity for summary, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

Actively questioning, clarifying, and connecting while reading and listening

Analyzing visuals through perspective, line, color, composition, and texture

Utilizing effective organization strategies in writing

Creating a logical flow of ideas

Establishing and maintaining a formal but engaging voice

Editing all written documents as if they are intended for publication

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Encounters with the Archdruid | 1971 The Norton Book of Nature Writing | 1990

John McPhee | 978-03745143 Robert Finch & John Elder

978-0393978162

DEADLINES FOR MAJOR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

**All essays are due by the start of class on the day listed. Tuesday, 29 September 2-page Preserve and Protect Essay Due Thursday, 15 October Perspective Essay Due Monday, 16 November Value Essay Due Monday, 7 December Final Portfolio Due @10am Note: Because of the extensive and time-consuming nature of the comments I make on each student essay I read, I usually take 2 full weeks to grade and return essays. Thank you in advance for your patience. If you have questions on a draft while you wait for formal feedback, don’t hesitate to come by my office during office hours (or email me a time) and we can look through your essay together.

GRADING: The bulk of the work for this class is reading—and keeping up with the daily readings, reading them critically, reading all the way to the end, marking them up, and taking notes while reading are crucial to being able to do well on the writing assignments for this class. There are two 4-page writing assignments—the Perspective Essay and the Value Essay—in this class, and you will be writing each essay essentially twice—once for feedback from me (your 1st draft) and once for the Final Portfolio. Both the Perspective Essay and the Value Essay are opportunities for you to assert your own view on nature, explore the roots for where that view comes from (what experiences in your life or identities you hold as crucial to who you are), and respond to the authors we have been reading in class. The First Drafts of these two major essays—Perspective and Value—are graded out of 40 points, and your score is based on satisfactory completion of the objectives of the assignment as well as thoroughness (meeting the minimum page requirement). I also will give you a projected score using the rubric that I use to grade your revision (for the Final Portfolio) so you know what areas are weakest and need the most attention. The Final Portfolio consists of a revision of your Perspective Essay, a revision of your Value essay, plus a Statement of Philosophy on Your Approach to Nature, and a short reflection on own critical thinking and growth as a communicator. I will be looking for substantial revisions (massive overhauls) on these two essays between your first draft and the draft you include in the Final Portfolio. Revision, in the truest sense, means “re-seeing”; as such, I expect that you will significantly alter your thesis or one or more of your examples (from the texts we’ve been reading) so that one (or more) of your paragraphs is entirely new in both the Perspective Essay and the Value Essay. Simply editing your essay and turning it in again is not satisfactory work for the Final Portfolio. 20% Participation (Canvas Discussion Board posts, 2-page Preserve and Protect Essay, and other homework assignments) 30% First Drafts (includes the Perspective Essay and Value Essay only) 50% Final Portfolio (60% Revised Perspective and Value essays and 40% for Personal Philosophy and Growth as

a Learner)

Grading scale:

93-100 A 73-76.9 C 90-92.9 A- 70-72.9 C- 87-89.9 B+ 67-69.9 D+ 83-86.9 B 60-66.9 D

80-82.9 B- 59.9 F 77-79.9 C+

LATE WORK: All work that is turned in after the due date will receive a zero; however, I will still give you qualitative feedback in the margins, so please do still turn in all of your work, even if it is late.

ATTENDANCE: Students do not lose “points” for missing class, but experiences such as presentations, workshops, discussions, in-class activities, and guest speakers will not be repeated and most cannot be made up. Students are responsible for any announcements and schedule changes made during class and on Canvas. Students are also responsible for turning in all work on time, regardless of absences. You can email me your work as an attachment at any time either through Canvas Conversations or regular email.

COURSE ETIQUETTE: Classroom citizenship. This is a discussion-based course designed to build relationships with other members of your cohort who you will be studying with for the next two years. I do not require people to raise their hand in class, but I do expect you to extend the common courtesy to others to wait until someone is finished talking before you speak (do not interrupt) and that you will refrain from dominating the conversation. If you notice that you are often the first person to offer an answer, check yourself and wait until one or two others have spoken in order to be sure you are giving your classmates time to formulate their own thoughts. We will be discussing sensitive topics and looking at each other’s personal writing in this course, and I expect you to treat each other with dignity and respect in Humanities, in your other classes at ORCA, and outside of class. Please be considerate of others’ ideas and beliefs and do not discuss the content of others’ papers with students outside of your Pod. My hope is that each of you will extend extra respect and sensitivity toward your classmates, especially those who write about their own vulnerabilities based on their race, color, national origin, ethnicity, citizen status, sex, health, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. If you feel your well-being is being jeopardized or you have observed someone else being treated disrespectfully in our outside of class, please come speak to me about it privately after class or during my office hours.

