Policies

Complete Writing Program policies and guidelines are set forth in the policy section of the Course Guide.  Basically, however, all the course policies boil down to this: "Come to class; do the writing as assigned; work hard; and be thoroughly involved in the workings of the class." Your instructor will no doubt have specific policies of his or her own, but no instructor' s policies should contradict the official program policies--only supplement them.

NOTE: Remember that everything you write (drafts, questions for response, responses to your classmates' texts, classmates' responses to your texts, analyses, etc.) must be saved electronically, and wise students will save their work to at least two or three places.  This might include saving to a disk, a "jump drive" (USB mass storage device), the Instructor Folder, your University server space on //datastore01/home (often referred to as your Home space or H-drive), or the hard drive of your personal computer (but not the hard drive of a lab computer, where it could easily be altered or erased).

You are responsible for saving electronic copies of all work, and, as noted above, you will be required to submit electronic copies of all work to the appropriate Instructor Folder at the end of the semester.

Policies for This Section

Absences

Be here. I will typically assign progress reports, proposals, and other activities to be completed during class, so you will need to be here every day to get this work done. The majority of class time will be spent discussing your writing, drafting and revising, reading and responding to peers' papers, etc. In order to fulfill these tasks, you must be in class. I understand that sometimes that is not possible, but if you are going to be unable to attend class, I expect an email notifying me of this in advance of your absence.

Tardiness

I'll be on time to class, so I expect you to be as well.

Late Work

If you turn in work late, please expect the following: you will need to set up an appointment beyond class time to meet with me to discuss your paper and my comments on it. Before I return that paper to you, you will then email me with a summary of our meeting, detailing what changes we talked about you making to your paper. I will return your paper to you following the next class and you will see your advisory grade for that paper at that time. Really, it's just easier if you keep up with the work and turn everything in on time.

Social Practices

I expect a learning environment in which all participants listen to, acknowledge, and respect the opinions and efforts of all students in this class. You will be responsible for providing your classmates with constructive criticism, focused praise, and enthusiastic support throughout the semester: they are counting on your help. Together I hope that we can develop a learning community that values the contributions of every member, a community that you can come to depend upon as you complete your work in this class, but one that may even extend beyond our time together this semester.

Academic Honesty

Please consult your course guide for information about academic honesty and about your responsibilities as writers within this academic community.

Grading

Throughout the semester you will receive "advisory" grades that will give you some indication of how you are doing in the class. These grades are, obviously, revisable and may change significantly depending upon the amount of work you do/do not do on your final, portfolio drafts. Note: Your final portfolio will be worth 100% of your grade in this class. Please see the grading standards for the portfolio at the back of the Course Guide for an explanation of how your work will be assessed, and note that the work is cumulative, and an incomplete portfolio cannot receive a grade higher than a "D".