Right click for a "pdf" print-friendly version of this file HUM 3306 (online): History of Ideas--The Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Anxiety Summer A 2007/ Profs. Harvey & Fantina THE MIDTERM IS DUE JUNE 3 SUNDAY AT MIDNIGHT.  LATE SUBMISSIONS, IF EVEN ACCEPTED, WILL RECEIVE LOWERED GRADES!!! MIDTERM INSTRUCTIONS The Midterm will consist of 6 of 8 passages or quotes from ANY of our main authors/texts as well as the e-text materials (i.e. you will be given 8 passages; you choose which 6 to respond to) up through & including the "Romanticism" week.  For each, you will be expected to write a coherent, stylistically-correct response on its significance, especially on how it reflects or is crucial to larger ideas, issues, or tensions in the work from which it has been taken.  Do not just paraphrase the passage or convey what would be more or less obvious from just reading it by itself.  This is a chance for you to show off your complex understanding of our texts and the history of ideas they partake of. For some passages, there may be additional expectations: e.g., we may ask, for example, that you to link a passage from Equiano to Locke's ideas in "The Second Treatise." You should not copy or paraphrase material from the Prof. lectures.  Prof. Fantina and I expect you to have read and absorbed the lecture notes (why else would they be in the syllabus?!), and your responses should be informed by them, but we definitely don't want just mimicry.  You are not allowed in ANY FASHION to use secondary materials, websites not included via the e-text links, SparkNotes, etc.  Nor are you allowed to consult, in any fashion, with your classmates.  Except for the following: in addition to the 8 passages, there will be an extra, non-counting one.  This will be posted in the "Nuts and Bolts" online Discussion Forum several days in advance of the exam.  You may post practice responses to it, and you may respond to your peers' practice responses.  Be polite. Do NOT ask either Prof. Fantina or myself for feedback on the practice responses.  If there are several excellent, full-credit responses in the "Nuts and Bolts" area, we'll indicate that they are excellent so you can see examples of excellence. Responses should be about 150 words long: i.e., a meaty paragraph or 1/2 of a page double-spaced (submit single-spaced, however).  Obviously, there will be variation from response to response.  No response should be longer than 200 words.  Do not waste space copying the original passage or re-quoting from it; do not waste space citing via quotes other passages in the texts, although you certainly can refer to ideas/scenes elsewhere; do not waste space with strictly biographical or historical filler. Submit the Midterm both directly in a WebCT message to Prof. Fantina and as an attachment single-spaced (with your name at the top).  The email message and the attachment should be in the name format of MidtermSmithJohn. Grades will be based on a point-system, ranging from 10 to 0 points for each response; the totality of your points will then be semi-curved.  Do not ask us how much, say, 35 points earns in terms of a letter equivalent.  We will not know that until we provide you with your letter grade (semi-curved), via WebCT email within about a week after you take the exam. The actual questions/passages will be posted on the syllabus via a link in the right column approximate two and 1/2 days before the due date. Finally: neither Prof. Fantina nor I believe in a grading philosophy based on punishing you for what you don't know.  We much prefer rewarding you for what you do know.  So, if you have really done all the reading of the authors/texts and reviewed the Prof. lecture notes, you should be fine.   You might not get an "A", but you won't flunk, either.