Readings. In accordance with ORCA’s mission statement to encourage active, responsible, and inquisitive learners, this class has been intentionally designed to include readings that represent a diverse set of perspectives and peoples. Many of the readings express points of view on controversial social and political issues. In this class you will most certainly encounter texts

with comments that seem dated or offensive (outside of their historical context) and with viewpoints that differ from your own. My hope is that you will grow as an individual by engaging maturely in worthwhile discussion and explore ideas that may be outside of your individual preferences and comfort levels.

Canvas. In order to promote habits and skill-sets unique to scholars of the 21st century, this course has a corresponding Learning Management Site located online called “Canvas.” You will be expected to check our Canvas page every day for a detailed description of the homework, and you will be submitting some assignments and participating in Discussion Boards on Canvas. To access Canvas, click on the third link from the left at the top of the Everett Community College homepage.

PLAGIARISM: Because of the personal nature of the writing assignments in this class, it is unlikely that you will be tempted to plagiarize, but here is a refresher on what to avoid when trying to attribute ideas and quotations that are not your original work. The two basic kinds of plagiarism:

1. Malicious or intentional. This is the most serious kind of academic theft. It involves presenting someone else’s work as your own, directly copy-pasting from a source (including Wikipedia) without using quotation marks or citations, rephrasing and summarizing someone else’s ideas without citations, or re-submitting your own work from a previous course.

2. “Plagia-phrasing” or mosaic plagiarism. This is when you use quotation marks around large chunks (more than 4 sentences) of text from a source that you wanted to quote or when you use a paraphrase that has too many of the same words as the original text. Even if you cite these texts as a general sources at the end of the essay in a Works Cited, this is still considered plagiarism because, in the act of trying to use a quote sandwich or re-word the passage into your own words, you ended up relying too heavily on someone else’s ideas and wording. This kind of plagiarism also involves integrating source material (as a quote or paraphrase) without citing your source in the sentences / paragraphs themselves (in other words you are missing the in-text citation). Even if several different sources were copied or combined, it is still plagiarism.

The consequences of plagiarism: If an essay involves plagiarism of the second variety (plagia-phrasing) and this is your first offense while in the ORCA, you will be required to set up an appointment with me outside of class time to work on accurately integrating outside texts (first offense only). Then you will have 24 hours from this meeting to rewrite and re-submit the paper using correct forms of documentation in order to receive credit—I will regrade the essay with a 10% point deduction. If your writing involves plagiarism of the first variety (malicious or intentional) or the second variety after I have already spoken with you once, you will also be asked to sign a contract and be placed on probation. Additionally, you will need to re-write that essay in order to be able to use it in your Portfolio at the end of the quarter. On a second serious offense for plagiarism or cheating, students who are on probation may be asked to leave ORCA. A final word on plagiarism: I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that you will do honest work and that you will work with me on improving writing that is your own. I understand the occasional temptation to overzealously copy-paste—but I am surprisingly good at recognizing plagiarism. My basic message is Do Not Do It. When you want to take something from another person’s work—an idea, a powerful statement, a set of facts, or an explanation—cite your source.

RESOURCES: Writing Center. I hope that if you have questions about a draft or want some early feedback on your writing before the due date or during revisions, that you will set up an appointment to meet with me (either during or outside of my office hours). If you would like additional feedback on your writing, you may schedule a 25- or 50-min appointment with a tutor in the Writing Center on main campus (Gray Wolf Hall room 320/322) by calling 425-388-9406.

Disability and Support Services. Everett Community College abides by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which stipulates that no student shall be denied the benefits of an education “solely by reason of a handicap.” Disabilities covered by law include, but are not limited to, learning disabilities, psychological disabilities, health impairments, hearing, and sight or mobility impairments. If you have a disability that may have some impact on your work in this class and for which you may require accommodations, please see me or the Center for Disability Services (located on main campus in Parks 267, right across from the bookstore) so that such accommodations may be arranged. Call 425-388-9272 or email cds@everettcc.edu for more info.