All assignments are marked on a 4-point scale. If a particular exercise is worth 40 points, and you get 30 on it, you got 75%, or a B.
If you need accommodations for successful participation in class activities prior to your appointment at the Disability Services Office, you should offer information in writing that includes suggestions for assistance in participating in and completing class assignments. It is not necessary to disclose the nature of your disability.
Academic Honesty and Ethical Conduct
Seton Hill University expects that all its students will practice academic honesty and ethical conduct.
The University regards plagiarism, cheating on examinations, falsification of papers, non-sanctioned collaboration, and misuse of library material, computer material, or any other material, published or unpublished, as violations of academic honesty. Violators of the code may expect disciplinary sanctions, which are discussed in the Seton Hill University Catalog, page 30, Code of Academic Conduct.
Many of your college assignments will involve quoting from or responding to other people's words and ideas. However, using those words or ideas without properly citing them, or resubmitting your own work for a different class, constitutes plagiarism.
Paraphrasing the thoughts or written work of another without reference -- even with permission from the source -- is also plagiarism.
Helpful information is available at What It Is and How to Recognize and Avoid It.
Any plagiarism or other form of academic dishonesty will result in a zero for that assignment. Any plagiarism or other form of academic dishonesty on a draft will result in a zero for the final grade on that assignment. All academic dishonesty will be reported to the dean's office.
]]>The links below are for your convenience. You may buy these from any source, including the SHU bookstore.
(You may use an older version of the AP Stylebook if you already own it.) ]]>
Getting Credit for Late Work
By default, late assignments automatically lose one letter grade if they are not submitted on time, and another letter grade for each additional day late (counting weekends as one day). This means that no assignment will earn any credit if it is more than four days late (unless there are extenuating circumstances).
If you are asking that I waive a late penalty, e-mail me a copy of your completed Absence Form, with a subject line that follows this pattern: "Smith EL200 Ex 1-2 Absence Form".
Deadlines for the submission of turnitin.com assignments are typically 15 minutes before class starts. (This is to discourage you from being late for class because you were working on your homework, and it also permits me to scan the assignments briefly before class begins.) If your assignment is late by a few minutes, but you are still on time to class, your paper won't count as late.
Please note that late submissions always go to the bottom of my to-do list. If you are concerned about not getting a paper back soon enough to help you complete the next step in a multi-stage assignment, please make an appointment and I will go over it with you orally.
Special Cases
Some assignments are designed to get you ready for a particular day's class, or to give you the skills you'll need to tackle a larger assignment. For that reason, some assignments can't be made up. (I am willing to make an exception in extenuating circumstances, with proper documentation and follow-through from you.)
RRRR Items: These time-sensitive assignments (see the RRRR section of the EL200 help page) earn no credit if they are late. (You should still complete any items you missed in order to get full credit for your class portfolio.)
Class Participation: The ideal way to get credit for a missed in-class activity is to contribute substantially to the online discussion. Post thoughtful comments on the course website, your peers' websites, and/or your own. To make sure that I see and record credit for this alternative work, include the URLs of your make-up blogging assignments in an e-mail to me. If you post comments on someone else's blog, include the URLs of those entries, too.)
Make-up/Extra Credit Assignments: I do not have a policy of inventing make-up or extra-credit assignments to enable you to pull your grade up in the last few weeks of the term. At any time, however, you may demonstrate your willingness to work hard for your grade by doing more than the required amount of work on your weblog. (Call my attention to this extra work when you submit your weblog portfolio.)
]]>Common sense and common courtesy dictate that absences, late arrivals and early departures, use of telephones or headphones, lack of preparation or participation, inattentiveness or disruptive behavior will impact your participation grade. Those who contribute above and beyond the call of duty will receive a bonus.
Students who dislike public speaking may wish to invest more effort in their online writing, and vice-versa.
If a student's final grade falls near a borderline, I consider classroom participation in order to decide whether to bump a grade up, leave it where it is, or bump it down.
]]>A student's final grade may be lowered by the proportion of unexcused absences. Thus, a student with a final grade of 75% with a record of 10% unexcused absences would get a final grade that is 90% of 75% (that is, 67.5%). (If you have only a few absences and your class participation is good, I will probably waive the penalty.)
I am happy to excuse students who have legitimate reasons, but students who miss a class period for any reason are still responsible for the material covered during the absence. An excused absence does not automatically grant an extension for any work collected or assigned that day.
Because there are so few class meetings, even a few absences can leave you far behind.
If you are absent from class without a legitimate excuse on a day when a major assignment is due -- perhaps because you stayed up all night working on a project and are too tired to attend class -- the assignment will be counted an extra day late. (You might as well go to bed without finishing the project, come to class so you don't fall farther behind, and then turn in the paper the next morning.)
5.1.1. Emergency Absences
Those who miss class due to an unplanned emergency should submit an "Absence Form," with proper documentation, as soon as possible.
For each class that you miss, print out and complete a copy of my "Absence Form" (available at http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/Absence.doc). After you initiate this contact, we will start working out whether or what kind of assignments would be appropriate. (I ask that you resist the impulse to ask me to e-mail you a summary of what you missed. I welcome the chance to help you get caught up, but please consult the syllabus and a classmate's notes first, and then bring any specific questions to me.) For some classroom activities, such as listening to peer oral presentations, there may be no appropriate make-up assignment. (See 5.2 Participation.)
5.1.2. Scheduled Absences
Those who miss class due to a scheduled activity must plan to complete all make-up assignments before the missed class. In order to give us both time to plan, you must submit a complete, acceptable "Absence Form" (see above) a week before the missed class.
If there is insufficient time for us to agree upon an acceptable make-up assignment, or if an approved make-up assignment is late or unsatisfactory, then I may record the absence as unexcused.
]]>Students holding positions of responsibility on the Setonian (or the Setonian Online) may be eligible for work-study funding. If the work you get paid to do also helps meet your EL 200 requirements, that's fine with me.
I will often send out bulk e-mails to the address on file for you in the J-Web system. If you check a different address more regularly, please use SHU's e-mail forwarding service so that you don't miss important updates.
Submit your work to Turnitin.com. Unless a homework assignment specifically mentions a printout, you may assume that I don't want a hard copy.
Course through which students may earn credit on The Setonian (student newspaper) and its online counterpart. Meets for one hour per week, with an additional production lab for each issue (4 or 5 times per semester). Repeatable for credit.Production Labs
Developing and maintaining a good working relationship with your peers is part of the learning process in this course.
If you cannot carry out a task an editor has entrusted to you, please tell your editor before the deadline passes. Don't leave your peers hanging -- it's a matter of professionalism and simple good manners.
The student editors and managers who work on the Setonian are just as busy as you are. If you wait until the last minute to ask them to give you a job, or if you are only available from 2:17 to 2:43 on alternate Tuesdays when it is raining, I don't expect the student editors to drop everything and find a way to squeeze you in. (You can work for The Setonian from home if you arrange to pick up printouts to proofread, or if you help publish the Setonian Online -- it uses the same blogging software I'll be teaching you to use in class.)