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Requirements
Attendance and in-depth reading of assignments is necessary for this class
to go well. In order to promote attendance and reading, then, we
will have seven short quizzes (mostly multiple choice) designed to test
understanding of the main concepts of the previous night's reading.
The lowest two of these will be dropped. The 5 remaining quizzes,
along with 2 short assignments will count for 20% of your final grade.
In addition, we will write 2 short reviews (3-4 pages). The first
of these will be of an artistic work - novel, short story, film, or cd.
If you have a work from some alternate medium that you would like to review,
feel free to discuss it with me; I'm fairly open to other options.
It is imperative in this review that you use sociological terminology and
concepts to evaluate or illuminate the work and/or modern society.
More details on this assignment will be provided later. It will count
for 15% of your final grade.
The second review will be the individual component of a group presentation
near the end of the semester. Each member of the class will choose
a book written by a sociologist and will review and critique the major
arguments. Based on the topics of the books chosen, I will put you
into groups. In these groups, you will prepare a presentation that
synthesizes the major ideas of all of your books and coherently presents
them to your classmates who have not worked on this topic. Altogether,
this will count for 25% of your final grade, with half assigned to the
initial review and half to the group presentation. Warning: Information
from group presentations is rich material for final exam questions!
Lastly, a midterm and a final will each count 20% of your final grade.
These tests will likely be some combination of multiple choice, short answer,
and essay. They will be primarily designed to test your understanding
of material and ability to apply concepts instead of rote memorization.
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Assignment
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Percent
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Quizzes and assignments
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20
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Midterm
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20
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Review 1
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15
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Review 2
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12.5
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Group Presentation
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12.5
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Final Exam
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20
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