The information available on this page is a restatement of the grading criteria given on the syllabus. The current syllabus is the official document that outlines how grades are determined.

Advice for scoring well in this class:

Do the premodern reading.

Take good notes.

Think comparatively, don't compartmentalize the different segments of the class. Continue to think about the concepts presented when reading the premodern material and continue to think about the concepts and premodern material when viewing the movies. Compare concepts to each other, premodern texts to each other, films to each other. Compare, compare.

While attendance is not taken, poor attendence has a very negative impact, and in a number of ways:

• quizzes are usually unannounced and cannot be made up
• the sutdent's active participation in discussion or consistent lack of participation in discussion is relevant information for grading
• many quizzes and observations rely on information presented in class or films screened in class. Since students are often asked to interpret information rather than return facts, even if one obtains class notes, it will be difficult to get a sense of how questions need to be answered.

On time arrival is also important since quizzes nearly always occur at the very beginning of class and have a tight time frame for completion. Announcements and advice about quizzes, observations, tests and the paper process also happen at this time.

Timely submission is nearly always important for assignments, and often incurs penalties. Some of these penalties are severe.

Following instructions:

• When grading I often ask if the question I asked was answered or just something similar to my question. Often my question is carefully worded to create a more challenging scenario for comparison or analysis rather than the more obvious, standard essay answer. Not only do I want that particular question answered, but discipline and control of one's comparative analysis is a running theme in this course and a very important component to it.
• Submission guidelines are designed to allow me to service a large number of students rather than restrict enrollment in the class. Please help me do this, and please enable me to have the time to write comments on submissions by diligently following submission guidelines.

Excel sheet (.xls) that allows students to type in various grade scenarios to estimate the final course grade and explains how I calculate the final course grade

download

Tabular representation of how the course grade is calculated

Some quizzes are diagnostic in nature, especially some early in the term. These might receive just a plus/minus mark or such. They are not mathematically calculated but have some positive or negative impact on the quizzes that do have a point score. Thus the phrase "collective score".

Steps 1 and 2 do not receive a point score and usually are not part of the paper grade. However, if they were not completed or not revised when I asked to do so, or submitted late, or of poor quality, these results can have some effect on the final curve of the paper grade.