Writing Program Policies

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All instructors are required to direct their students to the following policies, which are printed in the First-Year Portfolio and Guidebook (11-13, 21) and AWD Toolkit (13-15).

Attendance

Writing Program policy requires regular attendance at class meetings. Students are allowed three unexcused absences, i.e., class cuts, in classes that meet for three days a week; they are allowed two unexcused absences in classes that meet for two days. During the summer sessions, students are allowed two unexcused absences. Please see pages 14-15 of the Undergraduate Catalog for University policy regarding attendance requirements and excused absences.

After the two or three cuts, the final grade may be severely affected.

Students also have the right to a limited number of excused absences due to a religious observance, illness, a death in the family, required participation in athletic events, or other equally serious and unavoidable life circumstances. These will not count as cuts if a student can provide a doctor’s note or prescription, a note from a coach, or other similar written evidence. A missed class, excused or not, does not exempt a student from the assigned work for that day.

Because writing classes are conducted workshop-style and focus on revision, the student who misses too many class meetings or falls too far behind in making up work, even with a legitimate excuse, is not earning credit for the same course as the rest of the class. In that case, the instructor may ask the student to withdraw rather than fail the course. Moreover, if a student regularly comes late to class meetings, the instructor may begin to count such tardiness as a class cut.

Writing Course Grades

A student must receive a grade of C or better in order to pass all required writing courses in the Department of English. (C or better is necessary for graduation.) No C- or D grades are allowed in required writing courses. If a student’s work in a required writing course is not up to the level of C, that student will receive a U grade, and repeat the course.

An F grade indicates that the student has not fulfilled the requirements of the course as specified in the course syllabus.

A U grade indicates that the student has made an effort and has met all the requirements as specified, but is not writing at C level or above. In effect, repeating the course with a U grade gives the student more time to work on her or his writing.

The instructor makes the final decision with respect to the final grade, if a passing grade. However, the decision of U or F—versus passing—is shared by an assessment group of three to four instructors at the Writing Programs’ end-of-term portfolio review.

Assessment and Placement (for First-Year Writing Courses Only)

Each student in ENG 111 writes a short essay on the first day of class in order to insure that ENG 111 is the right course for her or him. The instructor reads the essay in consultation with the Director of the First-Year Writing Program and the Director of the Writing Programs, and all three readers decide if the student should remain in the course, or if she or he should be placed in a more appropriate course or courses, such as ENG 110 plus ENG 111 (a “stretch” version of ENG 111 for students who need more time to work on their writing), or in ENG 101 and/or ENG 102 (for students whose first or strongest language is not English). For more information about assessment and placement, see Course Placement

Portfolios

All students in writing courses at Northeastern should keep all of their written work for the semester in a notebook or portfolio. This includes homework, in-class writing, rough drafts, and final drafts.

Permissions

Part of the work of the Writing Programs Committee in the Department of English is to insure that students receive consistency in instruction and grading. In order to achieve this goal of consistency and fairness, all instructors attend workshops to discuss assignments, classroom work, and grading. We often use student papers to discuss grading. We request permission from all students to use their papers in such workshops.

We retype the papers and remove names and any clues to identity before discussing the papers. It is an anonymous process.

Please fill out the Permissions Form from the Forms section of the Portfolio and Guidebook (95) or AWD Toolkit (57) and sign it, indicating whether you are willing (or not) to allow us to read your papers in a pedagogical workshop.

Blackboard and Northeastern University [neu] E-mail

All students in First-Year Writing classes must use their neu e-mail addresses in order o receive e-mail from their instructors and to access Blackboard sites for their writing courses.

Classroom Etiquette

Students are expected to behave with respect in the classroom, both to each other and to the instructor. Inappropriate language or tone of voice, interruptions, dominating class discussion, and other behaviors that might impede the creation of a safe and comfortable learning environment will not be tolerated, and could result in an instructor's dropping a student from a class, as well as a referral to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution.

Academic Honesty

Northeastern University is committed to the principles of intellectual honesty and integrity and to respecting intellectual property. All members of the Northeastern community are expected to maintain complete honesty in all academic work, presenting only that which is their own work in tests and assignments. In required writing classes, this definition of plagiarism applies not only to borrowing whole documents (other students’ papers, internet articles, published articles) but also to borrowing parts of another’s work without proper acknowledgment and proper paraphrasing or quotation. While we expect that students will receive feedback on their writing from their instructors, peers, and, in some cases, tutors, students bear the responsibility for writing, revising, editing, and proofreading their own work.

All students in writing classes in the Department of English must go to the Writing Programs’ Definitions of Plagiarism and read the first three linked documents on plagiarism, and, after class discussion, sign the Academic Honesty Agreement attesting that they have had a chance to review guidelines on plagiarism, and that they understand such guidelines.

If a student is found to have plagiarized, that student will be given an F for the course.