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also ARKEO 276, JWST 275, and RELST 275 |
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Dr. Jeffrey R. Zorn |
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also ARKEO 276, JWST 275, and RELST 275 |
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Dr. Jeffrey R. Zorn |
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| Purpose: A. To acquaint students with select aspects of the religious/cultic beliefs, practices and establishments of the ancient Israelites. B. To give students the opportunity to explore a specific area of interest on the course subject through writing a term paper and developing a web page. C. To help students hone their research and writing skills through a term paper. D. To give students introductory exposure to web authoring. II. Course Requirements/Grading (details below): It is a general rule of thumb that for every hour of course credit, you should spend at least two hours working outside the class. The work load for this class is designed with this rule in mind. Expect to spend ca. 4-5 hours per week on readings and 2-3 on the paper/web site. Course attendance is mandatory. If a student is 10 minutes or more late to class that is counted as an absence. Every 2 missed classes is 1% off the final grade. The University recognizes excusable absences only for family emergencies, medical situations, religious observances, away-game varsity sports events in which you participate, and job interviews. I will not assume people are away for religious observances (that is akin to racial profiling and is against the law). If you will miss class for any of these reasons you must inform me by email before hand. The equivalent of ˝ letter grade will be subtracted for each full class session the term paper or any assignment is late. That is, if an assignment is due in class on Tuesday it is considered late (and subject to penalty) if it is not handed in by class on Thursday of that week. The same penalty applies for each full day the web site is late. If a student shows improvement over the course of the semester later work will be weighted more heavily in the final grade than early work. How to understand your grade(s). A score of 70.0 to 72.9 is a C-, 73-76.9 is a C, and 77.0-79.9 a C+, and so on. There is no rounding of scores (either up or down). The only exception is for those students who have shown steady and marked improvement over the semester. Such a student, who has, for example, a score of 89.6 (B+), may be nudged up to an A-. If you are taking this course S/U you must have a final score for the class of at least 70.0 to pass. I strongly encourage every student to see me during my regular office hours, or at some other convenient time, to discuss his/her work, especially to get advice on the term paper or web site. I am also happy to review preliminary versions of papers or web sites no later than four days before they are due (preferably earlier). Getting feedback from the instructor, and implementing it in a thorough and thoughtful fashion, is far and away the best way to improve your course grade. If you have any type of impairment (e.g. bi-polar disorder) which may affect your performance in this class you should let me know during the first week of the semester and provide me with proper university and medical documentation for the impairment. If any such temporary condition should arise during the course of the semester I should be notified of it ASAP. The same applies to any sort of family related crisis. You must notify me immediately if any situation arises which may or will affect your performance in the class. You should not come to me after the final grades have been posted and ask for extra consideration. Grades for this course are never changed after the final grades are posted. If, based on your assignments and/or exam, you are worried about your final class grade, the time to see me is not long after the term paper is graded and handed back. Do not wait until the last week of the semester! I do not hand out extra assignments or make-up work; that is unfair to all the other students in the class. If you are on any sort of academic probation you should let me know about this as soon as possible. I will check in with the adviser of any student who misses a substantial number of class (10+), or who gets a D grade (70<) on the prelim or the term paper, to evaluate if any special steps need to be taken on the student’s behalf. III. University Regulations: IV. Course Text Books: A. J. Andrew Dearman - Religion & Culture in Ancient Israel.Peabody: Hendrickson, 1992. B. Patrick D. Miller - The Religion of Ancient Israel. Lousiville: West Minster John Knox, 2000. C. Susan Niditch - Ancient Israelite Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. D. Electronic Course Reserve at http://courses.cit.cornell.edu//nes275/secure/ In addition to the regular course readings I will periodically make other readings available on the course web site. Simply go to the above link and type in the user name and password given at the beginning of the syllabus. V. Reference Reading List: A. Bible A Bible. No Bibles have been ordered for this class since many students will already own one. Of course they can be found in local book stores. Virtually every translation/version of the Bible is available on line