History 3250 Extended Syllabus
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History 3250 Extended Syllabus Renaissance Europe, 1300-1520 UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Dr. Robert J. Mueller Fall Semester 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION A: General Course Information 1. Required Reading . 3 2. Course Content & Outcomes . 3 3. Course Organization . 3-4 4. Quizzes . 4-5 5. Writing Assignments. 5-6 6. Grade Breakdown . 6-7 7. Office Hours . 7 8. Academic Dishonesty . 7 9. Sexual Harassment . 7 10. Students with Disabilities . 8 11. Lectures & Reading Assignments . 8-9 SECTION B: Advice for Writing 1. The Essay . .. 11-15 2. Mueller’s Pet Peeves . 16 3. Proper Footnoting . 17-19 4. Plagiarism . 20 SECTION C: Lecture Outlines and Word Lists . 22-34 SECTION D: Maps Section 1. Map Terms for History 3250 . 36 1 History 3250 Extended Syllabus Section A General Course Information 2 UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY HISTORY 3250 -- Renaissance Europe, 1300-1520 Fall Semester 2018 Tuesdays-Thursdays 3:00-4:15PM INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Bob Mueller OFFICE: USU-Tooele Regional Campus, Office #180 OFFICE PHONE & VOICE MAIL: (435) 797-9929 OFFICE HOURS: Wednesdays, 3:00-5:00 & by appointment. E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected] (This is the best way to get a quick answer from me.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. REQUIRED READING: Margaret L. King, A Short History of the Renaissance in Europe (University of Toronto Press, 2017) [ISBN 978-1-4875-9308-7] Robert J. Mueller, ed., The History 3250 Reader (Available on Canvas) 2. COURSE CONTENT & OBJECTIVES: History 3250 is an upper division depth humanities (DHA) course which surveys the history of Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, a period dominated by both terrible calamities (like famine, plague and war) and a great educational and cultural flowering, first in Italy and later in Northern Europe. During this period Europe underwent significant changes in government, society, economics, as well as artistic and intellectual life. These were caused by a number of factors, including the rise of Italian city-states, the ravages of the Black Death, the original works of humanist writers, the amazing creations of talented artists and architects, and the centralization efforts of influential popes and powerful monarchs. There will be five main outcomes by the time you finish this course: 1) You will become a stronger writer. I do not use midterms and finals to test how well you understand the lectures and readings. Instead I ask you to write a series of three term papers and take short quizzes. In Section B of this syllabus there is a detailed discussion about writing strong papers. 2) You will become a more critical thinker. The papers and terminology quizzes require you to use and develop the skill of analysis. Analysis is the ability to reach into a mass of material and pull out only what is relevant for a certain project or assignment. You will learn to have informed opinions backed up by evidence. 3) You will better understand how historians do their work. You will learn how to judge the weight of certain evidence, such as a primary source versus a secondary source. Furthermore, all of the papers require formal footnotes in order for you to show where you are getting your evidence. 4) You will understand important facts about the renaissance in culture, art and education which took place in the Late Middle Ages and the impact this cultural blossoming had on European society. 5) You will understand why the excesses and abuses of the Renaissance popes led to a serious questioning of the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church which would eventually lead to the Reformation. 3. COURSE ORGANIZATION: This course is a mixture of lecture and discussion. It is vitally important that you have the reading material assigned for the week done by our Tuesday class meeting. Always bring your course books to class, especially the History 3250 Reader (found on Canvas under “Course Materials”), 3 because I will lead a discussion of certain primary source documents during each lecture. These discussions will be important to your understanding of the class and its objectives. Please bring questions to these discussions. I want to hear your opinion on the topics we discuss. These discussions help us get into the minds of the English. Remember that this is a distance education course. We handle discussion a bit differently in such a class. I will ask questions of different sites during the lecture. Yes, this means I will occasionally ask you to talk, but I’m such a fun (and humble) guy that this should always be a distinct pleasure. If you are not at the site that is being questioned, please hold off answering until I throw open the question to the whole class. Don’t worry, I’ll give all sites the chance to participate. Likewise, if you have a question during the lecture, I want you to ask it. But please wait for a pause in my lecture (I stop a lot to sip my coffee) and then ask away. Always remember to announce the following things when you address me or the class: 1) Your name, and 2) Your site. This way I can keep track of who is talking and it gives our video technology time to turn on and focus on you. Yes, a camera will be on you when you speak in class. In this way I can see who is talking. This is also a writing-intensive class; you will have to demonstrate the analytical skills you practice in the discussions on your writing assignments. 4. DISCUSSION GRADE: Fifteen percent (15%) of your grade (150 points) will be based on your participation in the discussions in this class. That does not mean simply asking a question or two. I expect you to answer questions which I ask and make substantive comments in our weekly discussions, most of which will be based on the weekly readings from the History 3250 Reader found on Canvas (in the “Course Materials” section). I keep track of all the substantive comments you make on a control sheet, so make sure you clearly state your name and site before you make your comment. That will give me time to find your name and mark it. If you contribute regularly, you will earn a good discussion grade. If you do not contribute, you could lower your overall grade by as much as an entire grade level and a half (meaning that a B+ grade on the rest of the course assignments could become a C). The take-away message here is to take part in the discussions during class time. To be able to do this effectively you need to keep up on the readings. 5. QUIZZES: There are six quizzes worth a total of 250 points (or 25% of your total grade): two map quizzes and four terminology quizzes. The purpose of the quizzes is to see how well you are studying the course materials. I expect you to rely on your memory alone when taking these quizzes. You may not use any books, class notes or external websites when taking the quizzes. If you are found using any of these to assist you in taking a quiz you will be guilty of cheating and may fail the course. The two map quizzes will be given in class. For the first quiz I will give you a blank map of the Italian peninsula and ask you to find ten locations on the list located at the end of this syllabus. For the second map quiz I will give you a map of Europe and the Mediterranean and have you find ten locations. Why do I do this? It is because maps are crucial to understanding the history of England. I want you to learn the location of two kinds of places. First, you need to know basic geographical features (such as, major rivers, mountains, islands, bodies of water and regions). Second, I want you to know how to locate important cities, regions and other political units. Maps of these geographical features and places can be found in the textbook. A list of the possible locations I might ask on these 4 quizzes is at the end of this syllabus. Check the “Grade Breakdown” section of this syllabus for the dates of the map quizzes. The four (4) terminology quizzes will focus on important terms taken from the lecture outlines/word lists in Section C of this syllabus. Each term quiz has the same format. There will be five terms given, one or two from each of the weekly lecture outlines/word lists. A good answer has two parts: 1) Identification. Identify the term in a sentence or two. Answer the questions who?, what? where? and when? as relates to the term. The more specific details you can give, the more points you will score. This part of the answer tests your memorization skills. 2) Historical significance. Tell me why the term is important for this course in a single sentence or two at most. Sometimes there is an obvious reason why a person, place, or concept is significant. Or sometimes you can tie the term to a larger theme or set of ideas in the class. This tests your analytical ability. The quizzes are taken on Canvas and are each timed for 15 minutes, so make sure you do your studying before the quiz. You may take the quizzes any time over a particular one or two day period, but you only can take the quiz one time. I will not grant any extensions or do-overs for any reason. Please consult the “Grade Breakdown” section below for the days on which each quiz may be taken.