Grades will be based on the following:
- 15% from a first Midterm Exam to be given October 1. (I find that it is important to give a midterm exam early in the course to serve as a reality check: so that students in trouble can figure out how much trouble they are in, and also--more important--so that at least one of us (DeLong) can figure out how unrealistic and detached from reality his beliefs about his teaching effectiveness are.)
- 15% from a second Midterm Exam to be given October 24.
- 15% from a (short: two hours long) Final Exam to be given December 18.
No makeup exams will be offered. Students who do not hand in one of the three exams will have their scores for the other exams boosted to add up to 45%. Students who miss two of the three exams should not expect to pass the course.
Exams will be closed book, closed note. Exams will focus mostly on the textbook, to police your reading of it and make sure you undertake the survey of American economic history that the textbook provides.
- 10% from section participation.
- 18% from 9 web assignments plus occasional in-class exercises.
- 12% from 4 problem sets.
- 15% from 3 papers.
Web assignment 1: go to one of the "comments" pages for the assigned readings for the first class--Diamond's "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently...?", Diamond's "How to Get Rich", Mann's "1491", or Yeager's ["Encomienda or Slavery"])(http://delong.typepad.com/aeh/2007/08/comments-on-yea.html)--and leave a fifty-word (or more) comment adding something to the discussion already there. Do this before noon on August 29.
Web assignment 2: go to one of the "comments" pages for the assigned readings for the second class--Temin's "Labor Scarcity" or Nelson's "Alexander Hamilton"--and leave a fifty-word (or more) comment adding something to the discussion already there. Do this before noon on September 3.
Web assignment 3: go to one of these three "questions" pages--Migration or Numbers or Resources--and leave a fifty-word (or more) comment giving your guess as to the answer to the question and adding something to the discussion already there. Do this before noon on September 5.
Cheating: Instances of cheating produce a grade of zero on that particular assignment and will be reported to the Student Judicial Affairs for additional punishment.
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