MAT 300

Spring 2004                             Addenda to the Course Syllabus --

                                                          Grading Policies  

Written assignments and papers will not be accepted after announced deadlines, except with the specific permission of the instructor.  Even in such cases, penalties may be imposed.

Email assignments will be posted for most class days.  The email assignments will have due dates and the assignments must be submitted by the given date and time.

Homework, quizzes, exams, and the final examination will be graded primarily on factual content and appropriate expression of ideas.   In many cases, “facts” will really be interpretations of historical data.  With the help of the text, I will try to give you what I consider to be the most accepted interpretations.  However, if you suggest an alternate interpretation and can support it with information from two independent secondary sources or from an original work, I will give you credit for that question.

Section 01:      There will be two or three quizzes, a mid-term exam, a cumulative final exam, one 6-10 page research paper (1500-2500 words), email assignments, and some other written assignments.  The exams and quizzes may be of varying length and weight.  The midterm exam and quizzes together will account for 40% of your course grade, the final exam 20%, the paper 10%, the email assignments 10%, and other graded work 20%.  The paper and the other written assignments will be graded on both content and presentation. I reserve the right to make adjustments to these weights at the end of the course; such adjustments will be no more than 5%.   Further, when deciding your course grade,   I reserve the right to consider class participation and my subjective evaluation of your commitment and general ability in working with the course material.

Section 02L:   There will be two quizzes, a midterm examination, a cumulative final examination, email assignments, and 6-10 papers, at least one of which will be at least 1500 words in length.  All of the papers taken together will comprise at least 25 pages of writing, or equivalently 6250 words; the more papers, the shorter the average length.  The papers and any other short written assignments will account for 50% of the final grade, the email assignments 5%, the final exam 18%, and the midterm and quizzes together 27%.  Papers will be graded on content, style, and mechanics.  An unsatisfactory paper must be rewritten and resubmitted within one week of it being returned to the student.  A paper that receives a low grade may be rewritten and resubmitted at the option of the student.  Any student intending to rewrite a paper must first meet with the instructor to discuss the paper.   Also, some papers may be designated for revision, even if the original paper is acceptable.  A paper may only be resubmitted twice.  I reserve the right to make adjustments to the above grade weights at the end of the course; such adjustments will be no more than 5%.  Further, when deciding your course grade,   I reserve the right to consider class participation and my subjective evaluation of your commitment and general ability in working with the course material.