Both exams this semester will be take-home, with essays and short answers required. The exam questions will be distributed one week prior to their due date. The midterm is worth 15% of the final grade, and the final is worth 20%. Each exam will concentrate on one-half of the semester's course material.
Each student will be assigned a Wednesday to take the lead in guiding in-class discussion. As part of preparation for that week, the student should circulate 4 discussion questions intended to provide a start for our analysis. Those discussion questions should be sent by e-mail to all members of the class by the Monday night before the assigned Wednesday.
Discussion Week Paper
As part of serving as the leader for the assigned week of readings, the student must complete a 5-6 page (12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced) paper focusing on the topic of their assigned week. The paper should include full citations (Chicago style), and seek to zero in on a particular aspect of that week's topic. For example, what major historical themes (e.g., nationalism, religious change, toleration vs. persecution, popular vs. elite culture) do the readings address? How do they come down on those themes? Students might also select a specific feature of that week's readings (e.g., for pilgrimage, focus on differing gender roles in participation) and elaborate on what findings historians have made on that topic.
This paper is due by midnight the Wednesday of the assigned discussion. For help on Chicago-style citations, click here and see the full manual online here.
Two major items will need to be turned in for this semester-long project. On October 17th, students will need to submit an annotated bibliography of sources for their topic and a sketch outline of what they will cover. There is no page limit for this submission, but students should seek to be thorough and detailed in showing that they have a feasible plan for research and presentation. This research plan is worth 10% of the final grade.
The second will be the final project write-up. The design and format will be up to the student, and we will be discussing how we will display our write-up in a geographic format extensively in class. The minimum length for this content will be 3,500 words. Citation style, approaches to web writing, and formatting will be discussed in class. This write-up is worth 35% of the final grade.
