ctives
This course will take you through huge chunks of human history from the Paleolithic era through the Vietnam War and into our postmodern world. Your course project will culminate in a nine-ten page paper. Your research paper will require a minimum of five academic-scholarly sources. Both in-text citation and an end reference page as specified by the APA style sheet are required. Scrupulous documentation plus high originality, analysis, insight, and fresh applications of ideas are highly prized. Mere reporting, describing, and finding others’ ideas are discouraged, and plagiarism is grounds for failure. Your paper is to be 70–80% original and 20–30% resourced (documented via turnitin.com). Details and milestones follow.
Guidelines
These Guidelines give you broad descriptions. Details regarding your assignments can be found in supplemental samples and documents in Doc Sharing.
Your final grade includes points accumulated for your
- discussions;
- proposal;
- a two-part annotated bibliography;
- a draft; and
- a final paper.
The following are guidelines to assist you in completing the course successfully.
Guidelines for Discussions (350 points): Please do not merely cut, paste, and attribute in the discussions. For every idea you paraphrase or lines you quote, you must have at least two lines of your own original analysis, evaluation, or personal connection. Learning the humanities is not about finding information; it is about engaging originally and authentically with what you are reading. Posts that achieve quality measures, have gravitas, density, add value to the discussion, make connections, show effort, and enrich peers. It is important, also, to read your professor’s and peers’ posts so that your own posts are on task and not merely locked on the top-level questions.
Guidelines for the Proposal (100 points): A proposal offers a detailed and full description of your project (as best you know it at the time of writing) in no more than 2 pages. To succeed, students will need to find at least one source of information related to their topics. Students may work with their professors to identify areas of inquiry or may accept a topic and focus from the list. Understand that you are making a best effort to describe your project early on, but allow yourself to be open to growth and change as you conduct research and focus your intentions.
Guidelines for the Two-Part Annotated Bibliography (75 and 125 points): Good annotations make for excellent papers. You are required to annotate two academic scholarly resources in week two and three additional resources in week three for a total of five. A scholarly resource is written by an academic scholar, holding a Ph.D. or other terminal degree, is published in a multi-volume, peer-reviewed journal, and has ample references of its own. Successful annotations begin with your introduction (to the best extent you know it at that point in time), capture publication details, briefly summarize a text, locate key terms, find controversies to analyze and evaluate, and assist in the creation of new knowledge.
Guidelines for the Draft (150 points): Your draft should be a largely finished product, impeccably formatted, and nearly complete. It should have all the APA citation and referencing fully in place. In length, it should be five-to-seven pages.
Guidelines for the Final Paper (200 points): The essay must be nine to ten double-spaced pages in length (not including the title or reference pages). The margins should be no more than one inch (right and left). The essay should be composed in 12-point Times New Roman font. Include a minimum of five scholarly sources. Other sources may also be used, but at least five sources must be academic and scholarly. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, websites ending with the .gov, .org, or .edu, newspapers or other media sources do not constitute scholarship. All of the sources must be documented and cited using APA format.
Suggested Topics of Investigation
Here are suggested topics, which you may elect to use or not use. If you wish to work outside of these suggestions, be sure to clear your project with your professor.
- Compare and contrast society during the early Renaissance in Europe to contemporary society
- Compare and contrast human understanding of the nature of revenge prior to and after the creation of Hamlet
- Analyze the themes, imagery or interpretation of the Waste Land and describe how one or more of these are found in contemporary society
- Evaluate the work of Artemisia Gentileschi Renaissance Artist and interpret why she is considered an early feminist
- Analyze views of women’s reproductive solutions in the 19th Century and interpret their historical and contemporary impact.
- Distinguish the essential differences between the major thought of Plato and Aristotle and use the information to illustrate the impact of philosophy on contemporary views on a given them (life, freedom, power, equality, and more)
- Examine views of warfare and battle throughout the ages and provide an interpretation that explains the evolution of the faceless war
- Analyze the impact of the Industrial Age and the rise of of capitalism and discuss the key features of both and their influence on contemporary society
- Investigate the history of slavery and discuss the ways in which this history impacts contemporary society
Milestones
Please refer to the Guidelines above for descriptions and to Doc Sharing for assignments and samples located there.
Discussions (350 points)
Students may earn up to 350 points for posted discussion. While 6 posts (3 for each graded topic) on 3 separate days are required minimally to meet the frequency and quantity requirement, students should strive during this course to post with quality, effort, expansiveness, and add value to the discussion and their peers. Full points are given to those who not only meet the frequency and quantity expectations, but who also demonstrate excellence in original thinking, critical thinking, making connections that add value to the discussion, and demonstrating insight into the readings and the materials under discussion. Unoriginal posts (cut/paste/attribute) with no original analysis do not receive quality points; and plagiarism is an academic integrity issue. Discussions are due Weeks 1–7.
Proposal (100 points)
Following your proposal and full set of annotations, you will be ready to plan your paper. A proposal of 2 pages regarding your intended project is due. Quality proposals will use at least one academic source to inspire a strong and original point of view. The highest points are conferred for originality, the locating and detailing of controversies, and for nuanced papers that sensitively explore topics. This is due Week 2.
Annotations (Part I and II, 75 and 125 points)
In week three you have two annotations due, and in week four, you have three annotations due. Each of your annotations should be approximately 200–250 words. These are due Weeks 3 and 4.
Draft Paper (150 points)
A draft of five-seven pages, impeccably presented with in-text citations and reference page. This is due in Week 6.
Final Paper (200 points)
A final paper of nine to ten pages (not including title or reference pages) is due in Week 8.
See the Syllabus section “Due Dates for Assignments & Exams” for due date information.
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