Quizzes (25 points each - total of 100 points)

To inspire you to read and retain the material we cover in this class, I will conduct five brief multiple-choice quizzes throughout this course. Each quiz will be designed to test only that you've read and considered the assignment for that day. You can drop your lowest grade; I will only use your four top scores for this component.

The essay is a 2-3 page (double space, reader friendly 12-point font, professional margins) paper about Book Five of Plato's Republic. In your summary paper, identify and describe three principles employed by Plato to construct the ideal community. Do not go under or over the page length if you wish to earn full credit. Assuming that you've met the basic requirements for each summary paper, full credit depends upon excellence along these criteria:
• Essay is grounded in the text. Within your paper, cite at least three brief but meaningful quotations from the reading to support your analysis.

• Essay is well organized. Employ attention-grabbing introduction and thesis, clear forecast, specific transitions, complete review, and thought-provoking conclusion.

• Project paragraphs are well structured, logically organized, and packed with information. Think of the topic and conclusion sentences as pieces of homemade bread for a sandwich. We need lots of meat (or veggies, or whatever) between the bread to make a tasty paragraph. Pay very close attention to your topic sentences, ensuring that they relate to your thesis and provide an overview for your paragraphs. Also, keep in mind that USA-Today style paragraphs, or paragraphs lasting a page or more, risk the appearance of being poorly developed.

• Project is free of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Use one of the newer word processors (such as Microsoft Word) that offer spell and grammar check. Also, feel free to share your draft with a friend to get advice. Of course, I will be pleased to examine drafts and provide comments - though I expect that you will edit your work carefully before sharing it with me. Keep in mind that the closer to deadline you provide your manuscript, the less time I'll have to examine your work.

Summary Paper Two (50 points)

The essay is a 2-3 page (double space, reader friendly 12-point font, professional margins) paper about Book Five of Bellamy's Looking Backward. In your summary paper, identify and describe three principles employed by Bellamy to construct the ideal community. Do not go under or over the page length if you wish to earn full credit. Assuming that you've met the basic requirements for each summary paper, full credit depends upon excellence along these criteria:
• Essay is grounded in the text. Within your paper, cite at least three brief but meaningful quotations from the reading to support your analysis.

• Essay is well organized. Employ attention-grabbing introduction and thesis, clear forecast, specific transitions, complete review, and thought-provoking conclusion.

• Project paragraphs are well structured, logically organized, and packed with information. Think of the topic and conclusion sentences as pieces of homemade bread for a sandwich. We need lots of meat (or veggies, or whatever) between the bread to make a tasty paragraph. Pay very close attention to your topic sentences, ensuring that they relate to your thesis and provide an overview for your paragraphs. Also, keep in mind that USA-Today style paragraphs, or paragraphs lasting a page or more, risk the appearance of being poorly developed.

• Project is free of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Use one of the newer word processors (such as Microsoft Word) that offer spell and grammar check. Also, feel free to share your draft with a friend to get advice. Of course, I will be pleased to examine drafts and provide comments - though I expect that you will edit your work carefully before sharing it with me. Keep in mind that the closer to deadline you provide your manuscript, the less time I'll have to examine your work.

You have the opportunity to apply your understanding of concepts and issues explored in this class to the construction of an ideal community. Your setting might be a city, school, monument, recreational site, or another locale. However, your choice must be an imaginary place, entirely created by you. Write a 4-5 (double space, reader friendly 12-point font, professional margins) paper that outlines your project. Do not go under or over the page length if you wish to earn full credit.

The paper shall draw from classroom conversations and readings to introduce and describe your ideal community - a site where people work together in a manner that responds to problems in contemporary public life. Remember, this project goes beyond our initial classroom conversations about utopias; it is not a fantasy. Your project must be a physical community whose workings are drawn from contemporary technology and social norms, even as you attempt to alter those norms. Given the brief page length, I strongly suggest that you choose a small and manageable site. Don't raise more questions than you can answer.

An effective organizational pattern might be a tour of your community. Ensure that each stage of your tour includes both conceptual and theoretical background and vivid description of your site. Throughout, you will include in-text references to classroom texts to provide points of comparison and contrast. Attach a reference page (not included in the page length) that follows APA or MLA format. You shall also provide some artifact: a drawing, a map, or some other illustration of this community. Be creative; I won't grade on artistic "quality," only on the care you take to communicate your ideas in a meaningful and interesting way. Assuming that you've met the basic requirements for this assignment, full credit for the ideal community project depends upon excellence along these criteria:

• Project is grounded in a wide range of texts. Specifically cite at least five separate resources from readings to support your analysis. Online handouts and notes provided in this class should offer background to your research, but do not count as cited evidence. You may use outside citations, but the bulk of your evidence should employ classroom resources. Moreover, I'll be looking for you to employ evidence from the entire range of readings in our course, not just the first texts.

• Project is well organized. Employ attention-grabbing introduction and thesis, specific forecast, clear transitions, complete review, and thought-provoking conclusion.

• Project paragraphs are well structured, logically organized, and packed with information. Think of the topic and conclusion sentences as pieces of homemade bread for a sandwich. We need lots of meat (or veggies, or whatever) between the bread to make a tasty paragraph. Pay very close attention to your topic sentences, ensuring that they relate to your thesis and provide an overview for your paragraphs. Also, keep in mind that USA-Today style paragraphs, or paragraphs lasting a page or more, risk the appearance of being poorly developed.

• Project is free of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Use one of the newer word processors (such as Microsoft Word) that offer spell and grammar check. Also, feel free to share your draft with a friend to get advice. Of course, I will be pleased to examine drafts and provide comments - though I expect that you will edit your work carefully before sharing it with me. Keep in mind that the closer to deadline you provide your manuscript, the less time I'll have to examine your work.

• Project includes a thought-provoking artifact from your ideal community. Take a look at the course online art archive to see some successful examples.

Final Examination (100 points)

The Final offers an opportunity to demonstrate through multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions your understanding of the material discussed in this class. I will offer a thorough review prior to the test.