NOTE: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CONSULT THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE RIGHT SECTION OF HISTORY 221

INDEX:
A. Requirements for History 221-01 (TR 9:30-10:45, Graham 207) (not writing intensive) [click here]
B. Requirements for History 221-02 (TR 2:00-3:15, McIver 222) (writing intensive) [click here]
C. Comments on Plagiarism and the Citation of Sources (valid for both sections) [click here]

A. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NON-WRITING INTENSIVE VERSION OF HISTORY 221 (ie., His221-01, TR 9:30-10:45)

REQUIRED BOOKS (available for sale in the UNCG bookstore):

1. C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History, 8th edition (McGraw-Hill, 1997) [0-07-029729-0]
2. Joinville and Villehardouin, Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Martin Shaw (Penguin, 1963) [0-14-044124-7]
3. Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide, trans. Dorothy Gilbert (Univ. of California Press, 1992)
  [0520073460]
4. The Song of Roland, trans. Glyn Burgess (Penguin, 1990) [0-14-044532-3]
5. Scholarly Articles placed on reserve in Jackson Library (the reserve room is to the right as you enter the front
  door). It is up to you to procure these articles from the Reserve Room.
6. On-Line texts. The bulk of your primary source reading will be located on-line, either at my web-site or at the
 superior academic site known as the On-Line Medieval Sourcebook.  For each text I have indicated the URL where that text may be found.  If you have trouble using the internet, please see me for assistance.  Please note that the on-line version of this syllabus will have direct hyper-links to these texts.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
 1.  Attendance and Discussion (10% of your grade)
I care about attendance and will reduce the grade of those who frequently miss class without first obtaining permission. Discussion and participation in class can only help your grade. Try to make at least one comment per week: if you get in the habit of offering your ideas and opinions on the readings, you will find that your appreciation and understanding of the material will grow.
 2. Quizzes (10%)
At the end of every unit there will be a brief, mostly objective in-class quiz on the readings for that unit.
 3. Three Essays, worth 50% of your total grade (10% for the first, 20% for the second and third)
These essays will be generally of 3-5 pages, although individual assignments with separate guidelines will be distributed in class.  I will require you to revise one of these three essays, although you may, if you wish, revise all three.  Revisions must take into account my comments on structure and method and must be accompanied by a one page explanation of how you have revised the paper and the ways in which you have improved it (ie., tell me what you did and how this has made the essay better).  You are responsible for choosing which of the three essays you will revise. Note: revisions are due 10 days after you have received my comments on the first draft.

a. First Essay: due Friday February 8 (10% of your grade)
A short (3-4 page) essay in which you demonstrate your skills at constructing an argument. I will ask you to argue both sides of a proposition based on the primary source reading for Saint Louis.
b. Second Essay: due Friday March 8  (20% of your grade)
This essay will ask you to consider matters of causation. You will write 4-5 pages in which you analyze the reasons for the rise and fall of the papacy during the Middle Ages.
c. Third Essay: due Friday April 8 (20% of your grade)
This essay asks you to reflect upon the ways in which genre shapes our understanding of the past.  You will write a 4-5 page paper treating the concept of lordship from the perspective of the relative values of different genres of sources.

 GRADE BREAKDOWN:
  Attendance and Discussion:   10%
  Quizzes                                 10%
  First Essay (Argumentation):   10%
  Second Essay (causation):       20%
  Third Essay (genres):               20%
  Final Essay (synthesis):            30%
 

RESPONSIBILITY CLAUSE: You cannot pass the class if you do not fulfill all of the requirements listed above.  This means that you will fail the course if you don’t, for instance, write the first paper.  Assignments are due on the date and at the time listed on the syllabus; if a crisis (such as illness) arises, it is your responsibility to contact me.  If you do not contact me, the work (when eventually received) will be substantially penalized.  Contact may be made by phone, email, or a note left in my mailbox in the History Department (219 McIver).  Note that while I provide my home phone number above, I will be annoyed if you call me at home after 9 PM.

REQUIRED BOOKS (available for sale in the UNCG bookstore):

1. C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History, 8th edition (McGraw-Hill, 1997) [0-07-029729-0]
2. Joinville and Villehardouin, Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Martin Shaw (Penguin, 1963) [0-14-044124-7]
3. Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide, trans. Dorothy Gilbert (Univ. of California Press, 1992)
  [0520073460]
4. The Song of Roland, trans. Glyn Burgess (Penguin, 1990) [0-14-044532-3]
5. Scholarly Articles placed on reserve in Jackson Library (the reserve room is to the right as you enter the front
  door). It is up to you to procure these articles from the Reserve Room.
6. On-Line texts. The bulk of your primary source reading will be located on-line, either at my web-site or at the
 superior academic site known as the On-Line Medieval Sourcebook.  For each text I have indicated the URL where that text may be found.  If you have trouble using the internet, please see me for assistance.  Please note that the on-line version of this syllabus will have direct hyper-links to these texts.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
 1.  Informal Writing Assignments (10% of your grade)
To help you work through the readings, I will distribute each week a handout containing questions designed to help you think about the primary sources.  On these Reading Guides I will also include a brief assignment (often a question based on the reading);  each Thursday I will require that you turn in a two-paragraph, typed response to that week’s assignment.  These exercises will be graded on a check, check-plus, or check-minus scale, and will be returned to you with brief comments.  If you earn straight “checks” for all nine exercises, you will have earned a “B” for this part of the course.  To earn a check-plus you need to demonstrate that you have thought creatively about the question and the sources and have put some genuine effort into your answer.
 2. Quizzes (10%)
At the end of every unit there will be a brief, mostly objective in-class quiz on the readings for that unit.
 3. Three Essays, worth 50% of your total grade (10% for the first, 20% for the second and third)
These essays will be generally of 3-5 pages, although individual assignments with separate guidelines will be distributed in class.  I will require you to revise one of these three essays, although you may, if you wish, revise all three.  Revisions must take into account my comments on structure and method and must be accompanied by a one page explanation of how you have revised the paper and the ways in which you have improved it (ie., tell me what you did and how this has made the essay better).  You are responsible for choosing which of the three essays you will revise. Note: revisions are due 10 days after you have received my comments on the first draft.

