Excused absences: These absences will not count against your attendance record.  Written documentation must be presented to excuse your absence.  This documentation must have appropriate contact information as the absence may be verified. 

University-sanctioned travel: If you are a member of a university-sanctioned organization (e.g., athletic teams or performing groups) that travels out of town and will miss class for this reason, you must provide me (in writing) the dates that you will miss at least one week prior to the absence. If I do not receive notice from you regarding these absences, they will be unexcused.  These absences will be verified and will not count against your attendance record.

Make-up exams/assignments: Late work is not acceptable and will result in half points lost for that assignment.  Students traveling with university sanctioned organizations need to complete work prior to their absence.  Absolutely no late work will be accepted after the final exam period.  Remember that no in class assignments can be made up no matter the reason.

In-Class activities:  Students are expected to prepare for each class by completing the assigned reading and homework.  Homework will be submitted electronically on My CMU prior to class. Students will also complete in-class assignments using their iPads. Therefore, they need to bring their iPads to class during each class period.  If students are not prepared for class, they will be asked to leave and will be counted as absent for the day.  

Assignments:  When students are to turn in assignments in class they will be collected at the beginning. If they are not turned in at that point, they are considered late and will receive a grade deduction. They must be typed and double-spaced with 12-point font unless otherwise mentioned. Speech outlines should always be typed and turned in at the start of the student’s speech. Each outline must also include a typed reference page.  

Academic Conduct:  This policy is taken very seriously.  Students caught breaking this policy will receive a zero for the assignment and will be reported to the Dean. Students who are dishonest more than once will fail the class. As per the course catalog:

Academic Conduct requires that each person accept the obligation to uphold professional standards in all academic endeavors. Any conduct that unprofessionally represents a student’s academic performance violates CMU’s Academic Conduct Policy. Unprofessional practices include but are not limited to the following: 

a. CHEATING in any form (e.g., ghost-written papers; cheat sheets or notes; copying during exams, quizzes, or other graded class work; allowing any-one access to your courseware account to misrepresent their coursework as yours, or your coursework as theirs, etc.); 

b. UNAUTHORIZED COLLABORATION with others on work to be presented in ways contrary to the stated rules of the course or the specifications of a particular assignment; 

c. STEALING or having unauthorized access to examination or course materials, 

d. FALSIFYING INFORMATION (records, or laboratory or other data); 

e. SUBMITTING WORK PREVIOUSLY PRE-SENTED IN ANOTHER COURSE without the advance consent of the second instructor; 

f. ASSISTING ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT (intentionally or unintentionally)—This includes allowing any other student to use or submit your academic work or performance, or other academic work supplied by you, under a name different from the author of the work; and 

g. PLAGIARISM. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to (1) representing as your own work a paper, speech, or report written in whole or in part by someone else (from the un-credited use of significant phrases to the un-credited use of larger portions of material), including material found on the internet, (2) failing to provide appropriate recognition of the sources of borrowed material through the proper use of quotation marks, proper attribution of paraphrases, and proper reference citations. Always provide appropriate recognition of all borrowed materials and sources. 

Classroom conduct: Students must conduct themselves so others will not be distracted from the pursuit of learning.  Students may be disciplined for any conduct, which constitutes a hazard to the health, safety, or wellbeing of members of the college community or which is deemed detrimental to the college’s interest.  To maximize class efforts, I require cooperative behavior in the class. Please respect others in the class for their experience and ideas. 

Speech Etiquette: On the days of presentations, those individuals performing should not be interrupted by latecomers.  Please wait until you hear applause before entering.  Additionally, there will be no in-class studying, preparation of notes, etc. during presentations.  You will be asked to leave and counted as absent for the day.

Appearance in class: This is a communication class, and a student’s appearance in class sends non-verbal messages to others.  Therefore, no hats or dark glasses are allowed in class.  Eyes are an important mode of non-verbal communication.  Students caught reading other materials, doing homework for another class, sleeping, or any other behavior that is not related to this class will be asked to leave class and will be counted as absent for that day.  

Cell phones:  All electronic devices need to be silenced in class.  You will get one warning (per semester), after the warning I will ask you to leave class and you will be counted absent for that day.  This includes texting in class.  I should never see your phone during class time.

Extra Credit: I will inform students of any opportunities for extra credit throughout the semester.  Opportunities will be open to the entire class.  Extra credit will not be offered on an individual basis.

MyCMU: Announcements, grades, and other supplementary materials will be available through MyCMU.  Please check regularly to be aware of any class announcements.

Out of Class Expectation:  In college you must take responsibility for your own learning.  By taking ownership, you understand that not all your learning will take place in the classroom.  For every hour of class time you are expected to study two hours outside of class.  This may include, but is not limited to: reading, study groups, exercises, or activities.  

Course Assignments

Grading Scale: (%)

100 - 90%      =          A         

89 - 80%        =          B         

79 - 70%        =          C         

69 - 60%        =          D         

59 - 0%          =          F  

Grading:  It is my philosophy that for grades to be meaningful a C should be average and high grades must be reserved for exceptional work.  Cs (not Bs or As) will be given for work that is acceptable and of average college level quality.  The grade of C, therefore, does not indicate any shortcoming and may be the most common grade given.  This means that you have met the basic requirements, but there is more that could be done to improve upon.  Grading will be done as follows: 

    A: Represents achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements.  This work is superior in every respect and represents the highest level of achievement.  Its quality is so good that it would be unreasonable to ask a college student to improve upon it. 

    B: Represents achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements.  Not only were all the basic expectations met, it exceeded minimum expected quality levels.  This work probably showed one or more of the following characteristics: excellent understanding of the class material, excellent application of theory to practice, unusual thoroughness in thought and preparation. 

    C: Represents achievement that meets the course requirements in every respect.  This score does not indicate any shortcoming.  All the work was done adequately and completely, and the work showed basic understanding and mastery of the course material. 

    D: Represents achievement that is worthy of credit even though it does not fully meet course requirements.  While there was merit to what was done, there were also deficiencies that meant the work did not fully meet the minimal expectations. 

    F: Represents performance that fails to meet the course requirements and is unworthy of credit.  This work shows serious deficiencies in regard to the expectations for the assignment.

**All assignments on the schedule are DUE on MY CMU by 11:59 pm on the day specified in the schedule**

Schedule:

This syllabus serves as a contract between the student and the professor. However, at the discretion of the professor, the schedule is tentative to change.