ATTENDANCE, CLASS PREPARATION, LATE WORK, EXTENSIONS
•In keeping with official College policy, you are expected to attend all class sessions. You are expected to prepare the readings for each session (including any assigned critical materials) and to contribute regularly to class discussions. Active participation includes introducing ideas, raising questions, and building upon or helping to clarify the responses of others. If you find it difficult to speak up in class, please come and talk with me as soon as possible.
•In some classes (lecture courses, for example), you may have some leeway as to when you complete reading assignments. In a seminar such as this one, it is essential that you complete the assigned readings before you come to class.
•Late work will not be accepted unless an extension has been arranged. Normally, deadlines will be extended and absences excused only in cases where, due to serious illness, family emergency, or travel on official College business, the student has been excused by the Dean's Office.
•Two late arrivals to class will count as one absence. If you miss class, you are responsible for contacting another class member to find out what you missed and to make sure that you have the assignment for the next class. Follow up with me if you need further clarification.
•If you are an athlete, within the first two weeks of class (earlier, if you have to miss class for a game before then), email me a schedule delineating the specific days you will be absent. If you do have to miss class for a game or for other official College business, you need to submit in advance any work that comes due on the dates you miss. In other words, an excused absence is not an automatic extension.
•Please do not e-mail me papers or any other assignments unless I have asked you to do so. Feel free to email or call me, or to stop by my office, if you have questions or want to make an appointment.
•I will rely on email to communicate with the class, using the class lists on my.sbc.edu. These addresses end with "@sbc.edu"; therefore, it is imperative that you check your Sweet Briar account on a regular basis. If you use some other email supplier, it is your responsibility to make arrangements for your Sweet Briar mail to be forwarded to that address.
•All work for the course must be typed, other than regular entries in your reading log. On assignments other than papers and your reading log, your name and the due date for the assignment should appear at the top of the first page. Each reading log entry should be dated.
•Back up your work on the computer on a regular basis or print out hard copies of your work for your safekeeping.
•A 7-9 page paper and a 1-page abstract of the paper are required for the course. You may exceed the maximum length, if necessary, but you should not fall short of the minimum. In this paper, you must draw significantly (and critically!) upon a variety of secondary sources (both on the Web and in the Library), and document them properly, using the MLA style of documentation. You may find that your entries in your reading log open up questions or topics that you will want to explore further in your paper.
•I strongly recommend that you make an appointment to talk with me about your proposed topic or tentative thesis before you begin working on your paper.
•FORMAT FOR PAPERS: Type the title, your name, the course title, and the date on a separate cover page. Do not retype any of this information (even the title) on the first page of your essay. Do not underline, italicize, or put quotation marks around the title of your paper. In the body of your essay, use 12-point font. Whatever typeface you choose has to be easily legible and should not draw attention to itself. Use 1" spacing on all sides. You may double space between lines as long as you end up with approximately 250-300 words/page. Otherwise, use 1.5 spacing between lines. Do not insert additional space between paragraphs. Proofread your work carefully. Number the pages and staple them together before submitting your work.
•Although I will not read rough drafts (except of senior exercises), I am willing to look at introductory paragraphs and outlines (preferably, reverse outlines). You will have the option to revise your paper once I have returned it to you with a grade. (In some cases, revision may be a requirement, not an option.) Grades on the original and the revised versions will be averaged together. More weight will be given to the grade on the revised version if the revisions are especially extensive and effective.
•Papers will be returned ungraded if they contain multiple spelling, punctuation, and/or grammatical errors. These papers will be docked one-half letter grade each day until they are resubmitted in an acceptable form.
•Students are expected to adhere to the Honor Code in all of their work for this course. Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, is a violation of the Honor Code and will be treated with the utmost seriousness. If you have any questions about how plagiarism is defined, review the relevant sections on pp.25-26 and pp.51-52 in your Student Handbook. Also, please note that work you completed for other courses, here or elsewhere, may not be submitted for credit in this course. See me if you want further clarification.
•READING LOGS are meant to encourage you to read closely and to stay actively involved in the course. Record your responses to and reflections on the texts as you are in the process of reading them. Your log will document your reading for the course. It should also help you to "notice what you notice" (as Allen Ginsberg advised), which is essential for independent thinking.
•Unless otherwise instructed, please bring your reading logs to each class so that you can draw upon them for discussion.
•Your reading log is a kind of reservoir of your ideas, a laboratory of sorts. It will provide you with observations and questions that can serve as starting points for our class discussions. It may also lead you to the topic you want to write about in your paper for the course.
•You're free to experiment with various kinds of writing for your entries, as long as the log doesn't turn into a personal diary. The connection has to be reasonably clear between your entries and the course. Entries that are most useful for purposes of class discussion usually are focused on identifying questions and problems that trouble, confuse, or intrigue you in your reading of the assigned texts.
•Use a folder or a loose-leaf binder so that you can periodically turn in sections of your log. Date each entry and make it clear what text or part of a text you are writing about. Keep your log up to date: the subject of the most recent entry should be the work we are currently discussing in class.
•I will call in your logs from time to time and will ask you for a work-in-progress report on them at midterm. This report will substitute for a midterm exam. (For more on this midterm audit, click here.)
•At the end of the term, I will again collect the logs. Review your reading log for the entire term and, in a typed retrospective entry (approximately 3pp.), reflect on (1) how your writing in your log may have changed in the course of the semester; (2) how your entries may have given you some insight into your own reading practices; and (3) which two or three of your entries now interest you most, and why. Pull those entries and place them immediately after your retrospective entry, which should be the FIRST entry in your portfolio. (The selected entries do NOT count toward the 3 pp. retrospective entry.) This final retrospective entry will substitute for a final exam. The midterm audit report and final retrospective entry will be graded. The logs themselves will be graded at the end of the term. Individual entries, except for the final 'retro' entry, are not graded. Reading logs may be in folders or binders or may be stapled (not paper clipped) together. Entries should be in chronological order, except those you have selected to append to your retrospective entry.
USEFUL WRITING LINKS
MLA Style via UNC Library Writing Lab
"Papers: Expectations, Guidelines, Advice, and Grading"
(J. DeLombard and Dan White)
Citation Machine
Writing Center Handouts: UNC Chapel Hill
Purdue Online Writing Lab (award-winning online writing lab)
The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.
George Orwell's Handy Word Choice Hints