Latin 113, Fall 2003

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Attendance Policy

As stated in the Catalog and the Student Handbook, attendance at every class is mandatory. Please be aware that excessive absences (that is, more than three unexcused absences) may lead to involuntary withdrawal from a course and will substantially and negatively affect your final grade.

Assignments (such as answers to discussion questions, project topic choices, or other outside-of-class work) are due at the beginning of class, or electronically before class (when possible). Incomplete or late assignments will receive a maximum of 50% credit. No assignments will be accepted more than one week late.

Students will not be penalized for absences due to attendance at a University-sponsored function or at religious services on major holidays. If an assignment is due on the date of the function or service, students may hand it in before that date. If a test is scheduled on that date, students will be allowed to make up the test before that date. If you are sick and cannot attend class, call or e-mail me before class and you will not be penalized for missed in-class work.

Southwestern University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should register with the Office of Academic Services, located on the third floor of the Cullen Building. Professors must be officially notified by the Academic Services Coordinator that documentation is on file at least two weeks before the accommodation is needed.

Course Description

Latin 113 is an intermediate-level course intended for students who have basic familiarity with the forms and vocabulary of Classical Latin. Completion of Latin 024 or equivalent placement is the prerequisite.

By the end of Latin III, you will be able to

• consistently read and translate simple connected Latin texts with increased understanding
• recombine vocabulary and structures you know into simple written statements and questions dealing with very familiar topics
• compare and contrast activities, common beliefs, attitudes, and objects from Roman civilization at the time of Nero to your own
• identify cognates (words similar to English), prefixes, suffixes, and derivatives

It is your responsibility to prepare as much as possible outside of class. If you come to class cold expecting to pick up the material from scratch, you will be disappointed (you will be disappointed with your grade, too!). For each hour of class, plan to spend at least two hours studying. It is best to study in short sessions every day.

As always, see me with any questions you have about assignments or material being covered, or for more detailed feedback on how you are doing, or with anything else on your mind. Free tutoring is also available. It is very important to get help early if you need it. I welcome your suggestions for improving this course and will solicit them. I am available on campus every day for you, and I will also hold regular virtual office hours using Instant Messenger. My screen name is GlendaLWCarl. In addition, you can reach me at home, where we have an answering machine, or by e-mail, which I check regularly.

Grades

There will be four exams, including the final. While each exam will concentrate on the material immediately preceding it, mastery of earlier material is assumed. In addition, there will be frequent brief, objective quizzes focusing on, for example, a particular grammatical point or the vocabulary from the current chapter.

There will be a variety of assignments designed to help students acquire the new vocabulary and demonstrate their mastery of the grammar we review.

In addition, as a class project, we will create a weblog (a blog) devoted to our study of the Satyricon. The blog's heterogenous nature echoes that of the Web, but more accessibly; it also echoes that of Petronius. Blogs facilitate incorporating research into discussion, via the posted-and-commented-on hyperlink. Perhaps most importantly, the creative assignments I will give can encourage engagement with a centuries-old text in a "dead" language.

Each week I will give you a specific assignment (perhaps a choice of several), and you will compose a post on that topic.

Class participation depends on consistent preparation and will be evaluated according to your willingness to translate rather than on the accuracy of your translation. Attendance is also a major factor

Final grades will be determined as follows:

Grades may be appealed based on the instructor's alleged failure to weight the elements of the final grade as described in the syllabus, on the alleged prejudicial treatment of individual students, or on an alleged violation of the Academic Rights for Students as stated in the Student Handbook and the Faculty Handbook. If you should wish to appeal your semester grade, follow the procedures outlined in the Student Handbook.

The plus-minus grading system, now in effect at Southwestern, will be used for final grades. Semester percentage averages will translate to the following letter grades:

Honor Code

Academic dishonesty, as you know, is a serious offense. It breaks the trust between professor and students as well as among students. In addition, it is a breach both of Southwestern's personal conduct policies and of the Honor System. Remember that it is up to you to maintain the Honor System, to report violations, and to ask questions if you are uncertain about what constitutes a violation.

Academic dishonesty is taken very seriously in my courses. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to: giving or receiving aid on an examination; consulting other students for answers on a graded assignment which was not given to a group and then handing in the answers as your own unaided work; and plagiarism as defined in the Student Handbook. If you have any questions whatsoever about what constitutes academic dishonesty in my course, I encourage you to discuss them with me.

Because I teach student-centered courses, certain assignments may be given which will allow you to work in groups or present the results of an outside project to the class. Student study groups have been shown to be a valuable tool for learning and class preparation (but remember that the Honor Code forbids handing another person's work as your own). Group assignments will be clearly labeled as such. Otherwise, you are expected to do your own work.

The double submission of papers or other work (that is, the submission of an assignment which is substantially the same as an assignment submitted in another course) is not acceptable. While I have no control over the use of test files, paper files, and the like, students should be aware that content and methodological approach change each time that a course is offered. Past experience has shown that reliance on such files is detrimental to one's grade.

The pledge runs, as you remember, I have neither given nor received aid upon this [examination, assignment, paper, etc.]; nor have I seen anyone else do so. Write out the pledge in full (not PIF) and sign it at the end of any work which is turned in for a grade.