Scale, Bonus, and/or Extra Credit Points and Rounding of Grades:

Although your grades on certain assignments and/or certain quizzes/tests/exams may include scale, bonus, and/or extra credit points, neither your Midterm Grade nor your Final Grade will be rounded, neither will scale, bonus or extra credit points be added. Although students who attend a session in the KSU Writing Center in connection with their completion of certain written assignments may be awarded extra credit points, no extra credit points will be offered or awarded on any other assignments, any quizzes/tests/exams or the Final Grade.

Explanation of Rationale (from My Mind and My Heart):

While you may always, at any time, bring a “grading error” to my attention, I will not respond to a request to change a grade. At no time during the semester (and especially at the end of the semester) is it “Let’s Make a Deal” time where a student can attempt to “put the squeeze” on the professor for additional grade consideration. Regardless of the nature of the request or the factors cited by a student, I will not do for one what I cannot do for all. Therefore, do not ask me to do otherwise. Frankly, this seems to be part of KSU’s culture among certain students; it is unbecoming of a student to ask a professor to do what is tantamount to engaging in unethical behavior, and it needs to end.

If you would like to achieve a particular grade it is entirely up to you: I do not cap the number of A’s, B’s, C’s, D's or F's that can be awarded in this course. At the same time, as a professor, I am a “grade-keeper,” not a “grade-giver.” If you want a particular grade, then do not attempt to “make a play at the plate.” In life generally, and in this course particularly, like baseball, “a play at the plate” is rarely successful. In baseball, it requires the fielder to cleanly catch the ball and immediately throw it and then the catcher must cleanly catch the ball and immediate tag the elusive runner before the runner reaches home plate: Each aspect must be performed with absolute precision and perfect timing. It rarely happens. Therefore, in this course, if you want an A, aim for 100%, not 90%; if you want a B, shoot for 89%, not 80%, and so forth. I share this information with you very straightforwardly at outset of the semester because I do not want you to end the semester on a “sour taste in your mouth” because you come up short when you yourself are responsible for the outcome.

“He gives it to [you] straight off the line.”

     --Former Student, Course Evaluation