Timothy L Pagaard: Class policies
Using course pages
English 098
English fundamentals
English 120
College composition
and reading
English 122
Introduction to literature
English 124
Advanced composition
English 135-138
Newspaper production
English 221 & 222
British literature I & II
English 231 & 232
American literature I & II
Class policies
"It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. For this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom."
--Albert Einstein
How I do business and why
English department philosophy
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Grades
What grades mean
General scale
Regardless of which course of mine you're taking, your work will receive numerical scores. You can calculate letter grades (including the accumulated total, your course grade) according to this scale:
A = 75.1-100%
B = 50.1-75%
C = 25.1-50%
D = 0.1-25%
This scale may seem lenient, but remember, these are assigned scores and all of your writing will feature such scores, not either a number of correct answers or points earned by any formula. My scale is neither easier nor more difficult than the familiar 90% / 80% / 70% / 60% scale.
For such things as tests and quizzes which are scored numerically based on a number correct, I'll begin with a conventional ten-percent scale, but I'll convert your score to my twenty-five-percent scale. (See your course Syllabus for applications of this scale to specific contexts.)
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Attendance and participation
Absence, inattention, and tardiness
As in all college courses, you must attend every class session in order to succeed here, and you must be fully conscious when you're here. There's no such thing as an "excused" absence: If you're in class, you're in class, and if you miss, you miss. That's all. I'm no drama critic, and I have no desire to make judgments between legitimate excuses and spurious ones. Further, I find tardiness especially distracting and thus immensely destructive of productive class time.
Participation involves nothing less than full engagement in what's going on in class. (1) Your body must be in the building. And (2) your mind must be engaged in classroom activities.
I'm not a television. I'm a human who personally interacts with you--even while I'm lecturing. Expect to interact with me--even if only internally. Your engagement (quiet or out loud) with the subject matter at hand is the essence of our course. Conversely, when you openly display boredom, irritation, or animosity, you're taken very seriously--personally.
Thus, if you aren't awake in class, even if your body happens to be in the building, you'll be counted absent and lose participation points as if you were absent.
Participation points. You'll start the semester with twenty participation points. If you're never late or absent or asleep, you'll keep those points. Otherwise, five points will be deducted for every hour (notice that I didn't say "every session") you miss, three points for every tardy.
If you come to class late, after I take roll, please see me at the end of class to assure that you are marked present.
Material missed during an absence
I appreciate your e-mailing me or calling to report an absence. But please be aware of two things: (1) There's no point writing or calling to report an "excused" absence. Remember: Such an animal doesn't exist. And (2) I won't call you back or reply to your e-mail to fill you in on what you missed. Nor will I waste the time of other students by doing so during office hours.
So how should you get this information? Use the Schedule page in the Syllabus section of your course page. It's very comprehensive, and I never deviate from it. When I do, I'll post a revised schedule on the site immediately. Or you can ask a reliable student for class notes.
Withdrawal
If you intend to drop this course, please take responsibility yourself for making arrangements with the Admissions office. Don't assume I'll drop you. I'll simply continue to deduct points for absences and missed work. And as you know, a "W" grade is preferable to an "F."
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Office hours
I'm very anxious to discuss your work with you and to talk with you about what you're learning--whether you're having trouble with a concept or assignment or simply interested in developing your thinking further. Please feel free--nay, compelled--to stop by my office, B-173, at any time but especially during the hours posted on my schedule.
Feel free, too, to e-mail me at Tim.Pagaard@gcccd.edu with questions about your work, but please don't send full drafts of your writing. I don't have time to analyze these and return them with written comments. Come by my office to discuss your writing.
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Academic conduct
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the attempt to pass off somebody else's words, ideas, or information as your own. It's the worst sin that can be committed in academia; it's grounds for a failing grade on the relevant assignment in this course and in most others at Cuyamaca College. At many quality institutions plagiarism is grounds for dismissal from an entire course and from the institution itself. Don't do it!
It goes without saying, I'm sure, that plagiarism is morally indefensible. But morality aside, it is academically suicidal, stupidity right up there with cheating on piano lessons. What's the point! You came to this place to learn things. Plagiarism guarantees that you won't learn whatever it is your teachers in their wisdom have made an assignment in order to teach you.
If you do plan to plagiarize, you'd better start immediately, and you'd better plagiarize everything you ever write for me (including quizzes)--and plagiarize everything from the same source. Be aware: I make my living reading student writing, hours and hours a week. I'm good at it. So I learn early to recognize your voice, and it's more than obvious when that voice changes. I'm not saying that it's impossible for god to touch you with brilliance on one assignment and withdraw Her blessing for the others. I'm not saying that it's impossible for you to be struck by lightning, rendering you brilliant for one paper but wearing off afterwards. But I am saying that I'll recognize this when it happens and that I'll be very, very likely to ask you embarrassing questions.
Twiddling mobile phones in your lap
Don't!
Sure, you think you're James Bond, way sly, but you're not. It's painfully obvious what you're up to, and don't be deceived as to how your behavior affects my evaluation of your scholarly progress.
Make no mistake: I regard what you're doing as monumentally rude. If I ever decide to make a phone call unannounced in the middle of a conversation with you, please feel free to slap me upside the head.
Key point: What's happening in the classroom is a conversation, even if sometimes this conversation involves me lecturing and you listening. Your concentrated attention to this conversation is central to your success both in our course and in your progress as a scholar. Banal TM linkage with non-scholars is not only damaging to this progress objectively, but it is guaranteed to obstruct your subjective relationship with me, the only conduit of success for you in this course.
Then you have to be aware that when one is seen vigorously manipulating one's digits in one's lap, an observer is likely to get an altogether wrong impression of what is going on. Need I say more?
It looks like this:
So now--NOW!--take out your electronic device. Turn it off. Place its dead carcass in front of you on top of your desk, not in your lap. Better yet, stash it in its moribund state in your backpack, and entomb it there for the remainder of our course.
If personal considerations require that you take a call at any time during our course, please go away: Take the call, the TM, but do it somewhere else where you won't distract the real scholars.
Classroom conduct
Copyright Ron Cobb 1968. All rights reserved.
