Thursday, October 15, 2009

COURSE PREREQUISITES

Students will not secure a pass for this course unless they have met ALL the requirements below (even for resits/reexaminations):
1. ATTENDANCE [+ COMPENSATING ESSAY(s) WHERE NECESSARY];
2. SHORT ESSAY;
3. PORTFOLIO OF READING NOTES FOR AT LEAST 3/4 OF THE MANDATORY BIBLIOGRAPHY;
4. FINAL ESSAY.

N.B. SENDING IN YOUR ASSIGNMENTS (1+2).
- All reading notes are to be delivered as a single file.doc (Word), .pdf (Adobe) or .zip (WinZip or 7z) archive files.
- Deadline for emailing your written essays and reading notes: the semester's last day of classes. 
- Email your assignments to bogdan.stefanescu@lls.unibuc.ro.
- State your name and class in the subject line ("[LAST NAME], [FIRST NAME], MA NAT Assignments") and sign your email
- Attach the essay and the reading notes file. These 2 files should be titled: “MA NAT_[LAST NAME FIRST NAME]_Final/Short Essay” and “MA NAT_[LAST NAME FIRST NAME]_Reading Notes”, respectively. E.g., MA NAT_Johnson Terry_Final Essay.doc
- Expect a brief confirmation email. Should one fail to reach you in a few days, resend your material and ask for confirmation.
ALSO:
- Short and long essays will not be considered unless they are mounted on the Turnitin platform.-  Create an account at http://www.turnitin.com/ro/homeClass ID: 26298171; Class Key: NAT20
Find more details at Turnitin Guides (link).

• ATTENDANCE. Attendance is mandatory for at least 1/2 of all actual meetings. Special exemption in writing must be obtained from your MA Program director, or you will not get a pass. Student evaluation will be based, among other criteria, on attendance percentage and in-class participation.

• IN-CLASS REQUIREMENTS. Professorial input for this course will only occasionally involve traditional lecturing; an important part of it will be based on printed material and on moderating in-class discussions, therefore each student’s performance in the meetings is crucial for his/her evaluation.

1. SHORT ESSAY.
All students must hand in a 4-PAGE ESSAY discussing a text from the bibliography (mandatory and further readings).
Additionally, students may volunteer for a 15-MINUTE IN-CLASS PRESENTATION. This means they will have to deliver (not read!) in class the content of their short essay in 15 minutes which will then be discussed in, and by the rest of the class. All presentations must be assisted by hand-outs and/or media material (PowerPoint etc.). The same applies for short essays that are not presented in class: the written essays will be accompanied by a hand-out/media material for a potential presentation. Short essays also featuring as volunteered in-class presentations will receive a 2-point bonus.

2. PARTICIPATION IN DEBATES. Students will also be assessed for their contribution to in-class discussions and debates.

3. CLOSE READING/STUDY OF SEMINAR TEXTS.
All students (not just those on assignment) must read closely the selected test(s) for each seminar. Quizzes should be expected as well as verification of personal reading notes for each seminar. Reading notes for all mandatory readings throughout the semester will be required at the end of the semester as the student's personal portfolio.

• RULES FOR IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS.
- Students MUST ENLIST for an assignment (presentation/essay) NO LATER THAN THE SECOND MEETING.
- Failure to DELIVER THE IN-CLASS PRESENTATION AT THE EXACT SCHEDULED TIME will be marked as 0 (nil) and the grade will be compounded with the mark for the written essay.
- Failure to HAND IN THE SHORT ESSAY BY THE ANNOUNCED DEADLINE will attract a deduction of up to 2 points from the mark for the short essay.
- In-class PRESENTATIONS ALSO HAVE TO BE HANDED IN AS 4-PAGE WRITTEN ESSAYS by the general deadline for short essays. (Note that the presentation is no more than the public delivery of the written essay that is required of all students in this course. It is not a different work on a different topic.)
- Failure to COMPLY WITH THE ASSIGNED TOPIC AND METHODOLOGY (see Critical methodology for seminar assignments immediately below) for a presentation/short essay will be marked as 4 (four).

