A syllabus (; plural ''syllabuses'' or ''syllabi'') or specification is a document that communicates information about an academic course or class and defines expectations and responsibilities. It is generally an overview or summary of the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; plural, : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to ...

. A syllabus may be set out by an

examination board An examination board (or exam board) is small board organization that sets examinations, is responsible for marking them, and distributes results. Some are run by governmental entities; some are run as not-for-profit organizations. List of na ...

or prepared by the tutor or instructor who teaches or controls the course. The word is also used more generally for an abstract or programme of knowledge and is best known in this sense as referring to two

catalogues Catalog or catalogue may refer to: *Cataloging **'emmy on the 'og **in science and technology ***Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media ****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries ...

of doctrinal positions condemned by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

in 1864 and 1907.

Etymology

According to the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

, the word ''syllabus'' derives from

modern Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy a ...

'list', in turn from a misreading of the Greek (the leather parchment label that gave the title and contents of a document), which first occurred in a 15th-century print of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

's letters to Atticus. Earlier Latin dictionaries such as Lewis and Short contain the word , relating it to the non-existent Greek word , which appears to be a mistaken reading of 'syllable'; the newer

Oxford Latin Dictionary The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (or ''OLD'') is the standard English lexicon of Classical Latin, compiled from sources written before AD 200. Begun in 1933, it was published in fascicles between 1968 and 1982; a lightly revised second edition ...

does not contain this word. The apparent change from to is explained as a

hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mis ...

by analogy to ( 'bring together, gather').

Chambers Dictionary The ''Chambers Dictionary'' (''TCD'') was first published by William and Robert Chambers as ''Chambers's English Dictionary'' in 1872. It was an expanded version of ''Chambers's Etymological Dictionary'' of 1867, compiled by James Donald. A sec ...

agrees that it derives from the Greek for a book label, but claims that the original Greek was a feminine noun, , , borrowed by Latin, the misreading coming from an accusative plural Latin .''

'', 1998, p. 1674.

Modern research

In a 2002 study, Parks and Harris suggest "a syllabus can serve students as a model of professional thinking and writing". They also believe effective

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of lea ...

requires a complex interaction of skills, such as time management,

prioritization Prioritization is the activity that arranges items or activities in order of importance relative to each other. In the context of medical evaluation it is the establishment of the importance or the urgency of actions that are necessary to prese ...

of tasks,

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

use, etc., and that a syllabus can promote the development of these skills. In 2005, Slattery & Carlson describe the syllabus as a "contract between

faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division) A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject ...

members and their

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementa ...

s, designed to answer student's questions about a course, as well as inform them about what will happen should they fail to meet course expectations". They promote using action

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

s (identify, analyze, evaluate) as opposed to passive verbs (learn, recognize, understand) when creating course goals Habanek stresses the importance of the syllabus as a "vehicle for expressing accountability and commitment."

References

{{Reflist, 2 Curricula Educational materials

Etymology

Modern research

See also

References