Professionalism

It goes without saying that we strive for a professional atmosphere in the workplace. As such, we expect you to meet the following basic standards of professionalism:

• Attend class. Your class participation grade will most assuredly be affected if you fail to attend class regularly. While an occasional absence may be necessary, more than a few absences will obviously interfere with your ability to make a positive contribution to the class.
• Arrive on time. Arriving after class has begun draws undue attention to you and distracts the rest of us. If you must—for a legitimate reason—arrive late, enter the room as unobtrusively as possible.
• Keep your cell phone turned off and out of sight. If you must check your voice mail or text messages, quietly leave the room to do so. Also, avoid working on outside assignments or browsing the internet during class.
• Participate. Come to class having read the assigned text material. Your contributions to our discussion will demonstrate your preparedness.
• Submit assignments on time. This means you must be aware of all due dates.
• Assume responsibility for your final project team’s successful and productive functioning. Be an individual everyone on your team appreciates.

Attendance

Your success and the success of this course depend on your active participation; therefore, your regular attendance is required. Excused absences are certainly appropriate, and of course you should communicate with me about your absences as much as possible. Be aware, though, that University policy (Policies and Rules, 42-27) states that a student whose absences are excessive “may run the risk of receiving a lower grade or a failing grade,” regardless of his or her performance in the class.

You run that risk if you exceed three unexcused absences for a MWF class or two unexcused absences for a TR class. (These are absences that you can take with no penalty, grade-wise.) If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the assignments, class notes, and course changes from a classmate.

In-class work cannot be made up. While it is understood that emergencies/University-sanctioned activities may arise which result in you missing one or more classes, frequent absences will negatively impact final grades.

Special attendance situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis. In these cases, it is important that you keep your instructor apprised in such circumstances.  

More on Attendance

Attendance is required. I will take attendance each day on Canvas. Canvas docks a percentage of your total attendance grade for each missed class. If there are 45 class days and you miss 2 (thereby attending 43), your grade should be a 95.5%, still an A. Students who come to class without having completed the assigned reading or writing may be counted absent as well. Tardiness counts as a partial docking. Barring extenuating circumstances, a poor attendance record can affect your participation grade as well as your overall final grade, which may be docked for excessive absences. Students are welcome to obtain excuses for official absences.

Guidelines for Submissions

All assignments submitted online must be uploaded by 11:55 p.m. EST on the due date that appears on the course schedule. *I will notify you if due dates change.

• Naming Your Submission. Before going online and uploading your final draft to the appropriate drop box, click on “Save As” and name your file with your last name. Assuming your submission has already been formatted as a “.doc” or “.docx” file, the appropriate extension should automatically appear after your name in the file label (e.g. “LastName.doc”).
• Submitting to the Appropriate Drop Box. All assignment drop boxes are clearly labeled. Be sure to submit your assignment to the appropriate drop box.
• Submitting Multi-part Assignments. For any assignment that requires you to submit multiple documents, be sure to save all the documents in a single file, uploading only one file.
• Late submissions will receive a reduced grade.
• After 10 days, the assignment automatically receives a grade of zero, although the assignment must still be completed and submitted by the end of the semester in order for the student to receive a grade for the course.
• All assignments must be completed and submitted by the last day of classes in order for you to receive a passing grade for the course.

Draft Workshops

Be sure to attend and be prepared for in-class draft workshops (also called “peer reviews”). If you miss a draft workshop or peer review it counts against attendance and participation. If you must miss a draft workshop, take your draft to the Writing Center. The Writing Center will inform me of your session.