somewhere. Just search around! One example is BibleGateway at http://www.biblegateway.com/ The Anchor Bible Dictionary (below) has an extremely useful and searchable biblical text. The only requirement is that students use an actual translation, not a paraphrase, such as the Living Bible, and that it be a modern translation, not something dated, such as the King James Version. If in doubt, please bring it to the instructor. B. Freedman, D.N. ed. C. Meyers, E.M. ed. D. Redford, D. B. ed. E. Sasson, J. M. ed. F. Stern, E. ed. In addition to these volumes the following materials are very useful. G. Biblical Archaeology Review. This is a popular magazine devoted primarily to how archaeological discoveries illuminate the Biblical world. Very well illustrated. You may find it helpful when looking for illustrations for your paper and site. Olin + BS620.A1 B583. You may find out about how to subscribe by going to the Biblical Archaeology Society web page at: http://www.bib-arch.org/ H. Bible Review. This is a sister magazine to BAR, however, its focus is more on studies of the Biblical (and other) texts. Also well illustrated. Discontinued in 2005. Olin + BS410 .B565. I. Pritchard, J.B. ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 3rd. ed. with Supplement. A collection of texts in translation which deal with many aspects of the Biblical world. J. Matthews, V.H. and Benjamin, D.C. Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Neart East 2nd ed. New York: Paulist Press, 1997. Shorter and more selective collection of translations than Pritchard’s; however, also more up to date. K. Arnold, B. T. and Beyer, B. E. Readings from the Ancient Near East. Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2002. Another useful short collection of translations. L. Hallo, W. W. The Context of Scripture 3 Vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997-2003. Intended as a replacement for Pritchard. Has up-to-date translations of older works and some important material discovered since the last edition of Pritchard. A few texts are missing from Pritchard though. M. A Note on the Web, Google and other Online Sources: That being said, there are a few useful on-line
resources that are accessible through the Cornell University Library: A special warning on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) This resource is in a constant state of flux. Articles are written by anyone who wants to write about the subject, but they can be altered by anyone else. Even a student in this class could add an article, and then find it changed sometime later. If someone does not have the knowledge/savvy (or is just plain too lazy) to create his/her own web site, that person can just add an article to Wikipedia. So, if you look at this resource, be doubly sure you double check the data you retrieve. Some of it is very good, other parts are pure trash. VI. Course Outline (approximate weekly topics and
readings) 2. Week 2 = Jan. 27 - Feb. 2 - Normative Biblical
Religion B. The Divine World Preliminary Paper Concept due Tuesday Feb. 12, Week 4. C. The Yahweh Cult D. Mid-Semester E. Kings, Queens and the Cult Term Paper due on Tuesday Mar. 11 F. Prophets and Divination G. Wisdom Traditions and Theodicy H. Family and Women’s cult - Major Festivals I. Death in Ancient Israel Passover Apr. 20 - 27. Classes held as normal J. The Dark Side Web Site due by midnight on Monday May 5 Final Exam on Wednesday, December 14, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Please note that I will not be giving any early Final Exams except per normal university regulations. This means that you should not make plans to leave the university before the end of this exam. VII. Term Paper and Web Site Requirements: B. Preliminary Drafts: C. Preliminary Conception. D. Preliminary Annotated Bibliography E. Term Paper Requirements: A list of a variety of potential topics is at the end of the syllabus. Do not be limited by this list. If you can think of another subject, or want to adapt one there, please feel free to do it. The Bible will be an important source for many topics, as may texts and artistic representations from neighboring cultures such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. You should also look to the archaeological record from the appropriate region(s) for examples of the buildings and artifacts which formed part of religious life if this is appropriate. Your grade for the paper will be based partially on research and partially on writing skill. You may have an excellent idea and have done dozens of hours of research, but if your grammar is atrocious, word choice poor, notes inadequate, and bibliography haphazardly formatted, you will receive a lower grade. Conversely, an extremely well-written and formatted paper with no real research done, and full of vague generalizations will also receive a lower grade. The body of the paper must be 7 pages in length; bibliography, notes, illustrations, etc. are not included in these 7 pages. Use 1" margins on all sides. Do not use a font larger than 12 point or smaller than 10. Double space throughout, except foot/endnotes. All pages must be numbered. The first page must have your name, the course number, date, and the title of your work. Do not use contractions (e.g. “aren’t,” “didn’t”) in formal writing. You will be graded down for this The bibliography/works cited