Throughout the semester, you will assemble a portfolio of your work. The portfolio will include short writing assignments, drafts, reflections about writing in progress, and final drafts. Toward the end of the semester, you will use this collection as evidence to argue in a reflective essay that you have achieved the learning outcomes for the course.
An important part of this reflection process is learning how to think, talk, and write about writing in ways that will enable you to apply (or transfer) your learning from this course to other contexts in which you communicate. To facilitate this “metacognition,” you will learn and use a set of rhetorical key terms throughout the semester as you reflect on the assignments you complete in this course.
]]>Life’s too short. Are you familiar with that truism? A semester really is too short a time to cover all this material unless we’re each here every day that class meets; therefore, I look forward to seeing you at every class meeting, contributing to a discussion on each of the topics we’ll cover.
I make no distinction between excused and unexcused absences, so no documentation or excuse is required for an absence. If some sort of dire circumstance — such as serious injury or illness, death in the family, thermonuclear war — should arise, please notify me as soon as possible so we can try to make arrangements. You should also remember that you are still responsible for any information or assignment covered in a class that you miss and that I do not provide make-up quizzes or other work.
If you are absent more than 4 times over the course of the semester, your final grade for the class will be lowered. You will lose one-third of a letter grade for each absence beyond 4. I do not give make ups for assignments completed in class if you are absent or late enough to class that you’ve missed that assignment.
]]>Participation means more than simply being physically present – it means coming to class with the assigned reading completed and being ready to contribute in a thoughtful and respectful manner to discussion, peer editing, or other in-class assignments. You should have whatever text we’re discussing that day and any other necessary materials with you in class to refer to during discussions. To receive full credit for class participation you must contribute actively and regularly to in-class discussions in an informed and constructive manner.
I expect students to take their work seriously, to come to class prepared and willing to participate, and to treat peers and their ideas with respect.
Participation also includes taking part in the asynchronous parts of the class by writing posts on your domain, commenting on your peers’ writing, taking an active part in collaborative writing tasks in Google docs or other writing spaces. Side quest assignments and other short writing assignments that you’ll complete this semester will be factored into your participation grade as well.
]]>You are required to meet with me for conferences at least twice over the course of the semester. Missing conferences will result in deductions to your class participation grade.
]]>The Assignments pages will include descriptions of the major assignments for the semester. In addition, you will have frequent, shorter and generally less formal, writing assignments. I’ll describe those assignments to you either in class or via blog posts here on this site (or both).
It is vital that you keep up with these as they are assigned. They help prepare you for class, give you a direction to work, give you practice opportunities for writing, critical reading, and thinking. These assignments are due on the assigned date and will not be accepted late (unless we make a prior agreement). If you know you will be absent, you should post your assignment early.
All work is due on the date and at the time specified on the calendar. I may refuse to accept or choose to deduct points for late work, and/or I may choose to provide a grade but no detailed feedback for late work.
If something comes up and you cannot get a major assignment completed on time, please email or speak with me as early as possible to make arrangements. If you come to me in advance, I will do my best to be reasonable and to work with you to come up with a solution that allows you to succeed while remaining fair to the rest of the class and meeting my needs as the instructor of the course. If you email me 10 minutes before an assignment is due, or 3 hours after it’s due, I am much less likely to be able to make such accommodations.
]]>Since we are composing multimodally throughout the course, you are encouraged to bring to class and operate laptops, tablets, and smart phones. The classroom is equipped with desktops that we will use regularly. I encourage you to develop best practices for negotiating among virtual communities and the real time of the classroom — and we will spend time reading, thinking, and discussing how to deal mindfully with the distractions presented to us via our electronic tools.
Fundamentally, I will expect you to remain attentive to and respectful of your peers and me while at the same time engaging with digital resources.
]]>Email is the best way to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Generally, I will respond to all student email within 24 hours (although on weekends and holidays, it may take a little longer). Likewise, there may be instances when I will need to contact you by email. It is your responsibility to check your Emory-based email account at least once every 24 hours.
]]>Please consider all writing for this class to be “public.” Part of becoming an effective writer is learning to appreciate the ideas and feedback of others. In this course, our purpose is to come together as a writing community. Avoid writing about topics that you wish to keep private or that you feel so strongly about that you are unwilling to listen to the perspectives of others.
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