6. Assignments

20% Informal Writing Portfolio
(frequent informal responses, drafts, peer critiques, in-class essays, etc.)

10% Oral Presentation
(polished 15-min mini-seminar, demonstrating the student's application of literary research -- involving peer-reviewed academic sources -- to the exploration of an intellectual question arising from the assigned readings.)

20% Exercises
(practical, focused assignments designed to help students master literary research skills such as integrating citations efficiently and elegantly, locating and evaluating credible sources, and compiling an annotated bibliography)

50% Researched Essays
(20-25 pages of polished, thoroughly revised writing; a sequence of assignments, beginning with a research question, and culminating in a polished academic paper that presents an original intellectual argument, supported by citations from recent academic scholarship. Assessment of the first essays will focus on clear thesis statements, logical structure and effective application of scholarly sources; for the final essay, assessment will focus on the student's ability to support an original intellectual argument.)

• 10% Essay 1 (4-5p)
• 15% Essay 2 (6-8p)
• 25% Essay 3 (10-12p)