History 111 Course Assignments

Cleveland State University
Department of History
Classes Meet MWF

READINGS:

Readings for the course break down into three categories. First, students will read portions of the textbook by Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! every week for class. Students are expected to finish these readings by the beginning of every week because the textbook will provide background for the week's lectures, discussions and primary source material. Second, students will read three novels throughout the semester. They are listed on the Course Syllabus page and are available at the bookstore and at most bookstores in the region. These books are also available through e-bookstores such as Amazon.com. Third, students will read and encounter a variety of primary sources for nearly every class. These include pictures, documents, trial transcripts, and letters. Students should read these sources, and answer questions associated with these sources, on the day that they are assigned. We will discuss those sources and contextualize them on those days.

 QUESTIONS:

Students will have to answer a short series of questions on the primary sources and hand them in on the Friday of each week they are assigned. Although the questions are not due until Friday, I expect students to have addressed the questions before coming to class to discuss the readings. These questions aim to guide students to some of the important issues raised in the sources, and to provide students with ways to connect the sources thematically and contextually. Each set of questions is worth ten (10) points, and students who miss five or more of these assignments will fail the course.

 VOTING PROJECT: DEMOCRACY BY DESIGN

Democracy by Design is a Voting Advocacy campaign targeted at a modern audience, informed by historical fact and a shared cultural tradition. During the project, History and Design students will partner to develop a historically accurate poster campaign, urging voters to exercise their Constitutionally protected rights this November. The results of the voting advocacy campaign will then be catalogued in a booklet that showcases the design of each poster, while outlining the historical events that led to modern voting rights.

PAPERS:

Students will also write three short papers throughout the semester on the novels assigned for the course. In each paper, students will contextualize the novel, put it into historical context, and discuss the primary historical themes raised in the novel. These papers will not be book reviews or book reports. Instead, students will analyze one or two themes presented in each book and contextualize that theme in American history. To do so, students will supplement their analysis of the novels with their analysis of relevant primary sources and discussion material. Each short paper will be due the Friday after the book has been discussed in class, and the dates are boldly and duly noted in the syllabus. These short papers will be worth twenty-five points each. Late papers will be accepted in only the rarest of circumstances if at all. Late papers, if accepted, will be graded down one full letter grade for every day they are late, including off days such as weekends.

DUE DATES:

• Question for paper on Black Robe. The paper is due: 22 September
• Question for paper on Our Nig. The paper is due: 5 November.
• Question for paper on Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Paper is due: 25 November

FINAL EXAMINATION:

Students will write a Final Paper based on a series of questions provided by the instructor. They will run between seven and ten pages and will follow the form of the shorter papers. They are due during the date and time specified for the class final exam. The Final Paper is worth 75 points.

LATE FINAL EXAMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AND STUDENTS WHO DO NOT HAND IN A FINAL WILL FAIL THE COURSE.

The final paper will be longer than the short papers, running from eight to ten pages, and must analyze one theme coherently from the beginning of the course through the end of the course. These themes will become evident during the course, and we will spend considerable time analyzing these concepts. Again, late papers will only be accepted in the most extreme circumstances if at all.

Papers for the 9:45-10:50 class are due 15 December, 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

Papers for the 12:15 to 1:20 class are due 13 Monday, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

All papers must adhere to the History Department’s guidelines for papers submitted in history classes.

Grading: Grades will be assessed according to the traditional scale: 100%-90%=A; 89%-80%=B; 79%-70%=C; 69%-60%=D; below 59%=F.

LATE PAPER POLICY: Late papers and late assignments will be accepted only in the most extreme circumstances.

Departmental statement on plagiarism: Using someone else's ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism. "Ideas or phrasing" includes written or spoken material, of course — from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences, and, indeed, phrases — but it also includes statistics, lab results, art work, etc. "Someone else" can mean a professional source, such as a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; an electronic resource such as material we discover on the World Wide Web; another student at our school or anywhere else; a paper-writing "service" (online or otherwise) which offers to sell written papers for a fee.

Source: Capitol Community College's guide to plagiarism (based on the MLA style): http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml.