General Evaluation Criteria

Quality: Quality of thought is difficult to explain but easy to see. At a bare 
minimum, you must demonstrate the ability to adequately explain the information learned through readings and course lectures. To do well, however, you must go beyond simply repeating from the text and instead demonstrate that you have invested some independent thought in the questions presented.

Here are a few considerations for what constitutes quality in all forms of assignment, written or oral presentation: 


-- Clean presentation. I firmly believe in substance over form. Yet, college level structure, grammar, and spelling are expected. 

-- Accuracy in describing concepts and facts. At a bare minimum, you need to write in a manner that conveys an accurate understanding of the pertinent facts. 

-- Completion in describing concepts and facts and some degree of thoughtful analysis.

-- Ability to draw conclusions from facts.

-- Ability to discuss patterns by drawing upon many parts to describe a whole. For example, if you were asked to describe factors relating to our policy in Viet Nam, you might draw upon McCarthyism (which created a fear of Communism); The Bay of the Pigs (which made Kennedy fear being labeled weak against Communism); the Domino Theory (which proposed that if one country fell to Communism then neighboring countries would fall as dominos); Johnson's refusal to be the first US President to lose a war and other factors that will emerge from your understanding of what led to the Viet Nam war 

--Creative ability to not only describe patterns but also to demonstrate some independent thought.

-- Timeliness. Part of evaluating performance is the ability to complete work in the time allocated. I am forgiving for real circumstances that cause missed deadlines but I will mark off for unexcused tardiness. 

If you must miss a deadline and are able to leave me a message, please do. If you know you are going to be absent for an extended period of time, pleased let me know. Simply due to time constraints, I prefer e-mail for most every communication. I certainly, however, will take phone calls for any issue of significance.

With that said, here is a quick check-list for what you need to do to attain excellence:

--Complete all assignments.  Meet all deadlines.

--Be a positive force in class discussions and exercises.

--Create a quality research paper when required.

--Make a quality presentation when required.

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