Weekly writing assignment

Each week, you will need to post a response to the course site by 11:59 PM on Tuesday. Your response should be approximately 550 words. They should not be rehashing introductory information, plot or argument details, etc. (I’ve read the readings & trust you have, too), but should demonstrate thoughtful engagement with the materials for the week. You may focus on one or several. I encourage you to bring up questions that would be appropriate for group discussion in the course of your analysis. You should take time to read your classmates’ responses; this helps facilitate discussion during our scheduled meeting.

Film & Book Review Assignments

 At some point this semester (the timing is up to you, but both must be done before 4/27), you will be expected to post a film review and a book review (of a book we are not reading in class & a film we have not viewed) to the course site. They should be approximately 1000 words each. These do not necessarily have to be related to mountaineering in the Greater Ranges, but do need to be mountaineering related (and yes, this may include some wonderfully terrible things like Vertical Limit). You must get my approval for your selections, and your reviews must engage with the academic themes of this course. Please see the “Bibliography” tab if you are having trouble finding materials.

Final essay

Your final writing assignment for this class will be a research paper of between 3000 and 3500 words (approx. 12-14 pages, double-spaced), which is worth 30% of your final grade. Topics will be selected by you, according to your interests. I am happy to help you refine ideas you may have into something suitable for a final project, but this should really be driven by you. The only requirement is that it should be related to the subject of mountaineering – particularly mountaineering in the Greater Ranges, though this is not absolutely necessary – and the themes of the course in some manner. We will be doing some workshopping of your ideas/writing in class so you can get feedback from me and your classmates. More information may be found in the syllabus & will be posted here.