Grading Standards:

I follow the College of Wooster guidelines for grading.  “A” grades reflect excellent work, “B” grades very good work, “C” grades adequate work, and “D” minimal work.  Grades of “F” are reserved for work that is unsatisfactory in its content, relationship to the assignment, and/or degree of effort.  Plagiarism will always result in a failing grade.

Professionalism & Participation (20%):

This grade is pretty simple. Turn in every assignment. Turn it in when it’s due. Turn it in in the format requested. Come to class. Come to class on time. Be presentable. Treat others and yourself with respect. Don’t be disruptive. Don’t look at your phone. Stay off the Internet in class. Treat email as a professional communication tool. Don’t make excuses. Be interested in learning. Be proactive.

Do these things and you will make a good grade. Do the work and take part in class and there’s not way you don’t learn the material and the process.

Reading Quizzes/Midterms: (30%):

Each week we will take one or two very short quizzes on that week’s reading, lecture, source examination. These quizzes are designed around teaching the methods to insure maximum retention of the important parts of a lecture or piece of writing or a class discussion or in-class project. There will be no makeup quizzes; you will either be in class to take the quiz or you won’t. Your two lowest quiz scores will be dropped. Twice this semester we will take a longer midterm examination that will be worth the equivalent of two short quizzes. These will be cumulative.

Building a Research Project: (50%):

There will be three different types of paper projects for this course. Students will not be allowed to move from one stage to the next until they have demonstrated they have mastered each stage of historical writing. Mastery will be defined as a B+ or higher in each writing project. Stage one will be a paragraph, stage two, a short (500 words – 3 grafs)  response paper, stage three a short (2000-2500 words 12-15 grafs) research paper.

Stage I: The Paragraph (15%)

This is the building block of writing. You must master this most basic form of writing, before moving on to response papers. The paragraph is a self-contained unit of expression. In most non-fiction writing, the paragraph develops one main idea and supports that idea with facts. There are four essential elements to the paragraph: unity, coherence, a strong topic sentence, and development. Unity simply means that it only develops one main idea. Coherence refers to the logical arrangement of the information and sentences connected with helpful transitions. A topic sentence is the point where you the author express the idea that you will develop, with evidence, over the rest of the paragraph. And development means that you support your ideas with adequate an appropriate evidence that support your contention.  You will write a paragraph free of grammatical, stylistic, or structural errors that makes a particular and well supported point about the book or film under consideration. You will not move onto the response paper until you have turned in two assignments that have demonstrated your mastery of the paragraph. You must master this skill to pass this course.

Grading: There will be two forms of grading on these assignments: the standard letter grades will apply, but only on those paragraphs that have received a B+ or higher. Any grade below B+ will receive credit for completion and feedback for future work.

Stage II: Response Papers (15%)

This is the first step in historical writing/analysis. Once individual students have mastered the paragraph, they will then turn in weekly response papers. These short (500-word) analyses that respond to a prompt will demonstrate proficiency in both analysis and writing. The essential elements of a response paper are a succinct summary of the subject, analysis/argument, organization, and connections. Short summaries are just that, but these should be limited to just a few sentences. Analysis/Argument is a particular point you wish to make about the subject, offering a potential way to respond to the prompt. Organization refers to the way that arrange your sentences and paragraphs to build your argument and explain your analysis logically. Connections mean tying the work under consideration to other secondary or primary sources that help you bring your subject into larger discussions by scholars. Response papers should be free of grammatical, stylistic, or structural errors. Once a student has demonstrated mastery of the response paper (2 B+ papers), they will no longer be required to turn in these papers and will move on toward the short research paper.

Grading: There will be two forms of grading on these assignments: the standard letter grades will apply, but only on those response papers that have received a B+ or higher. Any grade below B+ will receive credit for completion and feedback for future work. After Spring Break, however, all response papers will receive numeric grades as well as feedback. If a student does advance past the the response paper stage, their research project grade will be their response paper average x .5 (Note, this means only 90 total available points).

Stage III: Short Research Papers (20%)

This is the next step in historical writing/analysis. Building upon themes addressed in previous paragraphs and response papers, students will write a short research paper. You will need to consult with me about topic, question, and sources at least one week in advance of turning this in. These 1500-word papers will answer one of the three questions about C.W. Post based on our research. How Post invented and marketed health food. How Post invented and developed consumer advertising. How Post turned Americans against organized labor. You will place your interpretation within existing arguments made by other historians about general business history. Part of your grade will be based on your editorial work on another student’s paper. This will be done via email which you will cc me in on the conversations. Your papers should demonstrate high proficiency in analysis, contextualization, and writing. They will show a clear understanding of historiography, history, and source analysis. They will show clear understanding of the proper way to organize an argument at every level from the sentence, to the paragraph, to the section, to the overall paper.