ENG099: Advice for Success in This Class

On this page are various and sundry tips, warnings, and general advice for succeeding the ENG099. Most of them are common sense, but, well, we all know that common sense is usually neither common nor sensible J.

So, I present to you Advice for Success in ENG099

Do the Work

No, really. The single greatest impediment to success in any class is missing a significant portion of the work. Specifically:

It is always better to turn in any paper, no matter how incomplete or poorly written, than to turn in no paper. I allow one revision after the paper is graded. However, if you receive a "0" because the paper was not turned in, you cannot revise for a higher grade. So even a failing paper is better than no paper.
Activities like peer workshops and on-class discussions are (a) not optional - you must do them, and (b) good ways to improve your grade, as you tend to get more consideration for effort on these than on your papers.
Deadlines and late assignment policies will be enforced.

Come to Class

Again, really. Last semester, I had no less than 5 students in each section fail based on absences and tardies. Specifically:

I don't know any other way to put this except to say that the attendance policy will be enforced.
That includes the part about two tardies equally an absence. Those add up fast. And believe me when I tell you that few things irritate a teacher more than people walking in ten minutes after class has started.
When I say there is no difference between an "excused" and an "unexcused" absence, I mean it. It really doesn't matter why you're not here, only that you aren't. I have the utmost sympathy for the demands of life, but in the end, you simply have to be here to fulfill the course requirements.
Any breaks or off days encompass exactly the days listed on the schedule. They do not encompass the day before or the day after. If you choose to leave early for Thanksgiving, or return late, that is your decision, and special arrangements will not be made for your absence. Please note that Parkland's Thanksgiving Break is only Thursday and Friday.

Take Advantage of the Help Available

Parkland College offers a tremendous amount of help for all students. We want you to succeed. Take advantage of it. Specifically:

I collect rough drafts of every paper and comment on them. The more complete your draft is, the more help I can give you in making it the best it can be. Also, keep in mind that I will be the one assessing the final product. Who better to give you advice on how to make it more successful?
I have four hours of office hours a week, plus I am here all the time. I am always happy to discuss your paper with you, help you brainstorm, talk about ideas, or read a draft. Please note that my office hours are set aside for you: even if I'm working on something, come in and ask for help.
The Writing Center is located in the Learning Lab in D133. Drop-in help with papers is available at all stages of the writing process. Be sure to bring a copy of the assignment with you.
The Learning Lab offers one-on-one for credit tutorial assistance. Look into signing up for some time. This is especially useful if you have grammatical problems that need extra help.
The Academic Development Center can also offer extra assistance, including computer programs that will help with grammatical issues.

Use Technology Wisely and Well

We will be using the computers most class days. This can be both a benefit and a drawback. You will need to learn both the take advantage of the benefits and account for the drawbacks. Specifically:

If you are not yet comfortable using email, begin using it more until you are comfortable. Please feel free to come by my office for a tutorial. We will be using email frequently, and it has other benefits as well, including easy back-up of your work.
Write down the address to our course web page, and get in the habit of calling it up as soon as you sit down in the classroom.
The course web page can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer. Get in the habit of checking the schedule frequently, both to remind yourself of important assignment dates, and to check for changes.
The most common problem people run into with technology is losing work, either because they forgot to save their writing, or because something happened to the disk they saved it on (those 3.5 floppies that we all use to save work? They are remarkably fragile things. They corrupt if exposed to magnets. They corrupt if bent in any way. They corrupt for no immediately obvious reason at all.) Get used to saving your work in multiple ways, including printing out drafts after significant revisions. One of my favorite "tricks" was obtaining a second web-based email account (Yahoo or Hotmail) and emailing the documents as attachments.
The computers at Parkland have Microsoft Word as the dominant word processor. Most DO NOT have Microsoft Works, which is the word processor that currently comes bundled with Windows. Because Microsoft is Evil, these two programs are not cross-compatible. If you save a document in the default Works format, you will not be able to call it up in Word. We will go over in class how to save documents so as to be able to call them up, but it will be your responsibility to make sure you do so.
Use spellcheck programs with caution. Don't just choose a word at random: look the word up to make sure you are using the correct word.
Don't use grammarcheck programs at all. The frequently make more mistakes than they fix.