ENVI 252: A Perfect Storm:
How Economic and Environmental Disaster Defined America During the Depression
Williams College | Spring 2014 | M-Th 1:10-2:25 | Clark 205
Professor Brian McCammack | [email protected] | 413.597.4734
Office Hours: M-Tu 3-5 PM; and by appointment | Harper House 13
Course Description & Objectives
What happens to environmental priorities and perspectives when the economy crashes? Since 2008,
the “Great Recession” has been disastrous not only for Americans’ financial well-being, but also for
the political will to take action on climate change (to name just one environmental issue). But it
wasn’t always this way. The 1930s, one of the most traumatic decades of the twentieth century in
America, actually spurred environmentally-conscious action in an economic context far worse than
what we are experiencing today. Why? This class will explore the many ways Americans understood
their diverse local environments and took action to save them during the Great Depression.
Although the Dust Bowl is perhaps the most iconic of these environmental upheavals during the
1930s, this course will explore diverse geographical regions: from the Appalachian mountains to the
(de)forested Upper Midwest, from the agricultural South to the Dust Bowl plains and the waterstarved West. In each region, we will trace the impacts of economic turmoil on the environment and
the people who depended on it for their livelihoods, as well as the way the economic disaster paved
the way for the federal government’s unprecedented intervention in environmental matters.
Required Texts
• Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
• Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac (1948)
• Archibald Macleish. Land of the Free (1938)
o Not available at Water Street Books, but available from online booksellers
• Neil Maher. Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American
Environmental Movement (2008)
• John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
• Donald Worster. The Dust Bowl, 25th anniversary edition (2004 [1979])
Assignments/Requirements Overview
This course will meet twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays) for 75-minute sessions, and most
sessions will involve a combination of short lectures and, more substantially, in-depth discussion
based on the readings. Your success in this course will require careful reading of assigned texts,
diligent attention to material presented in lectures, punctual and regular attendance, engaged
participation, and timely completion of assignments according to provided guidelines.
Readings. Readings listed on the schedule below must be completed before each class meeting.
Careful reading is essential to good performance in the classroom and on written assignments. In
addition to the required texts available for purchase at Water Street Books and on reserve at Sawyer,
all other required readings are in the printed course reader distributed in class. “Recommended”
readings are posted on Glow for your perusal if you would like to further pursue a given week’s
themes, but are (perhaps obviously) not required. Any updates to the reading schedule and
assignment guidelines will be announced in class and posted on Glow. It is your responsibility to
keep up to date with course materials by attending class and regularly checking Glow.
1
Written Assignments, Attendance, and Participation. The relative weights and due dates of
assignments are summarized below. Each component of your final score is briefly described in this
syllabus and more detailed guidelines will be distributed in class as appropriate.
Assignment
Attendance & Participation
Weekly Reading Responses
Close Reading
Research Paper Proposal
Annotated Bibliography
Research Paper Draft
Final Research Paper
Weight
20%
15%
10%
5%
10%
15%
25%
Due Date
--Sunday, 3/2, 5 PM
Friday, 3/21, 5 PM
Tuesday, 4/22, 5 PM
Sunday, 5/4, 5 PM
Tuesday, 5/20, 5 PM
Assignments/Requirements Explained
Attendance and Participation. Your regular attendance and participation is vital to the success of this
class. Participation includes your informed, critical reactions to the readings and lectures, occasional
in-class writing assignments, and active, regular contributions to our discussions. It is essential that
you read each assignment completely and carefully before class, and that you come prepared to talk
about each in detail, hard copy in hand. Engaging with the issues being raised in the course does not
stop at the bounds of our classroom: you are expected to enrich discussions with material you have
covered in other classes, activities outside of coursework, on-campus events (for example Log
Lunches), and unfolding developments in other fora—particularly current environmental news.
It is essential that you attend class regularly and on-time. Habitual lateness will cause your final
grade to suffer. If you cannot attend class because of an unforeseen problem, you must email me by
5 PM the day before our meeting. Documentation such as a doctor’s note may be requested. If you
cannot attend class because of a scheduled conflict, you must let me know at least a week in
advance. If you have any concerns about your ability to meet these requirements, please talk to me
as early as possible in the semester.
