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Classes / Engl 112 / Engl 135 / Engl 227 / Literature / Ethics / Speech / eCollege / Library and Galileo
Percy / Thoughts / Dissertation / Papers / Faculty Forum / About Us / CV/Resume / Contact Me
The Perkins Portals is a site of academic musings, information, and resources on writing, literature, and philosophy for classes I teach (and anyone else interested in such things).

Click on the appropriate link below for your class information.

English 112: Basic Composition
...covers basic good writing skills (unity, coherence, development, style, and mechanics) for any kind of writing: We write and re-write two to three page essays and examine our own writing through peer review to improve it.

English 135: Advanced Composition
....focuses on finding, evaluating, and synthesizing ideas from many sources and incorporating that into our own writing with correct documentation. Research, plagiarism, documentation, and critical thinking skills are emphasized. We write three to four page essays - each of them are researched, incorporating others' ideas, and documented with in-text citations and a references page.

English 227: Professional Writing
....teaches writing and communication for professional situations: business letters, memos, and formal and informal reports, such as white papers and sales proposals. We discuss page design and layout, including use of fonts, white space, and visuals such as tables, charts, and graphics.

Speech 275: Principles of Public Speaking
....in this class study rhetoric and the priniciples and methods of speaking in public, and each day students give one or two spontaneous or prepared speeches based on what we have learned.

Humanities 420: Contemporary Literature
....in this class we read short stories and poetry from many time periods and places, focusing on modern and contemporary literature. We analyze and discuss works using literary elements and critical theories. We have class presentations, discussions, and we write and present a paper on a work of our choice.

Humanities 232/445: Ethics
....covers the most practical of the three main branches of philosophy: Ethics. We discuss the two divisions of ethics: Ethical Theory and Applied Ethics. For the first half of the class, we examine ethical traditions and various ways to approach and view ethics; the second half looks at various ethical issues in business and the world. Practical activities and real-life scenarios and contexts are emphasized.

Humanities 449: Philosophy of Science Curriculum Guide
As an alternative elective course to Ethics (HUMN 445), Philosophy of Science is concerned with the place and purpose of science in the world and the effect of science on the human enterprise. It provides not only an understanding of the function of science, but also clarifies science's effect on our society, through such things as the creation of technology and its implications; science’s effect on our view of the non-physical world, including religion, the nature of consciousness (can computers think? Are “souls” merely brain states?) and the origin of the universe; science’s limits and failings in its lofty attempt to completely describe the universe; and the implications of the evolution and future of science. Philosophy of Science summarizes, analyzes, and evaluates the general principles of the scientific method and the philosophical concerns surrounding the content and nature of scientific theories. Case studies and examples serve as primary pedagogical tools to illustrate the general principles of the scientific method and to enable students to examine the methods by which those principles operate in formulating hypotheses and theories that shape and determine world views.

DeVry eCollege: Threaded Discussions
....this link will take you to your weekly threaded discussion homework.

DeVry Library: Research using Galileo
....this link connects you to the library where you can search the library's print resources and also use Galileo to access information databases with full text articles such as Proquest and EbscoHOST. If you are researching off-campus, you will need your Galileo password - check with the librarian for the current password.

DeVry Attendance Policy

Course Withdrawals and Your Financial Aid

A Faculty Forum is a faculty development project to assist interested faculty in writing, publishing, and presenting excellent papers and scholarship.

Faculty Forum Main Site
What is a Faculty Forum?
Who should have one?
Why scholarship?
Why have one?

Walker Percy's observations, philosophy, and life are summarized at the links below, including sources of his, people who profoundly influenced his thoughts.

Percy Main Page
Walker Percy
Existentialism
Kierkegaard
Gabriel Marcel
Charles Sanders Peirce
The Genesis Phenomenon
Religious Set Phrases
My Dissertation
Walker Percy Links
Walker Percy Books

Dissertation

My dissertation is on Walker Percy, a contemporary American author, and his view of language, what it is, how it is uniquely human, why we use it, and what that shows about the nature of human beings and the fabric of life. It discusses his use of American pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy and a numbers model for language and the world; then it discusses the numbers that Percy uses in his last three novels, relating to his language theory.

Walker Percy and the Magic of Naming:
The Semeiotic Fabric of Life

Dissertation Summary
Full Dissertation

About

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CV/Resume

Contact

CONTACT ME

thoughts

Here are some frequently used links or links of interest to students or others. These are found at various places throughout this site and may be used in multiple classes or for research. Click on the ones that interest you.

Ethical Development Chart
Ethical Traditions
Kierkegaard
Gabriel Marcel
Existentialism
Charles Sanders Peirce
Walker Percy
Stuff on Symbol
Literary Theories
Literary Eras
Literary Elements
Postmodernism

Peer Review Sheets

Portfolio Cover Sheets

APA Documentation PowerPoint

Documentation Websites

Basics of Good Writing

Weekly Threaded Discussions

Library and Galileo

Below is a list of links to some papers I've written on a variety of topics for conferences and school. For a brief synopsis of each, go to: Papers Main Page.

PROFESSIONAL WRITING:

  • Georgia's Aging Population

    LITERARY ANALYSES:

  • The "East Coker" Dance in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets: An Affirmation of Time and Place
  • The Mariner in the Mirror: Irony and Death in Coleridge's "Rime"

    PHILOSOPHY AND LITERARY THEORY: Language Theory

  • Walker Percy's "Genesis Phenomenon": Towards a Radical Anthropology
  • Religious Set Phrases and Walker Percy's Theory of Language

    PHILOSOPHY AND LITERARY THEORY: Art Theory

  • What is Art?
  • The Value of Art in Education: A Brain, a Heart, and Courage -- "Gifts" from the Wizard

    PHILOSOPHY AND LITERARY THEORY: Critiques of Materialism, Hard Determinism, Behaviorism

  • The Death of Reality
  • The "Uncanny" as a Defining Feature of Narrative: Coincidence as Both Familiar and Mysterious
  • Chaos Theory: Free Will in a Predetermined World
  • A Definition of Mysticism
  • Quantum Consciousness
  • A Christian Response to Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses"
  • A Critique of Arguments for Materialism
  • A Justification of Intuition as Valid Epistemological Method

    FEMINIST THEORY:

  • The Romance Novel: Prison or Playground?
  • The Next Stage of Feminism: Acknowledging the Biological Imperative and Resurrecting the Mother
  • A Jungian View of Paradise Lost: Eve and Satan as the rejected "yin" principle
  • Female Repression in the Victorian Novel

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

  • Hamlet: A Textual Analysis of Act Two, Scene Two, lines 549-605

    ON EDUCATION:

  • The Crisis in Higher Education and Three Approaches
  • Alternative Professional Choices for the Ph.D. candidate: Teaching in a For-Profit Technical School Environment

  • Classes / Engl 112 / Engl 135 / Engl 227 / Literature / Ethics / eCollege / Galileo
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    Copyright (c) 2002, 2007 by Karey Perkins / Contact Me