Your grade for the course will be calculated from a total of 200 points, awarded as follows:

Participation, including in-class writing: 20 points
Regular and thoughtful Twitter posts: 20 points
Blog entries: 30 points (up to 5 per entry and 2 per comment)
Assignment 1: 30 points
Assignment 2: 35 points
Assignment 3: 40 points
Assignment 4: 25 points plus revision score
Here’s what you’ll be required to do:

1. Show up and keep up (10% of your grade, and a prerequisite for the rest)

Do the reading. Really. Whether you skim along and aim just to keep up, or look up full texts and go online to search out commentary and examples and share your new knowledge with your internet friends, is up to you. But if you don’t read, you won’t be able to participate meaningfully in class or to understand the writing assignments. This includes checking the course blog, where I will post announcements and you will post assignments, several times a week. I will check whether you’re keeping up by occasionally assigning surprise in-class writing activities.
Participate. This doesn’t mean talking all the time in class. It means pulling your weight: engaging in active listening, speaking when you have something to say, and putting in the necessary work both in full-class sessions and in small-group workshops. If you are present, pull your weight in group work, and show me that you are keeping up with and thinking about the reading, you will get full points for in-class participation.
2. Write online: Twitter and WordPress (25%)

Much of the writing many of you are likely to do in your college and professional lives will be online. Twitter’s social network and WordPress’s blogging platform are popular ways for individuals and businesses to maintain a web presence. Some of you will certainly have used them before. We will spend a full class session early in the semester going over Twitter and blogging, and how their use in a professional or educational setting might differ from what you’re familiar with.
A blog and Twitter rubric is linked at the course WordPress site. Follow its instructions and you will get full points for online participation.

You will be expected to:

Tweet at least twice a week. You may also choose to offer a question or comment about the reading, a retweet of a relevant link, or make a reply to someone else. We’ll crowdsource questions and interpretations, creating a stream of content that will help you to come up with ideas for your assignments (as well as letting me plan classes that cover the things you really want to know.) Insults or hateful language on the Twitter stream will be treated the same way as if you had yelled them out in class: as serious verbal abuse.
Blog three times, once for every course unit, in response either to discussion questions I will provide or to explore a question or idea of your own related to our reading and writing. You must also comment thoughtfully on a classmate’s post five times over the course of the semester.
3. Write formally: major assignments (65%)

You will turn in four formal assignments in the class, each in a different writing genre.

Assignment 1: personal writing: an exploration of your digital media practices
Assignment 2: analytical response: summarizing and analyzing a course reading of your choice
Assignment 3: persuasive essay: developing a thesis-driven argument about course topics
Assignment 4: reflective writing: a letter introducing a portfolio of your two best papers
Your grade for each assignment will account not only for the quality of what you have produced, but for your level of commitment to the process involved in producing it. This means that revising diligently, responding thoughtfully in workshops, and demonstrating improvement over the course of the semester can result in a better grade than turning in perfect work at the final due date. (And there’s no such thing as perfect work, anyway.) It also means that you would derive little benefit from turning in work that was not your own even if you were able to do so without my realizing it. A detailed grading rubric will be handed out with the first paper assignment.

Class format:
Students are expected to arrive to class on time with the necessary materials (this means annotated print or digital copies of the reading) and having completed the assigned reading and/or writing in advance of class. Classroom activities will include discussion of assigned readings, in-class writing and peer-editing of student drafts. A considerable portion of a student’s grade will depend on class attendance and performance.

Group Work:
We will be doing lots of small group work in this course. Participating actively in the small groups as well as in larger classroom discussion is essential. To do so well, please read, study and think about the assigned material before coming to class. Participation in these activities counts towards the participation/attendance portion of your grade.

Grading Criteria
A-/A 90%-100%
B-/B 80%- 89%
C-/C 70%- 79%
D-/D 60%- 69%
F 59% and below

Grading Rubric
A work:
Presents a cogent and insightful argument, analysis and / or creative work.
Offers compelling support for any argument or analysis.
Develops the argument or analysis with organizational clarity and logical force.
Demonstrates sophisticated exploration of the issue or issues.
Demonstrates research, study or effort outside of the requirements the course.
For blog posts: the theme or main idea of the blog post is clear, and links to related information. The content has accurate and very useful information.
Writing displays maturity in sentence variety, grammar, spelling, and usage.

B work:
Presents a clear, argument, analysis and/or demonstrate creativity.
Uses effective examples and reasoning as support.
Displays consistently strong overall organization, paragraph development, and logical transition.
For blog posts: the content of the blog post has accurate and useful information. The theme or main idea is clear and related to the purpose or theme of the entry.
Writing displays strength in sentence variety, grammar, spelling, and usage.

