Policies

Policies

Attendance: In order to get the most from this class, you must attend class and participate in the intellectual life of the classroom community. Attendance is mandatory, and is based on a fifty-minute class period.

You are allowed three unexcused absences. Upon the fourth and fifth unexcused absences, your grade will be lowered one letter grade for each absence beyond three. (For example a student with a grade of B and four unexcused absences would receive a grade of C; a student with a grade of C and five unexcused absences would receive an F.) Upon the sixth unexcused absence, your grade for the course becomes "FA" (Failure because of Absences). Absences will be excused only with written verification with the legible signature and phone number of the proper authority. Acceptable excuses are generally limited to illness of the student or a member of the student’s immediate family, religious holidays, required court appearances, and required attendance at an Auburn University-sponsored activity. All excused absences require written verification, which should be presented upon the day of your return to class. No verification will be accepted more than three class days after your return to class. It is courteous to call or e-mail me before class when you know you will be absent. Any students with whom you are collaborating deserve this courtesy as well.

Late arrivals or early departures are distracting and discourteous, and they will lower your course grade. Three such incidents count as one unexcused absence.

Make-up Work and Late Work: An excused absence does not excuse you from completing assignments; it merely allows you an opportunity to make up the work. It is the student's responsibility to initiate make-up work in a timely manner.

· Work missed because of an unexcused absence may not be made up; the grade for such work is zero.

· Remember that regardless of the reason for your absence, you are responsible for material covered in class and for being prepared for class on the day of your return.

· Except in cases of specific, well documented, verifiable medical emergencies, there will be no make-up examinations.

· To receive credit for Annotations, students must submit a paper copy in class before the material annotated has been discussed in class. Please do not leave Annotations on or under my office door or in my mailbox in HC 9030 unless you have received specific instructions to do so.

· Late work will be penalized by a 10% per class day deduction.

· No work more than three days late will be accepted.

Conferences: Although there are no required conferences in ENGL 2210, I am available to talk with you during my posted office hours and by appointment. If you are having problems with an assignment, need a reaction to a draft, or want further direction on a project, I encourage you to come by my office to discuss your concerns. Don't wait until a grade has been determined to ask for help.

A Academic Honesty: All assignments turned in for a grade should be your own work. The assignments are designed to direct your focus to the texts and to offer you opportunities to demonstrate your developing skills in reading, interpreting, and criticizing texts. Any sources you use in your work must be properly documented. This includes direct copying, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Failure to indicate directly quoted passages or ideas even while citing the work as a general source violates standards of academic integrity.

A Any attempt to pass off the words or ideas of others as your own constitutes plagiarism, an offense that carries serious consequences. Please refer to the relevant sections of The Tiger Cub for more detailed information.

Use of Cellular Phones and Pagers: Use of cell phones is prohibited during class. It is rude and disruptive to have a cell phone ring or pager signal during class. Turn the ringer off or use vibration mode during class. If the student must take a call during class, she should leave the room and return when the call is finished. If a potential emergency situation requires that a student have a cell phone ringer on, the student should notify the instructor in advance.

Email: All students are required to have their Auburn University email address operating properly. That is the email address I will use to send out official class information. Please note: If you have that address forwarding to another email address, be sure that the forwarding works. You are solely responsible for ensuring that the email address you have on file is working. If that address is not configured properly, you will miss important course information.

The English Center: The Auburn University English Center, located in Haley Center 3183, is an excellent resource. Expert writing tutors will meet with the student one-on-one, for free, as often as the student likes. Students can take assignments before they even start writing for help with brainstorming; they can take rough drafts; they can take later drafts. Tutors can help student writers understand an assignment, brainstorm ideas, organize ideas, get started on a draft, reorganize a draft, check for sentence-level correctness, and more. The student can set the agenda, telling the tutor exactly what kind of help he needs. (The only thing tutors won't do is "proofread" and edit papers.) Sharing writing in progress is the habit of a good writer. Students can drop in, but it’s better to call for an appointment at 844-5749.

The Program for Students with Disabilities: Students who need accommodations are asked to arrange a meeting during office hours the first week of classes. If you have a conflict with my office hours, we will set up an appointment for another, mutually convenient time. You will need to bring a copy of your Accommodations Memo and Instructor Verification Form to the meeting. If you do not have an Accommodations Memo but need accommodations, make an appointment with The Program for Students with Disabilities, 1244 Haley Center, 844-2096.

Concerns about Grades: At some point during the term, you may have legitimate
concerns about a particular grade. I am happy to discuss these concerns with you,
but I ask that you keep the following policies in mind:

               ·   I will not discuss a grade the day a paper is returned, and I will not discuss
                   a paper in class. Please make an appointment on the second or a subsequent
                   day so that we may have a rational, civil, private discussion.

