GRADING POLICY FOR ANTH 210
Your grades for ANTH 210 are based two-thirds on your papers and one-third on your section projects. There are no examinations.
Papers. There are four paper assignments, one each corresponding to Units II, III, IV, and V of the course. Each of these assignments concerns a problem that grows out of lectures and readings for this course. These are not "research papers" that require looking up information, but rather "problem papers" that require thinking analytically and systematically about a problem, and presenting your analysis in a coherent argument. Each paper should be 6-8 pages, typed double-spaced, exclusive of reference materials. You are required to write on three of the four paper assignments. If you need help with writing, you might contact The Write Place, the Anthropology and Geography writing center. Be sure to sign up for an appointment first.
Section Projects. There is a project assigned for each section except the first section on September 26. These are, on the whole, not written arguments, but lists, journals, data compilations and other things that will help you understand the points we are making in that section of the class. You are required to turn in every section project.
Grades. Each paper will be given a grade on the old-fashioned letter scale, i.e. A, A-, B+, B, B- etc. We do this because we cannot honestly say why one assignment might get a 3.3 and another one a 3.4, whereas we can defend the difference between a B and a B+. For purposes of computing your final grade, letters will be converted to numbers on a scale of A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, etc. The papers will count 3/4 of your total grade. The section assignments will be graded on a scale of 0 (failing) to 4 (A). The combined section assignments will count 1/4 of your total grade. There is no "curve;" if everyone does A work, everyone gets an A; if everyone does failing work, everyone flunks.
Late work. A paper turned in late on the day it is due is graded down one notch, i.e. an assignment that would have received an A- if turned in on time will receive a B+ if turned in late on the day it was due. An assignment turned in after the day it is due will be graded down one additional notch for every workday (M-F) it is late. So a paper due on Thursday, which is turned in the following Monday, will be graded down three notches--one for being late, one for Friday, and one for Monday. A section assignment will be graded down one whole grade if it is late on the day it is due, and two whole grades if it is turned in later than that.
Special considerations. If you know in advance that you are going to be gone when an assignment is due, you may turn it in by e-mail. If you have what you consider to be good reason for turning in an assignment late, talk to your section instructor before the assignment is due, and the section instructor will consult with the class instructor to determine the legitimacy of the excuse. If you have an emergency that prevents you at the last minute from finishing an assignment on time, you will be required to bring a doctor's or other note to that effect. Because of the size of the class, we will not allow any assignments to be redone after they are turned back. In addition, there will be no possibilities for remedial work, sometimes known erroneously as "extra credit."
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