ENL 3251 VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Dr. C. Snodgrass, 4336 Turlington, 376-8362, snod@english.ufl.edu

COURSE RULES AND POLICY

EACH STUDENT WILL BE HELD TO THE SAME STANDARDS AND REQUIREMENTS (no special pleading, please).

I. ATTENDANCE:

(1)  Prompt attendance is mandatory.  You need to attend class, and you need to be on time for those class periods.  If you take more than three hours of unexcused cuts (i.e., the equivalent of one week's classes), your final grade will be reduced one-third of a letter grade for each class period cut over the three-hour limit.  PLEASE DON'T MISS CLASS!

IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING THAT IS SAID IN CLASS, PLEASE ASK !! I much prefer that you speak up and are wrong than for you not to speak at all.  THERE IS NO PENALTY IN THIS COURSE FOR WRONG ANSWERS DURING CLASS SESSIONS.

II.WRITTEN WORK:

If not otherwise instructed, you will be expected to have read the entire assigned reading for the week by the first class session dealing with that new material.

Since this is an upper-level English course, you are naturally expected to produce written work that is relatively free of grammatical/punctuation errors.  All written work should be thoroughly proofread for misspelling and typographical errors.  Therefore, any paper containing a number of basic-grammar or punctuation errors will suffer a substantial reduction in the grade it might have received on content alone. PLEASE PROOFREAD!

III. DEADLINES:

All work must be turned in on time.  A paper will be considered late if it is not turned in during the class session it is due.  NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. You will receive a zero for that assignment.

IV. "DEATH PENALTY" FOR CHEATING:

My job is, among other things, to teach you how to reason clearly and precisely.  Dishonest shortcuts defeat that purpose and ultimately corrupt potentially disciplined minds.  So my approach to cheating is brutally simple:  The first time you are caught cheating in any form, you fail the course.  No second chances.  No excuses.

One of the most common and most misunderstood ways of cheating is plagiarism, which is broader than just copying someone else’s thoughts word for word.  You should certainly take advantage of the expertise of gifted scholars, but that does not mean that you can steal their ideas, which is what you are doing if you pass off someone else’s points as your own — no matter how much you may have reworded, reworked, or otherwise disguised the source. 

V. SEEK HELP AND ADVICE:

I am here to help you learn from this course.  I HOPE YOU WILL FEEL FREE TO SPEAK WITH ME AT ANY TIME BEFORE CLASS, AFTER CLASS, DURING MY OFFICE HOURS, OR BY APPOINTMENT — PARTICULARLY (AND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE) IF YOU ARE HAVING ANY PROBLEM.

My office is in 4336 Turlington Hall.  My scheduled OFFICE HOURS this term (except when the inevitable unexpected contingencies intervene) will be during 10th period (5:10 PM—6:00 pm) on Tuesdays and 8th (3:00—3:50 pm) and 10th period (5:10 PM—6:00 pm) on Thursdays.  If you find that you cannot see me during my office hours and aren’t able to talk to me shortly before or after class, please telephone (best) or e-mail me.  And, of course, as a last resort, we can try to set up an appointment for a mutually agreeable time to meet other than my normal office hours.

I am happy to make accommodations for students with disabilities.  However, please note that University of Florida policy mandates the following procedure:  “Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office.  The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.” 

When all else fails, take a deep breath, concentrate, and don't forget that real learning is fun.  So work hard, but also BE SURE TO MAKE IT FUN FOR YOURSELF!