As part of the specifications for this course, and no matter what grade you are aiming to earn, you are committing to turning in work in a timely fashion; and practicing time management, organization, and taking responsibility for your schedule (life skills!). Moreover, full assignment prompts and specifications for all assignments are available from the first day of the class. Students typically requiring more time to complete writing assignments should plan on beginning work early rather than completing work after the deadline. It's a good idea to read the upcoming assignment in full at the start of each unit so that you can plan your work and use the assignment to structure your reading and note-taking.
However, I know that even the best laid plans get disrupted sometimes; flexibility is a core component of making this class accessible for all. Each student, with or without accommodations for extra time, has access to "no questions asked" extensions applicable to any single writing assignment (Critical Summary; Strong Response; Defend, Amend, Reject; or Ask & Answer a Question). These extensions give you an additional 72 hours (3 days) to complete the assignment beyond its due date. By "no questions asked," I mean: I don't need a reason, let alone a good one, and I don't determine who gets them and who doesn't. You simply have the right to turn something in 3 days after the deadline. All you need to do is fill out this short form to notify me that you are taking an extension. Unless you find yourself in extraordinary circumstances (emergency, etc.) please do not email me to ask for an extension.
Annotations assignments cannot be extended as it is not practical and defeats the purpose of the assignment: they are collaborative preparation assignments. It does not make sense to do them after we have moved on to the next reading, or at a point when other students have stopped engaging with the annotations. However, no one is required to complete all annotations assignments; so long as you plan ahead (i.e., don't skip too many just because you feel like it, leaving no wiggle room when you need it), there is no penalty for missing any particular day of annotations.
In rare cases a slightly longer extension (1 or maybe 2 days more, maximum) on a single assignment may be warranted; in that case, please reach out to me ASAP to set a new deadline.
Repeated failure to meet deadlines, including new ones that we set together, is typically reflective of communication and course-participation breakdown; moreover, I cannot provide timely feedback on late work submitted beyond an agreed-upon deadline.
Thus, while I will accept late work for credit, it will affect your grade in the following ways:
If turned in late, assignments #1, 2, or 3 will count for 80% partial credit, i.e.: Critical Summary (12 points); Strong Response (16 points); Defend, Amend, Reject (20 points).
If turned in late, assignments #1, 2, or 3 will be considered final drafts upon submission, and are not revisable (loss of 5 points per essay on revision assignment)
Note that assignment #4 is due on the final day of the semester, and requires a Class Dean's extension to be submitted for credit. If submitted late without notification from your Dean, it cannot be counted for credit (per Smith College rules).
This class is a process, not just a set of outcomes or final products, so repeatedly missing deadlines and then submitting all your work during finals period is not likely to result in a grade higher than a C-level, no matter what kind of assignments you end up completing. In some cases, it may result in a D or E (where work is both late and missing, or not completed to a satisfactory level; or where many assignments are late in the context of coursework completed to C-level requirements).
Although this is a lecture course, it is substantially discussion-based. Paired, small-group, and large-group discussions will be a significant part of each and every class meeting. The class requires everyone's consistent, active presence and commitment to participation in order to be successful.
Please endeavor to arrive to class on time, and remain in class for the full duration (except in rare occasions when arriving late or leaving early is unavoidable, or in cases in which we have discussed accommodations around arrival to and departure from class). We will start promptly each morning at 9.25am, and use the full class period for lecture and substantive discussion. While I do not penalize for each late arrival or early departure, I will make note of repeated or chronic tardiness (and the like), which can accumulate to the equivalent of an additional missed class.
All students are expected to regularly attend class, but no one is required to have perfect attendance. Each student has access to allowances for several (2-4) excused absences; each student may also select a number (1-2) of alternative attendance days in which they complete an asynchronous assignment in lieu of being present in class. It is your responsibility to plan ahead: almost everyone gets sick; saving your absences for such occasions is often wise.
Please fill out this form to log your absence; I ask that you not email me about missed classes, whether to notify me or to explain (except in exceptional circumstances; see below). I do not need to know the reason for your absence and do not distinguish between "good" and "bad" reasons for missing class.
