ASSIGNMENTS AND POLICIES:

Grades:
Grades will be determined by two mid-term examinations, a final examination and a reading notebook. The breakdown of the final grade is as follows:
 

	Examination #1	25%
	Examination #2	25%
	Final Exam	35%
	Reading Response Notebook	15%
		100%

Final grades are averaged using a 4.0 scale (A=4.0, A-=3.66, B+=3.33, B=3.0, and so on). Students with excused absences (preferably given before the missed class) will not be penalized for missing an in-class writing.
 

Reading Notebooks:
Each student will keep a notebook to contain a short response (one-paragraph is all that is required) to each of the assigned readings as well as the occasional short in-class responses to readings. These notebooks should be brought to class each week and will be collected by the professor at various times throughout the semester.
 

Examinations:
Examinations are essay style and are open-book, open-note. They will not be graded on grammar and/or spelling. The first two examinations will ask you to write two short essays comparing and/or contrasting themes (central ideas) presented in the works of literature during the pervious section of the course.
The final examination will ask you to write two short essays comparing and/or contrasting themes in works read during the last section of the course and will also have a longer essay comparing and/or contrasting themes in works read throughout the semester.

For the final examination, the longer essay will be compare and/or contrast the theme ideas on a single theme topic in four works from various period of American literature. At least one work must be from the “The Age of Exploration and First Encounters” or “The Age of European Settlement” periods; at least one must be from the “The Revolutionary War and Early Republic” or “America Before the Civil War” or “America After the Civil War” periods; and at least one must be from the “America Between World War I and World War II” or “The Past Half Century” periods. The fourth work can come from any period of American literature. This essay can be outlined before the final examination, but must be written in the classroom during the final examination period.