Introduction

The default grade in this course is a B. If you do all the assigned work completely and on time, you are guaranteed a B. If you miss class or forget to turn in assignments or turn in assignments late or turn in incomplete assignments or otherwise break the contract, your grade will be lower. In the description of the labor connected with a B grade, I have indicated details we will need to negotiate as a class, and I will add to our final contract what we agree to as a class. Table 1 gathers the main components that are used to calculate your grade. To earn a grade of A, you will need to do additional work described in the portfolio assignment and in section on A Grades below. This contract draws heavily on the work of Asao Inoue.

Table 1. Break-down of labor that calculates final course grades

By staying in this course and attending class, you accept this contract and agree to live with it. I also agree to live with the contract and administer it fairly and equitably.

Contract Elements

Participation

Meeting the contract means attending and fully participating in at least 83 percent of our scheduled class sessions and their activities and assignments, which means you may miss (for whatever reason) 5 class sessions. Attendance is necessary for participation but not sufficient.

Negotiation. As a class, we need to figure out together what “participation” means and what it means for someone to be present but not get credit for participation. Part of our conversation about what it means to participate will involve a discussion of lateness. I start class on time. In most cases, I think one minute past our start time is late. Walking into class late a few times in a term is understandable. We will have to decide as a class when lateness becomes a problem for the class as a whole and/or for an individual. We can start by talking about the common practice of many teachers: coming in late 3 times constitutes an absence.

Collaboration

Meeting the contract means learning with and for others when we work in groups.

Negotiation. We will talk a bit about what we expect from each other in group work. I will use the norms to which we agree to develop some tools that helps us all see how we are contributing to collaborative work on an ongoing basis.

Feedback

While you do not have to adopt other people’s standards of excellence to meet the grading contract, you will need to listen carefully to and address your colleagues’ and my concerns in all your work of the class. This means that when you receive feedback, you agree to use that feedback to help you continually improve your texts and your writing process. While others’ judgments of your work will not determine your course grade, their judgements are important to your learning and development. As importantly, the feedback that you give others needs to help them improve their texts and writing processes. You will never be asked to fix some one else’s texts. Your responses will need to be detailed and make effective use of the ideas about composing that we develop in the course.

Complete Assignments

Meeting the grading contract means submitting complete assignments. Here’s what that means across the board:

• Assignments. Each assignment description includes evaluative criteria that explain what a complete assignment includes. Assignments need to be submitted on time, and they need to be completed in the spirit and manner asked.
• Revisions. When the job is to revise your thinking and work, you will reshape, extend, complicate, or substantially clarify your ideas—or relate your ideas to new things. You won’t just correct, edit, or touch up. Revisions must somehow respond to or consider seriously feedback in order to be revisions.
• Presentations and portfolios. When the job is for the final publication of a text, your work needs to meet the basic expectations in our rubrics. Presentations and portfolios that do not meet basic expectations will be considered incomplete.

Late Assignments

Meeting the contract means turning in all assigned work on time and complete. We all depend on each of us submitting work on time so that the rest of us—including me—can do our work on time. Late assignments really are missed assignments.

Negotiation. We will decide together what the difference is between a late assignment and a missed assignment. We can start with a common teacher practice: in order for an assignment to be considered “late,” it still must be turned within two days of its initial due date. Of course, it needs to be complete. This rule of thumb may require that a late assignment is turned in on a day we do not meet, including a weekend. We may also decide that late assignments may not receive feedback if that feedback was scheduled to be developed before the late assignment was submitted.

Missed Assignments

Meeting the contract means that you will not miss any assignments. A missed assignment is one that you do not turn in on time or late. Maybe you turn it in more than two days late, maybe you turn it in on time and get feedback that you need to resubmit it and never do. In order to meet our contract for a “B” grade, you cannot have any missed assignments. Assignments that you never turn in are not missed assignments. They are ignored assignments.

Ignored Assignments

Meeting the contract means that you turn in assignments. If you choose to ignore an assignment, you are working for a C. If you ignore two assignments, you are working for a D. Three, and you will fail the course. If you ignore the portfolio, you will fail the course.

Plea

The instructor, as the administrator of the contract, will decide in consultation with a student whether a plea is warranted in any case. The student must come to the instructor as soon as possible, usually before the student is unable to meet the contract, in order that the student and the teacher can make fair and equitable arrangements, ones that will be fair and equitable to all in the class and still meet the university’s regulations on attendance, conduct, and workload in classes. A student may use a plea for any reason, but only once in the semester. Please keep in mind that the contract is a public, social contract, one agreed upon through group discussion and negotiation, so the instructor’s job is to make sure that whatever each plea is not unfair to others in class. A plea is not an escape clause for a student who happens not to fulfill the contract in some way; it is for rare and unusual circumstances out of the control of the student.

B Grades

You are guaranteed a course grade of “B” if you meet all of the requirements described above.

A Grades

All grades in this course depend upon how much labor you do. If you do all that is asked of you in the manner and spirit asked, and meet the guidelines laid out in Table 1, then you get a B course grade. Grades of A require doing more substantial work on the essays which become part of our final portfolio. You earn a B if you put in good time and effort, do all the work, and turn in an acceptable portfolio. To earn an A you need to do more work on your portfolio essays, specifically more work with content, critical thinking, and development (see the assignment sheet and draft portfolio rubric for details).

Grades Lower Than B

I hope no one will aim for lower grades. You can earn a lower grade by missing classes, not turning in things on time, turning in incomplete work, or attending class without work in hand. This much is nonnegotiable: you are not eligible for a grade of “B” unless you have attended at least 83% of the class sessions and met the guidelines above. Notice that you cannot just turn in all the late work at the end of the semester. If you are missing classes and starting to turn in assignments late or not at all, please stay in touch with me about your chances of passing the course.

References