If additional, reasonable absences from class become unavoidable (due to disability, illness, or emergency), please contact me and your Class Dean right away. In those rare cases, we will need to assess the situation and what it means for your course work. While I will do my best to accommodate you, substantial time away from class, even for unavoidable reasons and with alternative assignments, meaningfully affects your ability to participate in the course up to the level required for course specifications.
By enrolling in this course, you agree to adhere to the standards of academic honesty, mutual respect and civility, and personal responsibility as outlined by the Smith College Academic Honor Code. This includes, but is not limited to, the commitment to produce and turn in work that is your own and is free from plagiarism.
Plagiarism refers to the use of others' intellectual, creative, or other work without acknowledgment or citation, or in a way that substantially obscures the process through which you obtained the ideas and information used in your work, for the purpose of taking credit for elements that are not your own. The most direct form of plagiarism is use of others' words verbatim without quotation or citation. But plagiarism can (and often does) involve more subtle things as well--for example, adopting someone else's analysis and putting it in your own words without citing the original source and without making it clear that this analysis is a paraphrased quote from elsewhere. I ask and expect you to honor the role that others' intellectual labor plays in your own development as a writer and thinker.
Substantive use of generative AI (chatGPT, Google Bard, etc.) is not permitted under any circumstances for this course. By "substantive," I mean use of generative AI to perform any "thinking" task: summarizing course texts either instead of or in addition to reading them yourself, generating essay ideas or outlines, composing or editing annotations, drafting any aspect of your writing projects, producing self-assessments or reflective work, or revising your work. Use of these tools is prohibited in this class for the following reasons:
Generative AI automates (quite poorly) the process of thinking. Instead of working to make sense of the text in the context of your own in-person, ongoing, and collaborative processes in and out of class, like all plagiarism (but to an even greater degree) generative AI off-loads the process to others (both machine and human). You cannot meet the learning objectives of this course while using AI to complete your work.
AI systems were trained and built using plagiarized work (works written by others, taken without permission, citation, or consent) and so is itself automated plagiarism. There is no way to use these systems without stealing the unattributed work of others.
I have seen no evidence that AI can produce work that meets the course specifications. AI produces sloppy, under-evidenced, and often factually inaccurate writing that is vapid and contentless. It can produce plenty of meaningless equivocation and trite banality that looks like writing, but no real argument with substance. A core specification for all writing assignments is that your writing is specific, substantive, and based on a robust interpretation of textual evidence. AI-produced essays will not meet this bar and will thus result in failing assignments that you will have to rewrite from scratch if you want to receive credit; moreover, multiple failed assignments lower your grade. It's easier to just do your own work from the start, and is very likely to result in a higher grade.
It's disrespectful--to yourself, to your classmates, and to me. You are all already better writers than AI, with much more interesting things to say. Using AI for your assignments suggests you don't believe in your own ability to think, and that you don't think there is anything worthwhile that you can learn from your classmates or from me that you can't automate. Moreover, I put a lot of time and thought into reading and commenting on your writing. I have a great deal of interest in helping you learn this material and craft good writing about it; I have no interest in commenting on something that a computer spat out in 30 seconds. But they both take me the same amount of time, energy, and effort. Please don't waste my time that way, as I promise not to waste yours with meaningless assignments or busy work.
In line with assignment specifications and course expectations, work that I determine to be plagiarized or substantively AI-generated will not count for credit. Such assignments may only be rewritten and resubmitted with my explicit permission, which I may choose not to give. Whether or not I allow you to resubmit your work will depend on the gravity of the breach of academic integrity, with no resubmission permitted in severe cases. In less severe cases, it may also depend on your willingness to honestly account and take responsibility for your use of AI and/or the choices that led to plagiarism, such that you and I are both clear about how the problem can be avoided in the future.