a. First Essay: due Friday February 8 (10% of your grade)
A short (3-4 page) essay in which you demonstrate your skills at constructing an argument. I will ask you to argue both sides of a proposition based on the primary source reading for Saint Louis.
b. Second Essay: due Friday March 8  (20% of your grade)
This essay will ask you to consider matters of causation. You will write 4-5 pages in which you analyze the reasons for the rise and fall of the papacy during the Middle Ages.
c. Third Essay: due Friday April 5 (20% of your grade)
This essay asks you to reflect upon the ways in which genre shapes our understanding of the past.  You will write a 4-5 page paper treating the concept of lordship from the perspective of the relative values of different genres of sources.

 GRADE BREAKDOWN:
  Informal Writing Assignments:                  10%
  Quizzes                                                   10%
  First Essay (Argumentation). Due 2/8:      10%
  Second Essay (causation). Due 3/8:          20%
  Third Essay (genres). Due 4/5:                  20%
  Final Essay (synthesis). First draft 4/25. Final draft 5/7: 30%
 

RESPONSIBILITY CLAUSE: You cannot pass the class if you do not fulfill all of the requirements listed above.  This means that you will fail the course if you don’t, for instance, write the first paper.  Assignments are due on the date and at the time listed on the syllabus; if a crisis (such as illness) arises, it is your responsibility to contact me.  If you do not contact me, the work (when eventually received) will be substantially penalized.  Contact may be made by phone, email, or a note left in my mailbox in the History Department (219 McIver).  Note that while I provide my home phone number above, I will be annoyed if you call me at home after 9 PM.
 

C. PLAGIARISM AND CITATION
Plagiarism is a type of cheating, and occurs when a person passes off (whether intentionally or un-intentionally) someone else’s words or ideas as their own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense, which, in its most overt forms, can result in formal disciplinary action by the university.
 This is a notoriously thorny area for students.  Many students unintentionally commit plagiarism by ‘borrowing’ ideas, interpretations, and/or actual words from other authors.  Make sure that your words are your own, and that your interpretations are also your own.  If you find yourself using someone else’s words or ideas, make sure you have given him/her credit by using a footnote, endnote, or parenthetical citation.  When writing exams or papers, keep in mind the following points:
 1. DO discuss sources, interpretations, and anything else with your peers and friends.
 2. DO feel free to  make use of interpretations presented in class.
 3. DO NOT slavishly copy, quote, or otherwise present the textbook’s rather meager interpretation as your own.  Hollister presents a rather straightforward narration of facts.  In no case will you find that he offers sufficient interpretation to answer an exam question or a paper topic.  You should read Hollister for background, and to gain a sense of the chronology of events, but when writing you should present your own interpretations based on your reading of the primary sources and our discussions in class.
 4. DO NOT pass off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. To do so is to commit the academic crime of plagiarism, a serious offense that can lead to a variety of punishments including failing the course.  If you copy the exact words of another author into your paper, they must appear within quotation marks and you must provide a citation to the source from which you took the quotation.  Likewise, if you simply rearrange the words but keep the main point and/or interpretation from another text, you also must provide a citation indicating the source of the point/interpretation.  Exception: my comments in class do not need to be cited.

CITATION OF SOURCES
For any formal written assignment (ie., one prepared and written at home, with access to sources, readings, etc. - but not in-class exams) you must provide specific citations to the texts that you use in support of your paper.  What are citations?

        In general: they are bookmarks for the reader, allowing him/her to return to the source you have used to make your point. They also serve as
            acknowledgments of the sources you have used (particularly so that your reader does not think you are passing off someone else’s ideas as your own)
        In practice: citations are brief statements of the author and/or title of the work you are referring to, along with a reference point (usually a page number) within
            that work.  For example, if you wanted to use Hollister’s opinions of King John in a paper, you would include a citation such as this .... (Hollister, p. 256).
            Or, if you are discussing a particular episode from Yvain in a paper, you might offer (Yvain, lines 170-195).

Types of Citations
 1. Parenthetical citations: are necessary whenever you have paraphrased a source (that is, taken the gist of
   it and reworked it into your own words) or when you refer to an episode from a source (for example, “In the relief clause of Magna Carta, the barons demanded ....”).  Because you are not using the exact words of the original text, you have some leeway about where you place the citation. Place it either at the end of the paragraph or immediately after the relevant portion of your paper.

2. Direct citations: are necessary whenever you use an author’s words directly. In this case, the author’s
   words must appear in quotation marks and the citation should appear immediately after the closed quotation mark.  For instance, in the following made-up sentence I quote myself.  “As the noted medieval historian, Richard Barton, once said, ‘Medieval History is cool’ (Barton, p. 297)’.”

The Nitty-Gritty: How to cite
        1. Formally ... by using endnotes or footnotes
        2. Informally, by providing the author’s last name and the relevant page number in parentheses in the relevant spot within your paper.
 In History 221 you are welcome to cite sources informally. Be forewarned that other professors may require endnotes or footnotes, so it’s worth learning how to use them.

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