Our class will be collaborative - We will work together to become stronger readers, writers, and thinkers. We will help each other out.
Our class will treat writing as a process - We will break our assignments into smaller tasks so that we can produce work of which we are proud.
Our class will value integrity and honesty - Each student in our class will write ORIGINAL work in all of their assignments (please read Academic Integrity Section/AI Statement below for more).
Our class will value the short time we have together. Please show up on time so that we can finish our class on time.
Our class will be present - We will treat class attendance as essential to our success. All students benefit from the presence and engagement of all of their classmates. When you miss class, you affect the class plan for the day and the class dynamic.
If you MUST miss class, you will let Profe/Dr. V know and will schedule a meeting during Student Hours to discuss how to catch up.
If you are absent more than 3 times, you will make an appointment with Profe to address your standing in the class and discuss the possibility of dropping the course.
If you have an excessive amount of absences (4), and you do not make an appointment with Profe to address your absences, you will be dropped from the course.
In this class, I value you as a thinker and writer. When I assign any discussion or writing assignments, I am genuinely asking for your perspective. I am so excited to help you develop/strengthen your writing voice, so please, be confident that YOU can produce work for this class.
While I strongly encourage you--and at times will expect you to--seek feedback from the Writing Center, I expect that the work that you submit for this class (from discussion posts to final projects) will be your own. When using outside sources to help you create your work, you must properly quote and/or cite them. This includes the use of AI assistants/new language models, such as ChatGPT.
In one of our early units of the semester, we will discuss some AI/ChatGPT uses and ethical implications. If you decide to use a language model like ChatGPT for any of your assignments, please talk to me during Student Hours about it. I will also ask that in your assignment reflections for your class projects, you explain if and how you used AI to help you in your writing process, as well as discuss the benefits and challenges you experienced through its use.
For some writing assignments, your writing will be reviewed by Turninit.com, a plagiarism checker. MiraCosta's Academic Integrity Policy defines plagiarism as "Copying work or ideas, including but not limited to the use of unauthorized electronic aids, and misrepresenting them as one’s own." We will use Turnitin in this class not as an instrument to "catch you plagiarizing," but as a tool that can help us learn how to ensure we are quoting and citing properly, as well as including enough of our own ideas in our work.
If I am concerned that your voice/ideas are not coming through in your assignments, we will discuss them during your Project Conference time or during Student Hours. If your assignment is not meeting the parameters of the prompt or violates MiraCosta's Academic Integrity Policy, your assignment will be deemed INCOMPLETE, and in your Project Conference we will discuss how to revise your assignment so that it honors your ideas and your writing voice.
To learn more about Project Conferences please review the "Let's Hang Out" and "Ungrading" page of this syllabus.
SUBMITTING YOUR ASSIGNMENTS ON CANVAS
You will complete and submit all of your assignments via the course Canvas page. Most assignments will be submitted as a google doc or PDF. You will receive feedback through Canvas, so please make sure that your paper is submitted in the right format and by the deadline. Assignments that are not properly uploaded on the Canvas course page cannot be read and given feedback, so if you are having issues submitting your work electronically, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can help you get your assignments read and marked as COMPLETE!
LIFE HAPPENS!/LATE WORK/MAKE UPs
If you, for any reason, cannot submit your assignment on time, please contact me as soon as possible so that we can make other arrangements. If a class project cannot be submitted by the original due date, YOU MUST CONTACT ME BEFORE THE DEADLINE via Canvas Inbox to discuss an extension. Some discussion and writing assignments cannot be submitted late because they are necessary for class discussions or activities. When that is the case, students may make up their assignments by attending campus events or activities that are relevant to our course or program. I will share examples of those activities/events in class or on our Canvas course page. If you have any questions, please send me a message through Canvas Inbox, my email, or come to see me during Student Hours.
However, if you consistently miss deadlines or do not submit your work...
If you consistently miss deadlines or neglect to submit work, we will discuss my concerns during Student Hours. If this happens, my hope is that we address this early enough that you can change this pattern and succeed in the course. If this pattern continues through the second project, however, we will discuss one-on-one if it is best to withdraw from the course.