Weekly Reading Responses. Every Monday morning by 9 AM, you will post at least one question
to the ENVI 252 weekly forum—no more than a sentence, or perhaps two or three at most—that
pertains to that day’s reading and could serve as fodder for classroom discussion. What questions
did the reading raise for you that went unanswered? What piqued your curiosity? What confused
you? It is perfectly acceptable—even advisable—to focus on one text, or one small part of one text,
for this assignment. By the same token, every Thursday morning by 9 AM, you will complete a
slightly more substantial entry on the ENVI 252 weekly forum. These are intended to spur your
thinking for classroom discussion on Thursday and reflect on Monday’s discussion. These should
engage with the week’s reading and their length should be at least a paragraph, but no more than the
equivalent to a page or so (between ~150-300 words). Rather than measured and polished, these too
should be exploratory and questioning; I’m more interested in your initial reactions to texts than in
hearing a finished argument about them. What excited you, challenged you, or confused you and
why? What did you find most interesting, and what connections can you make to course themes? As
with the questions due on Mondays, it is perfectly acceptable to focus on one text, or one small part
of one text, for this assignment. But you’re also encouraged to respond and engage with earlier posts
from your classmates to begin a productive dialogue about course material. These will be graded on
a check-plus, check, check-minus basis.
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Close Reading. Due at the very beginning of week 4, this 4-5 page (~1000-1500 word) close reading
of a primary source of your choice (likely one of the assigned readings, whether required or
recommended) does not require outside research, although a small amount of outside research might
be useful to flesh out your arguments about the text. Your focus should be overwhelmingly on
making an argument about passages of the primary text that are illustrative of (or contest) course
themes. A good close reading extrapolates from a given passage (or set of passages, or set of wellchosen details) some broader insight into the text as a whole, or into an author’s broader output, or
into the culture of which the text is a part, or into the genre it represents. This critical/interpretive
mode presumes that creative and adventurous rumination on certain passages and details will yield
cultural, historical, psychological, ideological or aesthetic insights not otherwise apparent. The
central test, therefore, of a close reading’s value is: Did you arrive at an insight into the text (or
broader field) that was obscured before, or did your close reading merely reaffirm what we already
knew? More detailed requirements and expectations (including information regarding sources,
citation, etc.) will be handed out well in advance of the due dates.
Final Research Paper Proposal/Annotated Bibliography/Research Paper Draft/Final Research
Paper. The final paper is a 10-12 page (~3000 word) traditional argumentative research paper that
explores one or more of the course themes, supplementing an analysis of one or two primary texts
with secondary research into scholarly texts. Building up to that final paper, you will complete a 2page proposal (due in week 6), an annotated bibliography reflecting your initial research (due in week
8), and a 5-6 page draft of your final paper (due in week 10). More detailed requirements and
expectations (including information regarding sources, citation, etc.) will be handed out well in
advance of the due dates.
Course Schedule
Date
Topic
Readings & Assignment Due Dates
W 2/5
Course
Introduction
• In-class close reading
M 2/10
(Week 1)
Background:
20th Century
American
Environment,
Depression,
and the New
Deal
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Campaign Address on Progressive
Government at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco”
(September 23, 1932)
• Gifford Pinchot, excerpts from The Fight For Conservation (1910)
• Samuel P. Hays. “The Conservation Movement and the Progressive
Tradition,” Chapter 13 in Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency
(1959): 261-76
• David Kennedy. “What the New Deal Did,” Chapter 12 in Freedom
From Fear (1999): 363-80
• Morris Dickstein. “Introduction: Depression Culture,” Chapter 1 in
Dancing in the Dark (2009): 3-12
Recommended
• Roderick Nash. “Hetch Hetchy,” Chapter 10 in Wilderness and the
American Mind (1967): 161-81
• Ira Katznelson. “Introduction: Triumph and Sorrow” in Fear Itself
(2013): 3-26
3
Th 2/13
M 2/17
(Week 2)
Th 2/20
M 2/24
(Week 3)
Overview: The
New Deal
Environment
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Address Before the Conference of
Governors on Land Utilization and State Planning” (June 2, 1931),
in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1938)
• Paul B. Sears. “Science and the New Landscape” in Harper’s (July
1939): pp 207-216
• Sarah T. Phillips. Selections from “Poor People, Poor Land,”
Chapter 2 in This Land, This Nation (2007): 75-82, 146-148
• Neil Maher. Introduction and Chapter 1 in Nature’s New Deal
(2008): 3-41
Recommended
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “The Third Press Conference” (March
15, 1933), and “Three Essentials for Unemployment Relief” (March
21, 1933), in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (1938)
• Sarah T. Phillips. Selections from “Poor People, Poor Land,”
Chapter 2 in This Land, This Nation (2007): 107-146
Building Trees • United States Department of Labor. “Information Bulletin No. 1.
