Attendance:
Because class attendance is critical to your understanding of class material, you are allowed only two unexcused absences over the course of the semester. After two unexcused absences, your final grade average will be dropped five points for every day missed. An absence due to illness or family crisis may be excused if properly documented to my satisfaction. In addition, if you participate in a university-sponsored event (music, theater, field trip, or athletics), you must provide me with documentation from an appropriate authority. Whether or not an absence is excused, you are responsible for contacting a classmate or me to find out what material you missed and any work that was assigned. If work is due in class on the day of the absences, the work is due in my mailbox by 4pm that day.

One or two tardies (arriving late in class or departing class early) will be excused if the reasons are acceptable and if there is valid documentation. Otherwise, tardiness is unacceptable because it is disruptive, and, beyond any excused tardies, class participation grade and overall grade will be affected (2 tardies = 1 absence).

Class Participation:
In addition to attending class, you are also expected to contribute class discussions and participate in workshop sessions with your peers. Learning is not a solitary process, but one that necessarily involves others and I thus consider class participation a very important part of achieving this class's goals. Because of the discussion nature of the class, I require that you turn your cell phones and pagers off. If you forget to turn it off and your phone rings, do not answer it. If you have a personal emergency and must keep your phone on one day, please discuss it with me before class.

Classroom Dynamics:
Because class participation relies heavily on individuals feeling comfortable expressing their opinions, you must always show respect for the diversity of opinions expressed in this class. You must also demonstrate respect for gender, racial, class, and ethnic differences among your colleagues and instructor.

E-mail:
As I frequently send timely e-mails related to this course, you must be able to check your e-mail at least once per day to stay informed. Do not use an AOL account for your class e-mail, as AOL rejects as spam all e-mails coming from addresses ending in ufl.edu. If you are concerned that you may have missed or lost any important class e-mails, you can access an archive of all e-mails sent to the class list at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/archives/sb05-4403/

Quizzes:
I will give quizzes at the beginning of class on a regular basis. If you are reading the texts as we progress though the semester, you should do fine. The quizzes will be pop-quizzes and will hence occur without warning.

Essays:
There will be a total of three major essays completed during this course (see daily schedule for peer review and final draft due dates).

• Essay 1
  This essay will be a literacy narrative in which you narrate and describe your experiences with reading and writing. A key part of this essay will be defining your own notions of literacy.
  Length = 5-6 pages.
• Essay 2
  This essay will incorporate the rhetorical techniques of comparison and contrast. You will choose two essays that we have read and compare and/or contrast the authors' views on language. Length = 6-7 pages.
• Essay 3
  In this final essay, you will choose a problem with education and argue why this problem is important as well as offer a possible solution. Here, you will be using both persuasion as well as process analysis to make your arguments. Length = 6-7 pages.

Peer Review:
On peer review days, you have the opportunity to earn two 100 quiz grades: one for reviewing others' essays and one for having your own rough draft. In order to earn the quiz grade for having your rough draft, you must have at least 95% of the draft finished.

Revisions:
You may revise any and/or all of the essays in this class. Revision does not simply mean fixing all of the errors that I have marked on your paper; rather, it entails make global changes to your essay. To this end, you must first work on your essay on your own. Then you MUST make conference with me about the essay. I will not simply tell you what you should do with the essay but will instead answer any questions that you have. The revision of each essay is due on the peer review day of next essay.

Format:
All work is due at the beginning of class on the day it is due. All major essays should be typed on only one side of 8 ½" x 11" white paper, MLA format, stapled, and be in Times New Roman font. On days when drafts are due (workshop days), you must bring two copies of your paper to class. These copies should be clean, typed papers (the same format as the final draft) and already well edited by you. I will not accept any papers that are not in this format.