UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
SEMINAR IN MUSIC History
"American Musical Theater"
MUH 6935 (Spring 2018)

Instructor: Scott Warfield
Office: PAC M 227; Telephone: 407-823-1144
E-mail: scott.warfield@ucf.edu

Section 1 (class # 10568)
Meets: TUES, 6:00 - 8:50 pm
Location: PAC M 263

Course Summary: Policies and Procedures

Prerequisite: MUH 6916 (Music Bibliography & Research) or permission of the instructor.

Required Materials:

Course Objectives: This course is a seminar in the American Musical Theater, centering on New York City, i.e. "Broadway," from the late 19th Century to the current day. In this course you will become conversant with:


COMMUNICATION: It is your obligation to read, follow and complete all assignments and other instructions (verbal or written) given to you in the course of this semester. You are responsible for any information or instructions given out in any of the following ways:


ATTENDANCE: Regular class attendance is expected of all enrolled students. As graduate students you will not earn any formal credit for simply attending class, however attendance will be taken at every class meeting and poor attendance will affect your grade negatively. Specifically:

Attendance Policy for In-class Assignments: No unexcused absence from a scheduled class presentation or other in-class assignment will ever be allowed. Failure to appear for such an assignment will result in a grade of “0” (zero) for that assignment, and you will still be responsible for presenting the missed work at a future class meeting.

Make-up Policy: Should you be unable to attend a seminar meeting due to participation in an officially sanctioned UCF event or personal observance of a religious holiday, you must notify me at least one week in advance to schedule an alternate time. For personal or family emergencies (e.g., funerals), you must notify me as early as possible. At a minimum, send an email message as soon as possible to inform me of your situation.  In some cases, I will require documented proof of the reason for your absence. You may then be allowed to complete the graded exercise sa soon as possible after the missed date. Make-up assignments and tests may be different from the announced exercises to ensure the integrity of the grading process.


Grading: Your grade in this course will be determined by your performance in the following:

Assignment / Test Weighting
Class Presentations
Attendance & Participation
30%
General Bibliography Paper 15%
Plagiarism and Research modules 5%
Formal Papers (Book Reviews) 10%
Major Project (Written) 30%
Major Project Presentation (Oral) 10%

Failure to complete any significant individual course assignments will be considered failure to complete the course and will result in a grade of "F" for the course, regardless of the grade(s) on any other assignments in the semester.

The Class Presentations will consist of various tasks related to class discussions, e.g., preparation of small reports, analyses, etc. Your ability and willingness to contribute to class discussions will be especially important to this portion of your grade.

The General Bibliography Paper will be a combination of individual oral and written report on a significant bibliographic item for Musical Theater, and a written paper on a group of similar items.

The Plagiarism and Research modules will be self-directed instructional modules intended to ensure that you are familiar with good scholarly practices in order to avoid plagiarism in your work.

The Formal Papers will be a combination of oral presentations and written papers based on your study and review of a number of books and research tools about the American Musical Theater.

The Major Project (Written) will be the culmination of your primary work in this course, and it will consist of a project definition, the accumulation of bibliography, and a formal paper of significant length.

The Major Project (Presentation (Oral) will be a formal presentation of your Major Project (or some portion of it) through an in-class reading with appropriate media.

The following numeric equivalents apply to all grades (individual assignments & final course grade):

100.00 – 92.00 = A Clearly Superior Work at the Graduate Level,
Assignments meet all stated requirements,
Strong writing that contains either no or very few minor errors,
Work submitted on or ahead of time.
91.99 - 90.00 = A-
89.99 - 88.00 = B+ Completely Satisfactory Work at the Graduate Level,
Assignments meet most stated requirements,
Writing that contains minor errors that do not impede understanding,
Work generally submitted on time.
87.99 - 82.00 = B
81.99 - 80.00 = B-
79.99 - 78.00 = C+ Marginally Satisfactory Work at the Graduate Level,
Assignments usually meet most stated requirements,
Writing that contains errors that begin to impede understanding,
Work not always submitted on time.
77.99 – 72.00 = C
71.99 – 70.00 = C-
69.99 – 68.00 = D+ Generally Unsatisfactory Work at the Graduate Level,
Assignments do not meet many of the stated requirements,
Writing that contains errors that significantly impede understanding,
Work rarely submitted on time.
67.99 – 62.00 = D
61.99 – 60.00 = D-
59.99 - 0.00 = F Unsatisfactory Work at the Graduate Level,
Assignments do not meet stated requirements,
Writing with excessive errors, lacks organization and approaches incoherence,
Work not submitted or frequently late.