must contain at least 7 sources which you have consulted in the preparation of your paper. At least 3 of these must be articles from journals, encyclopedias, or dictionaries. You may only use more than 2 electronic sources (e.g. CD’s, web sites, e-mail) if you have at least 5 non-electronic sources (i.e. you can’t use Google exclusively). If you use an electronic resource such as JSTOR, which simply makes already existing hard copy sources available over the Web, this does not count against the limit of 2 electronic sources. You may cite the course texts books and the Bible, but these do not count towards the 7 required sources. If you list a work in your bibliography it must be referenced in the body of the paper; i.e. if it is important enough to list in the bibliography it must have provided you with some significant data for your paper topic. I prefer MLA format, but others are acceptable, as long as documentation is full. A convenient source for this is Diana Hacker’s A Writers Reference. Many of you have used this in your First Year Writing Seminar. Papers with improperly formatted bibliographies will receive lower scores than they would otherwise receive. I will help you with your bibliography. However, before coming to me for help in finding references you must do a little work yourself. Look through the bibliographic material in the course readings, check through the reference works cited above, check the university computer catalogues, consult with the university librarians. Once you have taken these first steps you should come to me, explain what you have done so far, and explain any difficulties you are having finding references. I will not give help on bibliography the week the paper is due, so ask early on. You must document the sources of your data and ideas. You may want to use the MLA (Modern Language Association) standards for all bibliographic entries and references/notes. Many of you will have used this format in your First Year Writing Seminars. In-text citations are preferred over footnotes and endnotes. Note that any illustrations you use must be credited to the proper source, just like a text citation (E.g. Fig. 1 (Zorn Fig. 312); or (Zorn 23, illustration in top right corner)).Papers with improperly formatted bibliographies and inadequate documentation of ideas will receive lower scores than they would otherwise receive. If you have questions about this please see me. You must include a photocopied title page or web site home page at the end of the bibliography for each work listed, excluding Bibles. Some students consult only a single work for their papers and then simply copy the citations from that work. I resort to asking for photocopies of title pages to insure that students have at least looked at everything they claim to have used. F. Specific Web Site Requirements: Our society is being driven more and more by the Internet; much useful data and many products are available on the Web. In the old days to get a head in the world it was sufficient to be a decent writer. This is no longer the case. Having a certain amount of computer savvy is also important. Most of you have already surfed the Internet. The purpose of this exercise is to introduce you to Web Authoring, a skill which is in increasing demand. Warning, if you have never created a web page before, start on it as soon as your paper is complete. In fact, you may want to think about suitable illustrations as you are working on the paper. While setting up a basic site, with a proper web authoring program, is not difficult, it is time consuming. There are classes available through the library if you would like to learn more about aspects of web site creation. Your web project is a second or final draft of your term paper. Your grade on the web site will depend partially on how well you design and implement the project, and also on its content. If changes or recommendations were made on your term paper these should definitely be pursued in the web project. If you receive a C on the term paper, then do not expect an A on the web project, no mater how slickly presented, unless you improve upon your basic text. Also, do not feel that you cannot continue to do research on the topic once the hard copy term paper is done. You should continue to strive to improve the content while you repackage it for the Net. All general term paper requirements apply. I.e. you must include a bibliography, and all your ideas and material must be properly documented in notes. After I have a firm list of student topics I will email them to everyone in the class. Look for topics related to yours and be in contact with those students. Try to integrate links/references to this other work in your own site. From this you will learn a bit more about other topics being developed in this class. Do not worry if your topic does not at all relate to what anyone else is doing. Stand alone sites will be fine. However, if a few minor adjustments will allow you to tie in with another site, please do make the effort. On Thursday, Feb. 6, we will meet with CIT staff in G25 Stimson Hall This meeting will orient you to the resources available at Cornell for creating Web pages. This meeting will be in lieu of a class session. Note that besides the in-class orientation the university offers a variety of other short workshops in web authoring. It is highly