and Building
Questions and Answers for the Information of Men Offered the
Men: The
Opportunity to Apply for National Emergency Conservation
Civilian
Work.” (1933)
Conservation
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “A Radio Address on the Third
Corps
Anniversary of the CCC” (April 17, 1936) in The Public Papers and
Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1938)
• Selections from CCC camp newspaper (1936)
• Neil Maher. Chapters 2 and 3 in Nature’s New Deal (2008): 43-114
Recommended
• Alfred Cornebise. “All Work and No Play: Recreation and the
Great Outdoors,” Chapter 11 in The CCC Chronicles (2004): 211-22
An
• MG Kains. Selections from Five Acres and Independence (1940): pp 1-6
Agricultural
• Ralph Borsodi. “Prelude” and “Introduction” from Flight from the
Solution: Back
City (1935): pp xi-xxii
to the Land in • Malcolm Cowley. “How Far Back to the Land?” in The New Republic
the East and
(August 9, 1933): 336-9
Midwest?
• Dona Brown. “Subsistence Homesteads: The New Deal Goes Back
to the Land,” Chapter 5 in Back to the Land (2011): 141-171
Recommended
• Ralph Borsodi. Chapters 1-3 in Flight from the City (1935): pp 1-47
• Elliott Merrick. Chapters 1, 6, and 29 in Green Mountain Farm
(1948): pp 1-11, 34-36, 191-199
• Louis M. Hacker. “Plowing the Farmer Under” in Harper’s (June
1934): 60-74
• Dona Brown. “Landscapes of Self-Sufficiency,” Chapter 9 in A
Landscape History of New England (pp 163-178)
Public Lands
• Sara M. Gregg. “Designing the Shenandoah National Park,”
and Parks in
Chapter 4 in Managing the Mountains (2010): 105-139
the East and
• Neil Maher. Chapter 4 in Nature’s New Deal (2008): 115-151
4
Midwest
Th 2/27
Sunday,
3/2, 5 PM
CLOSE READING DUE
M 3/3
(Week 4)
Appalachia,
the Upper
South, and the
TVA
Th 3/6
Tenant
Farming and
the Southern
Environment
in Fact: The
Documentary
Mode
The African
American
Southern
Environment
M 3/10
(Week 5)
Th 3/13
M 3/17
(Week 6)
• Ken Burns. “Great Nature” in The National Parks – America’s Best
Idea (in-class screening)
LIBRARY DAY – MEET NEAR SAWYER CIRCULATION
DESK
The Southern
Environment
in Fiction
The Southern
Environment
in Fiction
• Drew and Leon Pearson. “The Tennessee Valley Experiment” in
Harper’s (May 1935): 699-707
• TJ Woofter, Jr. “The Tennessee Valley Regional Plan” in Social
Forces (March 1934): 329-338
• Brian Black. “Organic Planning: Ecology and Design in the
Landscape of the Tennessee Valley Authority” in Environmentalism in
Landscape Architecture (2000): 71-96
• Pare Lorentz. The River (in-class film, 1938, 30 min)
Recommended
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “A Suggestion for Legislation to Create
the Tennessee Valley Authority” (April 10, 1933) in The Public Papers
and Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1938)
• George W. Norris. “TVA in Existence,” Chapter 26 in Fighting
Liberal (1945): 260-277
• Sarah T. Phillips. “The Tennessee Valley Authority,” in Chapter 2
in This Land, This Nation (2007): 83-107
• Neil Maher. Chapter 6 in Nature’s New Deal (2008): 181-210
• James Agee and Walker Evans. “Money” and “Work 2: Cotton” in
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941): 115-121, 326-348
• Henry Mayer. “Famous Men” in The New York Times (May 14,
2000)
• Alan Trachtenberg. “From Image to Story: Reading the File” in
Documenting America, 1935-1943 (1988): 43-73
• Richard Wright. “Inheritors of Slavery” in 12 Million Black Voices
(1941): 28-89
• Richard Wright. “Silt” in New Masses (August 1937): 19-20
• Ned Cobb and Theodore Rosengarten. Selections from All God’s
Dangers (1974): 176-193
• Robert Cantwell. “1932, Christmas: Ned Cobb Remembers
Standing in a Doorway” in A New Literary History of America (2009):
663-668
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Chapters
1-10
