Course Policies

Office Hours

Office hours are on Wednesdays from 1-3 PM and Fridays from 10 AM-12 PM, or by appointment. Sometimes we will have unit conferences that will be scheduled through signupgenius.com. These meetings will take place on Zoom. If you can’t find a time that will work for your schedule, please email me to suggest alternate times.

Major Assignments

The major assignments for Rhetoric and Civic Life I are:

Unit One: 30% of Final Grade

  • Civic Artifact Speech (15% of final grade)
  • Rhetorical Analysis Essay (15% of final grade)

Unit Two: 30% of Final Grade

  • RCL “TED” Talk (15% of final grade)
  • Evolving Ideas Paper (15% of final grade)

Unit Three: 15% of Final Grade

  • History of a Public Controversy Project (15% of final grade)

RCL Community: Participation and Blogging: 25% of final grade

  • Passion and RCL Blogs (15%)
  • Participation (5% of final grade)
  • Reading Quizzes (5% of final grade)

Grading Scale

A = 95 to 100, A- = 90 to 94.9, B+ = 87.9 to 89.9, B = 83.3 to 87.8, B- = 80 to 83.32, C+ = 75 to 79.9, C = 70 to 74.9, D = 60 to 69.9, F = 59.9

Note: The Penn State grading scale does not allow the option of awarding grades of C-, D+ or D- grades. This grading scale is recommended by the Penn State College of Liberal Arts. Instructors are not required to “round up” according to this scale.

For detailed information on course assignments, please consult the assignment-specific tabs on this course website.

Devices in class

RCL will be holding frequent quizzes and blog commenting sessions each week in class. You will need to bring a laptop or tablet device on which you can access Canvas and write responses. You should come to class with your device sufficiently charged. If any of this will be a problem for you, contact me immediately.

Participation and Attendance

Rhetoric and Civic Life is a year-long experience rooted in our strong and supportive class community. Your participation in the course will be critical to our efforts to build community. Participation has several dimensions. This means actual attunement to the class discussion. Engaged, vocal contributions, group work, and online posting and commenting are considered central to the success of the class. Students who come to class without having completed the assigned reading or writing may have their participation grade affected. Also valuable is recognizing when it’s time for other students to contribute. Avoiding undesirable and distracted behaviors such as texting, talking, or sleeping is another component of participation and attendance. There will be opportunities to contribute in small-group discussion, and all in-class activities represent opportunities to work out ideas.

If we must move to a remote Zoom model, it will be critical that you stay engaged with your classmates and become an integral part of our physically distanced, but otherwise connected community. While instructors cannot insist that your cameras are turned on for class, we hope that you turn on your cameras and tune in as much as possible.

Instructors can provide regular feedback on your standing for the course participation grade. Likewise, your performance on peer evaluations can contribute to or detract from your final participation grade.

Attendance policy: Regular, in-person attendance is expected. Synchronous Zoom attendance is not an available alternative to in-person attendance, though class sessions may be recorded and posted on the course schedule. Each student is granted four unexcused absences before it starts “counting against” the overall participation grade. Students who miss 10 or more classes run the risk of failing the course.

Also, our classes may move to a fully remote format parts of the semester, given travel, weather, illness, and other considerations. Please review this university-approved language: “Instructors can offer up to 24 percent of an in-person class remotely (synchronously or asynchronously), a flexibility to manage their own absences, whether due to illness or other unavoidable circumstances, during travel, or for pedagogical reasons.”

According to an August 1, 2022 University announcement,

“Students who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or those who are concerned they may have been exposed to COVID-19, should not go to class or participate in other activities. Instead, these students should seek out symptomatic COVID-19 testing through UHS, their campus health center or another health care provider. Individuals can perform a daily self-check by using the Penn State GO app COVID-19 Symptom Checker.”

“Students can notify the University of a third-party positive lab test result by submitting test results through myUHS. Students who test positive with an at-home test kit may report their positive result by completing the online referral form, being sure to include the date the test was taken. More information on how to report positive test results can be found on the Coronavirus Information website.” 

