Policies & Procedures
Attendance
Attendance will be
taken by sign-in sheet. It is your responsibility to ensure your
signature is on each day's sheet. Ask for the sheet if you do not
see
it. Tardies will be marked by the instructor.
Because of the collaborative and cooperative nature of the first year writing courses, class attendance is crucial. During the regular semester in ENG 101, students who miss five 100-minute classes will earn a grade of F. That is, more than two weeks' worth of absences will result in failure to meet this element of the General Education Requirement, and you will need to repeat the course. If, after reviewing the syllabus, you anticipate or know you will miss five or more classes (excused or unexcused), I would strongly encourage you to drop this course.
This policy does not distinguish between "excused" and "unexcused" absences, even in the case of emergencies. All absences will count toward the total number, and this policy obtains from the moment you are registered in the course. As is the case for all courses, students experiencing extended medical or family emergencies during the semester should consult with the instructor about seeking a medical drop.The first two weeks of missed classes will be treated as excused absences, and you will be allowed to make up all course work missed. Instructors will establish make-up assignments, standards for evaluation of such assignments, and a reasonable period after the absence within which they must be turned in. If you fail to turn in make-up assignments or if the make-up assignments are of insufficient quality, your grade will be penalized. Because this policy includes all types of absences, those defined by the university as excused do not have to be cleared with the instructor beforehand.
No matter what the cause of the absences, as a student you are responsible for finding out what material was covered, getting notes, being prepared for class on the day you return, and turning in subsequent assignments on time. Since due dates for major assignments are established at the beginning of the semester, and since these projects are developed over a series of class periods, students are advised that submitting these projects late may result in penalties.
Coming
unprepared to a Draft Workshop/Peer Review day or a mandatory
conference will count as an absence.
Lateness can be very disruptive to the Eng 101 classroom. Leaving class
early also counts as a "tardy".Students who
come late to class three or more times will exhaust one absence.
The Computer Classroom
This course meets once a week in a computer classroom (Tuesdays in T129). During these classes, each student has access to a computer with word processing, emailing, and internet capabilities. Please make sure you come to the right room each day! Also, I ask that you adhere to the following guidelines when in the computer classroom:
1.
Save all of your work on your own portable USB drives, and/or email
documents to yourself. The computers get wiped clean after every class.
A good rule of thumb: If you don't have a file in three places, you
don't have it at all.
2. Do not download any software onto the computers.
3. Do
not use the computers to play games, send personal email, use chat
rooms or social networks, or view non-course related web pages.
4. Occasional printing of course related materials that you have
personally written is allowed. However, your essays and homework must
be printed at home.
5. Tell me about any hardware or software problems right away so we can
have them fixed.
6. The computer room may be locked when you arrive. I'll let you in
when I get there.
If you don't comply with these rules, you will lose your computer privileges.
Evaluation
Assignments in ENG 101 are designed to develop students’ understanding
of, and facility with, practices of critical reading and writing in
academic communities. In evaluating students’ formal written work,
instructors look for a purposeful response to the audience and
situation, a clear and logical argument, thoughtful use of textual
evidence, and effective use of appropriate formal and stylistic
conventions. These criteria are based on the ENG 101 course objectives,
which support NC State’s General Education Requirements for Writing,
Speaking, and Information Literacy, and are grounded in the Outcomes
for First-Year Composition adopted by the Council of Writing Program
Administrators in 2000.
Successful writing in ENG 101 demonstrates critical thinking and
rhetorical awareness in key areas described specifically at the First
Year Writing Program Website:
http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/fwp/standards2.html
Final grades will be determined as follows:
Class participation, including daily homework assignments 15%
Writer's workshops and in-class writing 10%
project 1: Job Application Cover Letter 18.75%
project 2: Annotated Bibliography 18.75%
project 3: Literary Analysis 18.75%
project 4: Informational Website 18.75%
You will be assigned letter grades for your work. I will average them the way GPAs are averaged: an"A+" will be averaged in as a 4.33, an "A" will be averaged in as a 4.0, an "A-" as a 3.67, a "B+" as a 3.33, a "B" as a 3.0, a "B-" as a 2.67, a "C+" as a 2.33, a "C" as a 2.0, a "C-" as a 1.67, a "D+" as a 1.33, a "D" as a 1.0, a "D-" as .67, and an "F" as a 0 (there are no F+/-'s).
I use the +/- grading system. "C" in this class means average college-level work. This is a "C-wall" class, meaning a "C-" is required. We will discuss the grading breakdowns for each assignment.
Papers
Major Assignments are expected to be handed in, printed and digitally
on CD or USB drive, on the day they are due.
This includes days which students may be absent. If you are
anticipating an absence on a day when a Major Assignment is due, you
should contact me and/or make arrangements to hand it in via email.
Regardless of any arrangements or circumstances, late
papers may lose one letter grade for each day they are not in to me.
This includes weekend days, during which time late papers may be
emailed to me. At no other time should papers be emailed to me unless
such arrangements are made beforehand.
Papers will be evaluated holistically and given letter grades according to their merits in the following categories:
- Rhetorical Purpose: writing exhibits a clear awareness of the purpose, audience, and occasion for writing and responds to that rhetorical situation through appropriate choice of topic, genre, focus, and claim.
- Logic and Argument: writing makes a claim distinct from the claims of its source material and develops that claim thoroughly and logically.
- Textual Evidence: writing demonstrates thoughtful response to the ideas of others, including judicious selection of sources, a well-founded understanding of those sources, and substantive integration of ideas and evidence from the sources into the writer’s argument.
- Formal and Stylistic Conventions: writing demonstrates effective use of genre and disciplinary conventions, including appropriate format, style, tone, documentation, and grammatical integration of evidence, and demonstrates facility with surface features, including syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so that the reader’s experience with the text is uninterrupted.
I will adapt these general criteria to the specifics of individual assignments when developing peer review guidelines and grading rubrics.
ALL WORK MUST BE WRITTEN IN TIMES NEW ROMAN 12pt. FONT, DOUBLE SPACED. NO EXCEPTIONS. FAILURE TO DO THIS WILL COST YOU "FORMAL AND STYLISTIC" POINTS. All work must have the appropriate heading, title, and page numbering system. We will go over this on the first day of class.
Participation
Class participation is very important. Students are expected to: regularly contribute to the discussion at hand, imparting insightful, valuable, helpful or positive comments or questions; share or volunteer draft work when applicable; be on time and rarely miss class; always be prepared for class with readings, texts and other relevant materials; be thorough and helpful during Peer Review.
As
with anything, class participation can also be defined by what it is
not. That is, negative class conduct: lack of engagement, lack of
preparedness/no drafts or materials, little or no contributions to
discussion, eating/drinking, misusing the computers, MP3 players, cell
phones, or talking/general class disruptions. All will be noted on a
day to day basis. Each day I will make note of the overall class
discussion. Participation also includes peer responses as well as
active and detailed engagement with the work of your writing partners,
as well as contributions to mandatory conferences and appointments
during office hours.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is defined as copying the language, phrasing, structure, or
specific ideas of others and presenting any of these as one's own,
original work; it includes buying papers, having someone else write
your papers, and improper citation and use of sources. When you present
the words or ideas of another (either published or unpublished) in your
writing, you must fully acknowledge your sources. Plagiarism is
considered a violation of academic integrity whenever it occurs in
written work, including drafts and homework, as well as for formal and
final papers.
The NCSU
Policies, Regulations, and Rules on Student Discipline
sets the standards for academic integrity at this university and in
this course. Students are expected to adhere to these standards.
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty may be handled
through the university's judicial system and may result in failure for
the project or for the course.