Course Requirements
History 291
The award of final grades will be the product of complex calculations performed by me. Your goal should be to accumulate a total of 500 points. These points can be accumulated in the following manner:
*Read all assignments; attend class regularly, and participate actively (maximum of 40 points). 20 points of this total of 40 will be based on summary presentations of the preceding class. To explain: Each student can volunteer to present orally at least one distillation of a previous class session. This distillation should be succinct (no more than three minutes). It should not recapitulate or summarize the previous lecture/discussion. What it should do is identify three primary points/arguments that emerged during the previous lecture/discussion and provide one example for each point/argument.
**Complete all assigned op ed essays (of one page) on documents (maximum of 60). Op ed essays must respond to the question with an argument, and that argument must be supported by at least one document available on the web under "Documents." That document should be cited in a footnote (using the style recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style, available at Paley Library) and you should quote a small portion of it (10 words at the maximum) verbatim.
**One midterm examination (100)
**One final examination (150)
***Final Writing Assignment, 8-15 (double-spaced)
pages (150)
*10 points will be deducted for each class absence greater than three
for the semester. If the total deduction reaches 40, the student will not
have satisfied the oral component of this course. The result will be a grade of "F"
for the course.
**Documentation supporting requests for make-up examinations or extensions on the due-date for all papers, including the op-ed essays, will be required.
***See Description of Final
Writing Assignment.
****Students can receive 10 points of extra credit for writing an op ed essay in addition to those assigned to the class. These essays should be written during weeks when an op ed essay is not required, should be based on a document or documents, and must be introduced by an explicit question. I will award extra credit for but one additional op ed essay.