Assignment & test details

Map of assignments and tests

Quick links to the below descriptions (or use the sidebar tab)

General comments on participation

Participation is not explicitly tracked in this class. This is because of a course design meant to allow the class to grow large.

Thus attendance, contributions during class, attentiveness in class, and results on a wide variety of exercises do not receive grades and so do not have a mathematical role in determining your course grade.

That being said, this class has a bottom line grading point of "equal energy expended on both China and Japan" and many of the things just mentioned are informally noted by me to help answer the question as to whether that is the case or not.

Therefore, on that point, consistent attendance, no multitasking, and careful reading of the assigned material is highly recommended.

Another bottom line grading point for this class is whether the student has understood not just the information content of the course but its conceptual content as well. Many of these activities help me in determining that, as well.

So, while there is no specific grade on participation, I do use the various above behaviors and activities to categorize students into "yes, s/he (definitely, sort of) does" "no, s/he (definitely, sort of) does not"or "not enough information to have a fair opinion" (this is the default category unless something tips the balance one way or the other). And this decision can be very important when I am evaluating essay answer, the essay, and which direction to go on a course score that sits near a grade border.

Tea Brewing Day (Spring 2013)

I will post, or have posted, a GoogleDoc that provides volunteer opportunities to help make this day work. It is sort of complicated. If the link to the Google Drive page is ready to go it will be HERE. If, for some reason you cannot access the document, you can email me but don't worry. There will be other extra credit opportunities.

There are only three things required for this day:

1. On-time arrival since I have to explain things and once we get started it is way too chaotic to explain to anyone what is going on.

2. Sit with your group is not required but since it will be your group trying to identify teas, doing things with your group might be helpful. That being said, there will be more teas brewed than you can test so one strategy is to send different teammates to different teas.

3. If at all possible, bring you own cup to drink from. (I will bring extra cups but there is no time to wash these after class so that means I will be hauling home the dirty cups and doing the dishes there. I don't mind, but I would rather not have 50 dirty cups ...)

Tea Identification Day(s) (Spring 2013)

(NOTE: If you do not usually have tea, or just happen to have run out of tea, or just don't really like sharing your tea, this exercise does NOT require that you purchase tea for it.)

Early in the term, after we have discussed the physical attributes of the tea plant, students bring to class samples of tea that we try to identify. I lay out the teas on tables, in coded ziplock bags, and student groups go from table to table, completing an answer sheet as they try to guess the teas inside the bags. Although a good nose is probably your best weapon for this exercise, I have strewn clues across these several sessions, and the look of the leaf is your next best technique, so some googling of basic tea types (and your notes from tea brewing day) might be helpful. Sometimes winning teams get prizes. This is an ungraded assignment but I do expect attendance on one of the two identification days (schedule provided elsewhere).

Timeline:

• Two class sessions before "Tea Identification Day, First day":
  • We form groups.
  • Required on this day—attendance.
  • Required by 9PM the night of that same day, an e-mail to me from the group leader listing group membership, giving group name, and telling me who is the group leader. (Leader's role isn't much more than being the one to whom I send emails.) Use: "EA109_GROUPNAME teagroup" (Spring 2013— we did the formation of groups differently this year.) *After I have received group emails, I will post which groups attend which Tea Identification Day. Watch for the announcement.
• Session immediately before "Tea Identification Day, First day":
  • Submit your tea in a ziploc bag day. (Spring 2013: You may bring tea on this day, or to office hours Monday or Tuesday or if you really must on Wednesday although this makes things a little more complicated for me.)
  • Required on this day—Individuals physically hand to me the tea bag(s) made for Tea Identification Day. (See instructions, below.)
• "Tea Identification Day, First day": Tea Identification Day. Required on this day—attendance if your group has been assigned this day.
• "Tea Identification Day, Second day": Tea Identification Day. Required on this day—attendance if your group has been assigned this day.

