Requirements & Evaluation

Requirements:

Class participation	15%
Presentation of Secondary Reading	15%
Project & Presentation1	45%
Final Exam	25%

 

Each of you will "present" or introduce one of our Reserve readings via an e-mail posted to the class list by midnight of the day before discussion of that material is scheduled. This will take the form of a précis of no more than two pages. The précis methodology requires scrupulous neutrality towards the content and argument of the target piece of writing; however, in class you may provide us with your own reaction to and critique of the essay/article/chapter. If you have some particular interest in an approach to our texts not offered by the materials on reserve, you are welcome to propose an alternative and supply a copy to be placed on reserve.

Evaluation:

My grades are based on following scale:

A	90-100
B	80-89
C	70-79
D	60-69

Throughout the course of the semester, you will receive "points" corresponding to a version of this scale conforming to the percentage of the total grade a given assignment is worth. Thus the paper/project will be worth 45 points; the final exam 25 points; and so on.

Thus if a student received a 'B,' on an assignment worth a possible 4 points, 3.4 points would be added to the cumulative grade, with 100 points being the number possible. If this student received perfect scores on everything else the final grade would be based on a cumulative score of 96.6 points out of 100 (an A+ in my book).

¹ The project should be very tightly focused on a specific problem, question, annotation, crux, or the like. Do not try to restructure the 'world of Chaucer (or Chaucer and Lydgate and Hennryson) as we know it'; save that for your book. For the length envisioned, you are more likely to succeed if you examine a small detail thoroughly and specifically than if you tackle a large issue superficially. I am open to alternative projects, but we will want to negotiate those on an individual or small-group basis.

Obviously, the world of Lydgate scholarship is far more constrained (more "unplowed fields") than that of Chaucer, so you may find more opportunity for original research and scholarship by focusing at least some aspect of your project on Lydgate or another "minor" author.

Partly to make sure you get going early enough and partly to help you polish your oral and performance skills, I am asking each of you to give a 15-minute presentation of your project. Doing this as a "work-in-progress" will allow you to get feedback in advance of the final draft. There are two different skills involved here: think of the material version--the "paper"--as publication, the presentation as a conference-type performance. You will be strictly held to fifteen minutes of class time for the presentation. As a basic rule of thumb, 10 pages of double-spaced text takes at least twenty minutes to read--too much for the time allotted. Another rule of thumb is that simply reading a paper out loud is deadly. Handouts, audio/visual aids, participatory exercises generally enhance a presentation and help to relax the presenter by diverting attention.

For hypertext projects, please consult the guidelines, evaluative criteria, and caveats at the web site at: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/ht.assessment/