Help me write a pretty syllabus.
August 15, 2012 12:11 PM   Subscribe

Help me write a pretty syllabus.

Hi. I am designing a syllabus for the first time, and I'm getting down to the most important parts -- font, images, overall design. I'd love some thoughts on some nice-looking, easy to read syllabus designs. (Examples in links would be amazing, as would templates).

And if anyone can connect the design of the syllabus to something that might actually be helpful to students (it's a political theory class) all the better.

Thanks!
posted by caoimhe to Writing & Language (12 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Make it simple and one page- back and front if necessary.

Clearly list/label exam and paper/project dates, and gave a calendar of lecture topics.

Most importantly, cite and state the University's plagiarism policy- and enforce it.
posted by maya at 12:17 PM on August 15, 2012 [3 favorites]


What is the purpose of this syllabus?

Is it intended to be a list of assignments/dates, course policies, professor contact info and the like? Or is it expected to be a sort of outline of the course with topic headings and summaries?

If the former, I'd ask "why you want it to be pretty?" because what you are creating is essentially a utilitarian document and as a current grad student I would be annoyed with frilly fonts and images getting in the way of what I'm supposed to read for class on Sept 17th.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:46 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Hmmm, maybe pretty was not the best word -- that was a bit tongue in cheek. I mean more "clean design."
posted by caoimhe at 12:48 PM on August 15, 2012


I don't know, a few years ago I started doing my syllabi (for undergrad classes usually, not grad seminars) in a newsletter type format, and I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from students about them. I did this in response to an article I read in the Chronicle of Higher Ed that said that basically, if you want students to read your syllabi, make them interesting. There is a balance to be struck between to cluttered and interesting design, but I do thing something with a bit more color helps students pay a bit more attention.

I have several syllabi posted on my website, which is linked in my profile, if you are interested. The undergrad classes are the ones with the newsletter design.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 12:50 PM on August 15, 2012 [3 favorites]


Look at using information mapping to organize the information on your syllabus. I can MeMail you a sample syllabus that uses this format if you're interested.
posted by evoque at 12:51 PM on August 15, 2012


Insert obligatory, "How do you feel about learning LaTeX?" comment. (Not that that's an awesome template; just quick Googling. Here's a "term calendar" package.)

In all seriousness: bullet points, tables, distinct sections. (On looking at "information mapping"-- yeah, a lot like that.) A big shaded box at the top of the first page about academic dishonesty: what counts as academic misconduct, and what the penalties are. If they're going to read one thing, it needs to be that. (Half of them still won't. Half of those will violate it, and another quarter of those that did read it.)
posted by supercres at 1:13 PM on August 15, 2012


You might check out this entry at the Chronicle for inspiration (might be the same one DiscourseMarker mentioned).
posted by puritycontrol at 1:40 PM on August 15, 2012 [3 favorites]


When I looked at the "information mapping" link, I realized that is pretty much what I try to do. Like supercres said, use boxes and bullet points to highlight information.

These guidelines (meant for people writing government documents) have a lot of good info on making documents reader-friendly. The first section, Write for Your Reader, contains a few points that I try to adhere to when writing a course outline (syllabus):
  • Try to anticipate what questions your students might ask (or wonder about), and then organize your info in that order.
  • Use these questions as section headings (e.g. "What should I do if I am too sick to write an exam?")
  • Use "you" to address the reader (e.g. "If you miss an exam because of illness, you must provide me with a doctor's note.")
  • Use active rather than passive voice (e.g. "You must provide me with a doctor's note" instead of "a doctor's note must be provided"); it makes very clear who is responsible for what.
-----------------

PS. k8t: check your MeMail.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:16 PM on August 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


This sounds silly, but almost all of my professors in college used Times New Roman as the font for their syllabi and hand-outs. TNR is a perfect good font for many things, but it led to notebooks full of badly labelled papers that all looked the same.

The notable exception was my favorite professor (who taught philosophy, not that it matter) who typeset all of his course materials in Georgia. Compared the reams of stuff printed in TNR, it looked amazing and super professional. He also put the course name and number at the very top of each page, right next to his name and contact info, as well as dating everything so he could hand out updated syllabi throughout the course and you would know which one was most recent.
posted by arcolz at 3:39 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's a good idea to clearly separate the stuff I need to know like projects, due dates and possibly grading formulas from boilerplate like plagiarism and attendance. There's only one part of a syllabus that is going to need to survive from the first day to the last day and that's due dates. Also, it always bugged me when professors would nicely list all of the projects and due dates on the syllabus and then completely ignore the entire thing for the rest of the semester. I also enjoyed one syllabus that had a long, aggressively-written portion on the importance of spelling and grammar and was riddled with errors of all kinds. It's like, man, if you're not taking this seriously then I'm not inclined to either.
posted by bleep at 5:22 PM on August 15, 2012


Lots of professors seem to treat their syllabus as some sort of holy writ. Don't do that.

You need:

Learning Objectives
Rubric
Reading list
Schedule of Dates/Assignment
Office Hours and Contact info
Policy on late assignments
University required stuff: Disability Statement, Mission.

Many of your students will be reading this on table devices or online. Don't spend hours making it pretty. Concisely deliver the information and get on with it.
posted by 26.2 at 5:48 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Tablet devices. GAH.
posted by 26.2 at 5:59 PM on August 15, 2012


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