Instructions for submitting tea:

1. Submission of tea is optional. We don't need 50 bags of tea, but it would be nice to have 25, so about every other person or every third person should bring tea (since most who bring tea bring more than one submission). Extra credit for bringing tea, whether used for the exercise or not. (When there is a tea overflow, I quickly select an appropriate number of bags.)

2. How much to bring. Please bring the amount of tea that you would use to make one or, better, two cups.

3. How to bring the tea. Please place this tea inside a sealable but openable and clear small plastic bag. We open and smell. (If your tea is very strong in smell, please double bag it. The smell penetrates the bags of other teas and makes them hard to identify.) Label it like this: your initials + a three digit number. I'm John R Wallace, so I might bring in something like "JRW276" (the number is random). This method should prevent two of you from accidentally having the same ID on your bag. If you do not want your tea given away at the end of the exercise or do not want it opened and sniffed / touched, place a large "X" on the bag somewhere. I will return it to you. Bags with "X" on them cannot be opened by anyone.

4. Information sent separately. Please email (the regular subject line. "EA109 LASTNAME classname" plus the keyword "teaIDday") by the requested time (see above) with this information: and, for content, the ID number that is on the ziplock bag and details about the tea. Details include

• ID number on the bag you submitted plus an "X" if you want the tea returned
• name of tea (the commercial name)
• place of origin if known (country, province, further details if known)
• type of tea (Use the Chinese terms as we have them on the Chinese nomenclature web page, from the row labeled "literal meaning"—do not submit a tea if you feel you can't get an accurate statement on this aspect, although some various is typical, call pu-er, by the way, red/black unless you know for a fact that is was a green tea that was then fermented)
• and, if it has a neat history share that please — "bought this from a shop in Shanghai this summer" etc.

5. Identifying the coded teas and reporting your guesses. On tea identification day, the group moves from table to table, taking notes and ultimately making guesses about the tea. The group leader is responsible to send me, that night, the team guesses. That email or attached doc should of course have the tea ziplock bag code numbers and any guesses you have about origin and tea type for that specific tea. In general you score 1-3 points for correct answers, depending on how difficult it might be to guess correctly and rewarding specificity. (China, Anxi scores WAY higher than China, for example, as an origin.) ***One special rule: guesses on country origin that are wrong deduct 0.5 points. This discourages trying to game the system since, statistically, most teas brought to class will be from China. Use for the subject line "EA109 GROUPNAME teaguess"

Special note: You can bring more than one type of tea, but please don't bring more than three. I will be selecting which teas to put out for identification. (Generally this means reducing the number of duplicates but poorly labeled tea and such can cause elimination.)

Special note: Please try extra hard to be in class on time or a bit early. Set up for this exercise is complicated. Sit with your group.

Special note: If you intend on using tea bags, please cut the bag and bring only the loose tea. I prefer that you do not use tea bags since most tea bag content is tea leaves cut into fine pieces. It becomes hard to guess the tea. Still, not all tea bags are like this and some aromatic teas and such could work, too.

Special note: In theory we are identifying camellia sinensis (or assamica) leaves. However, you are welcome to bring blended tea or other, non-camellia leaves used to make "tea" and try that way to trip up other groups. No illegal substances please!

Museum / film days

Museum attendance is NOT considered part of "participation" in any way, nor does it earn extra credit. I only want students at the museum who, for their own reasons, are interested in being there.

Attendance splits on this day: one half of the class is invited to participate in a museum visit (optional, scheduled at the same time as class) while the remaining half attends class as usual, to see the film "Rikyu" (required). Watch the Announcements Page for the sign-up opportunity.

Attendance details:

One half of the class goes to the museum at the regular class time (using "Berkeley time") —

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
(2625 Durant Avenue) visit

The other half of the class goes to the regular classroom —

Screening of the 1989 film "Rikyu" (imdb) (This movie is available through the East Asian Library's Media Center as a 1 day loan: PN1997 .R557 2000 DVD)

Museum details:

First twenty to signup are eligible to attend.

