Learning Pact & AI

What you can expect from me

I will come to class prepared to guide you as you learn new writing concepts.
I will be available to answer questions and help you in office hours and via email.
I will work with you to create a plan of success if you are struggling.
I will challenge you as you develop your thoughts and ideas on our content.
I will post important messages regarding grading, feedback, or assignment changes in announcements (be sure to set up your notifications to receive alerts when these are posted).
I will provide feedback (even if just a quick note) on almost all assignments in the gradebook comments. Small assignments will be graded within 1 1/2 weeks and major essays within 2 1/2 weeks.
I will send Emails and Progress Reports to any student needing more assistance.

What I expect from you

Show up! And try really, really hard to be on time!
Participate! That doesn't mean you have to raise your hand to every question asked. You can participate by contributing to small group discussions, email with questions about the material, provide feedback on your peers' papers, etc. There are lots of ways to be involved and contribute to the class.
Do as much of our coursework as you can to ensure your success
Commit at least 9 hours a week to our coursework
Check into Canvas and your email regularly to ensure you haven't missed an important announcement or assignment
Reach out if you need guidance or feel overwhelmed at any time.
Give it a chance and take risks!
Challenge yourself. Wherever you are in your writing and collegiate journey, challenge yourself to whatever that next step is. Maybe it's submitting your work on time. Maybe it is stepping up in the complexity of your writing. Whatever it is, I'm here to support you and want to help you take that next step.
Do not miss more than 3 classes. This will ensure your success and will also follow Saddleback's absence policy

Authenticity & AI Usage

The importance of your voice: This course values authentic thought and voice. This means we want to hear your thoughts and we want to hear your voice, even if that means your grammar isn't perfect or you have an accent in your writing. That's ok! Grammar is a set of rules that will come with practice just as a kid learns the rules of baseball or how music cords work together. But we can't learn those rules if there is no authentic attempts to do so. Today, it is easy to succumb to AI and using a translator or Grammarly or Chat GPT I get it. It's easy. But it also isn't you. Maybe AI cleans up your general ideas, but the words are not yours. The words are only yours once you embrace them, learn them, and make them your own.

Your authentic voice is a powerful thing that sets you apart from everyone else. It is how you present your ideas to the world. And, there are a lot of things and people who want to truncate your voice or even silence it. So do not give it away so willingly to an AI machine or a grammar checker that rewrites your sentence to "fix" them. Pledge to bring your authentic self, ideas, ponderings, musings, words, broken sentences-- bring it all to this class! You and this class will be better for it!

And besides, those AI machines use a ton of water and are bad for the environment! hahaha

Zero Tolerance Policy: What this ultimately means is any form of AI, translators, Grammerly, etc., are not to be used to generate ideas, write, or edit your work. You can use a basic grammar checker, but do not use it to change your sentence structure rephrase or generate ideas. If I am concerned that you may have used AI inappropriately on an assignment, I will give that assignment a tentative grade of 0. I will reach out to you to schedule a 1-on-1, recorded conversation via Zoom about your work. During that conversation I will explain my concerns and ask you to demonstrate that the work you submitted is your own. If you do so, I will be happy to regrade the assignment for full credit. You must take part in such a meeting in order for me to consider changing your grade; no exceptions will be made to this policy. I do reserve the right to go back to previous assignments and reevaluate them for AI use if necessary.

You are not alone! In the end, students use these technologies because they want a short-cut or they do not feel adequate in completing the work. But you are not in this class alone! We work together through discussion boards and peer editing. And I am here to help! Email me, set up office hours, reach out! I want you to succeed, and it is my job to help you do so!

Plagiarism: For your convenience, here is Saddleback College's Policy on other forms of plagiarism.

Other forms of plagiarism include:

Extensive help from friends or family, including line editing (changing words for "better ones")
Copying "sections" or parts or others' work
Using previously submitted work from other classes or this one, unless permitted by the instructor
Submitting any work that is not your original words, thoughts, ideas, and sentence construction

Reach out to jbudica@saddleback.edu or via Canvas inbox.

Please be sure to review the "Success Kit" for further details on document requirements.

Course Content & Trigger Warnings

Please note that this class will cover readings and discussions that include adult themes and issues. We may read, view, and discuss mature subject matter (relating to the arts, entertainment, sexuality, race, class, immigration, war, religion, politics, nature, science, crime, violence, etc., as well as a range of points of view on those issues). As challenging as those subjects may be, you are encouraged to remain in the class, to learn about diverse points of view, and to--tactfully and respectfully--contribute your point of view. If you would like to be warned about particular content, please inbox me, and I'll be happy to prepare you via trigger warnings. All participants will honor this boundary. Please note that hate speech is prohibited (definition: “any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence”).

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