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Chapters
11-20
Recommended
• William Faulkner. “Delta Autumn” (1942)
5
Th 3/20
Documentary
Realism
Revisited
Friday,
3/21, 5
PM
Sat 3/22Sun 4/6
RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE
NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
M 4/7
(Week 7)
Dust Bowl
Overview
Th 4/10
The Dust
Bowl in
Historical
Memory
Dust Bowl
Culture and
Case Studies
M 4/14
(Week 8)
Th 4/17
Okies and
Exodusters in
Fact and
Fiction
M 4/21
(Week 9)
Tuesday,
4/22, 5
PM
Th 4/24
MUSEUM SESSION: MEET IN WCMA LOBBY
• Archibald Macleish. Land of the Free (1938)
• Donald Worster. Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5 in The Dust
Bowl (1979): 3-43, 65-97
• Pare Lorentz. The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936): in-class
screening
Recommended
• Timothy Egan. “In a Dry Land,” Chapter 8 in The Worst Hard Time
(2006): 115-127
• Pare Lorentz. “The Plow that Broke the Plains” in McCall’s (July
1936)
• Ken Burns, dir. Selections from The Dust Bowl (2012): in-class
screening
• Donald Worster. Chapters 6-11 in The Dust Bowl (1979): 100-180
• Timothy Egan. “Witnesses,” Chapter 19 in The Worst Hard Time
(2006): 242-253
• Woody Guthrie. Selections from Dust Bowl Ballads (1940): in-class
listening
Recommended
• Lawrence Svobida. “Winds of Chance,” Chapter 4 in Farming the
Dust Bowl: A First-Hand Account from Kansas (1940): 91-103
• Donald Worster. Chapter 3 in The Dust Bowl (1979): 44-63
• John Steinbeck. “The Harvest Gypsies” in the San Francisco News
(October 1936)
• Dorothea Lange. “Last West” in An American Exodus: A Record of
Human Erosion (1939): 104-149
• Morris Dickstein. “Steinbeck Country” and “The People, Yes” in
Dancing in the Dark (2009): 70-80, 124-143
NO CLASS—WORK DAY FOR ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
Okies and
Exodusters in
Fiction: The
Dust Bowl
• John Steinbeck. Chapters 1-11 in The Grapes of Wrath (1939): 1-117
• John Ford, dir. Part 1 of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) in-class
screening
6
Recommended
• Pare Lorentz. “The Grapes of Wrath” in McCall’s (April 1940)
M 4/28 Okies and
(Week 10) Exodusters in
Fiction: On
the Road
Th 5/1
Okies and
Exodusters in
Fiction:
Starving in a
Land of Plenty
Sunday,
5/4, 5 PM
• John Steinbeck. Chapters 12-23 in The Grapes of Wrath (1939): 118330
• John Ford, dir. Part 2 of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) in-class
screening
• John Steinbeck. Chapters 24-30 in The Grapes of Wrath (1939): 331455
• John Ford, dir. Part 3 of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) in-class
screening
M 5/5
Water and the
(Week 11) West
• Richard L. Neuberger. “The Biggest Thing on Earth: Grand Coulee
Dam” in Harper’s (February 1937): 247-58
• Richard L. Neuberger. “The Great Salmon Experiment” in Harper’s
(February 1945): 229-36
• Lewis Mumford. “Regional Planning in the Pacific Northwest”
(1939)
• Woody Guthrie. “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and
“Columbia’s Waters” (in-class)
• Richard White. Selections from The Organic Machine (1995): 48-71
• Neil Maher. Chapter 5 and Epilogue in Nature’s New Deal (2008):
151-180, 211-226
• Report of the Great Plains Committee. “Summary Foreword” and
“A Pictorial Survey of the Great Plains” in The Future of the Great
Plains (1936): 1-19
Recommended
• Donald Worster. Chapters 12-14 and Epilogue in The Dust Bowl
(1979): 181-243
• Report of the Great Plains Committee. “Part 1: General Physical
Characteristics of the Area,” and “Appendix 3” in The Future of the
Great Plains (1936): 21-36, 133-143
• Aldo Leopold. Parts I-II in A Sand County Almanac (1949): 3-162
Th 5/8
Ecological
Lessons: New
Deal
Conservation
M 5/12 Conservation
(Week 12) After the New
Deal
Th 5/15 The Upshot
Tuesday,
5/20, 5
PM
RESEARCH PAPER DRAFT DUE
