Week 6: Abelard & Heloise

Writing Assignment: 

Choose ONE of the following prompts:

1. By his own admission, Abelard seems to have made enemies everywhere he went. Describe, in detail and with page numbers, one occasion when Abelard found himself in a confrontation. What was the confrontation, who was it with, what was the reason for it, and what was the outcome?

2. Heloise is one of the few medieval women whose own words and feelings about her life survive. How does she feel about her affair with Abelard and her entry into a convent? Give two pieces of specific evidence from the text (with page numbers) to support your assertion. 

Note: There is no reading for section next week (week 7). Instead you will be creating your own Horrible History to share in section.

Answers should be 250-300 words and include specific details and page numbers from the reading.

Grading:

The purpose of these assignments is to demonstrate that you've done the reading and learned something from it. You should make sure to address all parts of the question and provide specifics like names, places, context, and page numbers in your answers.

For example, if you say that someone gave a speech before a battle, I'm going to want to know who gave the speech (names), which battle it was (context), and where it was (places). I also want to know what page(s) this material is on. Although these are short writing assignments, you still want to provide details (history is all about the details).

100% - addresses all parts of the question and provides details like names, places, context, and page numbers.

90% - addresses all parts of the question, but may lack some detail -OR- provides great detail but does not answer part of the question.

80% - answer is correct, but vague, one or more parts of the question may be unanswered.

70% - answer is very vague and multiple parts of the question are unanswered.

50% - I suspect that you read the source, but your answer totally lacks detail and doesn't demonstrate that you learned anything from the reading.

0% - It's clear that you didn't read the source, or you didn't turn in a writing assignment.