Foci:
The course focuses on three American cultural groups: Native Americans/American
Indians, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic/Latino/Chicano Americans.
Grading:
Two midterm
exams (15% of grade each, 30% of grade total)
One final exam (20% of grade)
Section Attendance, Assignments, and Participation (25% of grade. Even
if you take this class pass/fail, you cannot get a pass without a passing
grade in section.)
Paper
(25% of grade,
10% for outline, 15% for final draft)
Late assignments lose 5% of their grade each day they are late.
Lecture:
Please do not talk, read the newspaper, or chew loudly during class. In
general, don't do things that make it hard for other students to pay attention
during the lecture period -- this includes noisily packing all your
books up at five minutes to the hour. Please do not arrive late or
leave early. I will do my best to start and stop on time, and I expect
you to arrive on time. If you fall asleep, I will wake you up and ask
you to take your nap elsewhere. If you must miss a lecture, don't forget
to ask a friend for notes. Lecture notes are not available from the
Instructor or GSIs.
Exams:
Exams are short answer and cover ALL course materials: lectures, readings,
and section discussions. The final exam emphasizes, but is not limited
to, the latter third of the course.
Study Groups Instructor/
GSI Help:
Study groups can also help immeasurably in preparing for examinations.
Use your study groups and meet regularly. You can diagram or review lectures,
outline readings, and discuss course materials. In addition, you are welcome
to visit with your GSI and/or Instructor during office
hours or make arrangements for an appointment.
Abstracts: See here for a short explanation.
Paper Writing Resources:
Students who have problems with writing are strongly encouraged
to seek editorial help with their papers from other students, the Student
Learning Center (Writing Section), or other resources, as papers will
be graded for form as well as content. The Student Learning Center is
in the Cesar E. Chavez
Student Center on Lower Sproul Plaza. Information, including drop-in
hours and scheduling appointments, is available on-line at http://slc.berkeley.edu/.
The SLC also offers semester-long, individual tutoring sessions - inquire
very early in the semester if you are interested. You may also find the
video "Revising Prose" offers useful advice on writing clearly and succinctly.
The video (27 mins long) is available in the Media Center on the first
floor of Moffitt Library.
Plaigiarism:
Plagiarism is a major and unacceptable offense.
It is your responsibility to know what it is and how and when to cite
the ideas of others. If you are caught plagiarizing another student's
work on exams or papers, or purchasing a paper, or copying large chunks
of text off the web, you will get an automatic F in the course. We have
a database of papers submitted in previous years, so do yourself a favor
and write your own.
Citations
Need help with
citations? The following sites offer examples and explanations:
General
and Electronic Citations:
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/citing.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html