I expect all students to attend and participate in all class meetings. Moreover, the completion of all written assignments is necessary for a passing grade. No "incompletes" will be given for this class. Please remember to plan ahead! Because this class is both Writing Intensive (WI) and Speaking Intensive (SI), I have incorporated opportunities for criticism and improvement following the first writing and speaking assignments. I will also require that all students establish e-mail accounts with Internet access. This course will occasionally involve interaction between the instructor and students outside of the lecture period. Please set up these accounts as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Historiographical essay (4-5 pages) 10%
Class presentations 20% (10% each)
Final paper (15-20 pages) 30%
Class participation 20%
Final paper (25-30 pages) 50%
Historiographical essay (4-5 pages) 10%
Class presentations 20% (10% each)
Class participation 20%
All undergraduate students will be required to complete a series of research exercises during the course of the semester. Each assignment must be completed by the assigned due date. Detailed descriptions of these assignments will be included at the end of this syllabus. Here is a summary list of these assignments:
1. Project Description (Due September 6)
2. Preliminary Bibliography, (Due September 27)
3. Critique of a Peer’s Paper (Due November 22)
A historiographical essay is a critical overview of a variety of historical interpretations of an oftentimes narrowly focused topic. Such essays can take different forms, and we will discuss these forms during this course. All undergraduate students in this class will produce a 4-5 page historiographical essay, in which they will compare the main arguments of the 6-10 secondary sources they have located for their research paper.
3. Class presentations
All students will be required to give two presentations to the class during the semester. We will discuss the nature of these presentations later on in the course. All students enrolled in this class must attend a speaking workshop on September 13th.
4. Final Paper
All students will produce a research paper, based on both primary and secondary sources, by the end of this semester. Paper topics may vary by individual interest and focus on specific events, but the general theme all students will examine will be the nature of popular protest in Chinese society from the Late Imperial era to the modern period. Please remember that the quality of your writing, particularly the clarity and persuasiveness of your argument, will factor into the final grading. Late papers will be penalized half a letter grade for each day beyond the original due date.
All students will supply briefly annotated bibliographies with their final essays. An annotated bibliography is a list of books, articles, and documents, in which each entry is followed by a brief description of the source itself. These descriptions, or annotations, are provided to advise the reader on the accuracy and usefulness of the materials you have cited in your bibliography.
Please remember that all students will submit preliminary versions of their annotated bibliographies in class on September 13th. For a better sense of what it entails to create an annotated bibliography, I urge everyone to visit the Cornell University Library's web site at http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm. This page contains a very good overview of the process. The Cornell Library’s tutorial page, titled “Skill Guides: How to Find Specific Resources,” is filled with other useful information. This page may be found at http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/tutorialsguides.html.
Discussion and the exchange of ideas are very important components of this course. Everyone will be required to participate, and you should feel free to ask questions in every class. Each student will come to class having read the texts and prepared to discuss them. I will not hesitate to call on all students to participate. However, you should feel free to speak with me before class, if you find it difficult to speak in a public setting. In that case, you may submit your questions before each class in writing.
Note: I ask that all students bring in two discussion questions for each chapter from the texts that we will discuss during the first weeks of the semester. I will collect these questions at the beginning of class.
I have created a web site for this classroom, which you and I will continue to expand as the semester progresses. Together we will discuss options for the expansion of the course web site during the first weeks of class. Students also can access course information, such as scheduled events (i.e. the syllabus you now hold in your hand), as well as links to web sites of interest to our class. I urge everyone to visit the site Critical Thinking on the Web: A Directory of Quality Online Resources (http://www.philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/reason/critical/) before "surfing" through these on-line materials. Moreover, I may include additional materials on the library's Electronic Reserve list. Please refer to the class Web site periodically for such materials.