Students may present documentation of illnesses, university-approved activities, and other extenuating circumstances to count their absences as excused. To learn more about the University’s attendance policy (Faculty Senate Policy 42-27) and procedures for obtaining class excuses, please consult the Class Excuses page provided by University Health Services. In the unfortunate event that you face an emergency, please call Student & Family Services at 814-863-2020. This hotline is available 24 hours a day, and it will notify your professors of your absence and when you will return to class.

Participation grade: Participation grades shall be calculated using four factors: 1). class attendance; 2). small-group participation (including evaluations for group projects); 3). class participation (including participation in class discussion and general attentiveness) and 4) timely and appropriate blog commenting (as recorded by each section’s TA).

Quizzes: Quiz scores will comprise 5% of the final RCL course grade. There will be a short Canvas quiz for each assigned Keyword reading. The quiz will be available for at least 24 hours before its due date, which is by the time of class listed in the course schedule. The two lowest reading quiz scores will be dropped. Each quiz will be open for 45 minutes, so time to completion should not be an issue. These quizzes are meant to assure that students complete the assigned reading and retain some of its content.

Events and Extras: Students are able to earn up to 1% on their final grade by completing two five-hundred-word blog entries (placed on their RCL blog) responding to Events and Extras prompts, which will be available as a tab on this course website. The questions will be regularly updated as they arise during the semester and will be due on the first day of finals week as links in a Canvas dropbox.

Assignment Submission Policies

Most assignments will be submitted online, either on your blogs or in Canvas. It’s your responsibility to read the directions and syllabus closely to determine the correct method of submission.  Manipulating timestamps on online assignment submissions is an academic integrity violation and will result in academic sanctions and a referral to Judicial Affairs. Barring legitimate emergencies, even if you are absent on the day that an assignment is due it is your responsibility to arrange to submit the assignment on time.

All presentations must be given on the day assigned.

Each student is allowed one 48-hour penalty free extension for written work. However, a penalty of one full letter grade per week will be applied for late work extended beyond the one free extension period or to any late work after the extension has been taken. All assignments should be typed using an easily readable font. Please use margins of 1.25” and a 12 pt font size. Please double-space your work, unless otherwise noted. Handwritten work is never accepted in this course. Carefully proofread all assignments before submitting.

Standards of Classroom Behavior

Classroom behavior should always reflect the essential Penn State values of civility, integrity, and respect for the dignity and rights of others. As such, the classroom space (online or actual) should be safe, orderly, and positive—free from disruptions, disorderly conduct, and harassment as defined in the University Code of Conduct (http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/conduct/codeofconduct/). The University Code of Conduct defines disruption “as an action or combination of actions by one or more individuals that unreasonably interferes with, hinders, obstructs, or prevents the operation of the University or infringes on the rights of others to freely participate in its programs and services;”disorderly conduct includes but is not limited to “creating unreasonable noise; pushing and shoving; creating a physically hazardous or physically offensive condition;” and harassment may include “directing physical or verbal conduct at an individual…; subjecting a person or group of persons to unwanted physical contact or threat of such; or engaging in a course of conduct, including following the person without proper authority (e.g., stalking), under circumstances which would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others or to suffer emotional distress” (Section IV, B). The course instructor has the authority to request that any disruptive students leave the class for the class period. If disruptive behavior continues in subsequent class periods, a complaint may be filed with the Office of Student Conduct, which may result in the student being dismissed from class until University procedures have been completed.
Masking Policy
According to an August 1, 2022 University announcement,
  • The University strongly recommends face masks be worn indoors on campuses in counties designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to have high COVID-19 Community Levels.
  • Even on campuses in counties with low or medium COVID-19 Community Levels, the University encourages anyone who wishes to wear mask indoors on these campuses to continue to do so.
  • Face masks will continue to be required in facilities providing health care and in other locations where required by law, including indoors at the College of Medicine, Penn State Health locations, University Health Services and other campus health care centers.

Academic Integrity/Plagiarism

Penn State defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts (Faculty Senate Policy 49-20). Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Students who are found to be dishonest will receive academic sanctions and will be reported to the University’s Judicial Affairs office for possible further disciplinary sanction.

We will discuss proper citation practices in class, and I welcome questions on this issue at any time before assignments are due. I’d like to stress too that plagiarism is not to be confused with the sharing of ideas—all writers get advice from friends and colleagues. For the purposes of this course, the element that distinguishes such productive collaborative moments from plagiarism is that of willful deception—i.e., cheating.

