(The information below covers assignments and key policies. For the FULL syllabus with course description, Hunter policies and learning goals, and Office Hours and contact info consult the PDF on Brightspace.)

Assignments and Grading

All assignment submission and grading & feedback will be done through Brightspace, NOT this Commons site.

Short Writing Assignments (SWAs). Over the course of the semester you will submit a background survey (linked on the Reading Schedule) and 3 short response papers. The papers (except the intro) should be 3-4 pages (double spaced) long (that is, 700-1000 words) and respond to a prompt (assigned a week in advance) that will ask you to address themes in one or more class readings. 

Up to two of the papers can be creative projects in whatever medium; creative projects must be approved by me in advance—send me an email or speak to me in office hours. Some of the best work I have received from students has been this sort of creative responses!

Any creative responses must be accompanied by a ~ 1 page written statement reflecting on the process and describing the choices you made, relating them to the unit content to show that you are thinking deeply about the material.

Quizzes. There will be weekly short reading quizzes, designed to take no more than 30 minutes, due on Sundays via Brightspace. These quizzes are infinitely repeatable UNTIL the due date. I suggest you make your first attempt early and retake to get 100%—this can be an easy grade boost/padding!

Quizzes are not cumulative (i.e., each covers only the reading and other material since the last quiz).

There will be cumulative midterm and final exams which ask you to analyze passages and engage more deeply with the myths than the weekly quizzes. Dates are on the schedule of readings and assignments.

GRADING BREAKDOWN

Attendance and Participation 10%

Intro Survey 5%

3 Response Papers: 10% x 3

Quizzes: 20%, lowest one dropped

Midterm: 15%

Final: 20%

Course Policies

Attendance and Participation. You will sign an attendance sheet for each class. You start with full points (10% of your grade) for attendance and participation. I’m looking for patterns of absences or lack of engagement, not tallying how many you have. If you’re absent consistently or not participating at all (through group or whole-class discussion, writing your own notes for yourself as we discuss, or potentially via the course Commons site), I’ll need to talk to you. I will try to initiate, but I have 80 students, so I will miss instances: it’s better for you if you come to me. If we talk and make a plan and you’re not able to keep your end of it, I reserve the right to lower your participation & attendance grade.

If you know in advance you’re going to be absent for more than 2 classes in a row (vacation out of state, planned family matter or personal, etc), let me know after class or by email. It’s not necessarily a problem or automatically going to lower points, it just means we need to have a conversation about how you’re showing up in the course.

You do not need to provide me with documentation to explain absences, unless you want to. It’s none of my business, unless you want it to be, and you are adults.

Late Assignments: I strongly encourage you to submit assignments on time so that your work doesn’t pile up and you can engage with the class fully. I will close submissions for each assignment one week after they are due. You don’t need to ask me for an extension of less than a week. I will not accept things that are more than a week late except in extraordinary circumstances and if you get my okay for it before the assignment is due. I do not take off points by day if the assignment is turned in within this week grace period. The final semester-end date for assignment submission is truly final–no grace period for the last paper or final exam.

Use of AI and ChatGPT: You MAY use these tools for the response papers for things like brainstorming, organizing your essays, ideas to research, and grammar fixes. If you choose to do so, you MUST submit a 2-3 paragraph statement along with your paper describing how you used it and how you think it helped and limited you. 

Submission of essays written entirely by AI tools or written with the help of AI without the reflection described above, will be treated seriously as an act of plagiarism.  

You may NOT use any AI tools for the quizzes or exams.