Policy Information for Students
English Composition Program

Course Organization

All instructors are required to distribute a printed syllabus to students on the first day of the course. This syllabus should clearly outline course objectives, required texts, grading standards, and a calendar of activities listing due dates for assignments. Instructors should clarify any subsequent adjustments in a revised syllabus. Students are responsible for following all policies included on course syllabi; in the case of information or policies that seem unclear, students should ask instructors for further explanation at the beginning of the semester.

Faculty Performance

Faculty evaluations are one means of gauging instructors' success in the classroom. The university asks students to complete a standardized evaluation form at the end of each term for each course. In addition, the writing program uses a narrative form which allows students to reflect in their own words (though anonymously) on the semester's learning experiences. The program coordinator carefully reads these evaluations, shares them with instructors, and sponsors individual and group activities that address faculty development needs.

Attendance

Because the composition classroom is a community of working writers who learn from each other and support each other's growth, it's important that students attend regularly. Consequently, the program has had a long-standing attendance policy: 6 absences from a course that meets twice weekly, or 3 absences from a course that meets once weekly can result in a failure. Instructors should print this policy in their syllabi.

Academic Integrity

The university code of student conduct prohibits academic cheating in any form, which includes plagiarism. Because plagiarism is often committed without full awareness of what it is, or why it's wrong, instructors in the Writing Program have a special responsibility to instruct students at every level of the composition sequence (but especially in ENG 102 and LIBS 201) in the "hows" and "whys" of academic integrity. In ENG 100, instructors should focus on how textual appropriation (commonly referred to as "quoting"), textual ownership (or "originality"), and collaboration function in academic writing. By the end of ENG 101, students should be able to work confidently and more or less correctly with two or more outside sources. ENG 102 and LIBS 201 emphasize synthesis, analysis, and accurate documentation of multiple published sources. At every point in the composition sequence, instructors should help students understand how "quotation" helps communities of writers create new knowledge, and how academic honesty protects the validity of the knowledge that writers create.
View the document Academic Integrity - A Guide for Students (Plagiarism Policy)

Office Hours

All instructors will hold one hour of office conferences per week for each section taught. Some also choose to schedule periodic conferences for all students in their sections. Each course syllabus should state where and when an instructor holds office hours, and should also specify how students may most easily contact their instructor in order to arrange individual meetings. All instructors have Roosevelt voicemail and email accounts.

Libraries

The downtown library is available for reserve material as well as for checking out material that may be useful for composition courses. The Robin campus library, by contrast, is largely online. Robin instructors and students may order materials for delivery from the downtown library via the van that runs between campuses several times per day.

The staff at both libraries is available for assistance with research and interlibrary loan (utilizing the Illinois-wide library network of which Roosevelt is a part). Students on both campuses should begin their research projects early in the term so that they can familiarize themselves with bibliographic resources and technologies, locate the best possible sources, and leave plenty of time for reading, reflection, and synthesis of materials.