Assignment Descriptions and Evaluation

            The following includes the detailed instructions for writing the two short papers and requirements for other

            assignments:

         1. Attendance evaluation has been described in detail in the above section.

        2. Participation: Students are required to actively participate in every class for the whole 50 minutes.

             Students who are 15 minutes late for the class will be regarded as having one absence.

            I will accumulate a student¡¯s late minutes; when they reach 50 minutes, an absence is recorded.

            Students who do not speak in discussion or speak only a few times throughout the semester will get only

            50 to 60% of this part of the grade.

      3.  Individual written assignments include two short papers, each about two pages long (double space).

           Paper 1 focuses on any common experience event you participated, and Paper two focuses on any topic

          we have covered  in essays related to the course objectives. Each essay occupies 15% of the total  

          grade.  Each paper consists of three parts: the introduction (20%), the body (60%), and the conclusion

          (20%).  The two papers can be either  an argumentative essay or an expository essay. If you plan to write

          an argument, you do as described in the following paragraphs:

           In the introduction, you need to provide some background information, announce the topic you are

           interested in, state what viewpoint has been expressed concerning the topic and whether you are in favor

           of this view or against this viewpoint (make a point), and explain why you take this position.

           In the body paragraphs, use examples, personal experiences, experts¡¯ testimonials, or quote from the  

           readings to support or justify your points. You need to have a topic sentence for each body paragraph.

           In the conclusion summarize your points.   Each paragraph will be graded on the grammar (20%), the

          organization (20%), the content (40% ) and the whether it is well focused or not (20%).

          If you write an expository essay, you may still write some background information about the topic you are

          to discuss. Then, state why the topic interests you. Announce from what perspective or aspect, you are

          going to discuss the benefits or advantages in the introduction.

          In the body paragraph, you develop your points. In each paragraph, just discuss one point and use

          examples. facts, experiences, statistics, experts remarks, quotes from your textbook, etc to drive home your

          points. Make your point clear in each paragraph and arrange your discussion in a logic manner. Proofread

          your writing carefully to eliminate all kinds of errors.  The document should look nice with one inch¡¯s space

          on all the four sides.  The conclusion paragraph should summarize your key points. Grading follows the

          same principles as stated above.

4.     Event Participation: You must participate at least two common experience events. You need to give an oral  

        report to your group about what event you participated and what are the key points of the event, and how

        you feel benefited from such an event. Your oral report should be well organized in a logic manner. In this

        way, you  get full credit for the event participation. Missing one such an event will cause you to lose 50% of

        the grade for  this part. I have reminders for all the events on the schedule page that you need to refer to

         from time to time.

5.    The Group Project:  The group project focuses No Impact Man  discusses  how the book can help improve

        life quality and maintain sustainability in social development. The assignment tests your team

        working ability and your interpersonal skills. It also tests how well you understand the book. The group

        project can be a paper or a presentation. The group should share jobs among its members. Let each

        member complete a  section. The project is to be graded on the organization (logic and coherent? 20% ), the

        content (rich and  interesting, points well-supported 40%), the correctness (no error at word level, sentence

        level, and text  level 30%) , and document design (it looks professional with balanced use of white space\

        and commonly  used design features 10%)  

  6.  Quizzes: Altogether, you are going to have three quizzes.  The quizzes test how well you have understood

        the essays you have read.  The quiz questions are from the chapters you have read. They include short   

        answer questions, multiple choices, and true or false questions.  Each quiz may have 15 questions or so,

        and  each question is 5 t0 10 points. Students need to read assigned chapters carefully and review them

        before each quiz if they want to achieve As for the quizzes.