| Home | Syllabus | Calendar | Assignments | Sources | Readings |
| Course Location | Blackboard! |
|---|---|
| Instructor: | Simson L. Garfinkel, Ph.D. |
| Phone: | 831-656-7602 (office); 617-876-6111 (home) |
| Internet e-mail: | slgarfin |
| Office Hours: | Wednesday 1300-1500 Pacific Time |
| Website: | http://faculty.nps.edu/slgarfin |
| Website: | http://www.simson.net |
In the fall of 2008 this course will be offered as an online course through the Blackboard system.
At the start of each week you will be given roughly 100 pages of reading that need to be completed by the end of the week. (Some weeks there will be more, some weeks there will be less.)
During the week, there will be a discussion of the material and current events related to the material on the Blackboard website.
On some weeks there will be a writing assignment due on Friday. I will endeavour to have all writing assignments graded by Monday
Most of the reading will come from our two textbooks:
Grades are calculated as follows:
| 3 1-page assignments | 30% |
| 3-page brief #1 | 15% |
| 3-page brief #2 | 15% |
| Class Participation | 10% |
| Final Paper | 30% |
You will be required to write two response paper that explains your intellectual reaction to the readings. The typical response paper will include two sections. The first section will objectively explain some aspect of the reading you wish to focus on. The second section will analyze it, arguing its truth or falsehood, putting the subject argued into a broader context, or showing how the reading material directly applies to some issue or event. Response papers should be no more than 600 words in length (that's approximately four times longer than this paragraph).
Your response paper should not be a list of bullet points. Instead, the paper should be a compact, well-reasoned essay about the subject at hand. You will be graded both on the content and on the writing quality.
Your response paper is not a book report. We have read the material that is assigned, and we assume that you have read it also. The purpose of the response paper is to give you an opportunity to think about the material and work with it before you come to class---in part so that you will have some tangible aspect of the reading to discuss with your classmates.
A rubrick explaining our grading policy will be distributed before the first assignment is due.
You will write two one-page and two four-page briefs that will analyze a case or public policy problem in detail. You will be guided in writing the first brief using a web-based brief writing assignment created especially for this course. The second brief you will write on your own.
This is a seminar-style class. As such, class participation is an important part of the experience.
Your grade for class participation will include your contributions on the class website, your attendance, and your preparation.
We will provide you with your "first half" class participation grade following the midterm examination, giving you a "heads up" on how you are doing while there is still an opportunity to make substantive improvements.
It is strongly recommended that you discuss the readings and assignments with your classmates. You may wish to organize reading or study groups for this purpose. However, it is also expected that the homework you submit will be your own work. You may not collaborate on the response papers; collaboration on the final project is limited to your assigned groups.
Plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated in this course. This includes both direct plagiarism, in which you reprint words written by another person without reference, and to intellectual plagiarism, in which you present another person's ideas or argument as if they are your own.
The easiest way to protect yourself from a charge of plagiarism is to be careful in your citations. There is nothing wrong with quoting other authors provided that you properly cite their work. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with presenting an argument that has been advanced by another author, but you must give that author credit in your writing.
Academic integrity on the part of U.S. and International officers and civilians participating in NPS programs is an important aspect of professional performance.
The midterm exam is open book, which includes the use of all books, notes, and on-line sources that do not involve interaction with a person.
The provisions of NAVPGSCOLINST 5370.1C of the Academic Honor Code will be strictly enforced.
If you have questions about collaboration, plagiarism or academic integrity, please contact the class staff.
It is expected that you will reference a variety of articles and other sources in the preparation of your assignments and final project. You are welcome to use either the so-called "Harvard Style" or IEEE style to cite your references. A URL without an author, title, publication title, and publication date is not an acceptable citation format. Citations that are bare URLs will be ignored.
Wikipedia entries are surprisingly good and will frequently be recommended as supplementary reading in this course. However, due to the nature of how Wikipedia is complied and edited, Wikipedia entries are not to be used as authortative citations in this course.
Grades are based on an absolute scale:
| A | 90 to 100% of the total possible points |
|---|---|
| B | 80 to 89% of the total possible points |
| C | 70 to 79% of the total possible points |
| D | 60 to 69% of the total possible points |
| F | 0 to 59% of the total possible points |
This is a seminar-style class. As such,
We will provide you with your "first half" class participation grade following the midterm examination, giving students a "heads up" on how they are doing while there is still an opportunity to make substantive improvements.