• Aldo Leopold. Part III in A Sand County Almanac (1949): 165-226
FINAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE
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General Course Information and Policies
Contact. I use email regularly to make announcements, clarify points from lecture, and draw your
attention to events and news items. You are expected to check your email daily. Email is also an
excellent way to get in touch with me, and during normal business hours I will try to respond as
quickly as possible. If you want detailed advice or need to discuss a complicated and/or sensitive
matter, it is best to set up a meeting.
Late Work. Late work will lose one-third of a letter grade for each day of lateness. After four days,
late work will not receive credit. Extensions will only be granted under exceptional circumstances
(work for other courses and athletic events do not count), and they must be negotiated at least four
days in advance of the due date.
Honor Code. Although I encourage you to share ideas, strategies, and resources with your
classmates, it is vital, on both moral and legal grounds, that you be graded on your work and your
work alone. Williams takes charges of cheating and plagiarism very seriously, and either can result in
your dismissal. Cheating is taking advantage of the work of others. Plagiarism is representing the
work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit. All students are expected to abide by
the College Honor Code. If you are uncertain how the Honor Code applies to your work in this
course—or if you are unsure how to distinguish between legitimate collaboration with your
colleagues and academic dishonesty—please ask me. More information on the Honor Code can be
found here: http://sites.williams.edu/honor-system/
Classroom conduct. Laptops are not allowed in class except under special circumstances (come talk
to me at the beginning of the semester if you have concerns about this). Please remember to turn off
your cell phone before class. If you text during class, I will ask you to leave. Drinks are allowed in
class, food is not.
Students with Disabilities. Students with disabilities who may need disability-related
accommodations for this course are encouraged to contact the Dean’s Office as soon as possible so
that the proper arrangements can be made.
Research and Writing Resources. Rebecca Ohm is the library liaison for Environmental Studies and
is also available to provide guidance; you will have the opportunity to meet her when you attend the
library skills workshop. She can be reached at [email protected] or 413-597-4321.
The Writing Workshop (http://writing-programs.williams.edu/writing-workshop/) is a peer writing
assistance program. Drop in sessions are located in Paresky 207. They can help you at all stages of
the writing process, from topic design to proofreading. You can also schedule hour-long
appointments through the online scheduler for tutoring at Sawyer and Schow. Visit the program
website for more information and to sign up for appointments. The Writing Workshop also runs a
Writing Partners Program, which provides a recurring tutoring partnership. For more information,
see http://writing-programs.williams.edu/writing-workshop/writing-partners-program/
For more general advice on the mechanics of good writing, see:
• Strunk, William, and E. B White. 2000. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman.
• Turabian, Kate L. Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers. 4th ed. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2010.
8
For equally useful advice on the mechanics of good research, see:
• Booth, Wayne C, Gregory G Colomb, and Joseph M Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd
ed. Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2008.
