Since we never meet face to face, the discussion board is our "classroom." As you know from the class description, 50% of your grade will be based on two discussion posts per week, due every Wednesday and Friday thoughout the semester.
Since this is by far the heaviest part of your grade, please read the instructions below carefully. You might find them a bit complicated at first, but once you actually start posting everything should fall into place.
Posts are somewhat like short essays or journal entries, consisting of a few paragraphs supported by concrete examples to illustrate the main points you want to make. Good posts usually take one position on a subject and argue it. You should follow the standard rules for good writing as you would on any in-class writing exercise. Although you will not be graded down for minor errors or typos, make an effort to avoid them and to craft clear, well-structured sentences and paragraphs. Remember that everyone in the class is going to see your posts, and take care accordingly.
The class will be split into two groups. Your first post, due every Wednesday, will be a direct answer to the discussion question set for your group at the beginning of the week. Your second post, due every Friday, will be a response to a post written by someone who is not in your group. Thus, you will deal with one discussion question in your first post, and with somebody's reply to the other discussion question in your second post.
You will not be limited to two posts per week, but you will only be graded on the two described above. Anything beyond that is optional. I hope that you will choose to post more than absolutely necessary, though, since the more people post, the livelier and more interesting our class interaction will be.
In order to receive the highest number of points for each post, you should write a thoughtful, coherent reply to the question, well-supported with concrete examples from the reading assignment. A concrete example might be a direct quotation, a story, or an image that you use to illustrate your own idea and prepare people to understand what you have to say. A 40-point post will also contain a reference to something outside the assigned texts. This might be a modern parallel to a subject we're reading about or something you have encountered in your research, such as a web page or article.
For instance, you might make an abstract, subjective assertion like "The story of Aphrodite and Ares reminds me of what happened in the final episode of Average Joe." Such a statement is quite unclear unless you can explain how these two examples are parallel. In order to do that, you'd have to describe events or characteristics in the cases of both the myth and the television show to show the connection. Without these concrete examples to back up your assertion, the rest of us (especially if we haven't been keeping up on what's going on in the world of reality television) will have no idea of whether your assertion makes any sense or not. In this case, you'd need to explain how a number of TV viewers were offended when the young lady on the show chose a handsome suitor over a less good-looking young man who seemed to have a lot more going for him in every category except physical appearance. In a similar fashion, Aphrodite rejects the coarse-looking but kindly god Hephaestus in favor of Ares, the flashy but destructive war deity.
Fewer points will be awarded for posts that are less thorough or that bring up interesting ideas but don't back them up with sufficient concrete examples, or that do not bring up any outside parallels.
Please give your post a descriptive title. As you might have noticed, we've had a plethora of posts entitled "Re: Try out the board." But if a title tells something about the contents of the post, it can serve as a useful memory aid for future reference. You'll find as the semester continues that you'll sometimes want to go back to earlier posts, and it will be virtually impossible to find what you're looking for unless the titles give you some kind of clue. Also, it's just plain boring when all the posts have the same title. When can't tell what a post is going to be about, you're not nearly as interested in hearing what it has to say.
Discussion posts will be graded on the principles shown below. The word "text" here refers either to one of the tragedies themselves, or to one of Professor Vandiver's tapes.
At the end of the semester your score on the posts will be averaged and calculated according to a 4-point scale corresponding to a letter grade, with an average of 40 (4.00 according to standard GPA) being a perfect score. An average score of 37-40 is an A, 27-36 is a B, 17-26 is a C, and 7-16 is a D. An average of 6 points or lower on your discussion board posts over the course of the semester is a failing grade.
You will be allowed one late discussion post with no penalty in case of unexpected technical difficulties or other emergency, but after you've used up your one-time exemption there will be no exceptions. This late post still needs to be submitted within 24 hours of the original deadline, though. Let me know in a separate e-mail when you want to use the exemption. Unless I hear from you, I will automatically mark down any post submitted within 24 hours after the deadline by 50%.
If you want to open the tables below in a new window all by themselves so you can print them up and use them as a check list, click here.
| How Post
#1 will be rated each week | |||
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| Original
idea with concrete examples from the assigned texts for support and a reference
to something outside the assigned texts as well as to the material in the assigned
texts. This might be a modern parallel or contrast with a subject we're discussing, or it might be something you have encountered in your research, such as a web page or article. Note: If your source was a web page, a link to the page would be helpful. |
Original idea with concrete examples from the assigned texts to support it, or original idea with an outside parallel for support but no quotations or examples from the assigned material. Note: A 30-point answer is not a "bad" answer. Often, 30-point answers can be very insightful. No one is expected to come up with useful outside references in every single post. | Repetition
of material and/or ideas found in the text with no original angle, or repetition
of something somebody already posted on the discussion board or brought up in
class, without significant addition. Or this might be a 30- or 40-point post with a minor error regarding facts, such as misspelling someone's name or confusing a couple of minor plot points or dates. | An original idea but a major
factual error in the content, such as an out-of-context misreading of a passage
or an historical mistake, or confusing one god with another. You will also receive 10 points if you post very little content, a simple statement such as "I agree" or "I don't think so-and-so's post is accurate" without an explanation of why you reacted as you did. |
| How Post
#2 will be rated each week | |||
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Thoughtful, coherent response with at least one concrete example from the post
you are responding to, Note:
You might choose to agree with the person's post, disagree with it, or offer some
new insight that is inspired by something in the post but is not directly connected
to that post's argument. |
Thoughtful, coherent response with at least one concrete example from the post
you are responding to, or a thoughtful response with at least one concrete
example from the post you are responding to and with an outside parallel for support
but no direct reference to anything in the assigned texts.
| Thoughtful,
concrete response that engages with the original post and includes at least one
concrete example from the post you are responding to, or includes at least one new example from the texts, or includes an outside parallel for support. Note: You might also receive 20 points if you have written
a 30-point or 40-point post but made a minor factual error (such as a transposed
date) or misspelled the name of an author or a character--or one of your classmates. |
Response that repeats the original post's content (either in the same words
or rephrased) |