Ted Thornton
Humanities II
Religions of the World
Brazil Travel-Study Program, Fall, 2009

Location Monday Tuesday Wednesday 2 Thursday Friday
Blake204 8:00 - 9:20 8:00 - 9:20 8:00 - 9:15 8:00 - 9:20 8:00 - 9:20
Blake204 10:10 - 11:30 10:10 - 11:30 9:25 - 10:40 10:10 - 11:30 10:10 - 11:30

 

Core Texts Fall, 2009  

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist. trans. Alan R. Clarke. San Francisco: Harper, 1998

Mary Pat Fisher. Living Religions, seventh edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2008

Mary Pat Fisher and Lee W. Bailey. An Anthology of Living Religions. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:  Prentice Hall, 2008

Fisher Texts Companion Website

 

World Religions Requirements

(in coordination with World History course)

  1. Completion of daily readings, Reading Notes, and written Reading Responses. News reports as assigned.
  2. Major Essays as assigned. 
  3. Keeping a notebook (three-ring binder is best) divided into sections: first section for class notes, second section for written Reading Responses and Reading Notes in order by assignment (and clearly labeled as such -- i.e. 1A, 1B, 1C, etc. arranged in order with your name on each page), third section for News Reports, and fourth section for Major Essays.
  4. Mastery of working definitions .
  5. A final project that includes a paper and an oral presentation. (25% of grade)
  6. Regular attendance and participation in class discussions and other activities. Meeting times.
  7. A final exam on the last day of the course.

 

Reading Assignments, Procedures, Techniques 

World Religions Assignments Two-Column Note Taking
Policies and Evaluation Criteria Working Definitions
Topics in World History course Humanities II Project Requirements
How to Write Responses to Readings List of Projects
How to Write Reading Notes Tips for Making Oral Presentations
How to Write Major Essays Current Events Reports
Guidelines for Peer Editing

Academic Integrity

IMPORTANT NOTES APPLYING TO WORK SUBMITTED IN THE COURSE:

1.  Review the material on "Academic Integrity" in the School Handbook, especially the paragraph on "Plagiarism." Documentation (footnoting - click here to review how to construct footnotes ) is your most effective safeguard against charges of plagiarism. Train yourself never to cut and paste material from computer files, with the exception of the occasional direct quotation (which should always be surrounded by quotation marks and footnoted). Material you take from other sources and paraphrase (render in your own words) must also be footnoted. A good benchmark to use is to insert a footnote after every quotation and insert at least one footnote per paragraph.

2.  Use only web material from universities, published journals, and other sources that have undergone rigorous editing or peer review and that are widely recognized in academic circles for quality scholarship and authority.   You may not use Wikipedia as a cited source in any papers submitted in this course (more on this in class).  A final reason to be careful about documentation (footnoting and bibliography) is that it authenticates your evidence and lends authority to your paper: i.e. it proves that you did not just make up your evidence; you got it from expert sources. The more expert those sources are, the more authority, weight, and persuasiveness your own paper will carry.

Resources

Search NMH Library Religions of the World Websites
Google News Search Columbia Encyclopedia
Religion in Brazil (Lib. Congress)  
Religion in Brazil (Pew Forum)  
World Religions Statistics Research Guides
Quran Search Link Roget's Thesaurus 
Bible Search Link World Factbook (CIA)
Arts and Letters Daily (a stimulating daily digest of articles including links to scores of newspapers and journals) Topics in World History Course
  Hamilton College's Seven Deadly Sins of Bad Writing

 

    

email:  ted_thornton@nmhschool.org

Humanities II

 

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email: tthornton@nmhschool.org

Last Revised: July 16, 2009