Course Descriptions
Descriptions must be relatively short, because the size and weight of the book are important perennial considerations. Ideally, the course description should run from three to five lines, a length that may not be able to do a course full justice. But within the necessary limits, a well-written course description can provide a pithy introduction for students trying to identify the courses they might like to take. The primary audience of the YCPS is the currently enrolled students, who are trying to shape their programs. They may be able to learn more about courses by referring to online syllabi at the outset of a term and then by narrowing down or confirming their choices in the course selection period; but their attention is drawn to a course, and their first round of selections made, on the basis of their reading of the YCPS.
Thus the course description ought to be as informative as space will allow. It should indicate the scope and nature of the course, the approach or thesis it will pursue, any special background it presumes, and, where appropriate, a representative sampling of the specific figures, works, or problems it will cover. In the necessarily brief space allotted to each description, information about papers or course examinations other than the final examination (see "Final Examination Number" in this chapter) cannot be included; information about the actual mechanics of a course is best conveyed in the syllabus and during the first class meeting. But any unusual feature of a course that students should be aware of, either in its format or in the background it requires, ought to be included.
In addition to its currently enrolled student audience, the YCPS has a diverse set of non-Yale readers with entirely different interests. High school students who are interested in Yale and their high school counselors use the YCPS intensively to form an impression of the curriculum. Potential employers use the YCPS to evaluate the credentials of Yale graduates; former students validate or complete their transcript records by reference to the YCPS for the years in which they were enrolled; teachers in other institutions work out norms for courses or programs of their own from information they find in the YCPS. These additional functions make it important that every course in the YCPS be described, though briefly, and that the descriptions be as concrete and meaningful as possible.
Course descriptions and titles are routinely edited for brevity and cogency. If the editor queries the meaning or tone of a course description or title, the query is addressed directly to the DUS rather than to the instructor. The DUS is encouraged to remind instructors to keep course descriptions brief.