We gather at the Durant lobby at regular class time; it is right around the corner from the conference room where we'll meet for the class. The usual museum-type rules apply: no photography (including cell phone cameas—the material might have copyright protection), no food or drink, and only pencils may be used if you want to take notes. If it is raining, your backpacks and such might be placed in a room separate from the viewing room. It should be relatively safe, but it is not a guarded room.

We'll be looking at a few paintings with tea references (making tea, the tea whisk vendor) and works resized for the tokonoma; some woodblock prints with tea-making in them; and some Chinese and Japanese ceramics, mostly teapots (Tang/Song) from China, mostly teabowls from Japan.

Film details:

(Bio from imdb:) "Hiroshi Teshigahara was born as the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (Flower arrengement). In 1950, he was graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Center and took a leading role in avant-garde activities in all fields of art. Since 1980, acting as movie director, he has been the Iemoto (Headmaster) of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana."

Teshigahara focused on documentaries and films rich in biography. However, he was the director of a very large number of films including the award-winning 1965 film Woman of the Dunes and The Face of Another.

Plot in detail at: http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/rikyu_1989.html

This movie won the Silver Lion award at the 1989 Venice International Film Festival.

Historical details are very good.

Short Videos Day

Usually one day during the term is devoted to viewing interesting short videos. You are invited, for extra credit, to submit a possible video:

• slight extra credit for submitting on-time and per instructions, one or two links, of quality, to a video relevant to today's topic, very broadly defined (this includes humorous videos)
• more extra credit if the submission is selected for viewing (this is a competitive selection done by me ahead of class).

Content

Anything that supports our theme the culture of tea in either China or Japan, except video content can be on traditional or contemporary topics, and can be serious or humorous. However, it needs to be in good taste and less than 5 minutes long and easily accessible as a URL on a legal Web site that I can go to without registering for anything. I much prefer videos that do not first run an advertisement, since we have very little time.

Submission

Submit the link by the deadline, as an email to me with the standard subject line and the keyword shrtv.

Share Day

Usually one day during the term is set aside to share tea stories and tea practices. How these are shared varies greatly from term to term.

Spring 2013: There is nothing to submit and you are not required to say anything. However, class will move forward much more smoothly if you answer to yourself this question BEFORE CLASS that day: "I have this interesting tea story to tell ... (something you or someone you know do, did or saw—in your travels, among your acquaintances, or family).

Midterm 01

Spring 2013: The details were given elsewhere.

Midterm 02

Spring 2013: The details were given on the Session Page.

Midterm 03 (Spring 2013)

Test content

Coverage: Japan, since the past midterm.

The student will be expected to write one or two essays that s/he can select from a very limited list. All essay questions explore concepts covered since the last midterm. Since many of the course concepts are on-going, please note that the concept might be drawn from earlier in the course but I will ask you to apply it to the Japan content covered since the last midterm.

This test will ask you to apply concepts to answer questions, providing as much detail in terms of information as you can but not in a way that limits your interpretations, conclusions or reasoning. You will not be asked simply questions such as "Define sabi" but rather, if I can compose them anyway, questions that pose a problem to be solved such as "If X one would expect Y but instead what actually happened was Z. Why?"

April 28, 2013 I announced like this:

I have written the midterm. It matches the content promised but, if you are interested, here is part of what you will see tomorrow (everyone will have the same question): "Relying on the readings on Japan assigned since the last midterm, and further supported, as secondary information, by material presented in class, answer this question as deeply and comprehensively as time allows: (question will be here)."

Test style

This is a closed-book, essay exam.

On test day

There will be a seating chart so arrive early if possible.

You need only writing instruments that are comfortable for you and whatever you use to erase things. I will provide paper and track time.

