General formatting
guidelines for student papers -- important!
The following guidelines should be used in writing and submitting the
initial and final drafts of your papers (due November 30 and December
2,
respectively). For the actual
ASSIGNMENT,
see below.
(1) All papers must be
typed,
double-spaced, have 1 or
1.5-inch margins, and in 12-point font. Papers should be around 7
pages long.
They may be slightly longer or shorter as
needed, but I encourage you to adhere to the limit as closely as
possible.
(2) Please number your pages and include your name and a title on
the first page. The title should be something other than "Final
Essay." Be, you know, creative!
(3) Your essay should make direct and indirect reference to the
texts we have read in class
. For purposes of citation,
parenthetical,
in-text references to the sources are fine. Thus, please
cite sources according to the following format: (
Holistic Healing, 169) or (
Confessions, 6).
Note
that the titles of published works should be either underlined or
italicized, but not both, nor should they carry quotation marks.
(4) Write as though your audience are readers like you--familiar
with the works we are using, but otherwise formal and academic.
(5) Your paper should discuss and be based
only on the assigned readings,
not on external sources.
(6) Remember: your paper should have a thesis, an argument.
For
information and background on what a thesis is and how to create one,
consult
Ways of Writing, pp.
22-24, 28-33, and especially pp. 72-74.
(7) Please proofread—this is often the difference between an “A”
and a “B” paper.
(8) Please bring your first drafts to mentor section on
11/30. These will be peer-reviewed and returned to you in
class.
Final drafts should be brought to mentor session on 12/2. As before,
you will proofread them in class, before making final corrections and
printing off a copy to turn into Michael. Thus, make sure you can
access the electronic copy via your H-drive or e-mail in advance of the
mentor session.
(9) Graded papers may be picked up in the History Department
office after Wednesday, December 15, and I will also return all
uncollected papers on the first day of Winter Term.
Late paper policy
I accept late papers, with penalties attached. Note that we are
at the end of the term, and that I will not be able to accept late
papers beyond Wednesday, December 9. Penalty
guidelines are as follows:
- 1 day late (rec'd December 3) = 1 small grade step deduction
(i.e., from A to A-; A-
is highest possible grade)
- 2-4 days late (rec.'d December 4-6) = 1 full grade deduction
(i.e., from A to B; B
is highest possible grade)
- 5-6 days late = 2 full grade deductions (i.e., from A to C; C is
highest possible grade)
Students may also request an extension. Mitigating circumstances
such as a demonstrable,
documented
medical condition or acute personal crisis
may be grounds for an extension,
but only if requests are made in advance
of the paper due date. Extensions will never be granted on
the day the paper is due, or afterward. The instructor will
arrange with the student an appropriate date on which the work will be
turned in. Students may ask for and receive only one extension
request per term.
Assignment
For this assignment, you will be given the freedom to write about an
issue of your choosing raised in the readings, provided it falls under
the general heading of "faith and reason," which is the subject of the
class. You are required to make use of a minimum of four texts,
at least two of which must
be either Augustine's
Confessions,
Hildegard of Bingen's
Holistic
Healing, and/or Galileo's
Letter
to the Grand Duchess Christina. The others may be from any
part of the class. You may also use more than four texts, if you
wish.
Your object will be to propose an argument/thesis and examine it from
the perspective of the different sources. Some suggested topics
are below.
Suggested
topics
- The challenges of reconciling different kinds of knowledge: how do
beliefs interact/react with secular learning in texts like the
Confessions,
Holistic Healing, and Galileo's
Letter? How do they combine,
and how are they reconciled? Possible topics might include
secular forms of knowledge like literature, astronomy/science,
practical forms of experience such as those linked to healing, and so
on.
- In many of the texts we've explored, women have played an important
role in the success of the male figures who are often at the center of
the texts (and of course, Hildegard is one of our authors!). What
role(s) do they play in the journey of humanity and/or for the "heroic"
male at the center of the text in their acquisition knowledge and
faith? Are they helpers? Obstacles? Subjects for
moral lessons of particular kinds? Models to be emulated?
- The evolution of cosmological thought: How did visions of the
universe, its structure, its organization, its operation, change from
the eighth century BCE to 1600 CE? How did the role
of/understanding of God change in the process?
- The author as test case for the explanation of faith/belief:
How do the authors or central subjects of the texts we read (Job,
Augustine, Apuleius, Galileo) explain their belief in God/gods and the
process by which they came to believe?
- The nature of "proof". How do ideas of what constitutes
"proof" of one's arguments change over time? How do the authors
we've read "prove" their ideas? What kinds of evidence or
techniques do they use? How do they appeal to reason?
- Doubt: What is the role of doubt in establishing belief?
Is it productive? Destructive? Creative? Affirming?