Carefully read and re-read the guidelines for each component of the course that appear throughout the syllabus schedule. I have provided specific instructions to encourage you to do your best work, regardless of your particular learning style. The variety of grading criteria should enable you to demonstrate your academic strengths and to compensate for any areas in which you may have difficulty.

If you have any questions--ASK!

At various times throughout the semester there may be opportunities to attend on-campus lectures and/or events for extra credit. Such events will be announced in class as they arise but you may want to check out the events link to see what is going on around campus.

Your internship:

This field placement experience is designed to enable you to gain experience and confidence while working in a career setting of your choice. Your internship is evaluated on work performance, an understanding of your responsibilities, and your ability to measure your own performance. For purposes of evaluation, you and your field placement supervisor will be required to complete the following forms at various times throughout the semester: Form A (internship learning plan), Form B (student & supervisor midterm evaluation), Form C (supervisor's final evaluation of intern), and Form D (intern's final evaluation of placement). In addition, you will be expected to provide thoughtful and timely completion of all assignments that are described in your Internship Assignments listed on the Course Schedule. Written assignments for your field placement include: a background paper, field work project, journal, midterm analysis, final analysis, and resume. Each of these is described in detail in your Internship Assignments

Class participation (15%):

This seminar is designed to encourage interns to develop a deeper understanding of the variety of challenges facing women individually and collectively in the work world. You are required to read all assignments and come to class prepared to discuss the readings and related issues. Active participation means being engaged, both with the course materials and with the learning processes of yourself and others in the classroom. It is important that you actively listen and give attentive consideration to questions produced by others. Bring your questions, confusions, concerns, and insights to class discussions. In addition, you are encouraged to share any news items, work experiences, etc., that you find relevant. Your voice is important to the class! (See Guidelines for Class Discussions)

E-mail Messages (10%):

Each week you MUST send at least one e-mail message to the class using the Names File you have created.
This message should respond to the readings for the week. Generally you are to make comments on what you learned, what you question, what was left out.
Messages require you to do the reading, think about what you have read, AND relate the issues to your current understanding of the topic, your internship, personal experience, current events, and/or previous readings and class discussions. This is to be accomplished in brief notes.
E-mail assignments should stimulate your analytical skills and encourage you to share your insights, questions, and ideas with your co-educators in WS 261/262. Weekly correspondence with the class offers an opportunity to enhance the development of your critical thinking by attempting to integrate your academic knowledge with your professional and personal experience. This is the key to deepening your understanding and use of course information. Spend some time thinking about how the weekly readings contribute to your knowledge in regard to your internship, future career goals, and/or current life situation.
It is recommended that you respond to e-mail questions as early in the week as possible. It is required that you send all responses 24 hours prior to class. No credit will be given for responses sent after the date they are due. Keep a portfolio of all messages you send. This folder is to be submitted during the final class.

Two take-home essay exams (40% total):

The purpose of these exams is to measure your ability to integrate material and to discuss new information with insight and creativity. You will have one week to complete each exam. This should provide ample time for you to analyze and to synthesize the assigned readings, films, lectures, presentations, and class discussions. The midterm is due on the seventh week of class. The final is due at the last class.

Response Papers (15% total):

Each week you will be required to write a brief paper (one to two pages--typed, double spaced). These are intended to help begin the process of integrating your assigned reading material with your field placement and/or future work/life. The seminar is designed to bring together academic and life experiences by relating them to ideas you have encountered in this class or other classes that have dealt with women's issues. You need not devote a great deal of time to these papers but you should be prepared to present and discuss them in class. I will collect these papers at the end of each class and will grade them as follows: "check plus", meaning that your paper provides evidence that you have given considerable thought to the issue at hand and have related it to your own experience; "check", meaning you have obviously read the material and answered the question; and "check minus", meaning you have turned in a paper.

Seminar project and oral presentation(20%):

This project will include selecting a topic, writing a 1-2 page paper explaining why the topic was chosen, writing an outline and an annotated bibliography, and providing a "thought question" for classmates to answer prior to your presentation. Click on Research Project for detailed description of project and presentation. Read carefully each of the parts for this project. The due dates for specific components of the project are listed on the Course Schedule.