You cannot leave, then return, to the room so make sure you have completed any necessary rest stops ahead of time.

We will start on time and you will be able to leave when you complete the exam unless it is the last five minutes of class. In that case cover your test and wait patiently for the end of class.

Preparation

The best preparation for this test is a thoughtful reading of the assignment material. You might, however, find material presented in class to be useful. This includes the film "Rikyu".

Grading rubric

The questions will be intentionally narrow. I expect you to answer the question asked, not modify it towards a question you would rather answer. This is an important element of the grade.

Supporting detail is important and certain details are expected to be known but the grading emphasis is whether there is clear evidence that you understand the concept or concepts tested.

Essay, brief presentation (Spring 2013)

During RRR week, each student presents on his or her essay for just under 3 minutes.

You will be given a presentation time.

Other students are strongly encouraged to attend parts of or all of these sessions. The schedule might be published. Watch for an announcement.

Special note

This is a TWO COMPONENT assignment: there is a powerpoint and an "essay portrait" docx. Both are to be submitted at the same time using one email that has both attachments.

RRR presentation—Content and grading rubric

The content should be anything interesting to others that is in your essay, or that you learned while doing your essay even if it is not in your essay. The idea is to share a wide variety of well-thought-out or well-researched (or both) observations on tea and/or tea culture. Use that as your guide to select the one or few things you will share. Please avoid, by all means, a "here's the short 3-minute version of my essay" or "here's the thesis of my essay". These presentations are to highlight interesting features, not build arguments or to show off how much work you have done for your essay. It is graded on interest and clarity and timeliness of submission—only these three things.

Essay portrait—Content and grading rubric

See the form on bSpace "EA109 EP LASTNAME classname".

RRR Presentation—How to complete the assignment

Complete the set of powerpoint slides (the instructions are there). If you do not know how to work with powerpoints now is the time to find a friend to teach you! Submit these in the format I have already created since I will simply dump the huge number of slides into a single long PPT that will run uninterrupted and automatically for the session — that is how we we keep on time. You can speak for your three minutes, or just run your slides, or a combination. If you are silent I will probably ask questions.

The PPTX you are to use is on bSpace in a "Essay Presentation" folder and titled EA109 RRR LASTNAME classname. Please be sure to put your name on the file title!

Essay portrait—How to complete the assignment

The instructions are on the document.

The document you are to use is on bSpace in a "Essay Presentation" folder and titled EA109 EP LASTNAME classname. Please be sure to put your name on the file title!

Submitting the RRR presentation and essay portrait

These share the same deadline and should be sent to me as one email, with both the powerpoint and document attached. There are severe penalties for late submission:

• The presentation is graded. Its late penalty is: 50% off the grade for more that 5 minutes late, "F" for more than 12 hours late since it will now be too late for me to include it in the RRR schedule.
• The essay portrait is not graded except that if it is missing or late penalties will be assessed to the final essay.

Use in the subject line EA109 LASTNAME classname RRR/EP and of course change it to your name. ("Classname" = the your first name I have memorized for you.)

After you submit

Watch for the announcements so that you know when you are supposed to present. Arrive fifteen minutes ahead or your presentation and sit down in the room. When it is your turn to speak come to the front of the room quickly but safely.

Presentation Day (Spring 2013)

Check the PRESENTATION SCHEDULE to find out when you present. Be in the room at least 10 minutes ahead of your presentation. Follow the schedule to know when you will need to go to the front of the room. You name will not be announced and the PPT does not stop or pause. You have 25 seconds to get to the front and be ready to start.

Essay (Spring 2013)

Early submission of an essay draft (optional)

You are invited to submit an essay draft by the deadline stated on the Schedule / Outline page. If you do so, and if it is really a draft of a nearly complete essay, I'll comment on it to give you a sense of what else might be needed or whether it already looks good.

