Midterm Discussion Paper: Critical Interpretation of Major Course Text
 Worth 20% of course grade (See Syllabus Course Grading)
See HUM 211 COURSE PLAN for REVISED Assignment Deadlines
Short Cuts on this webpage:
1. Revised Deadline & Electronic Submission for your Hum 211 Midterm
2.  Midterm Directions & Topics
Webtip:  This and other HUM 211 webpages are being updated regularly; so
to ensure that you see viewing the latest version in your internet browser,
click "Refresh" (Explorer) or "Reload" (Netscape) at the top of your browser screen.

1.  Revised Deadline & Electronic Submission 
(E-mail) for your Hum 211 Midterm

Please review the Revised Hum 211 COURSE PLAN, Weeks # 7-10

Recommended:  Prepare a Preliminary Draft of your Midterm Discussion Paper and bring it to Televised Class on TUES., FEB. 26, so that we can discuss your  questions, topics, & drafts.

DUE:  WED., FEB. 27, before midnight: Midterm Discussion Paper
to be submitted electronically via Email to Cora, and graded.
NOTE WELL:  If you submit your Midterm on time, you will have the option to revise your Midterm after Cora evaluates it.  If you run into technical or other difficulties, please contact Cora.

E-MAIL Electronic Submission Directions:
a. Before you email:  Prepare  your Midterm Discussion Paper as a word processing document.
b.  When you are ready to E-Mail your Midterm to Cora, please review and follow these directions for electronic (E-Mail) submission:

SUBJECT line: type in HUM 211 Midterm

TO:  Address your email to cagatucci@cocc.edu

MESSAGE:  
--Identify yourself and the Midterm Topic that you have chosen, by typing in the
following: (1) Your Name; and (2) Your Midterm Topic (i.e. the major course "text" that 
you have chosen to interpret);
--Mark & Copy your Midterm from your original wordprocessed document;
--Paste your copied Midterm into the Email MESSAGE space.
NOTE:  This copy-and-paste procedure is required as a back-up in case your attachment (see below) is not compatible with, and cannot be translated by
Cora's software.

ATTACHMENT: Attach your original wordprocessed Midterm document to the Email
that you are preparing to send to Cora, using the attachment function of your email software.
If you have been using a wordprocessing program compatible with Cora's software,
then Cora will be able to download the formatted version of your wordprocessed document
and use it to webpost your Midterm.  If our software is not compatible, then Cora will copy 
and webpost  the Email "MESSAGE" (see above) version of your Midterm.

SEND your Midterm email to Cora by the deadline given above.

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS....Please contact Cora and let her know.
If I know what the problem is, then together we will work out a reasonable solution--OK??
Thanks, Cora - cagatucci@cocc.edu

 

 

 

2. MIDTERM DIRECTIONS & TOPICS

The Hum 211 Midterm is designed to help you develop and achieve key Hum 211 course competencies (or learning objectives): see Hum 211 Syllabus.  

Suggested Length:  750-1000 words (equivalent to 3-to-5 typed/wordprocessed and double-spaced pages)

Subject:  Choose, as the subject of your Midterm, one of these major course "texts" that we have studied thus far in Hum 211:

Keita: The Heritage of the Griot (film)
OR

I Is a Long Memoried Woman (film)
OR

Things Fall Apart (novel)

Your Writing Purpose & Audience:  To help the rest of us in Hum 211 better understand and appreciate your chosen Hum 211 SUBJECT text by contributing your thoughtful interpretations of selected aspects of its meaning and context.  Please write to communicate with your diverse Hum 211 audience--remember that we may understand or interpret the film or novel differently than you do, so be sure to explain and illustrate your points.

Cite your Sources:  In developing your Midterm Discussion Paper, be sure to cite and analyze specific passages of the Subject major course "text," and any other sources as relevant, to illustrate your key points and explain how they support your interpretations.  Please review and try to follow the updated citation guidelines and models given on Cite Your Sources webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/cite.htm

Topic Focus:  Focus interpretation of your selected SUBJECT "Text" on explaining in some depth a significant theme, issue, dramatic question, conflict, character, or event presented in the selected major course "text" (i.e. Keita, or I Is a Long Memoried Woman, or Things Fall Apart).
[Note that these open-ended topic choices are deliberately designed to give you freedom to choose a topic focus significant to understanding one of the above major course films or novel that interests you and that you feel you can write about most productively.]  Some example topics are given below.

Context (Background) Information:  As you develop and write your Midterm interpretation, integrate relevant information from contextual (background) sources (e.g. from Hum 211 Course Pack resources, and/or other outside resources) that support or enrich your own interpretation.

Discussion Forum Reports (your own and/or others') can provide good topics and materials for your Midterm Discussion Paper--feel free to use them if you wish, but be sure to cite the source(s) if you use ideas or quote passages from other students' work.

Example Topics & Some Past Student Discussion Papers
Note: these are just examples to stimulate topic ideas

Example Theme Topics (i.e. central message, purpose, or repeated motif):
The Importance of Dreams in I Is a Long Memoried Woman
Achebe Writes Back to the West: Correcting Racist Stereotypes in Things Fall Apart: 
Proverb Wisdom in Keita:The Heritage of the Griot and Things Fall Apart

Example Dramatic Question Topics:
Why Must the Long Memoried Woman Remember Her Painful Past?
What Do We Learn from Significant Similarities in the Parallel Stories of Mabo and Sundjata?
Why/How Did "Things Fall Apart"?
"Things Fall Apart: The Loss of a Tribe's Livelihood," by Chris Shepherd
(Hum 211, Fall 1998): 
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/students/shepherd.htm

Example Conflict Topics
The Destructive Effects of European Colonialism
Tradition vs. Modernization in Keita: The Heritage of the Griot
"Past to Future Keita," by Dawn Hendrix (Hum 211, Fall 1998)
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/students/hendrix.htm

Example Character Topics
Mr. Brown vs. Mr. Smith: Good and Bad Missionaries in Things Fall Apart
The Tragedy of Okonkwo
Depiction of White Characters in I Is a Long Memoried Woman
"The Significance of the Griot," by Eli Smith (Hum 211, Fall 2000)
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/students/smith.htm

Example Key Event Topics:
Birth of "The Bloodling" as Turning Point in I Is a Long Memoried Woman
Why Djeliba Must Leave at the End of Keita: The Heritage of the Griot
Why Okonkwo committed suicide at the end of Things Fall Apart

If you have questions or need help, please . . . please . . .
contact Cora!!  cagatucci@cocc.edu

HUM 211 Open Campus Course Information - Winter 2002
HUM 211 Home Page Syllabus Course Plan Online Course Pack Assignments  
Printing Announcement

You are here: Midterm Discussion Paper Weeks #7-#8
URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/Midterm.htm
Last Updated: 31 March 2005  

This webpage is maintained by Cora Agatucci, Professor of English, 
Humanities Department, Central Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002
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