EXAMINATIONS:

There will be three examinations in this course.  Examinations will be handed out at our Wednesday meetings.  You will perform the work outside class and email your responses to me as attachments the following week.  I will then email the results to you.  Examinations will be a combination of multiple choice and essay.  Each examination is worth 20% of the course grade for a total of 60% of the course grade. 

Examination Schedule:

Exam #1 (Chapters 19-23) - Due April 24
Exam #2 (Chapters 24-27) - Due May 15
Exam #3 (Chapters 28-32) - Due June 5

NOTE:  You may turn in your exams prior to the due date, but NO examinations will be accepted after midnight on the due date, unless prior arrangements have been made with me.

RESEARCH PAPER:

Each student will write a research paper on a topic of your choice, but one that is relevant for US History since 1877.  The research paper is 20% of the course grade.  Email your paper topic to me no later than April 17.  Consult our textbook for possible topics.  If settling on a topic proves difficult, you may draw from the sample list below.

Paper Requirements:

Email your research paper as an attachment to me by midnight May 29.  Papers should adhere to the following:  5-7 pages in length; 12-point font; double-spaced; with titles, footnotes and bibliographies. 

Use at least three (or more) sources in your research/writing.  These may be either secondary or primary sources or both.  Websites are acceptable sources, as long as they are scholarly in nature.  Examples of appropriate collections of primary sources are the websites we use each week for summaries and class participation.  If you have questions pertaining to a source, please bring it to my attention.

Late papers will be penalized 0.3 grade points per day late, and will not be accepted after June 5.

Sample Topics:

Filipino/American War 1898-1902
National Consumers League
assassination of President McKinley
W.E.B. du Bois (NAACP)
Henry George
Gifford Pinchot (National Forests)
muckrakers
Lusitania
prohibition
Industrial Workers of the World
Samuel Gompers (American Federation of Labor)
Andrew Mellon (Treasury Secretary)
flappers
Margaret Sanger (birth control movement)
National Origins Act 1924
Huey Long
Federal Theatre Project
Eleanor Roosevelt
unconditional surrender (World War II)
Hanford
Alfred Kinsey (human sexuality)
James Dean
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Greensboro sit-ins
TV Debates (Kennedy and Nixon)
Rachael Carson (environment)
hippies
My Lai
Vietnam Veterans Memorial (design and construction)
oil embargo
Moral Majority

CLASS PARTICIPATION:

We are all responsible for creating a collaborative learning environment, and I ask that each of you accept that responsibility seriously.  Because we only meet once a week, missing class will affect your grade in this course.  You are also expected to come to class prepared.  This means having digested the weekly readings prior to our meeting for that particular week.  Each week I will post discussion assignments on this site in the form of announcements that can be accessed by clicking on the announcement link near the top of the home page.

In order to facilitate discussion of these assignments, you will be required to turn in short, written summaries of weekly readings posted in the announcement section.  These must be delivered to me in class on the day of our discussion of these readings. Summaries, along with participation in the classroom, represent 20% of the course grade.

NOTE: NO LATE SUMMARIES WILL BE ACCEPTED!

The following standard 0-100 point conversion scale will be in effect:

A        3.9-4.0    94-100        C    1.9-2.1    74-76

A-      3.5-3.8    90-93           C-    1.5-1.8   70-73

B+     3.2-3.4    87-89            D+   1.2-1.4   67-69

B        2.9-3.1    84-86           D     0.9-1.1    64-66

B-      2.5-2.8    80-83            D-    0.7-0.8    60-63

C+     2.2-2.4    77-79            F       0.0        0-59