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Course Requirements and Grade Distribution
Total: 100 Points
Class Participation: 10 points
Participating in class is a must. This is a significant portion of your grade (basically one letter grades) so it's imperative that you contribute to class discussions. I appreciate any well-intentioned participation in class discussions but I am happier when your contributions relate to the assigned readings for that day. I will carefully note through the semester those students who are actively engaging with the assigned readings.
Attendance: 5 points
I will take attendance once every week, either on a Monday or a Thursday, at the beginning of class. No more than one unexcused absence and two excused absences will be allowed. For excused absences, I will need official written documentation.
Response Papers: 2 Papers X 15 points each = 30 points
These short papers will be about 2 pages in length (c. 500 words using 12-pt Times Roman font, double-spaced) and will ask you to analyze the assigned readings. I will hand out the prompt to each Paper about a week-and-a-half ahead of the due date. Students will bring in their responses to class to facilitate discussion and turn them in as you leave. Any footnotes need to follow the Chicago Manual of Style. I will accept only typed responses, i.e., no handwritten papers. I will also not accepted e-mailed papers!
Quizzes: 4 quizzes X 7.5 points each = 30 points
These will be in-class quizzes that will test your mastery of the assigned readings. These will typically be short questions about the text that you have to answer.
Final Paper: 25 points
This assignment will build upon the skills learned while writing your Response papers and relate to the book by Jean Gimpel (The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages). The paper will be historiographical in nature in that you will have to critically compare Gimpel's book with other more recent texts on medieval technology and write a critical analysis of the state of knowledge on some particular aspect of technology in the Middle Ages. I will announce more details of the final paper about half way into the semester.
Your paper will be about 10 pages in length (c. 2,500 words, main text double-spaced in 12pt font, footnotes single-spaced in 10pt font, Times New Roman, using footnotes as per the Chicago Manual of Style). Your paper should cite at least 8 secondary sources related to the topic at hand, and should directly reflect the substance of in-class discussions and assigned readings. I will talk a lot more about the paper as the semester progresses, and will dedicate a class session to a discussion of the paper.
I will grade your paper based on the following criteria:
1. depth of research
2. strength and logic of argument
3. use of evidence
4. quality of writing
5. correctness of citations
I will NOT accept later papers! I will also not accept e-mailed papers!
Course Requirements and Grade Distribution
Total: 100 Points
Class Participation: 10 points
Participating in class is a must. This is a significant portion of your grade (basically one letter grades) so it's imperative that you contribute to class discussions. I appreciate any well-intentioned participation in class discussions but I am happier when your contributions relate to the assigned readings for that day. I will carefully note through the semester those students who are actively engaging with the assigned readings.
Attendance: 5 points
I will take attendance once every week, either on a Monday or a Thursday, at the beginning of class. No more than one unexcused absence and two excused absences will be allowed. For excused absences, I will need official written documentation.
Response Papers: 2 Papers X 15 points each = 30 points
These short papers will be about 2 pages in length (c. 500 words using 12-pt Times Roman font, double-spaced) and will ask you to analyze the assigned readings. I will hand out the prompt to each Paper about a week-and-a-half ahead of the due date. Students will bring in their responses to class to facilitate discussion and turn them in as you leave. Any footnotes need to follow the Chicago Manual of Style. I will accept only typed responses, i.e., no handwritten papers. I will also not accepted e-mailed papers!
Quizzes: 4 quizzes X 7.5 points each = 30 points
These will be in-class quizzes that will test your mastery of the assigned readings. These will typically be short questions about the text that you have to answer.
Final Paper: 25 points
This assignment will build upon the skills learned while writing your Response papers and relate to the book by Jean Gimpel (The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages). The paper will be historiographical in nature in that you will have to critically compare Gimpel's book with other more recent texts on medieval technology and write a critical analysis of the state of knowledge on some particular aspect of technology in the Middle Ages. I will announce more details of the final paper about half way into the semester.
Your paper will be about 10 pages in length (c. 2,500 words, main text double-spaced in 12pt font, footnotes single-spaced in 10pt font, Times New Roman, using footnotes as per the Chicago Manual of Style). Your paper should cite at least 8 secondary sources related to the topic at hand, and should directly reflect the substance of in-class discussions and assigned readings. I will talk a lot more about the paper as the semester progresses, and will dedicate a class session to a discussion of the paper.
I will grade your paper based on the following criteria:
1. depth of research
2. strength and logic of argument
3. use of evidence
4. quality of writing
5. correctness of citations
I will NOT accept later papers! I will also not accept e-mailed papers!