recommended that students go to the web site at http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/workshop.html early in the semester and sign up for some other training. These can only help improve your final product, and thus your final grade. Basic web authoring is not difficult, but is time consuming. You should feel free to consult the CIT staff as often as you need help. You may not ask another person to design and build the site for you. This is the equivalent of buying a term paper and is regarded as “cheating” However, if you have friends with more computer savvy than you possess, do not be afraid to ask for help with mechanical procedures such as getting an illustration in the right part of the page. There may be helpful free/shareware on the Internet which you can download. You are free to purchase web authoring programs if you like. Be 100% certain that you have tested your web site on some other computer than your own to make sure it works properly! Every semester there are at least a couple of students who fail to do this and end up getting a lower grade because their sites are then late. Before you set out to design your page you should surf the Net a bit and look at a variety of sites, especially those related to the ancient world. You never know, you may find some useful graphics! Notice the things you like and dislike about how they look and work, and take this to heart as you design your own site. Think about ways to make your site easily navigable. Think about the logical arrangement of your site. A written paper proceeds in a linear fashion. A web site does not have to be linear (though of course it can be). If you want to rewrite or rearrange your paper into a format which better accommodates it to the Web, you should do it. The web site does not have to be a slavish copy of the paper, but it should include all the same material as the paper. A basic tip is to keep image file sizes fairly small. Nothing is more annoying than waiting for a page with lots of high resolution graphics to load! When you scan and edit your images be sure that none of them are more than ca. 80Kb (also be aware that you should save them as .jpg or .gif formatted files). I recommend that no single web page have more than ca. 500Kb worth of graphics on it. If you need to use a large graphic file, put it on another page with a link that says how large it is. This warns your readers before they try to hop to it. Think about the overall appearance of the site. If you have a black background, avoid using a dark font. Light colored fonts (pink, orange, lime green, etc.) generally do not look good against any background. If you use a background image be sure that it does not distract the viewer from the content. Background images that are very “busy” should be avoided. Often brightening a background image so that it appears “faded” can help create contrast between it and the text. Similarly, you could have a back ground image, then place your text inside a “table” in the middle of the page with a different color background. In this fashion the background image is a sort of frame. There are many approaches. The web site must include at least 4 internal links. I.e. your web site cannot be a single page with everything loaded on to it. E.g. you could have a main page and links to a map, a translation of a text, a list of seals bearing a particular iconographic symbol and a bibliography page. A link to an external site which is relevant to your paper is not required, but will earn you some extra credit. The web site must include a minimum of 5 illustrations, 2 of which may not be on the main page; i.e. they must be on linked pages. Useful illustrations might include a map that shows the area about which you are writing, plans of a settlement and/or house in which cultic activities took place, images of ancient implements or texts, etc. Think of ways to make your topic come to life for a general viewer. You must provide proper documentation (“notes”) for all materials you use in your web page, just as in the term paper. In addition, you must provide proper documentation for the illustrations you use. If you take them from a printed source you must cite them by the illustration number, or by the page number (and position on the page if there is more than a single illustration on the page). If the illustration is from a web source you must provide the title of the web site and the specific section of the site where the illustration is found, the URL of that section, and the author of the site. You may use, but are not required to use, sound files or video clips if they are relevant to your work. As with the term paper on which it is based, I will be happy to review any student’s web page 4 days prior to the deadline. This will almost certainly improve your grade and is highly recommended. Again, the above standards are the minimums necessary for a C type of grade. The more work, the better the grade. VIII. Paper Topic Examples: Below are some examples of types of professions which could be done for NES 275. This is not an exhaustive list, nor are they required professions; they are intended as inspiration and guidance. Please talk with me if you need additional help in developing and idea. Solomon and Ahab: Why is One a “Cult” Hero and the Other
a Villain? |
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