Things to Know About Grades:

How do I earn full credit in the "Assignments" category?

In order to practice your writing skills, you will complete Discussions, Pre-writing Assignments, and Quizzes that will help you to write Drafts of your essays. These small, graded assignments allow me to give you feedback on your writing and thinking in order to help you produce the best possible essays.

These are always due by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

It is important that these are turned in by the deadline so that you have plenty of time to review my feedback before moving on to the next step of the writing process. However, since I know that life happens, and you may have to miss an assignment once in a while, I will drop one grade from the "Assignments" category (Discussions, Pre-writing Assignments, and Drafts). If you have trouble turning in additional assignments on time, please contact me and we will discuss possible solutions.

How do I submit my essays?

All of your assignments, including Essays, will be submitted through the corresponding Assignment in Canvas. You can upload a document or link to your Google Drive or Dropbox. I cannot open documents in .PAGES, so please do not use that! If you need a word processing software, you can get Microsoft Word for FREE just by being a Cerritos College student!

Your Drafts and Final Draft submissions will also go through Turnitin (via Canvas--do not use Turnitin directly). While this checks for plagiarism, it also provides feedback on your use of sources and your grammar. I want you to think of Turnitin as a revision tool rather than a "plagiarism catcher."

It is very important that the four major essays be submitted. It becomes very difficult to be successful in the class if you miss one of these essays. If you fall behind a little, you can submit the essays for up to 48-hours after the due date, but there will be a 20% grade penalty. If you know in advance that you will not be able to meet the deadline, please contact me and will will discuss.

Since Essay 4 is submitted on the final day of our class, it cannot be submitted late and it cannot be revised.

How do I get feedback on my essays?

Since I will be giving you lots of feedback leading up to your papers, and because I want to return your papers quickly, for major essay assignments, I generally do not comment very much on your final drafts. Instead, I use a rubric and usually write one overall comment. However, if you wish to receive more feedback, simply message me and let me know. I will then go back to your paper and write comments on the paper itself. If after receiving my comments, you still wish for more feedback, then we can arrange an in-person meeting or a video chat where we can discuss your paper in more depth. It is important that you understand your grade, so please ask for more feedback if you want it!

Can I revise an essay if I'm not happy with my grade?

You will be revising your ideas and your writing as you work towards each essay. If you are unhappy with your grade for your final draft, I will consider revisions on a case-by-case basis. Since this is such a short class, I worry that time spent revising one essay will put you behind on the next one. But, if you wish to revise, please message me and we will discuss.

Why does each essay have a word count, and what does that mean?

All English 100 students must complete 6000 words of final drafts of essay. In order to accomplish this, each essay assignment has a specific word count. This word count also represents the amount of time it will take to fully answer the prompt; therefore, it is important that you meet the word count for each assignment. If you write below the required word count, the paper will not be able to pass, so the highest grade you will be eligible for is a D. If you are stuck and do not know how to develop your ideas, please reach out to me and I can help!

I have taken this class (or another writing class) before. Can I just submit my old essays?

I know that some instructors assign similar writing assignments, and it might be tempting to "recycle" one of your old essays. However, every assignment that you submit is expected to be an original work produced specifically for this class assignment. If you are having trouble thinking of a new idea to write about, please reach out to me and I will help you brainstorm.