Active and appropriate participation serves to add to the objective criteria when arriving at a letter grade to summarize your work. The final exam will cover only material directly covered in the lecture. Lectures will serve to highlight aspects of the reading that are most important. The exam grade will be a portion of the objective part of your grade.
Students can also suggest topics.
You are required to write a 5-7 page paper fully addressing one of these topics, and your performance on one of these topics will be a portion of the objective part of your grade.