This is a writing emphasis course. It also emphasizes reasoning skills.

• The class is divided into 5 approximately 3-week cycles.
• There are 4 to 6 reading assignments per cycle.
• The final meeting at the end of each cycle is reserved for review and discussion, or in some cases, for guest speakers.
• At the end of each cycle, you hand in a written assignment.
• The assignment consists of commentary on 3 of the readings covered during the cycle.
• Two of the commentaries are a maximum of 1 page, graded on a pass/fail basis with minimal feedback. The 3rd commentary is 2-5 pages.
• Per cycle, the 2 pass/fail papers together constitute 5% of your final grade and the longer commentary constitutes 15%.
• For the semester, there are 5 cycles worth 20% each, for a total of 100.

ALTERNATIVE: At any point, you may elect to write a term paper, perhaps inspired by one of your longer commentaries. If you do that, your term paper takes the place of your remaining longer commentaries, and you will hand in a draft of your paper instead of a longer commentary. Thus, for example, if 3 cycles remain, then your essay substitutes for the remaining three longer commentaries, so your term paper will be worth 45% of your final grade. If 2 cycles remain, then your essay plus revisions substitute for the remaining two longer commentaries, so that your term paper in that case will be worth 30% of your final grade. For each of the remaining cycles, you hand in 2 pass/fail commentaries plus a revised draft of your paper.

HONORS CREDIT: Students enrolled in 323H for honors credit will be required to do the term paper alternative, as outlined above.

The readings can be reached from the Reading Schedule.

The Writing Assignments will be posted at least one week in advance of the start of a particular cycle. Assignments should be typed, double-spaced, single-sided, 12-point font (preferably Times or Palatino), with 1 inch margins. Length: maximum of 1 page for the short commentaries; 5 pages for the long. (We are more interested in the quality than the quantity.) Include your note accepting the honor code. (The Honor Code is given at the top of the Assignment's page.)

For assistance in writing, see Tips.html

Investigative Project: As optional part of the Honors requirement for Honors students. The aim is generate web pages incorporating good data relevant to some topics in Environmental Ethics and/or to write an additional report. Please see Web Project ("http://research.biology.arizona.edu/mosquito/willott/323/webproj.html") for more details on the projects and see David Schmidtz or Elizabeth Willott by August 28.

Final Grade Scale

• A 90 points or higher
• B 80-89 points
• C 70-79 points
• D 60-69 points
• E Less than 60 points