Lateness has become an issue this semester, so I’m updating our grading policy to address the problem.  Effective March 9, anyone who arrives more than 5 minutes late to class on the day an assignment is due will incur a ten point penalty on the work they turn in.  Further, if reporting back to class on time following our mid-class break proves to be an issue, we will no longer take this break.  Please let me know if you have any questions about our updated policy (copied below):

Grading

Ten points (which is the loss of a letter grade) will be deducted if you are more than five minutes late to class on the day an assignment is due.   No late work will be accepted.  If circumstances prevent you from being in class on the day an assignment is due, please contact or speak with me before the assignment is due so that we can strategize together.  Below please find a breakdown of how various components of our coursework will contribute to your final grade:

• unit 1 homework: 5%
• response papers: 50%
• unit 5 research paper: 15%
• unit 6 portfolio: 10%
• classroom participation: 10%
• final exam: 10%

Thanks to a fantastic question coming to me via email, I wanted to post a quick overview of what goes into creating an explanatory synthesis.  As our textbook illustrates on pages 102-103, creating an explanatory synthesis involves three basic steps:

As you prepare response paper 3, I wanted to send along a reminder about our submission guidelines.  I’m seeing a fair number of sloppy errors while I’m grading response paper 2, and I want to be sure that I help you avoid making similar such errors for the homework that is due on March 8.

The guidelines are copied below for your reference, and can also be found on page 2 of our syllabus.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you’re having trouble figuring out how to effect any of the below requirements; failure to adhere to the guidelines will result in a grade penalty from response paper 3 onward.

Submission Guidelines

All work is to be typed and printed out before class unless otherwise noted; please use 12-point type, double spacing, 1-inch margins all around, no extra spacing between paragraphs, and Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font.  Please title your work; the title should be in 12-point font and centered, with no quotation marks, bolding, italics or underlining.  No cover page is necessary; instead, create a heading in the upper left-hand corner of your first page:  using single-spacing, please list your name, ENG1121, E115, the name of the assignment, and the due date.  Use of page numbers should begin on the second page.  After an initial warning is given in writing, failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in a grade penalty.