The midterm exam will be held in-person on Thursday, October 17 in our normal meeting room and class period. Please arrive on time. You will only have the normal class period (from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m.) to take the exam. Please note: You must attend and take the exam in person on October 17. I do not give make-up exams except in the case of documented medical/family emergency.

The review sheet is not designed to be a list of answers so much as questions you can use to guide you toward the areas you want to focus on in your review. As you read through the questions on the review sheet, those you have a sense of how you might answer are lower priority for review than those questions you’re not sure how you would answer; those you’d then want to go back and spend some time reviewing in your notes, the readings, the videos, quiz notes, and class discussions.

Also note that the terms are a useful way of finding concepts you need to go back and review, so I’d advise stepping through the terms at the end of each topic and making sure you have a sense of what they mean and why we’re studying them.

To prepare for the essay, I suggest that you focus on the four themes of the course as discussed in the Welcome video—individual/community, mortal/divine, male/female, city/empire—and think about possible questions that relate to those topics across the cultures and peoples we’ve explored. For the essay you’ll be asked to give three examples, so you can sketch out a question about (for example) ancient peoples and their gods and three similar or contrasting examples of societies that show what the gods meant to the ancients.

We will discuss further in class—please come to class with questions about anything you’re not sure of or want to hear more about.

Link to Exams page

• Watch the video. Make sure to watch the overview video, since that tells you exactly what I am looking for. It’s on the Essay #1 page.
• Thesis statement. Make sure you have an introduction with a thesis statement (your argument asserting your position on the question/problem being addressed) and a body that describes and discusses three examples from the Epic supporting your thesis statement. For models and explanations on how to do this, I urge you to watch the “Structure Musts” video on the Essay Musts page. See also “Writing a Position Paper” (a.k.a. “The Elephant Pamphlet”), which is on the Resources page on the website.
• Sources. For your examples you may use all of Gilgamesh, including the tablets that were not assigned if they contain helpful support for your thesis. You do not need to use other sources for this assignment; this essay is about your interpretation of Sumerian culture as represented in the beliefs, actions, and relations of the characters in the Epic.
• Requirements for all papers. You must adhere to the requirements for all papers (listed on the Essay Musts page). Not meeting the formatting, structure, and evidence requirements for all papers will mean a lower grade. There are new videos posted there for formatting musts, evidence musts, and structure musts guiding you toward what is required and how to do it.
• Template. An MS Word and a Google Docs template already set up with some of the formatting I require can be found on the Resources page. If you use Word or Google Docs I strongly recommend making use of these templates.
• Late papers. As per the syllabus, late papers are marked down by ten points per class meeting, up to a cap of thirty points. Avoid this penalty and block out the time you need to prepare, write, and review your essay so that it can be submitted on time.
• BlackBoard. All essays are uploaded to BlackBoard. Look for “Upload Assignments Here” in the left-hand menu. Your essay needs to be uploaded as a Word (preferred) or PDF file attachment, not pasted in as text submission. If you use a browser-based word processor, you’ll need to download or export to a Word document and upload that.

I’m happy to discuss any aspects of the Epic or the essay, so please come to me if there’s anything you’re not sure about. I’m looking forward to hearing your interactions with the folks of Uruk!

Link to Essays page