General description of the expected essay

Each student is required to write an essay of moderate length (1,600-3,000 words) that compares the role of tea in a premodern political or cultural institution or phenomenon in two of three possible countries: China, Japan and Korea. While this is my first choice, as a bottom line the topic is open. Please uses the opportunity to check your topic with me if you believe it to be too far afield, before you write it. I will be the judge of whether it is acceptable or not so you should check with me first.

Although an analytic comparison is preferred (considering similarities, differences and why these might be), a simple side-by-side comparison is sometimes the only possibility, depending on the topic (in China there was this, in Japan there was that). It is possible to write on a single topic within one country but it would need to be exceptional and the topic needs pre-approval by me. It is possible to write two independent essays, one on a topic from China and one on a topic from Japan (Korea is excluded in this case). In that case, they should be of approximately the same length, evidence and equal amount of energy towards learning and writing about the topic (to meet the "equal interest in both countries" rule), and, in the sum of the length of the two essays total 2,400 - 3,000 words.

Academic dishonesty related to the essay earns the student an "F" for the assignment, probably and "F" for the course, and probably a report to the University. Please reread Policies > Academic Honesty, on the Announcements Page.

The essay should be credible and interesting, as defined at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms and concepts.

The sources should be credible, as defined at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms and concepts.

It should have an informative title, as defined at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms and concepts.

While I prefer an essay with analysis, and any A+ essay will almost certainly have that component, I am more flexible than in some other classes on this point. If your essay is more research than analysis, this is OK as long as you avoid a basic paper on a basic topic that could be described as "All about ..." or "The main points on ..." You need to meet a higher standard, using advanced sources and going deeply into the topic. Consider reading analysis, as defined at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms and concepts.

Your essay should follow some MLA style or APA style in its basics, and this is graded. Links to information on these styles can be found at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms & concepts > style, documentation & bibliographies.

There are, however, two special requirements by me so that I can check your sources, and these are graded:

1. I want to be able to go to your original citation, to exactly the portion you are referring to. Therefore, follow the instructions at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms & concepts > style, documentation with access info
2. I want to get a sense of how well you know, and used, your sources and I want to shorten the source list. Therefore, follow the instructions at Announcements Page > Cross-course terms & concepts > style, bibliography with annotation, the part that asks you to describe your source. This should be listed under every citation on your bibliography.

Submission information

Submit by the deadline! If you miss the deadline your submission (if any) will be ignored. I will use the draft essay (if any) and will rely on the presentation / essay portrait combination to determine a grade, that will be a "C" or lower. While I understand this is a tough line to take, I simply have absolutely no time at my end to deal with missing or late or resubmitted essays.

Use the subject line EA109 LASTNAME classname teadone. (Please remember my earlier comments that underlines have been dropped from subject lines this should help protect you from me incorrectly thinking I don't have a submission.)

After submission

Watch the announcements AND emails. If things go well, I'll log in all essays and then simply state on the Announcements page that I have them all safely at my end. It may be, though, that I will need to send out individual acknowledgments to students since if someone has an emergency and I'm allowing a late submission due to that, I can't say online that all have been received and I can't say online who is not submitting. I think it is very risky (to you) to assume I have your essay until I say so, one way or the other.

Final exam

General description (Spring 2013)

The final takes place at the regular, designated time and place during exam week. It will take the full three hours.

It is comprehensive.

It is open book in the sense that you can use your notes, any bSpace materials, any course web materials. In other words, you can use all course materials + your notes.

It is open electronic device (smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc) in the sense that you can use such devices to access course materials and notes and you can use electronic dictionaries. (On the Announcements Page I wrote "Any thing else, even for a minute, will generate an "F" for the exam." I still prefer this approach and will DEFINITELY shut down any student if I see email or chat programs open. But, notice the slight flexibility mentioned in my answer to a student, towards the end of these instructions.)

NOTE: You will need to cite the source for all your answers on this exam and that source must be something from our course materials (powerpoints, reading assignments, PDFs, etc.). If you provide un-cited information, it will not be considered valid.

