Policies
Announcements. I will on occasion make important announcements in class, which I will then post on the course blog. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to check the blog for any announcements and bring any questions to my attention.
Email. I check email regularly, but it is always your responsibility to allow reasonable time for me to receive your email and reply. Thus, a late-night email on the eve of a due date is not advisable!
Formatting Written Assignments. For all written assignments, you must (1) type in a relatively standard font (preferably Times New Roman, Arial, Arial Narrow, or Garamond) using double spacing; (2) set left and right margins to 1” or 1.25”; (3) submit in .doc or .docx format.
Documentation of Research. In essay assignments, you must document all sources from which you draw quoted passages or significant ideas by inserting footnotes or endnotes, which must be prepared in the Chicago Manual of Style format. For examples of Chicago Style citations, see http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc.
Assignment Submissions. Any assigned work submitted after the start of class on the due date will incur a penalty of 10 percent, with an additional 10 percent subtracted per subsequent day (including weekends and holidays).
Extensions. In the event of extreme circumstances that prevent your submitting assigned work on time, you may request an extension. If granted, a new due date will be assigned. Extension requests must be made no less than 48 hours (2 days) before the start of class on the due date. After that, I require written documentation that clearly demonstrates your inability to complete the assignment on time.
Attendance. If you anticipate being unable to be in class consistently, you should withdraw from the course. I will take account of absences and may deduct 1/2 of your participation grade if you accumulate more than two unexcused absences. Excused absences require notice via email or phone prior to the start of class (pending my approval) or appropriate written documentation thereafter (again, pending my approval). If you are ill, I will always excuse your absence, but it is your responsibility to see that I am informed in a timely way.
Student Conduct. Unacceptable conduct includes but is not limited to: disruptive talking or noisemaking, arriving late or leaving early without appropriate notice, intimidating or threatening anyone in the classroom, sleeping, texting, gaming, surfing the Web, making or receiving mobile phone calls, and doing other assignments during class.
Academic Integrity. Using someone else’s ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism. “Ideas or phrasing” includes written or spoken material ranging from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences and phrases. “Someone else” can mean a professional source, such as a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; an electronic resource such as material we discover on the Web; another student at CSU or elsewhere; and a paper-writing “service” (online or otherwise) which offers to sell written papers for a fee. Source: Capitol Community College’s guide to plagiarism (based on the MLA style): http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml. I will assign a grade of “0” on any plagiarized work and reserve the right to notify the University according to University procedures.
Writing Assistance. The Department of History offers a History Tutoring Center where you may seek assistance in preparing written work. The Center is located on the 13th floor of Rhodes Tower and may reached at (216) 687-3921.
Student Disabilities. If you have a disability, it is your responsibility to contact the Office of Disability Services at (216) 687-2015. The Office is located in MC 147. Accommodations need to be requested in advance and will not be granted retroactively.
Writing Across the Curriculum (Applies only to HIS 311). This course meets the following criteria for the Writing Across the Curriculum General Education requirement:
1. Require students to write between 3,000 and 5,000 words (10-20 pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with 1” margins) in writing assignments (which may include drafts).[1]
2. Final versions of at least one assignment should total at least 2,000 words (eight pages).[2]
3. Teach students writing-to-learn strategies that foster students’ experiences in learning and writing-to-communicate strategies that foster students’ respect of readers’ experiences.[3] Whenever possible, planning assignments (e.g. reading logs, pre-writing strategies) and peer reviews should be included.
4. Assign writing complex enough to require substantive revision for most students. The instructor should give feedback to assist students in preparing subsequent papers or drafts of papers. This feedback should not consist entirely of mechanical correction of punctuation and grammar.
5. Provide instruction in discipline-appropriate forms of texts, arguments, evidence, style, audience, and citation.
6. Assign writing throughout the semester.
7. Where appropriate, address the needs of students regarding library competency.
8. Assign writing in English unless the course is specifically geared to improving writing at the 300-level in another language.
9. In order to receive a C or better in the course, students must write at a satisfactory skill level (C or better). If the student’s writing is weak, but shows understanding of the course material, the student may be assigned a D, in which case WAC credit will not be received for the course.
10. Maximum enrollment for this course is 35 or 45 with a graduate assistant.
[1] The word count may only include one preliminary draft for each final draft.
[2] Exceptions to this criterion may be granted in disciplines or courses where students do a substantial amount of writing, but the course structure and/or content does not create opportunities for an assignment of this length.
[3] Writing-to-learn helps students use writing to explore many aspects of the course as well as their own reflections; these activities should foster learning at deeper levels than memorization or recitation. Writing-to-communicate emphasizes aspects of writing (style, grammatical correctness, coherence, focus) that allow a reader to navigate the writing as he or she wishes.
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