General description of the assignment

• The Rome Journal is a somewhat informal, somewhat fluid assigment, designed as a way to encourage you regularly to explore places and physical remains of ancient Rome, to think about them in a variety of ways, and to write a little about what you have found.

Format

• For each entry, 1-2 pages (typed or word-processed, double-spaced).

Content and its distribution

• For each entry, visit and investigate archaeological remains of an ancient Roman site that we have not explored as a class. Art work and artefacts in museum collections are also eligible. Each entry a student submits must comment on a different visit. Every entry should represent a visit you have made within the last 12 days. For a partial list of some appropriate visits, see below.
• Students may visit sites or museums jointly, but each must write her or his own entries independently.
• Every entry must include a concise physical description of the place or item you have visited within the last 12 days. Questions to address include (for example): Where is it located? What is it made out of? What physical features give it its specific form? How big is it? Also, not so much physical but equally important, to when does it date?
• A minimum of three (3) journal entries should go on from the physical description to consider your topic from a technological perspective. Questions to address include (for example): What was done to the material to make the building or monument or implement or whatever it is? What does it reflect about Roman technological capabilities at the time it was made? What does it reflect about Roman taste at the time it was made?
• A minimum of three (3) journal entries should go on from the physical description to consider your topic from a social perspective. Questions to address include (for example): How was the space or the item used? What does its use reflect about Roman social practices or cultural values? Was it designed to convey any kinds of social messages besides its physical use, and how; do we know anything about how well it succeeded?
• A minimum of three (3) journal entries should go on from the physical description to consider your topic from your personal perspective. Possible approaches include (for example): How does the ancient place or item function in the modern city today: how do Romans, tourists, or the local free-lance cats interact with it? How has the ancient place or item functioned in post-classical city of some other period: briefly describe a Medieval or Renaissance or Baroque or Risorgimento or twentieth-century work that responds to your place or item, and comment upon it. Alternatively, you may explore the place or item through a piece of original creative writing (prose or poetry).

How many entries are assigned, and when are they due?

• Counting midterm week and the week of the Floating Wednesday, but not counting fall break, Fall Semester 1999 spans 14 weeks.
• During the course of the semester, each student must submit eleven (11) journal entries: at least three technological, at least three social, at least three personal, plus two more of your own choosing.
• Entries must be submitted by 3:30 PM Thursday in each week in which you choose to submit an entry.
• No more than one (1) entry may be submitted each week by any one student.
• In other words, you do not have to hand in a journal entry in any specific week, but you can't skip more than three weeks. No exceptions or extensions will be contemplated.
• The instructor has final word on which category any given entry qualifies as, and will advise students each week how many of each group they have completed.

Assessment

• Journal entries are graded on a pass-fail-plus basis.
• Minimum requirements for a passing entry are clear evidence that you have met the goals of the assignment by actually physically spending time in the place or with the item, thinking seriously about it, and writing yourself. Neither physical description nor technological, social, or other information may be copied from a guidebook: think it through and make sense of it within the context of your own inquiry. On the other hand, some delving into books may be necessary to find out some of the information you need. That's fine, even desirable. See the instructor for guidance about secondary works. All regular academic rules for crediting your sources apply. Journal writing need not be formal in style, but must be grammatical and free from proofreading errors.
• A entry earns a "plus" if it is well-written and shows an especially high degree of engagement with and learning about the topic.
• One entry of the eleven that fails to meet the standards will not drag down your grade, but more than one failing entry will hurt you.
• If you do not submit the full eleven entries, each missing entry will hurt your grade for this component even more than a failing entry would.
• All-passing entries (or, no more than one failing) will reinforce the letter grade you earn on other elements of the course assessment. "Plus" entries will contribute towards enhancing that grade, within the percentages set forth in Policies and Assessment.

Memorial value

• Towards the end of the semester, each student should select one or two passages from her or his own journal entries, totalling not more than one page single-spaced, to be photocopied with other students' contributions and distributed as a volume to all members of the course.

Revised 29 July 1999 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu (e-mail address at Rome TBA)
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/