Grading & Policies

General Advice

Do your reading always and you'll stand a better chance at a good mark. Slack off and I've little time for any complaints about lower-than-expected grades.  Not everyone gets an A. You can, but you can also earn Bs, Cs, Ds, even Fs.

Attendance

Come to class every time, and save your skips for real illnesses. You get 2 skips without consequences . After two skips, -5 points off your FINAL course grade for EACH skip. Do not complain or ask Deans to write letters for you.  If you have a DAN that permits additional skips, please forward it to me.

Save yourself woe and lost points. Always have your book in class. I'll give a zero to any response that has incorrect page references (-10 points on one of the papers, too, if you make that mistake). NO e-books are permitted in class, either. Paper editions only (unless you have an accomodation requiring an e-text.

Grades

There are no in-class or final exams.  All work is also on a 0-100 scale. 

• Paper 1: 25% of final grade

• Paper 2: 35% of final grade

• Weekly responses (close-reading exercises): 40% of final grade

Calculation of Final Grade:

• 93+ points = A 

• 90-92 points = A- 

• 87-89 points = B+ 

• 83-86 points = B 

• 80-82 points = B-

• 77-79 points = C+

• 73-76 points = C

• 70-72 points = C-

• 67-69 points = D+ 

• 65-66 points = D 

• 60-64 points = D- 

• 59 or lower: F

Extra Credit? No, I don't round up. But I will drop your lowest weekly response grade (say a  zero on a day you skipped) unless it is a zero for plagiarism.

Plagiarism

I've had four cases in the past several years, three in this very class. The penalty is an automatic zero for the paper or response and you will be sent to Honor Council.  You might still pass the class with a Zero on a major paper, or you might not. Just do not do it. 

The use of OpenAI's Chat GTP or similar paper-writing software constitutes unauthorized assistance as it writes for you. I consider it plagiarism and it will be subject to Honor Council. Don't even think of using it or similar, as I'm doing research on the AI software for an academic article, and I know how to detect it.

I do not object to your employing Grammarly for checking style and grammar. The software can help you to vary wording--UR students have amazingly poor vocabularies from lack of serious reading and other bad habits; repeating words or using thesauri in a simplistic way does hurt their grades.

If you feel that you may have inadvertently plagiarized our texts, run samples by me. We employ NO outside sources in our writing, just our assigned reading. If you found a compelling reason to use an outside source, you must ask in advance.

Late work

-10 points if you do not submit a draft or are late with the revision. -10 points if you miss your required meeting with our Writing Consultant. No extensions of final drafts without penalty: You can turn final revisions in late, but that means -5 points / day late (-10 points for a weekend).

Behavior in Class & Electronics

Student behavior has deteriorated in the past few  years. Get up if you absolutely need to, but make it rare. It makes you look lazy or so weak in character that you must check the little dopamine dispenser called a phone. Your bladders cannot be weaker than mine!

Leaving class regularly will bias me against you. Have a medical need? Let me know privately via e-mail. That's fine.

Speaking of electronics: You may ONLY have a laptop or tablet visible in class, and they can only be used when I say so or if you have an accommodation that requires it. We will use them in our group writing work daily. Lids closed at other times. I will shame you if you pull out a phone. If you do so repeatedly, I count that day as a skip until you learn to act adult.

Rubric for grading

For qualitative advice on the style of writing The English Department wants in FSLT courses, as well as my "house rules," see the page on Papers. Here are some essentials:

Governing Claim (aka "Thesis"): all our work is analytical, so without a governing claim, the essay would lose 40% or more. Usually more, since the lack of a governing claim leads to a cascading failure of digressions and contradictions.

Strong or weak claims: each weak but supportable claim might lose an essay 5-10%; a sweeping generalization or unsupportable claim 20%.

Accuracy with Sources: Misrepresenting a source would cost an essay 20-25%; forgetting a key incident or character would cost an essay 5-10%. Failing to cite correctly the pages from our adopted edition of a book costs you 5 points.

Too much summary: at least 25% penalty if you tell me what we have both already read instead of making your own claims and supporting them with just enough evidence.

Pet Peeves: for sentence-level errors and sloppiness, the penalty depends upon frequency. The essay loses a point or two, usually. Bigger "pet peeve" can cost you a quarter to half  your grade. Here's my handbook on Pet Peeves for college faculty.