There may be non-substantive uses of generative AI that are permissible for this course. Given the second point above, and the fact that AI is astoundingly resource-intensive and labor-exploitative, I have doubts that it is a good idea to use for anything (I do not view it as ethical, and so do not use it myself for any purpose). Further, I cannot think of many necessary but not substantive tasks for this course that it would be useful for. The one that comes to mind is that you might use it to format a bibliography...but all your bibliographies for essays for this course are so short that I'm not sure why you'd need AI assistance. It will likely take no more time and no greater effort to complete it yourself. It may in fact take less time and less effort.
Nevertheless, if you feel strongly that you must and should use it for a non-substantive element of your coursework, you must append a detailed explanation of how you used AI to complete your work, and a specific justification for why it was either not possible to complete the task on your own, and/or was substantively better because you used AI rather than doing it a different way.
Students of all immigration statuses are welcomed and valued in this classroom, including undocumented students, students from mixed-status families, and students with Temporary Protected Status. As an educator, I am committed to doing everything that I can to create a learning environment that ensures every student, regardless of immigration status, is safe in this classroom. I further pledge that I will neither create nor maintain records that could be used by federal agencies to implicate members of communities as undocumented.
Students requiring assistance pertaining to their immigration status and related access to college resources should contact Caitlin Szymkowicz, Associate Dean for International Students and Scholars, or Raven Fowlkes-Witten, Program and Outreach Coordinator in the Office for Equity and Inclusion. The College will facilitate access to legal counsel for undocumented students as well as for international students affected by travel restrictions and changes to visa programs, and will provide students with need-based financial support to cover the costs of meeting immigration application fees as necessary. Students may also consult the “Know Your Rights” tools provided by the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA).
I am committed to promoting diversity, inclusion, and safety in this classroom. Both instructor and students in this course are expected to respect others’ identities, including using correct names and pronouns. If your name is different from what is on the class roster, please let me know. Feel free to let me know your gender pronouns over email, in class, or in office hours, whatever you prefer. You can also update your name and pronouns in Workday. If you are experiencing discrimination or harassment, please consider reaching out for help. If you do not feel comfortable approaching me about it, consider reaching out to another resource, such as the Title IX Office.
Smith College Policy on Discriminatory Harassment: The college is committed to creating an educational environment that is open to all individuals without discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, national origin/ancestry, religion, sex or gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, genetic information, or veteran status/membership in the uniformed services.
Under this policy, discriminatory harassment, a form of discrimination, is unwelcome conduct directed toward a person based on one or more of the following categories age, race, color, national origin/ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, genetic information or veteran status/membership in the uniformed services. Discriminatory harassment violates college policy when the conduct is severe, persistent or pervasive such that it interferes with an individual’s college experience by creating a hostile environment.
Discriminatory harassment is unwelcome verbal, written or physical conduct based on a person's actual or perceived race, color or national origin or other protected status that substantially or unreasonably interferes with an individual's academic performance, adversely affects the targeted individual's or others' learning opportunities or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.
Any student with accessibility concerns seeking accommodations should contact the Accessibility Resource Center. If you already have an existing letter of accommodations or have just received one, please provide it to me as soon as you can, by uploading it to your Google Drive folder.
This course was creating according to principles of "universal design," meaning that I have tried to create a framework of flexibility, accessibility, and inclusion for everyone, regardless of disability status or accommodations. What this means in practice is that most of the more common accommodations to which students are entitled are already built into the structure of the course, including flexibility on deadlines for written work and flexibility on attendance.
If your particular situation and learning needs require something other than what is provided here, I encourage you to talk to me about it so that we can figure out if there is a reasonable way to meet your need without altering the fundamental framework or learning objectives of the course. In cases in which we cannot agree on what would be reasonable, we will work with the Accommodations Resource Center to get things sorted out.
The Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching, and Learning (Seelye 307) offers free appointments with professional writing instructors and holds drop-in hours with peer writing tutors, both of whom can help work with you at any point of the writing process (brainstorming on a prompt, structuring an argument, reading a full or partial draft and helping you with organization, grammar, and argument, and discussing strategies for revision). You can make an appointment to meet with a writing instructor here.