Carrie Galsworthy
Short Writing Assignment for Students
2005 Workshop on Improving Student Writing
Center for Writing Excellence
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
INTRODUCTION FOR FACULTY TO THIS SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT
I designed this assignment for a new course I will be teaching this fall – Greek and Roman Philosophical Authors. It is a 300-level course for Classics majors and students in the Classical Literature stream of the Miami Plan. The various authors will be read in translation. The aim of this assignment is to encourage close reading of an author (in this case, Empedocles) and to interact with the author’s philosophy before being influenced by the interpretations of other people. The most important features is linking the assignment to the goals of the class as well as outlining the criteria for the assignment.
Reading Exercise on Empedocles
Due: next class session
The objective of this assignment is to read the fragments of Empedocles closely before developing preconceptions based on other people’s interpretations. Do not read the introduction in your text before you begin.
Focus and Connection to Course Goals
By reading the fragments closely without first reading the introduction in the text or discussion in class, this assignment addresses the following goals:
- To engage actively the author’s philosophical ideas.
- To confront the author’s own words without bias of others.
- To seek out underlying themes in the agonistic environment of Greek philosophy.
Process
- Read Empedocles’ fragments in your text (p. 48-58) keeping the following questions in mind:
- What are the main ideas?
- Is there an underlying theme to Empedocles’ fragments that you can discern?
- How does Empedocles’ philosophy relate to other authors we have read so far?
- Write one single-spaced page, 12-point font, i.e., scalable font (unlike Courier).
- Refer to specific fragments by the number in your textbook (e.g., Readings 29)
Criteria
- This exercise will form the base for your participation in the class discussion.
- Your assignment will not be marked for spelling and grammar, but I do expect that your prose will be clear and connected.
- The goal is to be engaged in the task of confronting Empedocles’ thought, not to be “right”.
Check-plus Meets (or exceeds) length limit; high quality engagement (sees problems, draws connections, addresses complex issues)
Check Meets length limit, expectations of engagement.
X Fails to meet length limit or expectations of engagement.
CLS 317: Philisophical Authors in Translation
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