Questions about the grading or evaluation of any assignment must be raised at the time that item is returned to you. You may not argue for points based on your perception of the grading vis-à-vis another student’s work. Only obvious clerical errors on my part will be corrected.

Items turned in late will be assessed a 10-point penalty for every 24 hours or fraction of a day that they are late. This penalty may be waived or lessened at my discretion, provided I am informed at least 24 hours in advance when you will not meet a deadline.

Final course averages are calculated to the nearest 1/100 of a point. In the case of a borderline final average, I reserve the right to award the next highest grade, based on class participation, preparation, attendance, and related factors.

No extra credit work or alternate assignments will be accepted in lieu of or in addition to the assignments and tests listed on this syllabus.

Due dates for all graded assignments will be announced at least one week in advance.

The Final Examination period for MUH 6935 is scheduled for : Tuesday, 1 May 2018, at 7:00 - 9:50 pm. We will use that period for a final seminar meeting, and all graded materials are due by the end of that period.


CLASS PROCEDURES AND YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES: Because this course is a seminar, it may differ significant from your experiences in lecture and discussion classes at lower academic levels. The essence of a seminar is a collective effort to investigate and learn about a particular topic, which thus places the responsibility for identifying, processing and presenting materials and research results on all members of the seminar. In short, every member of the seminar is expected to contribute in some way or another to every weekly meeting. Passive, i.e., silent or non-constructive contributions will be viewed negatively and will result in deductions from your grade. Assigned readings must be completed before each meeting (or the indicated deadlines) and presenters must be ready at the assigned meetings. Seminar members should also be willing to take the initiative to investigate questions that might arise in a class without waiting for formal assignments, and seminar members should also be able and willing to assist one another with research problems. In short, the idea of a collaborative effort undertaken by a group of scholars should inform all of your work in this course.

To facilitate discussions, you will be given a variety of readings and other assignments on a weekly based (always posted on the course web site). Again, it is your obligation to complete those tasks to the best of your ability on the announced schedule so that you may participate in class discussions and so that your fellow seminar members may benefit from your work.

Reserve Materials: As the semester progresses both optional and required supplementary items will be placed on reserve for reading or listening. You will be informed in class when such items go on reserve, and the course web page will include a list of all such items used in the term. Additionally, some assignments will require materials that are not on reserve. Students are advised to remember that other members of the class may need access to them, and to act accordingly.

You are strongly encouraged to bring your laptop or other portable computer to class for both note-taking and active work during class time. To ensure full use of your computer while on campus, go to: https://publishing.ucf.edu/sites/itr/cst/Pages/WirelessNetworkOverview.aspx for instructions on how to register your personal computer so that it has full access to the UCF wireless resources (including the UCF Library).

As a matter of respect to others in the seminar, you are not to engage in conversations unrelated to the current activities of this course, use cell phones or other electronic devices (turn off such items before entering my classroom), or work on anything unrelated to MUH 6935 (assignments for other courses, newspapers, puzzles, etc.) during class time. Individuals engaged in such activities will be asked once to cease. The second time they will be told to leave the classroom, and they will be marked absent for that day.

Seminars are labor-intensive, so in preparing for each class meeting you should allot a minimum of 3-4 hours for every hour of a seminar meeting, which means at least 9-12 hours of outside preparation per week. Although the nature of a seminar is collaborative, you are not, however, allowed to collaborate on any individually graded assignments in this course unless you are specifically directed to do so. (see "Academic Integrity" below)

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: All graded work, i.e., tests, in this class must be your work alone. You are never to collaborate with anyone on tests in this class, and you are not allowed to use your text, notes, or other aides of any kind when you are testing. Violators will be referred to the appropriate UCF authorities for prosecution (see the latest edition of The Golden Rule for more details).

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS: The University of Central Florida is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with special needs. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students who need accommodations for their academic work must be registered with Student Accessibility Services, Ferrell Commons Room 185, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD only phone (407) 823-2116, before requesting accommodations from the professor (me).

NB. This syllabus may be revised, if circumstances warrant. You will be notified formally if any changes are made.