This special rule means that you need to know your notes well and be able to move around in them efficiently. Want to mention when the Cha jing was written? —You will have to draw the info from a written assignment, powerpoint or say what lecture (what day) I gave the information. Even general items such as "tea arrived to Japan twice" need citation.

The concept behind this requirement is that this is a comprehensive examination where I want you to prepare by reviewing with care what we have covered. This requirement hopefully will encourage you to organize your notes and recall the variety of assignments given. You do not need to learn content in its specifics; you need to recall that something has been covered and where to go to get the specifics.

All answers to questions are to be hand-written.

This test is part essay question, part other types of questions that won't be announced until the test begins.

There will be a seating chart. If you have problems seeing details on the projection screen (22 point font is the smallest I use) from the back of the room remember to bring your glasses of whatever. You are welcome to email me up to 24 hours before the exam begins to request seating towards the front.

We will use "Berkeley time" (if the test is supposed to start at a specific hour we will start at ten minutes past that hour).

There will be an optional 15 minute break halfway through the exam.

You will be able to leave after you complete the exam, but since it is in timed segments, it is best to assume you will be in the room for most of the full three hour time slot.

I hope some will stay afterwards to drink tea or even to have a mini tea contest (best tea? guess the tea origin? or such) but I have not yet had any volunteers to help with that.

What to bring on test day

Please consider not printing out large amounts of materials for this exam. I have not designed a test where having the material in that form would be an advantage. Just access them electronically. Of course if you have not electronic access, you are welcome to print out like crazy.

Please bring whatever electronic devices are helpful for accessing the materials.

I will provide answer sheets. You need to —

• manage time on your own
• bring pencils for some of the questions
• bring whatever writing instrument(s) is comfortable for essay questions (pens or pencils)
• bring whatever you use to erase things

Water bottles are OK, but no food.

You can use your notes, you should be familiar with all areas of your notes and course materials:

A student asked May 7, 2013:

It says that on the announcements page that we are not allowed to look at any material during the exam except course materials. Are we allowed to look at our own notes written for the class on laptops? Do you have recommendations for what areas of the class that we should focus on for the exam or should we focus on the whole course?

I answered:

Notes are included in the concept of course materials.

What areas? You need everything — the questions will be wide ranging.

The best prep, I think, is knowing your materials and notes well where "well" means if you needed to use something about Wu Yi tea area you would remember that there is something on that and you would be able to go find it.

All information you use on the exam will need to be cited back to a source from class (a powerpoint, notes for a particular lecture day, a reading assignment, etc). If you weren't sure how to spell "Dogen" you can look him up online to get the spelling correct but you anything else you say about him needs to come from course material.

Everything below this line was for Fall 2011:

The final exam is given during the regular final exam period. There are no exceptions beyond serious illness or severe personal events. If you believe you cannot attend the final, email me with your reasons and see if I agree. Use the keyword finalexam added to the usual subjectline format. If something happens on the day of the exam I expect you to contact me as soon as possible afterwards. The speed in which you contact me will be a factor in determining whether we can find the time to fix the problem. Again, use finalexam added to the usual subjectline format as the keyword if at all possible.

The final exam is essay only. I will ask you to answer analysis-oriented problems.

It is open notes. That is, you may use notes you have composed in your own words — these can be those made at the time of class or those made now in preparation for the exam. (However,please note: iIf your idea is to strengthen the facts & details of your own notes in preparation of the exam, this at some point is wasted energy because I will not grade for the details, I will only be grading your analysis. You will submit all papers and cards that are on your desk so I can confirm that they are notes you have composed in your own words (I might compare these to other notes by other students by the way.) You will be able to retrieve them afterwards if you contact me about it. NOTE: If you have made notes directly onto print outs of powerpoints or reading assignments, you will need to transfer them. You cannot use such printouts. (Because the powerpoint slides have not been composed in your own words. This would also be true, by the way, of cut-and-paste notes from the web. I will check for this once you have submitted the notes to me.)

