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Grading Schema



PART ONE

Written Assignments

Debate Brief (teamwork) 15%

Individual Debate Briefs (2x10%) 20%


Class Participation

Debate Presentation 5%

Class Participation 5%


PART TWO

Written Assignments

Seminar Research and Analysis Brief (teamwork) 20%

Reading Briefs (2x10%) 20%


Class Participation

Seminar Presentation 5%

Seminar Participation 10%





Academic Integrity:

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm. A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm Academic Integrity website (Arts): http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts/ugrad/academic_responsibility.html Academic Integrity Office (UW): http://uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity/

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities:
The Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD), located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the OPD at the beginning of each academic term.















































Class Presentations

Students will be asked to work in teams (comprised of roughly three students each) to brief the class on the assigned topic for that particular date. The briefs will be expected to outline the most important issues raised by a particular topic, outline how those issues fit with the broader set of class discussions and readings to date, and identify the most important topics for class/lecture discussion. Briefings will be expected to be presented in class in the form of a PowerPoint deck which will be available to other students after the class.

At the beginning of the course, students will be asked to identify their top choices in terms of topics and will be assigned to teams by the instructor depending on topic preference and even distribution of students across topics.

While the briefing and decks will be expected to draw on the readings for that topic, it is expected that all students will already have done the relevant assigned readings so the briefings are expected to go beyond the assigned readings in terms of the material covered as well as the readings integrated into the discussion. In most cases, the instructor will provide a set of recommended readings in addition to the assigned course readings to provide a starting point for the briefing team to develop their brief.

The presentation of the brief and deck will take no more than 30 minutes with at least ten minutes allowed for questions and discussion.

Briefing teams are required to provide the instructor with summary briefing notes and an outline of the briefing deck (e.g. pictures, etc. are not required) in electronic format by 5:00 pm on the Wendesday prior to their assigned briefing date (for teams presenting on Monday) or 5:00 pm on the Friday prior to their assigned briefing date (for teams presenting on Wednesday.)