PHIL 358/WGSS 390/PLSC 370:
Advanced Feminist Political Theories

Dr. McWhorter
Fall, 2005

For clarification on the policies governing all assignments--including the late policy--see the Policies Page.

NOTE: Students taking this course for graduate credit must write three of the essay assignments plus the term paper. Alternatively, a graduate student may elect not to write any of the essay assignments but undertake a much more in-depth research project. Graduate students should talk with the professor early in the semester to determine which is the more appropriate option.

Essay Assignments - 20% each. Each student will write two 5-7 page essays. Students choose two of the four due dates to submit papers. Topics will be assigned. Due dates are September 20, October 6, November 3, and November 22.

Class Participation - 10%. Students are expected to be in class and prepared for class discussion every day. Exception: Students with contagious or catastrophic diseases should not report to class, nor should they drop by the professor's office; an email is sufficient. Grades for attendance and participation are calculated in the following way: Students begin with 80 points. Noticeable and repeated absences drop students 10-20 points, depending on how noticeable and how often repeated. Efforts to contribute to class discussion may raise students 10 points. Helpful and considered contributions that clearly reflect a knowledge of the reading assignments may raise students another 10 points. Therefore, it is possible for students who attend regularly, read, and contribute in helpful and intelligent ways to get 100 points. It is also possible for students who contribute brilliantly but attend sporadically to get less than 80 points and for students who attend religiously but never speak to get no more than 80 points. The moral of this story is: Read the texts, come to class often, speak at least occasionally, and be smart.

Term Paper Topic - 1%. On November 3, students will submit a one-paragraph, typewritten description of the question or area of research that they intend to explore in their term papers.

Term Paper Bibliography - 10%. On November 17, students will submit a working bibliography with as exhaustive a list as possible of the sources they will examine for their term paper. This bibliography must include at least ten books and at least ten journal articles. On-line articles are acceptable if they are from professionally refereed scholarly journals. Note: Bibliographies should include many more than twenty references; the requirement is simply that there be no fewer than ten of each type. Some students will have many more journal articles; some will have many more books, depending on topic. All references should be put in standard bibliographic form according to the guidelines for Turabian. You can get some help on this and other term-paper related assignments on the library page for this course.

Refined Thesis and Term Paper Outline - 9%.
On November 29 each student will turn in a written outline of the term paper showing the evidence that will be offered in support of a refined thesis.

Term Paper - 30%. The term paper, with the final bibliography, is due by 5:00 p.m. on December 16. It should be 15-30 pages long, typewritten, paginated, and should conform to professional standards for inclusive language and citation.

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