SUMMARY OF EVALUATION METHODOLOGY:

Daily assignments and first drafts will ask you to explore different ways to produce writing on paper. This writing will be graded “Satisfactory” or “Unsatisfactory” with the sole criterion being whether or not you have completed the assignment on time and given it serious attention and effort. From this pre-writing you will develop five essays. I will return each paper with reactions to guide your revisions for your portfolio submission.

For each portfolio you will give me copies of the “final,” polished revisions of your essays, along with the earlier drafts and my responses to each essay. Your essays must be typed, double-spaced, and formatted according to MLA guidelines.

This system of grading rewards you for timely, serious effort on daily assignments and in workshops. It gives extra weight to your highest level of achievement near the end of the semester. It does not penalize you for mistakes and experiments that go wrong, if you learn from the mistakes how to produce good finished work. In fact, this system assumes that finished, effective communication is often the product of a very messy process in creation, in which you take risks, follow false trails, make lots of mistakes, go back and start over again. This system encourages you to engage in the recursive and sometimes disordered process of becoming a productive and fluent writer. Early in the semester we will arrive at an understanding of the standards by which our writing is judged, both within the community of our class and within the larger public audience of readers. The course assumes that your final essays will also observe the conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation of “standard written English.” If you have trouble with these conventions, you will be able to get help from me and your classmates.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

While I cannot count attendance toward your grade, participation in the class online, and in small group activities will count toward your grade. Your failure to participate to your full ability will result in a lower grade.

Writing never occurs in a vacuum but within the context of audience, and the immediate audience for writing in this course is ourselves. The course requires a commitment to the community, and you can’t participate in a community of writers unless you participate. Attendance is measured in participation through discussion and submission of required materials.