· When you come to discuss the grade, you must bring the paper with my
comments and any other pertinent material with you.

                · If I have made an error in computing your grade, I will change the grade
                   immediately. However, such errors are rare. You should look upon grade
                   conferences as an opportunity to understand what led to the grade and to
                   discover ways of improving other work.

                    ·     According to law, I am not allowed to discuss your grades and progress
                     with anyone other than YOU. This means that if your parent(s), your
                     roommate, your best friend, or any other person contacts me, I cannot release
                     your papers or information about your attendance, progress, grades, etc.,
                     without your written permission.

        Readings: You are required to be well prepared for each class and to have read all assigned work
           with care. Keeping up with reading assignments is crucial. The sheer volume of reading will quickly
           overwhelm you if you fall behind. If you are absent, you are responsible for work missed and for
           completing assigned work for the next class. It is useful to have some classmates' telephone numbers to
           check on work missed and on any changes in assignment.

Study Questions: For each assigned work, I will give you a series of questions to guide your reading and to assist you in thinking about what you have read before you come to class to discuss the work. Many of the questions are comprehension questions; others require you to exercise your interpretive and critical thinking skills. You do not need to write answers to these questions, but I encourage you to use them as preparation for talking and writing about the assignments. The study questions are also an excellent resource for reviewing before examinations.

Annotations: I will use these reading exercises to encourage you to keep up with reading assignments and to give me a sense of how you are interacting with the assigned readings. Exercises will be accepted only from students who are in class for the full class period; no make-up work will be allowed (except in the case of verified excused absences). These are not formal writing assignments, so I am not looking for polished prose. I do expect you to have perceptive things to say, and I expect you to say them clearly and coherently. You will be given specific instructions for these exercises.

NOTE: I reserve the right to substitute unannounced reading quizzes for reading exercises if the quality of reading exercises and class discussions suggests that you are not keeping up with reading assignments.

Class Discussion: ENGL 2210 is not a lecture-driven course. Although I will provide contexts for the works we study and sometimes offer interpretations for you to consider, the heart of the course will be discussion--both small group and whole class. The success of this approach depends on you and your willingness to prepare for class, to attend class meetings, and to participate in an exchange of ideas.

Remember that participation does not mean monopolizing class discussion or overwhelming others with your ideas. Certainly sharing your insights with others is part of class participation, but so too are listening attentively to others, asking relevant questions, and being physically and intellectually present.

Small Group Exercises: Several times during the term, you will work with three or four classmates to interpret and criticize a reading assignment and to present the group's ideas to the whole class. A group grade will be assigned for these projects, but the grade of an individual group member may be substantially lower than the group grade if my observation and/or group members' evaluations reveal minimal participation or less in the group process. In other words, group work does not mean a free ride for anyone.

Discussion Leadership: Once during the term, each student will be responsible for leading class discussion. On the designated day, you will be expected to start the day's discussion of the assigned text and to sustain that discussion for a minimum of fifteen minutes. A good discussion leader will raise as many fruitful questions as possible and involve as many class members as possible in the discussion. While you should certainly be able to suggest possible answers to any questions you pose, you should not try to work out elaborate theses. This assignment is not a research project; no reading in secondary sources is required as preparation. What the assignment does require is that you demonstrate a substantive, detailed understanding of the text, that you base your questions and comments on a thoughtful, critical reading of the text itself, and that you discuss your reading clearly, courteously, and insightfully. Your questions should focus on thematic connections, interpretive issues, and language patterns rather than on mere plot summary. . Be sure that all of the questions you ask lead the class to the text--to particular passages and their significance.

Since usually three or four students will be assigned to a single text, you will need to confer with the other leaders. You may choose to work together and lead the class as a team, or you may choose to work individually--in which case, you need only make certain that there is no repetition in the discussion. Either way, each student is responsible for a minimum of fifteen minutes.

Writing: Writing is an essential component of ENGL 2210. We will use writing assignments to help us explore and clarify ideas and to communicate them to the classroom community. You are also required to write two formal papers of four to six pages each. You will receive more specific instructions about these papers later.

Examinations: You will take two examinations in this course: one approximately halfway through the session, and the other on the university-scheduled day for the final examination in this course. Both will consist of short answers (identification/definition) and brief, focused discussion of significant quotations; the final examination will also include longer essay questions.

I will use the following scale to assign a numerical grade for each assignment. Please note that any missing assignment receives a grade of zero.

Participation (including small- group assignments and discussion leadership)	150 points
Annotations (5)	150 points
Formal Essays—2	300 points
Mid-Term Examination	150 points
Final Examination	250 points