Summary:

• Course type: Seminar

• Enrollment limit: 19 students

• Writing minimum: 15 pages

• A minimum of 1/5th of class time devoted to improvement of written and oral communication

Goals: Fordham University’s core curriculum requires students to take four seminars, dedicated to achieving excellence in eloquence (i.e., Eloquentia Perfecta seminars, hereafter “EP seminars”). These courses focus on developing the communicative skill of students and are designed to help them achieve excellence in writing and speaking with clarity and logical cogency.

Although “seminar” often refers specifically to a pedagogical format distinctive of German universities, consisting of a class of advanced students engaged in original research under the direction of a specialist in the field, it can also refer more generally to a class that simply employs, as its predominant method of inquiry, student conversation and discussion guided by a professor.

Course Description: In order to help students achieve an expressive eloquence, EP courses are to be predominantly seminars (as opposed to lectures) and thus ought to employ methods that require active student participation in class. In order to assist active participation, enrollment will be limited to 19 students per section. Not all disciplines or subjects will fit easily into this format. In short, EP seminars are to be both writing-intensive and speaking-intensive courses. Feedback on both speaking and writing is a key component of an EP course.

Seminars may employ various pedagogical methods in order to achieve a level of intensity sufficient to promote and refine the communicative skills of the students. Such methods may include, but are not limited to the following:

• class discussion and/or debate

• oral presentations by individuals and/or groups

• study of grammar, style, rhetoric, or logic

• class work on essay assignments

• peer review and editing of student essays

• guided-group analysis of student essays

• study of discipline-specific writing techniques

• Socratic dialogue between professor and students

Methods ought to be adapted to the skill-level typical of a particular student year. For example, a freshman seminar, or EP-1 course, might use group presentations and small-group, peer evaluation of student writing, while a senior seminar, or EP-4 class, might require individual student presentations or student leadership of discussions. A seamless integration of oral and written expression is desirable.

Course Requirements: Proposals for EP seminars ought to detail the course requirements and pedagogical methods to be employed as well as the methods that will be used to ensure participation and to provide feedback. A minimum of one-fifth of overall class time during the semester is to be dedicated to student writing and speaking with feedback. A minimum of 15 pages of written work edited to final-draft quality, i.e. generated by at least one cycle of feedback and revision, should be required from each student. This written work may be divided into a number of shorter assignments throughout the semester, so that progress can be measured and feedback provided.