You can earn up to 450 points apportioned as follows:

Overall demands of the course: Language is complicated, its study is an enormous field, and though we won’t be covering it all by any means, we will do enough to give you a strong base for pursing further language study either in this department or in Linguistics or Education. But yes, it will be demanding. The reading is not that much per week, but you will find yourself having to read and reread, to memorize a good deal, and to get used to thinking about language quite differently than you may have done before.

Moreover, we will cover a LOT. That means that missing class will be a major downer. I hope we will keep things interesting, but really, missing class will make your job a great deal tougher. So if you have a busy schedule and don’t have time to devote to this class, then you will want to find something else to take. (And I really do mean that!)

Writing: You will be doing some form of writing for most classes. Sometimes it will be a short paper; at other times it will be an exercise from the book, or something to prepare you for a quiz. I will collect some, but not all. However, all papers, quizzes and exercises will be collected by you and submitted in your final portfolio for credit. More on the Language Portfolio will be forthcoming later in the quarter.

What do I want: Engaged Critical Intelligence (ECI) : My criterion for the daily exercise/response papers is “engaged critical intelligence,” or ECI. You don’t have to be “right,” and you don’t have to be polished. You don’t even have to solve entirely whatever problem I give you. But I do want to see real effort, even if it’s only to narrate for me the difficulties you are having as you try to come to grips with the assignment.

How Much Time Should You Spend Writing? In the past some students have spent more time and anxiety on these responses than is necessary. Please understand: although I genuinely do want you to take these exercises seriously, I’m not asking for finished "English Papers." I call them “response papers” to suggest that their purpose is to be responding with an Engaged Critical Intelligence both to the reading and to my question(s) about it—and NOT writing a series of "papers."

In specific terms that means: I expect from you either TWO typed pages, or ONE FULLY ENGAGED HOUR of writing. If you want to spend more time than that—fine. Just don’t go over two pages, or, when posting on line, over the word-limit.

My response to your responses. I certainly do want your papers to be coherent, but the daily response papers are not supposed to be fully finished works. And because they are informal in this way, I will also rarely read them with the same close attention I will give to your formal work. Their primary usefulness is in the writing itself. I take it as axiomatic that you will get substantially more from this class by having written regularly throughout than you otherwise would—and end-of-quarter evaluations from students in earlier classes confirm that most students agree.

Moreover my intent is that these exercises will be useful to you whether I actually read them or not. Indeed, I will not collect every set of papers at the time you write them (though you will be collecting them as you complete them, and turning them in as part of the course portfolio at quarter’s end). And when I do collect them, my comments will be of the “OK,” “good,” or “I’d like to see more thinking going on here” variety. (If you want more specific response to your work, you are welcome to come talk with me during my office hours.)

Late Papers: I cannot accept late papers. There will be 40 or more of you, and you’ll be handing things in a lot. That adds up to a huge number of pieces of paper, and if they are coming in at different times, I simply cannot keep track of them. So if I have collected a day’s exercise but you didn’t have it ready to turn in, then make it up, and submit it in your final portfolio, but please don't give it to me. (You can miss up to TWO such exercises without penalty. Otherwise you will lose points for missing papers.)

Virtual Office Hours: My office hours are listed above; I enjoy talking with students, so don't hesitate to use them. I am also available for reasonably simple questions online. Send me a note. If your question or concern is too complicated to address online, I’ll tell you so and we can find a time to talk f2f.