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Western Humanities

One of the most important goals of this survey course is to give students a good sense of major eras in Western humanities. To that end, you will create time lines based on the information in your text in fact, think of it as a very brief visual overview of the text that could serve as a reference guide to the major periods in Western humanities. The first time line covers chapters 2 8 and is due October 23. The second time line covers chapters 10 15 and is due December 11. They take the place of midterm and final exams and should be much more interesting and, I hope, fun. If you work on the time line each week as youre reading a new chapter, you will find it interesting and fairly easy to do. If you dont, trust me when I tell you that you will be unhappy when the due date comes around. Tongue outFORMATTING: You can create the time lines in a Word document or flow chart, Excel spreadsheet (google How to create a time line in Excel), Powerpoint slide show, or any other format you choose as long as it creates an actual horizontal time line (Word and Powerpoint will require that it continue through several pages or slides).Ive attached a Word template that is easy to use. You can reuse this template for as many pages as you need; you can move the markers on the blue time line and add dates; you can resize and move the text boxes along the time line, and also stretch them further away from the time line if you need room. You can also add longer text boxes above the line to show the major eras.If you do choose to make a Powerpoint presentation, be sure that you have an actual time line running along the bottom of the slides to show where the content of each slide fits in the larger context of time. Prezi doesnt work for this purpose because it creates a circular cloud pattern.Please choose a standard format such as the ones above, not a program that I have to buy or download in order to view your time line.WHAT TO PUT ON YOUR TIME LINE: You will choose 12 20 items per chapter to place on your Time Line. You must also clearly indicate the following eras:Midterm Time Line:The Classical Age (this is an umbrella term for Ancient Greece and Rome combined)Early Middle AgesLate Middle AgesItalian RenaissanceNorthern RenaissanceFinal Time Line:BaroqueEnlightenmentRomanticismIndustrial AgeModern AgePostmodern AgeInformation/Digital AgeDont worry about specific dates of these eras, which are often disputed; no ones project will be downgraded for saying that the Early Middle Ages started in 500 instead of 600 AD. But it would be a problem to leave out the Early Middle Ages or to show them occurring in the Classical Age, or after the Renaissance.Those are the major designations that must be shown either by a banner running above the time line, or by color-coding the individual items on the time line, or the time line itself. You must also place individual items on the time line itself. Your author Dr. Fiero has a time line at the end of every chapter. You can choose items from her time line, or other items from the chapter that you find interesting and consider important. You should select a variety of types of items artworks, architecture, literature, sculpture, music, historical events, people and include at least 12 items per chapter, and no more than 20.IMPORTANT TIPS:1) Start with chapter 2, by choosing the events/artworks/people you wish to use from the text. Keep a running list of dates and items while experimenting with formats. Remember that the chapters are not in strict, non-overlapping chronological order chapter 4 in particular but your time line must be. Youll lose serious points if the time line doesnt march forward without backtracking! So particularly with the Midterm Time Line, you cannot go strictly by chapter while creating it.2) Work alone. If you and another student turn in the same time line, you will both get a 0. If you borrow a time line from another source, ditto (if you can find it on the internet, so can I; please dont do this because I hate giving out zeroes). Your time lines must be your own work, with items taken from the Fiero text.3) You do not need a lot of information about the items you place on the time line. Name and place for buildings, name and artist/writer for artworks and literature, name and very brief significance for historical events, are all you need. For example, at 800 AD you can put Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor but you dont have to add what this signified. And dont put birth or death dates as time line items; if a person is significant enough to be on your time line, then put what s/he is famous for (like Charlemagne above).4) Remember that you need to turn in one continuous time line (which, if youre using the Word template or Powerpoint, will continue along several pages or slides), not a time line for each chapter. If you email me seven files, one for each chapter, they will not be opened and therefore not graded.5) Use color-coding or some other identifier to show the major eras and/or culture; someone should be able to glance at your time line and see where the Middle Ages end and the Renaissance begins.6) If you decide to use Powerpoint, remember that using a lot of bells and whistles (fade-ins, dissolves) and big images makes for an enormous file.If you work on this week by week, its not a difficult assignment. If you have to create the whole thing two days before its due, its a royal pain in the arse. Once you get started, I strongly encourage you to email me part of your time line for feedback. However, you must do this no later than one week before the miderm time line is due After that date, I will answer general questions but I will not examine any time lines.GRADING RUBRIC:A 100-point Time Line will be: taken from the course materials (mainly the text, but can incorporate items you encounter in the videos or lectures) complete: showing major movements and eras in the Western Time Line as well as a judicious selection of important /groundbreaking / representative artworks or artists (minimum of about 90 items on the midterm time line, about 70 on the final time line). accurate: dates are correct, names of events/ movements /people are spelled correctly aesthetically pleasing: whatever format is chosen, it clearly shows the progression through time and is easy to read; adding images will definitely help your grade. You dont need citations for the images because you are not going to publish it anywhere; I am the only one viewing your time lines. And accompanied by an essay that shows thoughtful engagement with the material.THE ESSAY: You must turn in a 500-word essay with both the midterm and final time lines, in which you discuss what you learned from working on the project about the time period covered. Do not recap the text; this essay should not read like a condensed history lesson. It should be a personal reaction to the course material and the creation of the time line. I must be able to tell that you have worked with the course material and given it some thought. Feel free to discuss what surprised you, any insights you gained as a result, what questions it raised for you, eras/artworks that you found especially interesting or moving. You can compare what youve learned about the Western time line to another culture, or discuss how you would use your Time Line to explain the evolution of Western art to someone unfamiliar with it. This is a very open and informal assignment. Since this is not a Gordon Rule class, the essay will not be graded on grammar, form, spelling, etc. but rather on how well it shows your engagement with the information. It will be helpful to you if start making notes as you go along. Please dont copy information from the internet because I will be checking the essays for plagiarism, and I really do hate giving zeroes. An automatic 15 points will be deducted if there is no essay.HOW TO TURN IT IN: Before the deadlines stated above, email me the Time Line and the Essay as attachments, titled [lastname]_TL1 and [lastname]_Essay1 (or TL2 and Essay2 when you turn in the final one). Please do not send me a separate document or file for each chapter; the time line needs to be continuous, in one document. If your file is large, send it as a zip file. If youre having a problem with this, contact the Help Desk.Questions? Email me or post them in the General Information forum!

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