Grading Rubric
A. AN “A” PAPER COMMANDS ATTENTION because of its insight (i.e., its original,
provocative ideas), its mature style (i.e., its smooth, effective use of language), and its logical
development (i.e. its orderly and convincing argument and structure). It must be particularly strong
in both content (ideas) and form (writing and structure). It must contain few if any notable errors of
grammar or style. An “A” paper is by definition exceptional. Hence it will:
• respond to the assignment in a cogent, thoughtful, and creative way
• exhibit a clear and logical organizational structure
• include a strong and clearly identifiable thesis statement
• support all claims with telling details and compelling evidence
• provide adequate logical discussion and explanation of its claims
• create a unique personal voice, choose words effectively, and vary sentences aptly
• demonstrate mastery of the grammar and usage conventions of standard English
B. A “B” PAPER IS EXTREMELY COMPETENT. It fulfills the basic requirements of the
assignment. It may have very good ideas but exhibit problems with language usage or argumentative
structure. Or it may be very well-written but contain a somewhat predictable or unconvincing
argument. Or it may have a very good argument and smooth writing, but fail to address the
assignment or meet specific requirements. Most often, it simply contains good, but not excellent,
ideas and writing. A paper of the last sort would:
• have a clear thesis which responds intelligently to the assignment
• organize appropriate details in coherent paragraphs and provide a sense of orderly progress
between ideas
• provide logical explanations of and adequate support for its claims
• use words precisely and vary sentence structure enough to read smoothly
• use competently the conventions of written English (i.e., contain few, if any, errors in
sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, or usage)
C. A “C” PAPER IS SATISFACTORY, SOMETIMES MARGINALLY SO. It usually has at least
some major flaws or inadequacies in both its content (i.e., the ideas being expressed) and the
expression of that content (i.e., the writing). Such a paper might:
• have a thesis which responds adequately, but predictably, to the topic
• present a well-written, thorough argument, but one which does not go much beyond the
ideas presented in lecture, section, and/or the secondary reading
• show a clear sense of organization but also some weakness in transitions and in paragraph
structure and development
• not provide enough evidence and/or logical discussion to prove its points or use imprecise
vocabulary and/or clichéd language
• include “dead weight” material: overly general introductions and/or conclusions, excessive
and/or non-productive use of description, or restatements of class material
• be marked by redundancy or repetition
9
•
contain a host of minor errors in mechanics and usage (e.g. comma splices) and perhaps one
or two more distracting errors in sentence structure (e.g ., subject-verb agreement,
incomplete or fragmentary sentences)
D. A “D” PAPER USUALLY LACKS COHERENCE AND DEVELOPMENT AND/OR
DISPLAYS SERIOUS WRITING PROBLEMS. It is usually unsatisfactory in one or more of the
following ways:
• responds ineffectively to the essay topic. Although a major idea may be clearly stated, the
paper usually has inadequately developed or illogically sequenced paragraphs which lack
transitions between ideas (and which fail to persuade)
• does not have a clearly identifiable thesis
• fails to provide adequate logical discussion and/or evidence to make its argument persuasive,
or perhaps even intelligible
• uses vocabulary awkwardly or incorrectly
• seldom varies sentences, or it contains a number of awkward phrases and/or sentence
fragments (which may even prevent the communication of ideas) marked by repetition of
words and ideas, by wordiness, and/or by monotony
• makes enough errors in usage and sentence structure—errors in agreement, pronoun
reference, sentence punctuation, and modifier placement—to cause the reader serious
distraction
E. AN “F” PAPER IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. It shows serious weaknesses, often of several kinds. It
may present marginal content, but it may also:
• distort the topic or fail to respond to it altogether
• contain plagiarized material (material taken from another author without proper citation in
the form of footnotes)
• fail to provide adequate evidence, in the form of detailed analysis of the work under
discussion, for its major claims
• neglect to explain the logic behind its argument
• lack coherent organization and development with specific details
• employ very basic vocabulary or misuse words
• make no attempt to vary sentences
• contain numerous distracting mechanical errors
N.B. This syllabus is subject to change as deemed necessary by the instructor and in consultation with students.
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