Write a brief, one-paragraph description of your course explaining which themes will be covered and their purposes.
Start to elaborate your detailed outline of the course. Find out how many weeks your course must cover and which type of assessment it presumes.
Indicate the criteria of assessment. For example, two essays each of which will correspond to 20% of the whole mark, a taken-home exam (40%), and discussions in class (20%); attendance is compulsory. Prescription of the percentage to any criteria is deliberate.
Choose five classical or popular textbooks in your discipline which were published within the past ten years. Compare topics presented in all these textbooks and select repetitive topics.
Compare the number of the repetitive topics to the number of weeks your course covers. Omit some topics if the number of the topics is greater than the number of weeks you will teach your course. Choose additional non-repetitive topics if there are more weeks than topics.
Modify the titles of weekly topics in your syllabus to relate to those presented in the textbooks, but keep their meaning.
Introduce main concepts to be discussed for each topic. Make a brief survey of problems and their solutions. One paragraph will be enough to elaborate each topic.
Provide required readings for each topic not exceeding 30 pages per week. Choose one or two classical works (not textbooks) of prominent authors as recommended readings.
Add the statement of values if it is needed.