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Student Participation and Expectations

Student Work: Papers
We will use the MLA format for all papers, including the quotation of sources. See the Secondary sources for more information. Out-of-class essays are expected to be typed, double-spaced, as neat as possible. You may send it to me as an attachment, by U.S. Mail (send SASE if you want it sent back) or drop it off in my office or in my mailbox in the Administration Building. (On campus students may submit papers in class or through the mail, but will get them back in class). See Paper/Test Exchange topics in Online Presentations for more details.; Tests; Tests are taken on campus under timed conditions. Bring your book, a bluebook and a pen. A dictionary is optional. (Honors students will take tests in testing center and get them back in class). See How to Take an In-Class Essay.

General Participation
I expect from each of you a bit of yourself. This is not a correspondence course. That means the student MUST engage in interactive activities with other students and the instructor in order to get full points. This includes Chat Room (either live or by reading archive), Message Board, Message Board Response and and Peer Final Paper Evaluation.

Chat Room participation usually includes at least one hour per week regular attendance. If you cannot attend chat live, you may participate asynchronously through the Message Board, discussing the chat topics with others who also did not have the opportunity to participate live.This participation is NOT graded, but failure to follow chat will likely result in failure of course simply because you will not know what I expect on papers and tests.
RESPONSE participation requires at least one multi-paragraph RESPONSE for up to 5 works in response to the ASSIGNMENT posted in each RESPONSE folder (general questions and complaints do NOT count, and usually are reserved for e-mail). These responses are MANDATORY for all students, and constitute 100% of your PARTICIPATION GRADE.
There is a separate Message Board Discussion Group requirement. See Message Board for details. Message Board Discussion Group AND Message Board Discussion Group Response are ALSO mandatory for all students.
Peer Paper Evaluation includes the posting of a student paper - or a section thereof - on the Message Board for evaluation by students. For this particular credit, you must be a responder/evaluator, with a paragraph response for the student's paper.

The breakdown for the participation grade is as follows.

A: You will complete at least 5 RESPONSES.
B: You will complete three (3) RESPONSES (including the two associated with the papers).
C: You will complete the two RESPONSES associated with the papers.
D: Failure to finish the RESPONSES to both paper topics.

If you do not utilize this mode in this course, you will lose at least 10% of your grade (participation). Furthermore, if you want to engage in the conversations that are generated in this course, you will find that several things occur:

You will have a better understanding of the material;
You will get to know your classmates better; and
The class will be much more enjoyable.

I expect each of you to put as much effort into this course as possible, for what you learn here may be used in many everyday situations, as well as every college course that requires writing.