Non-negotiable Requirements for Essays
The requirements below are non-negotiable; that means that they are absolutely required for all formal writing assignments for my courses, even if they do not appear elsewhere on an assignment prompt or in a grading rubric. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in mandatory deductions from the overall grade on essays.
- Papers must have titles and follow submission guidelines exactly. Penalty: paper returned unread and counted late.
- Papers must be formatted correctly. Specifically, they must be double spaced without extra lines between paragraphs. Penalty: paper returned unread and counted late.
- Titles of literary works must be properly punctuated. Penalty: more than two such errors in a paper will result in the deduction of 1/3 of a letter grade.
- Students must distinguish between the plural and possessive properly using apostrophes. Penalty: more than two such errors in a paper will result in the deduction of 1/3 of a letter grade.
- Essays must be within 50 words of required minimum length (for 800+ word assignments). Penalty: loss of one letter grade.
- At least 2/3 of the total number of sentences in a paper must be free of mechanical, grammar and spelling errors. Penalty: the paper will not receive a grade higher than a D.
- The paper must be a minimum of six paragraphs long, unless otherwise specified in the essay assignment prompt. Penalty: the paper will not receive a grade higher than a D.
- Failure to cite details from primary or secondary sources. Penalty: maximum grade on such a paper is a D, and that grade is only possible if the paper has not violated the Honor Code.
- Failure to use direct quotations from the literary text that is the subject of a paper. A paper on a literary work must use the words of that work to support the argument. Penalty: the paper will not receive a grade higher than a 50%.
- The use of ChatGPT or any other AI / bot to compose any assignment, in part or in full, will be considered academic dishonesty in this course.