• CRITICAL METHODOLOGY FOR ESSAYS/PRESENTATIONS.
-The theme/topic and scope of each presentation, short essay, and final essay will be NEGOTIATED IN ADVANCE with the course director.
-The THEME AND CRITICAL FRAMEWORK MUST BE CLEARLY STATED both in the actual delivery and in the written form of the presentation. Presentations/essays must also have a FIRM OUTLINE and come as a HEADED ARGUMENT.
-The outline of the argument together with key concepts, quotes, and illustrations should appear in a concise, yet sufficiently clear HANDOUT for teacher and fellow students.
-For presentations and short essays, as well as for in-class debates on the assigned readings, the students are expected to CRITICALLY PROCESS the text they are discussing. This involves, among other things:
-extracting the outline of the main argument in the text,
-rearranging and selecting the ideas of the text in accordance with the student's personal prioritization,
-suggesting points of contention and avenues for debate,
-highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the text, and, just as importantly,
-suggesting how the text could be used to discuss the student's native culture.
- Accepted critical frameworks for all these assignments include rhetoric/discourse studies and the study of political ideologies.

• FINAL ESSAY.
The final written assignment is an 8-PAGE CRITICAL ESSAY. In order for the essay to be taken into consideration it must:
a) be based on PRELIMINARY NEGOTIATION of the theme, the approach, the format and the structure of the argument,
b) have a CLEARLY STATED THEME, APPROACH AND STRUCTURE,
c) comply with the STYLE OF AN ACADEMIC CRITICAL ESSAY (references and quotations, cited works/bibliography, notes, editing etc.). This course accepts the MLA STYLE (see MLA Style from Purdue University - link).

- Please note that the theme has to deal with the (construction of a) cultural identity of a (national/ethnic etc.) group and the approach must come from the area of discourse studies (rhetoric, pragmatics, DA/CDA, power and discourse etc.) and/or political/ideology studies. Your best bet would be to select one approach from the bibliography for this course.
Work in the form of personal essay, editorial journalism, historical overview will not be taken into account.

- SUGGESTED FORMAT: a close analysis of a short text (i.e., 2-3 pages, either an integral piece or your selection from a larger work) that proposes/constructs a collective self-image. Do not analyze metatexts that come in the form of critique or interpretation of image-constructing texts, but the image-constructing texts themselves. I am also open to proposals of "texts"  in a broader, post-structuralist or culturalist sense of the term that could include music and the visual arts, products of the media, advertising etc.

- Failure to HAND IN THE FINAL ESSAY BY THE ANNOUNCED DEADLINE will attract a deduction of up to 2 points from the mark for the final essay.

N.B. One standard page is 2000 characters with spaces or 300 words (cf. Tools-Word Count menu in Microsoft Word). Only printed work will be considered for evaluation.

- Any form of PLAGIARISM in this course will automatically result in a FAIL and in the suggestion to the board that the culprit be EXPELLED. Please read http://www.plagiarism.org/ carefully.

MALFUNCTIONS. Please NOTIFY ME IMMEDIATELY should any problems arise regarding either the bibliography and its availability to students or the impossibility to meet a deadline/requirement.  No excuses will be accepted unless a solution has been attempted with me or the BCSC management previously. All other malfunctions should be reported ASAP to the course director or to the BCSC management team.

• COMPUTATION OF GRADE.
- Grading IN-CLASS PERFORMANCE will reflect:
1) the assignment (the presentation or short essay) = 33%;
2) participation in the seminar debates = 33%;
3) preparation (close reading and reading notes) and attendance = 33%.

- THE IN-CLASS MARK WILL COUNT AS HALF OF THE OVERALL SCORE, THE OTHER HALF IS THE FINAL ESSAY.

- The student must get a pass IN BOTH MARKS (in-class performance as well as the final essay). A fail in one of the marks automatically triggers a fail in the overall grade.