To bring: Your notes, if any, and writing instruments (with eraser options). Questions, paper, timing are provided by me.

We will use the test room for the full three-hour time slot but that does not mean I plan to design questions that require three hours to finish. My target will be closer to 2 hours but I want to give you all the time you want to write what you want.

The purpose of this test is to consider all we have covered from a regional and comparative perspective. By "comparative" I do not mean the description of similar and dissimilar characteristics. Rather, it is to relate things. Example: "Do you think the emperors of China or the emperors of Japan contributed more to tea culture as it was known by the year 1600?" I would expect a non-absolute, well-argued position by you, one that includes specific details about the individuals involved, what they did, and so on. Or, "Do you think the way tea was treated in Chinese literature had an effect on how tea was conceived in Japan around the year 1600?" I would expect you to say quite a bit about how tea was treated within literature then try to find a bridge from there to tea practices in Japan, probably in the kaisho setting, then discuss whether the kaisho setting has anything direct impact on wabicha. This is a three-step comparison — A [treatment of tea in Tang/Song dynasty poems we read] is definitely present in B [kaisho love of Chinese objects, Japanese interest in Chinese literati and their literature] and B has X [you explain] complicated influence on C [wabicha]. Comparisons do not always imply direct A to B similar/different formulas. They can include relating to third elements about side the pair, for example.

The type of question I ask will, hopefully, be something you really haven't considered yet. You'll have to think things through on the spot. Thus the best preparation for this exam is to have your notes in good order and well organized and be familiar enough with the material that you can "range over it" in your mind, thinking of basic approaches to the problem or problems I ask you to answer.

Essay option.

For some, it might be possible to write an essay in substitution for this exam. The default is the exam. You will have to propose a good paper idea that convinces me that this is something you really want to do (that is, not just exam-escape), have attended regularly (in other words this is not a substitute for a poverty of notes), and other factors. Essay requirements: a) the topic is in the spirit of the above essay questions; that is, regional and wide-ranging and taking on a topic not discussed yet all that much in class; b) well-researched using academically strong sources (so no Web sources unless it has an author with academic standing on relevant topics); c) about 1,600 words long or longer; d) follows basic standard formats.

If you are interested you will need to contact me by ten days before the exam date and will need to get an OK from me. For such permission and all other questions leading up to that or about the essay as you write it, use as the keyword essaynotexam added to the usual subjectline format.

The essay would be due electronically 12 HOURS BEFORE THE BEGINNING of the exam period. That way, if you miss the deadline, you still have hope of attending the final exam. NO LATE SUBMISSIONS OF THE ESSAY WILL BE ACCEPTED. Contact me if something very unusual happened; you might be able to get partial credit.

Essays are done without my guidance. Students often feel they can't find good resources but I have had more than 100 students submit papers with excellent resource material. You will have to find a way to solve that problem.

Students can switch to taking the final even after being approved for an essay if the essay is not coming together well. Please email me by the night before because I will print only the correct number of exams for exam day. If you are rushing to finish your essay on the night before, consider taking the exam. One of my grading characteristics is to grade low on essays that feel rushed.

Basic grading rubric: a) equal treatment of China and Japan, b) an essay enriched by quality academic sources, c) has an analytic component. *Read my Academic Honesty page. If you are not good at handling citations in a fair and accurate way (as defined by me on that site) or intend to plagiarize or submit purchased work, consider taking the final instead. Especially at the end of the semester, I gives "F"s to assignments or for the full course without contacting the student ahead of time, since there is no such time. And I have a no forgiveness policy so there will not be a second chance. I can tell the difference between making a reasonable effort and coming up short and academic dishonesty so, for the honest student who might err here and there, you do not have to worry.

Links to each session page