Grading:

Your grade will be computed according to the following scheme:

Problem sets: 20%

Reading responses: 20%

Class participation: 15%

Project (including presentation): 20%

Midterm exam: 25%

Exams will be curved but problems sets will not. In assigning the final letter grade, in addition to considering your numerical scores from each graded component of the course, I will adhere to the following guidelines:

Grades at Wellesley College are described in the Articles of Government as follows:

(a) Grade A is given to students who meet with conspicuous excellence every demand which can fairly be made by the course.

(b) Grade B is given to those students who add to the minimum of satisfactory attainment excellence in not all, but some of the following: organization, accuracy, originality, understanding, insight.

(c) Grade C is given to those students who have attained a satisfactory familiarity with the content of a course and who have demonstrated ability to use this knowledge in a satisfactory manner.

(d) Grade D is a passing grade.

(e) Grade F denotes failure and loss of credit for the course.

Below are more details about each component of the grade:

Problem sets:

The homework can be found on the assignments page. Most Tuesdays, you will turn in the problems on the material covered in class the previous week. Problems sets are due Tuesdays by 5 pm and you can leave them in the envelope in the box on my door (or you can give them to me in class). You will be graded on the content, but also in large part on clarity and presentation, and will be expected to follow the guidelines from this document.

You are allowed to turn in any two homework assignments except the last one late, and they have to be turned in on the due date of the next assignment (so this usually means that you can turn in late assignments one week later than their original due date). Subsequent late homeworks will not be accepted. You cannot use both late passes on the same homework assignment.

It is very important that you keep up with the assigned work since the exams will be based on homework problems. Each homework assignment will contain some problems of the sort you have not seen before (i.e. of the sort not done in class or worked out in the textbook). The reason is that the best measure of a good grasp of new material is an ability to apply it in new situations, and problems that look unfamiliar at first glance are meant to test this.

An important note about homework collaboration and the Honor Code: You are welcome to work with your classmates (or tutors from the helproom when there is someone there able to help you with the material) when solving homework problems. In the event that you have taken notes while working with someone else, you must put these notes away and recreate the solutions on your own as you write them up for submission. Using notes from a collaboration while writing up your homework assignment will be considered a violation of the Honor Code. In addition, you may NOT consult a written solution to a problem you are working on (whether it be online or in a book). Breaches in the Honor Code in any aspect of the course will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the college legislation. If you have any questions about this policy, please talk to me.

Reading responses:

Each week after class, I will post some discussion questions on the weekly assignments page. These questions will be relevant to the material covered in class or will pertain to some additional readings I might assign.

You should post your comments on our Google group (which you can also access on this website at the discussion forum page) by 5 pm on Monday before the next class. This way, everyone will have a chance to read the responses so that we can discuss them in class the next day.

Your comments should not be longer than a few paragraphs. For each reading assignment, I will start a discussion thread whose subject will contain the date of the discussion of the reading in class and you will post your thoughts to that thread. These discussions will only be visible to our class. In addition to offering your own responses about the readings, you are welcome to comment or follow up on someone else’s thoughts. In your writing, you should adhere to the same standard of writing in regard to its format and content as in any other class where written work is turned in and graded.

Class participation:

Since a part of each class is devoted to discussion, you will be expected to contribute to the conversation.

Project:

At some point in the second half of the semester, each of you will chose a topic to research, give a 15 minute presentation on, and write up a short (4-5 pages) paper about. I will give you the choice of topics later and provide more details about the entire process. LTS staff has also put together this helpful list of resources just for your final projects!

Midterm exam:

The midterm will take place in class on Tuesday, April 14. More details about the midterm will be given later.

Final exam:

There will be no final exam.