policies and grading


Grading and Course Policies

Turning in Work- Course Sequence and Assignment Deadlines

The course schedule is arranged so that assignments build upon one another. This means it is important for you to turn in work when it is due. However, as an online course, this medium of communication should also give you some flexibility to fit the work into an already busy life.

On the schedule, I've given due dates for every reading, activity, and assignment as it would appear for a traditional five-week, four-day-a-week, two-hours-a-day face-to-face summer course. Approaching the schedule on a day-by-day basis will help to spread a very full schedule into manageable chunks. However, with the exception of material related to the drafts for two of the major assignments (noted in red on the schedule for the day they are due), your week's work will not be due until Midnight on Sunday nights. Anything received after midnight on Sunday will be considered late. Please see below for an explanation on what being late means for your grade.


Reading Assignments and Posted Responses

The reading assignments and corresponding posted responses play a dual role and are a central part of this course. First, doing a written response to a reading helps you to understand and reflect on the ideas in ways reading alone does not. The prompts I have developed are designed to help you make connections between the chapter or article and your professional interests and work practices. I chose the Anderson textbook because it has a focus throughout on issues of professional communication and reader-centered writing. I chose the Williams textbook because it is extremely accessible (even a bit fun) and the examples clearly demonstrate the basic principles of design that she advocates. The additional readings (available as downloadable PDFs) are intended to supplement these texts with a more direct concentration on issues of written and visual communication.

Second, because this is a course without a face-to-face component, your posted responses to readings and other assignments take the place of in-class discussions and provide a way to create a bit of community with your fellow classmates. At several points in the schedule I ask you not only to post a response to the discussion board on WebCT, but also to read and comment on postings by other students. Even when I don't specifically ask you to do this, though, looking at how others react to a reading may help you to understand it in new ways.


Late Work

We all know that disruptive situations sometimes arise and I am willing to negotiate those situations with you. I will accept late work only if prior arrangements have been made. To get an extension, you must email me to ask for one. Failure to get an extension in advance will result in a lowering of your grade. Additionally, because the summer term is so short, getting behind can have a detrimental result on your progress and grade in the course.


Revision

I see the creation of any type of communication as a process in which the overall message improves through gathering research in multiple ways, through thoughtful attention to critique and suggestions, and through attentive work on multiple drafts. I encourage revision on the major course projects (this includes everything listed below except for the final category), even after a grade has been given. You may re-submit a course project one time for consideration of a higher grade as long as it represents a serious effort on your part to re-see or re-envision your approach to an assignment’s rhetorical development. Just tinkering with spelling, grammar, or minor issues will not earn you a higher grade.

 

Major Assignments and Point Breakdown for Grading

Note 1: You must complete the first three assignments to pass the course.

Note 2: If you choose to write the the Professional Advocacy Proposal (#4), please note that this assignment deals with the same issue as The Research Report (#3) and that these are meant to build off of one another. However, because they require re-shaping and re-writing information in significant ways for new purposes and audiences, they are separate assignments.

  1. 20% Visual Analysis Assignment
  2. 35% Report on an Issue of Professional Interest Using Observation, Interviews, and Published Research
  3. 25% Professional Advocacy Proposal for Workplace Change or Job Materials Project
  4. 20% Posted Responses to readings and short assignments