English 103: Course Requirements & Policies Faculty Policies Setting minimum requirements for a course as large as Eng. 103 can be tricky; teachers need freedom to innovate yet the course needs to meet the expectations of the university. All teachers in the course must: Require students to produce at least 3 major essays of roughly 2000 words each and shorter work that totals at least another 2000 words. Essays may include aspects of the personal, but they are to be primarily analytical and academic in nature. Whenever possible, longer essays should be related to assigned readings in the section Include some combination of multiple drafts, journals, or other forms of personal writing or prewriting beyond the required page-total given for formal written work Assign at least two recorded and significant grades, one by midterm worth at least 25% of the final grade, to all students Integrate sources and techniques for documentation into at least one, and preferably more, assignments Adopt a text from our approved list and assign at least one substantive short reading, or a portion of a longer one, each week of the term, excepting the first and last weeks Submit complete syllabus and copies of assignments each semester to the Writing Program Administrator (in print or by forwarding a URL) Work with the Composition Committee on classroom visits and reviews of graded papers. In the first year of teaching, and at regular intervals thereafter, all faculty will participate Grade and return all final projects/papers to students early in the next semester, if returning them by the end of exam week is not feasible. The final projects do not need a full set of commentary. One excellent approach to take is to provide a reasonable but brief set of remarks, then invite writers who pick up their work to resubmit them the following semester for more feedback. Faculty who leave the university or sit out a semester should return final projects to the 103 coordinator with an e-mail list of students to contact Grade all projects that are not preliminary drafts using the standard university scale of A-F. If numerical grades are given, writers must be provided with a grade-key that explains, for example, 100-96 equals A, 95-90 equals A-, and so forth Attend some of our regular meetings, called "Comp Café." We'll meet, usually over food or coffee, to discuss the class, our texts, and whatever concerns 103 teachers. Early in the semester I'll ask everyone to provide me with times open for meetings, so we can all coordinate Comp Café. Classroom Visits In their first semester of teaching 103 at Richmond, and at regular intervals afterward, all faculty will work with a member of the Composition Committee to arrange a classroom visit. The committee member or 103 instructor has the option of asking for a repeat visit. In addition to the assignments and syllabus that each instructor gives to the program administrator, those involved in classroom visits must also give the committee member a set of graded papers to review. Plagiarism and Cheating Don't be a "lone wolf" when plagiarism occurs. I also do not recommend ending with a Google or Altavista search for word-strings. Dr. Marcia Whitehead <mwhitehe@richmond.edu> or 289-8823, the Boatwright Library's Liaison to English, can meet faculty to help check for possible incidents of plagiarism. Instructors must send all cases of plagiarism and cheating, actual or suspected, directly to UR's Honor Council. Marking a student's grade down for suspected or actual plagiarism, without due process, can lead to serious difficulties; parents will often appeal such cases. You must post a note in your syllabi about course policies, plagiarism, and cheating. Use the guidelines from the Honor Council as your starting point. You will need Acrobat Reader to view this file. The Faculty Guide to the Honor System defines plagiarism as: [T]he presentation, oral and/or written, of words, facts, or ideas belonging to another source without proper acknowledgement. All academic work, written or otherwise, submitted by a student to fulfill a course requirement is expected to be the result of the student’s own though, research, or self-expression. It is advised that professors give clear instructions to students regarding their preferred citation method and procedure to avoid instances of plagiarism. You should also add the following statement about cheating (feel free to reword for style, but keep the content as-is): Unless writers ask prior permission, they are not permitted to submit a paper written for another class. Doing so without permission will result in referral to Honor Council for cheating. The writer must provide the name of the class and professor for which the paper is or was being written. Eng. 103 instructors reserve the right to refuse submission of the paper after contacting the other faculty member. Recommended Classroom Policies Penalize students who miss deadlines or more than a week's classes. UR's attendance policy is listed on pp. 36-7 of our current catalog. You may download a PDF version at this Registrar's page. Warn students early about potential failure Copy the program director and the student's faculty advisor, if necessary, on e-mails or other correspondence. Dean Landphair's office in Westhampton College can provide contact information for advisors; call Cindy or Kathy in the Dean's office at 289-8468. My policy is to pass roll in each class and mark a +/- penalty in the final course grade for each absence after a student's first week skipped (2 or 3 skips, depending on the frequency of my class). I allow extra skips for away-games, though I do not extend deadlines for athletes. Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences Dona Hickey, who directed the 103 program for many years, had a similar policy in her sections. She sends along the following advice for steering between too rigid and too lax an approach: Six or more absences, excused or unexcused, in a MWF class can jeopardize a passing grade in the course.” ”Four or more. . . .in a TTR class. . . “ The use of “can mean failure in the course” left me room to negotiate if the student had serious illness or some other significant reason for absence, was responsible, etc. Unexcused absences, unless exceeding the limit for passing, did affect grades in the sense that I gave no benefit of the doubt when determining the average for the final grade. Family Education Records Privacy Act (FERPA) Under this law we are not permitted to provide specifics about a student's academic progress to anyone who does not have a "legitimate educational interest" unless we know from the student's advisor that the student signed the FERPA form. We may not even discuss specifics of the student's academic work with parents until we verify that the student signed the form. We may, under the law, provide general information to others. Student Athletes Count on most athletes to be punctual and careful workers. Other than giving them an extra excused absence for away games (I ask them for a schedule) I treat these students like any others and I find that they appreciate that. When instructors are concerned about student-athletes' writing, they can require the writer (if a Freshman) to seek help from a Writing Fellow assigned to the nightly (and mandatory) study-hall in the Robins Center. Older students should go directly to the Writing Center.Consider sending the Writing Fellows at Study Hall and the Writing Center tutors copies of assignments and letting them know about students referred. The Writing Fellows, like all of our Writing Center tutors, will send e-mail faculty report after the tutorial. If the report does not arrive, do not assume that the writer went for an appointment. Special concerns about athletes should go directly to Bruce Matthews, Asst Dir Athletics/Academic Support <bmatthe2@richmond.edu> and 287-6415. Bruce strongly supports our work. Second-and-Foreign-Language Students Richmond continues to expand the number of international students on campus, and we are also attracting more US citizens who speak English as a second language. Many of these students learned to write in another culture with vastly different expectations for using sources, placing a central point or thesis, even deciding "what counts" as evidence. In some writing curricula, students are never expected to express an opinion. I recall a student once asking me "What is analysis? We only summarize in my classes at home." Most students in 103 will not have pronounced difficulties writing academic prose; for those who do, you may refer them to the Writing Center, but for those with sustained problems that seem cultural as well as linguistic, I recommend Ms. Nuray Grove, Director of ESL Services at Richmond and a frequent teacher of Eng. 103. Ms. Grove <ngrove@richmond.edu or 287-6305> can work with students individually or have them work with her ESL mentor, a specially trained Writing Fellow who assists students with the cultural and linguistic transition to life on campus. About the Writing Center Please spend some time at our Web site; it has gained national attention for it range of materials, especially the online handbook Writer's Web. There is also information about how writers can sign up online for appointments. Lee Carleton <lcarleto@richmond.edu> is the person to ask about the online appointment system. I strongly discourage sending an entire class to the Center. They will not all get appointments. If an instructor wants all writers to get help with drafts beyond peer-critiques, I can assign a Writing Fellow to the course, but I will need one semester's advance notice. Instead of sending all writers to us individually, instructors can ask an editing group make an appointment together with a tutor. Alternately, only those students who most need assistance can be referred. Note that, as in a process-based writing classroom, writers who come in more than once for a paper will receive the best help from a tutor. "Visit early, then often," is a good motto for this type of help. 103 home | course goals | faculty policies | sample assignments | texts & reviews | teacher's quick links