Requirements: Your grade will be determined according to the following formula: 25% will be based on your completion of the Visual Rhetorical Analysis. 25% will be based on the Infographic assignment. 40% will be based on your completion of a substantial Final Project project incorporating a Pecha-Kucha presentation. The remaining 10% will be based on class participation, with insightful contributions to class discussions, and smaller in-class assignments constituting the core of this grade.
Attendance: Required. The success of this course depends on student presence and participation in our conversations. Therefore, in this class, after three absences, I may elect to drop your final course grade by one half letter grade for each subsequent absence. For example, after a fourth absence a final grade of B- could drop to a grade of C+ or even C. Anyone missing twelve or more classes for any reason will not pass the course. If you do miss class, it is your responsibility to secure the assignments (preferably from one of your classmates) and complete the work assigned.
Classroom Decorum: Please do not eat in class. Sometimes I arrive in class directly from departmental meetings or events. Chances are very good that I want your Doritos even more than you do. Don’t make me hungry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry. Also, while your various screen devices are likely to house a class reading here and there, and can also be used to extend our classroom discussions in our active learning classroom, please restrict your use of screens to class-related activities. On one hand it is your business if you choose to navigate away from whatever is transpiring in class, but I have learned that non-classroom related information on screens can be highly distracting to your fellow students, and that’s not fair to them. For this reason, if I become aware of you using a screen device for non-class reasons to the point where I feel it is distracting to your colleagues or to me, I will mark you absent for that day. This policy does not extend to the occasional in-class accidental ringtone: the penalty for that is gentle mockery.
Office Conferences: Answering your questions and addressing your concerns is my job. I am available in my office at different times throughout the week, and via a range of communicative media. You — and/or someone who cares about you — are paying me to be there. Therefore, think of my office as an extension of the classroom, and use my office hours to discuss any aspect of your reading or writing — problems, topics, fine points of argument that interest you but not necessarily everyone else in class, ideas you wish to develop, strategies you’d like to try. Plan on having at least one office conference with me this semester to discuss your work and your progress in the course.
Academic Dishonesty: The act of passing off others’ work as one’s own is a violation of the purpose and the spirit of this university. The university’s penalties for such conduct are harsh, and rightly so. For this reason, among others, please err on the side of caution whenever you wish to make use of others’ materials. If you are uncertain as to how to document or acknowledge your dependencies, please contact me before you formally submit the project in question and I will be happy to address your questions and concerns.
Students with Disabilities: As required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, appropriate accommodations will be made for all students with documented disabilities. If you have a disability requiring accommodation in this class, please notify me as soon as possible. This information will be kept confidential.
Note well: You will need to keep all of your work for this class in some reasonable order in a virtual or physical folder. I may ask to review this folder at some point in the semester.