Your grade in this class is based on your performance on the following forms of evaluation.  Each of you starts with an “A” (600 points) and you move down from there.  The buffer for each full letter grade is 60 points.  Pluses and minuses are earned in the 20 point margins at the top/bottom of the letter grade range (e.g., you will receive an A- at 579 points).  Once you go below the threshold for any given grade, the only way to go back up is through the extra credit attached to town meetings and the blog.  Your continued enrollment means that you understand and accept this grading policy.  All written assignments should be typed, single-spaced, with 1” margins, and no more than a one line header with your name, the date, and the assignment.  NO assignments will be accepted late for any reasons short of an immediate family member's death.

A=540-600   B=480-539   C=420-479   D=360-419   F=0-359

1. Reading Quizzes (100 points): There will be 10 short quizzes randomly (seriously . . . I use a random date generator) scheduled throughout the semester.  Each quiz will be based on the day’s readings in order to provide an incentive to complete the readings fully and on time. The quizzes will cover basic materials that anyone carefully reading and comprehending the assigned readings should understand and retain. If you are absent on the day of a reading quiz, you must write a one-page paper summarizing the reading and highlighting the central points raised in it.  That paper must be sent to me (Dr. Pitt) by 3pm of the day following your absence.  We'll notify absentees that there was a quiz on the front page of the course webpage.

2. Examination (100 points): I would like for you to master the theoretical underpinnings of this class at the following levels of understanding: (1) basic knowledge, (2) comprehension and understanding, (3) application, and (4) analysis and comparison.  With that in mind, there will be a take-home examination on the material from the theory unit of the course.  Six questions will appear on the exam and students will be required to choose a subset of them to answer.  Because this is an open-book exam, appropriate citation will be required and expected. The exam is due by email on October 12th.

3. Engaging The Blog (100 points): Everyone doesn’t talk in class but everyone’s contribution to the class discussions is still necessary.  In order to make sure that everyone has a voice (and uses it), I am requiring every student to write comments about the course conversations or lectures.  Every student is required to initiate 10 threads on the course web-blog.  These threads will each be worth up to 10 points.  A thread can be a link to an interesting and relevant webpage (with an explanation), a link to a relevant report or article (with a summary), your comments on the class discussion or lecture, or questions that you might have for me or other students in the class.  Every thread will start at 8 points and work up from there based on how much interest (from myself and the class) it garners.  Yes, that means you should make your contribution worth our while.  That means that you need to amass (by the end of the semester) 20 comments from other students on your threads.  You can initiate more than 10 threads and comments on those will count toward your total of 10 comments.  In order for you to get credit for all of your contributions, you must ALSO comment on 10 other students’ contributions.  For each comment you’re missing, we will take away 3 of your points for your initiated thread.  To sum up, to get the total blog grade you must a) initiate at least 10 threads, b) inspire a total of 20 comments from other students, and c) comment on at least 10 other students' contributions.  The blog can be accessed from here.

4. Town Meetings (100 points): On five Thursdays, we will hold a mock town meeting about an issue.  You will be responsible to serve as a panelist in one of the meetings.  I will evaluate you in two ways.  Fifty percent of the grade will be based on the persuasiveness of your arguments and your level of preparedness.  I also suspect that some of that evaluation will be based on your overall performance, so feel free to ham it up.  The other fifty percent of the grade will be based on a four-page paper that you will write, in character, explaining your position on your town meeting’s issue.  This will help you organize your thoughts and give me some confidence that you aren’t just making your argument up extemporaneously.  The paper must include a minimum of 5 sources from the course readings or some other academic (non-website) resource. 

Extra Credit (Possible 10 points): Because town meetings are not intended solely as a learning opportunity for the people assigned to them, it is important that presenters remember that they are accountable to you, the other students in the class.  With that in mind, I have created an online response form where you can evaluate each presenters’ presentation.  In order to receive the two extra credit points, you have to complete the checkbox portion of the form, and you must give useful written comments to at least three of the presenters.   These forms must be completed by the Saturday after the date of the town meeting being evaluated.  I will consider these comments when I grade the presenters and they will receive an anonymous summary of your rankings and comments with their grade.

5. Self-Guided Field Trips and Final Paper (200 points): To give students a direct exposure to the social aspects of religious experience, a field research project will be an important complement to the classroom setting. Students must choose two unfamiliar religious groups or organizations to visit and observe on self-guided field trips, and write 3-page reports for each. Typically this will involve attending religious services or gatherings and taking field notes. Students may not choose to do the religious tradition(s) within which they were raised or with which they are quite familiar. The two trips/reports are worth 50 points each.  The service should be the principal worship service for that faith group, such as a Catholic Mass or an LDS Sacrament Meeting.   You will write a paper comparing and contrasting the services.  This paper should be no shorter than ten pages and is worth 100 points.  The two 3-page reports will be included as part of the final paper.  It is due in class on Thursday, December 8th.  Click here for more information about the final paper.  Note: If you have ideological concerns about attending religious worship services, please see Dr. Pitt for an alternate assignment.