Loyola University Chicago
Department of History

HIST 101: The Evolution of Western Ideas and Institutions to the Seventeenth Century
Semester I, 2001/2002
Section 013
TTh  10:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Damen Hall (DH) 733

Course Objective:
The aim of this course is fourfold:
- to introduce students to some of the ideas and institutions that have played a central role in the development of western civilization, as well as to the variety of factors—social, political, cultural, economic, and religious—that impact human experience.
- to challenge students to become more critical listeners and readers and more skilled speakers and writers.
- to expose students to the historian’s craft, and in so doing to aid them in analyzing historical texts.
- to encourage students to participate in the great conversation.

Evaluation:
Your final grade in this course will be based on the following:
 

1. Classroom Participation:  Your participation grade is based primarily on group discussion.

• Group discussions: Primary source documents from Kishlansky, Sources of the West will be assigned for each week of the semester. These should be read before Thursday's class (unless otherwise indicated by the instructor), when they will be discussed in a small group setting. Your grade for this component of the course depends upon your active and thoughtful participation in the group's interaction.
• Attendance:  An attendance sheet will be passed around at the beginning of each class session.  It is your responsibility to make sure that you have signed it.  Missing more than three classes will lower your participation grade by 3 points (e.g., an 46/A would become a 43/B).

2. Quizzes:  There will be twelve short quizzes (either multiple choice or short identification) on chapters from the textbook (Hunt, Making of the West), which will typically be administered on Tuesdays.  These will cover the chapters before we have discussed them in class.  The two lowest of your quiz grades will be dropped.

3. Book Reviews:  Both book reviews will be based on the critical reading of a primary source, in this case Plato’s The Last Days of Socrates and Abelard’s Historia calamitatum (The History of My Calamities).  Individual assignment sheets will be handed out for each review.  The papers should be 4 - 5 pages long, typed and double-spaced.

4. Examinations:  The two examinations will consist of short identification questions and essay questions, drawing on lectures and on readings.  Potential questions will be discussed prior to the examinations, and you will have a choice from among several essay questions.

Missed quizzes, late papers, and missed examinations:
Missed quizzes may not be made up without a medical excuse. Late papers (those received after the beginning of class on the due date) will be subjected to a penalty of a third of a letter grade (i.e., 2 points) for every weekday of lateness without exception.  Late work will not be accepted after the date of the final examination.  Any requests for alternate mid-term examination dates should be made in writing well before the scheduled date of examination.  Such requests will be honored only if based upon serious illness or some other reason deemed sufficient by the instructor.  All students must take the final examination as scheduled.

Academic Dishonesty:
The penalty for academic dishonesty of any kind (including plagiarism) will be a failing grade for the course.

‘Plagiarism’ is defined as the copying or close paraphrasing of another person’s work, whether living or dead, published or unpublished, without crediting that person in a citation or footnote.  In other words, it is using another person’s words or ideas—whether they are living or dead—as if they were your own, without giving your source due credit.
 

• The instructor retains the right to make adjustments to the course groundrules and schedule as he deems necessary.