Assignments

Pop Quizzes

30% of the grade will be based on pop quizzes, which will take place in the lectures on randomly chosen occasions. These will be short, multiple-choice quizzes that are designed to test whether you have completed the required reading for each lecture. Questions will be simple, with material drawn from up to the past 3 articles. Attendance at lectures is compulsory and any missed quizzes will receive a grade of zero. Your worst pop quiz grade will be removed when calculating your final grade, however.

Final Exam

40% of the grade will be based on a final exam. The exam will be based on the required readings throughout the year as well as the lecture material covered in class and recitations. It will be a mixture of multiple choice and written questions, and take a total of three hours.

Written Assignments

30% of the grade will be based on 4 short written assignments that you will be expected to hand in to the TA at recitations. Each written assignment will be approximately 500 words in length, and should be focused on a lecture's required reading material. The course material is broken down into 7 topics: Introduction, Food, Education, Health, Finance, Institutions, and International Dimensions. Accordingly, you will have the option of selecting any 4 (out of the available 7) themes for your written assignments. Assignments are due in the first recitation following the last lecture of your chosen topic. If you would like interim feedback on your written work please ask your TA to grade your assignment not for credit.

The subject of these written assignments can be either: (a) your answer to a question that has been suggested by the TA on each lecture's required reading; or (b) an opinion piece on a topic of your choice (be sure it's something you find interesting) related to the lecture's required reading. In either case, you are expected to state a thesis up front, discuss why your reader should care about the topic you've chosen, and argue in favor of it. A book report or other type of non-critical summary is not acceptable. These assignments are to be completed individually and in your own words.

Because 500 words is very short your written argument should be concise and punchy, and be high on content and opinion. It will take some time to compose—one possible strategy is to write a 1000 word piece and edit it down to 500 words so that you are left with only the essential argument.

Examples of Potential Paper Topics

• Foreign aid should be limited to countries with good governance.
• The one dollar-a-day poverty standard is misleading and should be abandoned.
• Measuring absolute poverty is important (for the following three reasons) and (with the following modifications), the dollar-a-day poverty standard is an effective tool for doing so.
• Local accountability is critical to providing effective education.
• National standards, funding, and accountability are the keys to improving education.
• Microfinance institutions need to be closely regulated.
• Excessive regulation will kill microfinance.