First Year Program: Statement on Commonality, Spring 2000

The focus of Spring semester is on the development of informed, well-reasoned arguments that move from premises to conclusion, or from data to claims, and that provide adequate and varied evidence from sources that have been read carefully, used accurately, and cited properly. Students should complete at least one project that requires a significant period of exploration and research in a sufficiently narrow area of inquiry. Toward that end, we recommend that colleges/seminars require no more than 2 research/writing projects, with each containing multiple smaller assignments. Specifically, each project should involve some combination of formal and informal written and oral communication and should include provision for substantial revision based on detailed feedback from faculty and peers. Each college/seminar will build on the work done in the first semester to teach students to:

1. determine the kinds of information needed and where best to find it;
2. distinguish between primary and secondary sources, between popular and scholarly journals and books, and between mainstream and alternative press publications;
3. develop the skills and techniques needed to locate information in the various library collections;
4. develop the skills necessary to locate information on the Internet;
5. analyze sources, whether paper or electronic, and evaluate information as appropriate to a specific purpose.