This class requires regular attendance and routine maintenance of reading and writing assignments. If you want a good grade, the material covered here needs constant attention and you must be prepared for each day’s session.
The accelerated nature of this class naturally means that you will need to keep up with the daily activities. There will be daily classroom exercises, reading assignments and discussions. As you will see below, a good grade can turn into a bad one almost overnight if you habitually skip class or fail to keep up with the workload.
It is virtually impossible to organize a short-term course such as this without some basic ground rules, which are as follows:
•MANDATORY ATTENDANCE. The faculty of the School of Journalism and Broadcasting has determined that your regular attendance in this class is important. Consider this: due to our accelerated schedule, missing as little as one day of class during this four-week period would be equivalent to missing one week of classes in a regular fall or spring term course! It is impossible for you to keep up with the material if you are not here each day. As mentioned above, there will be daily in-class exercises and discussions that will apply toward your grade, plus I will be giving out a certain amount of homework and reading assignments in class. I expect you to be here, ON TIME, each day, participating in the class discussions and activities. NOTE: Three or more absences will result in the lowering of your final course grade by one full letter. Each additional absence will result in the loss of an additional letter grade. As a rule, you should never, ever miss this class.
•NO LATE WORK. A future member of the media-related professions must develop a respect for deadlines. Each take-home written assignment must be presented to me in person at the start of class on the day it is due (unless we agree for you to otherwise submit your work, which may be done only by prior arrangement). I will not accept late work.
•NO MAKEUP OR EXTRA CREDIT WORK. As previously stated, there are assignments and activities to be completed in class each day that will apply to your grade. Missing class, regardless of the legitimacy of the excuse for being absent, does not constitute a reason to make up the work you missed.
•WRITING QUALITY. All writing assignments are expected to conform to good writing standards consistent with the expectations of an accredited journalism school. A good portion of the evaluation of each written project will be based on writing quality. If English is not your primary language, you should seek outside tutoring to make your papers conform to quality writing standards. All out-of-class writing assignments must be typed. There are no exceptions. In no case will I accept computer printer malfunctions as an excuse for late or sloppy work.
•ACADEMIC DISHONESTY. In this course, academic dishonesty is defined as any act of knowingly or unknowingly misappropriating information from sources (plagiarism) or having papers written by someone other than yourself. If you are judged to be guilty of academic dishonesty you will receive an "F" in the course and will be reported to university officials.
•INCOMPLETES. An grade of "incomplete" will be issued only in a case where proof can be provided that an illness or family emergency prevented you from completing assignments on time or missing class for an inordinate number of days. Otherwise, all above policies pertaining to attendance and missed work will apply.