Course Policies

Email

Email is the best way to contact me, and I will respond to your emails within 24 hours, though usually sooner. A couple of groundrules: If you email me with a question whose answer is already on the course website, I will ignore it. Please don't email with questions about when something is due or how many points something is worth (unless you find a discrepancy, in which case you should email me).

Attendance and Tardiness

Attendance is mandatory. You may miss up to 3 classes without penalty. At the 4th, your grade drops by 5 points. I take attendance at the beginning of class. If you're late, you lose 2 points from your final grade. That's each time. So, if you're late 5 times, you lose a letter grade. Be here, and be here on time. I have this stringent attendance policy because I consider this class something like a laboratory course, where a great deal of the work happens during the class meeting. So, your life will be easier if you're here every day.

Late Work

Late work is not accepted. For any reason. Don't ask.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism will result in an F for the course and a referral to the Dean. Plagiarism means, “deliberately taking someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.” Obviously, in a course with a research paper, I want you to use other people’s work. What you need to do is to say in the paper where you got it! Consider the options: Let’s say you use something, but you cite it incorrectly. That knocks a few points off your grade. Let’s say, on the other hand, that you use something and don’t cite it. That’s an F. Don’t take the chance.