Requirements

• First writing assignment, due Wednesday, September 28. One to two pages, 250 to 500 words. Towards the end of Tablet One of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh recounts to his mother Ninsun two dreams that presage his meeting with Enkidu. Ninsun interprets the dreams for Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh responds by embracing the challenge Enkidu presents. In the style of Gilgamesh, create the dreams you could have had (but use third person) that presage your encounter with the university and/or the Clark Honors College, recounting the dreams to one of your parents/guardians who then interprets the dreams for you. You'll be writing in a long tradition: Mesopotamian students parodied Gilgamesh some 3000 years ago.

• Response papers.You'll write four one- to two-page response papers this term. Check due dates on the schedule below. Response paper are formal in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count; at the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. Here are the steps for writing response papers:
  • No fewer than four days before a paper is due, think about discovery, interpretation, and use, and re-read the text.
  • No fewer than three days before the due date, free write, meaning that you make notes, construct an outline, or write a complete draft (this may be handwritten)--either a method you habitually use, or a method you're trying out for the first time. Get something down on paper. Then put away whatever you've written for at least six hours.
  • Reread and revise what you've written, again looking at our text for evidence. Have a typed, final copy of your essay complete before noon Friday.
  • Attach your notes/outline/draft to your finished copy and hand it in.

  I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one as a 1.0. No-pass papers may be re-written, and handed back to me within a week. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would receive were it a graded assignment: I'll "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se.

• Graded formal papers. Two five-page (1250 to 1500 words) papers, each of which can use an observation originally explored in a response paper and/or an informal study group. See also tips for topics. Paper 1, due Wednesday, Oct. 19, will treat Gilgamesh and/or Prometheus Bound . Paper 2, due Wednesday, Nov. 23, will treat The Bhagavad-Gita, Job, or Vita Nuova (and, if desired, could compare one of those texts to another text). Note paper due dates: turn in your papers on the date specified. The first paper may also be rewritten (due one week after returned; include the original paper when submitting the rewrite), with the two grades averaged for the paper's final grade.

• Writing portfolio and reflective essay. During the term, keep all of your work in this portfolio; at the end of the term, you'll write a reflective essay about your writing, using your portfolio in order to include specific examples of your writing's strengths and weaknesses, and to list what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll give me your writing portfolio, with reflective essay, along with your final exam, no later than Tuesday, December 6, at 5:15 pm. Completing this assignment contributes 10% to your final grade.

• Final exam. Take-home exam, focusing primarily on Hamlet, due no later than Tuesday, December 6, at 5:15 pm.

Extra credit: Informal study groups.

The learning community of the Honors College affords you an opportunity to test your ideas and grow intellectually in a supportive yet challenging environment. To facilitate conversations about our texts, you can, along with at least one other student, contribute a "discovery" to our Blackboard discussion site before Sunday midnight for each Monday's class. In-person conversations only, please. You're on the honor system for the listing of contributors' names. You may get credit only once for each week, but of course you'll benefit from chatting about many different discoveries. List the discussants' names and include on the Blackboard "discussion site" for that text a question your discovery led to (but as many questions as you wish). Again, all this must be posted before midnight on the appropriate Sunday.

If you complete the assignment for each of the eight weeks, you'll receive 3 tenth-points extra-credit on your final grade; for seven, 2; for six, 1; for five, half a tenth.

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the two formal papers, 25% and 30% respectively; the reflective essay 10%; participation, 5%, and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3	B+ = 3.3	C+ = 2.3	D+ = 1.3
A = 4.0	B = 3.0	C = 2.0	D = 1.0
A- = 3.7	B- = 2.7	C- = 1.7	D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.