C work:
Offers a competent if occasionally limited argument, analysis and / or creativity.
Uses appropriate examples and reasoning to support the overall argument or analysis.
Blog posts: the information is clear and correct. The theme or main idea of the post is more or less clear and related to the purpose or theme of the entry.
Writing displays competence in sentence variety, grammar, spelling, and usage.

D work:
Has limited argument or analysis.
Has flaws in organization, paragraph development, or logical transition.
Avoids of the issue or issues discussed in course and readings or addresses them in a manner that is neither serious nor thoughtful.
Blog posts: information is incomplete or not correct. The post is without a clear purpose or central theme.
Writing has serious flaws in syntax, grammar, usage, or spelling.

F work:
Fails to adequately respond to the assigned readings, lectures or discussions.
Relies on remarkably weak or inappropriate examples.
Have little controlling organization or logical coherence.
Blog posts: presents erroneous information. Post does not address issues related to the course assignment.
Has serious and extensive flaws in syntax, grammar, or usage which makes it difficult to read and understand.

Your final grade is based on instructor evaluation of all written work as well as meaningful participation in class; therefore, it is important not only to attend class as often as possible but to come prepared to discuss the readings and to write in class. Each essay assignment through the semester earns increasingly more points, based on the assumption that, over the semester and with practice, your writing/thinking/research will sharpen and improve. For this required class for transfer, research from credible sources and in-text citations which use correct MLA Style are incorporated into/required of all writing assignments as this is expected and required at 4-year colleges and universities. Quizzes and other assignments as specified also earn points toward your final grade, and cannot be made up.

Online participation rubric
Online writing accounts for 25% of your grade, and if you’re exceptionally good at it, you can get up to an additional 5% extra credit. Here’s how to get those points.

Twitter
Your score is out of 20 points; exceptional tweeting may garner you a bonus score up to a maximum of 24
Original tweets in response to readings, assignments or class discussion: 1 point per week (total of 16). Tweeting multiple times in some weeks will not make up for weeks that you miss.
Appropriate and well executed use of Twitter syntax (RTs of relevant tweets from within or outside the class; and @ replies): 4 additional points.
Extra credit for especially thoughtful, engaged use of Twitter: up to 4 additional points.
Tweeting more will not necessarily get you this bonus. Tweeting in an especially insightful way, or responding consistently helpfully to your classmates’ questions, will.

Blog entries
Your score is out of 5 per entry for four required entries (a total of 20 points)
Make a note of which blog group you are in (A, B, C or D; groups will be announced in email) and check the schedule for when your blog entries are due.
You will get full points for your blog entry if:
– it is of an appropriate length (250-500 words)
– it is posted on time
– it responds thoughtfully to the prompting question(s)
– it is written with care and proofread. Blogs are informal writing and need not be perfect, but your reader must be able to understand what you are saying.
Blogs posted one day late (after class on the day they are due, but before the next class) will receive half marks. Blogs posted any later than that will receive a zero.
Remember also that you are encouraged, though not required, to include images and links in your blog.

Blog comments
Your score is out of 2 per comment for 5 required comments (a total of 10 points)
You can comment at any point in the course of the semester, as often as you want, but no more than one comment per week will be counted.
You will receive both marks for your comment if:
– it is of an appropriate length (50-150 words)
–it actively engages with what the blogger you respond to has said.
Good comments might ask for clarification or challenge the blogger to think through the implications of what they have posted (spurring a discussion we can continue in class, perhaps). Alternatively, they might spin off from the initial post to offer an example from their own reading or experience.
Extra credit: blogging above and beyond the call of duty (longer, more involved entries with rich media content; multiple additional comments responding insightfully to your classmates’ posts) can get you additional points up to a maximum of 6.
Extra credit online participation scores for QUALITY rather than QUANTITY ––spamming the blog and twitter stream will not help your grade. Extra credit is granted entirely at the professor’s discretion and is NOT guaranteed.

GRADE CHALLENGES
Grading is not an exact science. Even with a clear rubric, it involves considerable subjectivity on my part. However, if you want to challenge an essay grade, I have three stipulations. First, that you wait at least 24 hours after you have received your grade to challenge it. Second, that you dispute your grade within a week of receiving your grade. And, third, that you carefully explain in a typed document (no e-mails, please) how your paper meets the rubric’s criteria for the grade you think you deserve. I do not accept any verbal challenges of my grading. I will take your submitted challenge very seriously, and I will not in any way punish you for your disagreement.

You are responsible for keeping track of all assignments and their grades/points and can verify your average.