Grades

Because I believe that you can only grow as a writer through hard and consistent work, I’ve designed my grading system not only to reward the quality of your finished pieces, but also to encourage you to do thoughtful and steady work over time.

Calculating Your Final Grade

The formula I will use in calculating your final grade for this course is very simple. You will earn letter grades for the final versions of your two main essays. The average of those two grades will  be the basis for your final grade. For example, if you earned a B on Essay 1 and an A– on Essay 2, your base final grade would be a B+.

But I will also expect you to complete seven ungraded writing assignments—which are marked as Xs on the schedule . Strong and consistent work on these pieces will raise your base grade by a step; weak or inconsistent work will lower it.

Let me offer some more details.

Grading Your Main Pieces for This Course

Again, I will only grade the final version of your two main pieces. This grade will reflect my sense of the ambition, interest, and quality of your writing.  It is non-negotiable. While I can’t reduce this professional judgement to a simple numerical scale, I can say that, in arriving at a grade for a piece, I will consider your

• Project: your goal or aim in writing,
• Materials: your use of sources and experiences,
• Voice: the clarity and interest of your prose, and
• Professionalism: the care you take in editing and designing your document.

I will use this form in assigning and explaining your grade. We’ll go over it later this semester. But don’t fixate on the words on the form. Think of your goal as writing an ambitious and interesting piece in a voice that feels your own. If you can do that, you’ll do fine.

Tracking Xs

While I will not put letter grades on your Xs for this course, I will keep careful track of all your work and talk with you often about it. I’ll use this record-keeping system:

√	On time, professional, thoughtful	2 points
√­–	Late, rushed, wildly off target	1 point
0	More than 24 hours late	0 points

Since there will be 7 ungraded assignments over the semester, you can earn a total of 14 points.  If you earn

• 13 or 14 points: Your base grade will be raised one step (say, from a B+ to an A–)
• 11 or 12 points: Your base grade will stay the same
• 9 or 10 points: Your base grade will be lowered one step (say, from a B+ to a B)

If it looks at any time like there is any possibility that you might earn less than 9 out of 14 points on your X assignments, I will speak to you immediately, since that would suggest, frankly, that you were struggling to keep up with the work of the course

Work in Class

I expect you to participate as an active member of this seminar: to meet deadlines as a writer, to respond thoughtfully to the work of the members of your writing group, and to make your voice heard in useful ways in our talk in class. I will ask you to do some writing during most of our class meetings and expect you to share that work from time to time. I reserve the right to raise or lower your semester grade by one step (for instance, from a B to a B+ or a B-) to reflect the consistency and quality of your work in seminar.

Work Out of Class

The usual calculus is that you should work two hours out of class for each hour in class. That would mean about six hours of work out of class per week. Since this is a writing-centered course, I urge you to set aside one hour for your writing for this course four days per week. This will leave you another two hours to keep up with the readings for the week. Such a schedule will help you do well in this course. More important, it will put you in the habit of writing regularly—which is a key part of the work life of any serious writer.

Missed Work or Plagiarism

I expect you to complete all the work assigned for this course. Missing assignments will count as a ∅ or F. And I of course expect that all the work you do will be your own. If you plagiarize any of your work for this course, the penalty will be an F for the assignment, and possibly for the course. I am also obligated to report serious cases of plagiarism to the Office of Student Conduct.

I look forward to reading your work and talking about it with you! Good luck!