ASSIGNMENTS AND HOW THEY ARE GRADED

(See calendar for due dates.)

Reading Schedule

If you don't do the reading, you won't have anything to talk about, so I expect you to have completed the reading for each week before we begin our discussion. The complete schedule for the semester, including the books to be read, is laid out on the course calendar. At the beginning of each week, I will give you a list of additional optional sources that might help expand your understanding of the topic. The optional sources are also often helpful in writing the papers.

Online Discussion (55 points, maximum of 5 points weekly for 11 weeks)

I receive a copy of each message posted to the class Discussion Board . Each week I will look over all of your particular posts and assign a grade in the range of 0 to 5.

To receive any points at all, you must post at least 3 messages. Posting more messages will increase your chance of receiving a higher grade, but quality matters, too. Three messages that are well-written and contain excellent content will receive 3 points. Three messages that contain average content will receive 1 point, but six messages that contain average content may receive 2 or even 3 points. Messages that are poorly written will not count very much at all.

When I grade your posts, I am looking to see that you have done the reading, that you are working to understand the reading, and that you are seeking to participate in the online discussion. Spelling, grammar and English composition are very important. Messages that are poorly written will not count very much at all.

For the purposes of grading, posts that reach me by 9 PM GMT Friday will be included in the current week. (GMT, or Grenwich Mean Time, is a global time code. I use it because everyone in this course is not necessarly in the same time zone. 9 PM GMT is 5 PM EST.) Posts that reach me after that will be included in the next week's grading.

For more information on the grading of posts, see the Discussion Board.

Short Papers (60 points, there will be five of these with a maximum of 12 points each)

Grading will be based on clarity, brevity, English grammar, and how well you address the assigned topic. Due dates can be found on the class calendar. You can hand the reports in as soon as you have completed them and I recommend an early start. The grades of reports that come in late will decay at a rate of two points per 24 hours.

For an example of the paper's format, look here.

If at all possible, please send the papers to me as PDF files attached to emails. DO NOT send the paper as the body of an email message - a paper of this size is too large for that format. If you cannot create PDF files, then contact me so that we can find a file format that will work. (I have a Macintosh and while I prefer PDF for attachments, I can read RTF files, and some other types of word processor files.)

I will post the topic or question for each short paper on the Discussion Board.