If you are caught engaging in academic dishonesty, the situation will be handled in accordance with the procedures outlined in Section 49-20 of the Policies. Note that in classes with attendance policies, lying about the reason for an absence also constitutes academic dishonesty. Also note that even unintentional academic misconduct (sometimes termed academic incompetence) may result in penalties on a particular assignment.

The most common violations in this course:

  • Copying text (a phrase, sentence, or paragraph) from the internet or other source and not appropriately citing it. In addition to essays and blog posts, this also includes copying text into a speech outline, even if you plan to change up some of the wording when you deliver the presentation.
  • Inappropriate paraphrasing, as discussed in Penn State’s Plagiarism Tutorial for Students.
  • Borrowing or buying an essay or speech online or from a friend and presenting it as your own work, with or without modification.
  • Altering time stamps on blogs
  • Presenting a speech or paper prepared by you for another course or instructor, without first discussing it with me.
  • Having sources listed on a bibliography/works cited list for an assignment or speech outline, but not clearly indicating which ideas in the text (or speech outline) came from which source, either via parenthetical references or source numbers.  A “Works Consulted” list–which is different than a “Works Cited” list–might be permissible for some assignments (usually homework or blogs), if no ideas or phrases were specifically drawn from a particular source.

Course Resources

Penn State Rhetoric and Civic Life is a resource for all sections of RCL where you can find course-wide announcements and social media feeds. There, you can also find successful RCL assignment examples from previous years.

Writing and Speaking Help

Students are encouraged to draw upon the University’s resources to develop their skills in writing and speaking. Students can consult with peer writing tutors through Penn State Learning and get help with their oral communication skills and presentations from peer mentors at the Undergraduate Speaking Center, sponsored by the Penn State College of Liberal Arts. Students can also book appointments to workshop their writing projects through Penn State Learning. Keep in mind that these resources are free are useful for students at all levels!

Disability Support Services & Special Circumstances

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources Web site provides contact information for every Penn State campus (http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/campus-contacts). For further information, please visit the Student Disability Resources website at http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources
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In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation (equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/applying-for-services). If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.
Note: The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please tell the instructor as soon as possible.

If you have a registered disability or any other special circumstance, please let me know about it within the first week of class. We can then devise a plan for how to approach the semester.

International Student and English-as-a-Second-Language Resources

Please visit EPPIC for many resources for international student academic support and help with English mastery.

Mental Health Resources

More than half of all college students report feeling hopeless, while over a quarter of college students feel overwhelming anxiety. There are few things that can affect your academic performance like struggling with maintaining mental health. If you feel hopeless, or you feel any other symptoms of mental illness or struggle, there is help for you. And please do ask for help—the sooner you do, the sooner you may find relief. Looking for help can be daunting, especially if you aren’t feeling well. Reach out to someone you trust who might be willing to connect you with resources. I am not a doctor, counselor or psychotherapist, but I will help you find someone who is. Be in touch if you need that kind of support. Communication Arts and Sciences created  website, CAS Student Care, a compendium Penn State resources, and The Red Folder, a compendium of Penn State resources. You may also visit:

CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services): Provides support and help for an array of concerns, from relationship issues to suicidal feelings.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or you can go to their site and chat online.

Centre County CAN HELP: 1-800-643-5432. Provides immediate crisis intervention, as well as referrals to hospitals or other medical and counseling assistance, community resources. CAN HELP can send mental health professionals to you to help assess a serious crisis situation and provide the appropriate resources. CAN HELP should not be a substitute for dialing 911 if the situation is life-threatening.

The Centre County Women’s Resource Center: 1-877-234-5050/814-234-5050. 24 hour hotline supporting women and men who have experienced relationship violence or sexual violence. CCWRC provides crisis help, legal advocacy, counseling, and medical advocacy.

Statement on Nondiscrimination

The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University.

Note: The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please tell the instructor as soon as possible.

Bias Reporting

Penn State takes great pride to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Acts of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment due to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or veteran status are not tolerated and can be reported through Educational Equity via the Report Bias webpage (equity.psu.edu/reportbias/).