Evaluation and Grading
Course Grade
Your grade in the course will be based on:
Class Participation 30 percent
Paper 70 percent
Class participation Requirement
Class participation includes:
being prepared to effectively contribute, actively participating in class and group discussion. keeping abreast of news related to AIDS and sharing relevant news information with the class (including submitting copies of interesting items for the Bulletin Board).
Discussion Questions. You should submit to Professor Randall via email two questions for discussion. The questions should be submitted no later than 8:00 am on Monday Morning. Questions should explore the underlying value implications of the reading. You may want to raise questions which will explore the point at which a value important to you is violated; to write question which challenge the desirable or undesirable consequences of a position taken in the reading; to write questions which make analogies to other things that you have learned; or to write questions which explore the priorities being set by some aspect of the reading. Do not bring "WHAT IS THE LAW" questions. if you want to know what the law is - go to the library and look it up. Rather your questions should be about : "Why, Should, Could, What if?" See, Critical Thinking in Reading for help in formulating appropriate questions. Participation on the TWEN Discussion group.
This is a participatory learning class. That means that your absence effects the learning of others. Consequently, missing classes significantly affects your grade. As a rule of thumb, missing more than two classes will significantly impact your class participation grade. Attendance is required. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class hour. Students who are not seated and prepared to begin class when attendance is taken will be counted as tardy. Each tardy counts as one absence.
"Excused absence" shall mean documented illness of self, documented illness of child, school-sponsored participation in competitions, or a family emergency. "Family Emergency" is limited to death or catastrophic occurrence affecting the student's immediate family or closely-extended family. Flat tires and similar automotive failures, computer problems, speeding tickets, work, interviews, court dates, etc. are per se unexcused absences.
Attendance requires presence and attention during the entire class period. Students should not leave the classroom once class has begun except in emergencies.
Attendance requires attention. Students should refrain from engaging in activities that are disruptive to the class. Professional conduct requires that students refrain from eating, talking or laughing while others are speaking, passing notes, playing games, reading newspapers, or in any other manner disrupting the educational process by being present but rude or inattentive. Students acting in an unprofessional manner will be asked to leave the classroom and will be counted absent without excuse for that class.
Attendance requires preparation. Occasional inability to complete the assignments is understandable and excusable; regular patterns of lack of preparedness will require excuse and make-up work.
Paper Guidelines
Overview.
Your Paper/Annotated Bibliography may address any issue related to AIDS and the Law. This is an interdisciplinary paper which means that as appropriate your Paper/Annotated Bibliography must cover the sociological, legal, medical, psychological, health care and ethical aspects of the topic. As a legal paper, your paper should include an extended discussion on the status of the law in the area. This includes both state and federal law and where appropriate, international law. To the extent appropriate, you should include interviews with appropriate community leaders to provide context for the problem. The work product is a paper plus an annotated bibliography. The paper will be done in stages including the developing of a thesis statement, an introduction, a first draft and a final draft.
Thesis Statement.
You must develop a clear and concise statement of the thesis for your Paper/Annotated Bibliography. The thesis statement is the logical core of your study. The thesis statement then provides you structure for tailoring your research. Think of a thesis statement as a hypothesis. What do you think the law should be in the area and why. However, the thesis statement should not assume a warlike stance or a tone of shrill advocacy. Rather your statement should offer a rational defense for a position and as precisely formulated as you can make it. Don't worry about your position changing as you do your research. Like a hypothesis, your research could result in several outcomes for you:
Your thesis statement is supported and will be accepted Your thesis statement is not supported and will be rejected Your thesis statement is partially supported and will be modified.
Preliminary Bibliography.
Your preliminary bibliography includes at least five articles or books that you might read. You are not committed to having to read those particular items and can change your mind as your research develops. Your biblography should be interdisciplinary including references where appropriate from Legal, Health/Medical, Ethical, Tort, Sociology, Psychology, History and international sources. This is NOT an annotated bibliography but merely a listing of potential appropriate readings.
Introduction to Paper.
The introduction to the paper should set up the problem. Discuss the approach you will take in addressing the problem in your paper. Identify the sections of your paper and give a brief (1 to 2 paragraph) discussion of each section including the key point you are making in the paper. The Introduction to the paper should be between 900 to 1800 words.
Paper.
The paper should be between 5000 to 7000 words. It is in the nature of a scholarly paper. What did you learn? What is the current law? What are the unresolved sociological, legal, health care, medical, tort, psychological, racial, gender, sexual orientation or ethical issues, etc.? If you did community interviews, what did you learn from the interviews? How has the readings and interviews impacted your views and opinions? Where do you the law should go on the issue? Your paper should have 1 inch margins, use 12 pt type. Remember your paper should demonstrate broad reading, thus it is not unrealistic to expect that in a 5000 to 7000 words paper to have 20-25 resources. Finally, do not mistake the use of the word draft. It is my expectation that your first draft should be a completed, proofed paper, needing only minor revisions. Do NOT turn in incomplete "drafts"; your draft should be finished products.
Annotated Bibliography.
You should keep an annotated bibliography on everything you read in preparation for the paper whether or not you eventually cite to the source in the paper.
The annotation should include: citation, description, critical comment and total number of pages read. The description should be two to three paragraphs but no longer than a half a page. If you read a book then you should annotate each chapter. Your description includes a synopsis of the author's primary points and a critique of those points. It should include whether the source contains a bibliography. Your bibliography should include constitution, cases (federal/state), statutes and regulations. Your sources must also include non-law scholarly sources (such as medicine, nursing, psychology, sociology etc.). You may include news articles and articles from popular press BUT you will be expected to have no more than five annotations from these sources. Your annotated bibliography should have a 600 to 1000 word introduction which gives an overview of the topic or issue including a summary of some of the key issues. The final annotated bibliography must be turned in both as a hard copy and an electronic copy, that is word processing in html format. It must be formatted according to attached guidelines. If you are not familiar with html format you should contact Margaret Thomas in the Computer Lab.
