An overview of each of these activities with details on how they are graded is included on the relevant tabs on this page. Complete descriptions and instructions for assignments are on the individual assignment pages, which you can access within each module. Due dates for all assignments will be indicated on the course schedule and on assignment pages. Please view the information included in all of the tabs here to learn all of the policies and practices related to the work you will do in this course.

Your grade in this course is weighted, based on the kinds of work you do, as shown in the table below and the pie chart on the right:

General Grading Details

• All work and participation in this course is governed by the  Undergraduate Honor System.
• Every assignment in this course is worth 100 points.
• All submissions in this course are due by 11:59 on their designated days (see individual assignments).
• I do not round grades.
• The Grades tool in Canvas calculates your grade and will have the current grade you have earned in the course.
• I use the default Virginia Tech grade scale for Letter Grades with +/- for the course grade (shown below).
• I will grade your work as soon as reasonably possible. More details are included on the tabs for the different kinds of activities.
• I do not provide extra credit for people who have not met satisfactory performance goals.

Virginia Tech Grade Scale for Letter Grades with +/-

Questions about Your Grade(s)

If you have questions/concerns/issues with your grade(s), please send me a private message using the Canvas Inbox as soon as you can. Remember that to protect your privacy, I only discuss grades in the Canvas Inbox.

Project Portfolios 1 and 2

Your Project Portfolios are worth 25% of your course grade each, for a total of 50%. These portfolios are collections of the original writing that you do in the course, such as memos and reports. The details on the projects included in your portfolios are explained in the assignment pages.

Grading Strategy

I grade the items in your portfolio using a system based on how your work will be assessed in the workplace. No supervisor will grade your writing in the workplace. Instead, your supervisor will either say, “Yes, this is ready to use,” or “No, you need to revise this before we can use it.”

The rubric for each portfolio lists the different projects you will complete and two levels:

• Ready to Go in the rubric means the item is ready to use in the workplace.
• Not Ready in the rubric means that the item is not ready to use in the workplace.

If all of the items in your portfolio are “Ready to Go,” you will earn a 100 for your portfolio. If you have work that is not “Ready to Go,” there is no reason to worry. Just as work is treated in the workplace, if your portfolio is returned with items that are not ready, you can revise and resubmit. It’s like a “do over” in a game. There is no penalty at all. The system is set up so that everyone in the course has the opportunity to earn a 100 for each of the two portfolios. You can certainly accept a lower grade if you like, but that decision is yours.

There are two guidelines to keep in mind:

• All revisions must be submitted by November 30. University policy stipulates that no projects can be due during the last week of classes.
• If you do not submit an item, you may not revise it. For instance, if you skipped writing something, you earn no points. Unlimited revision is not meant to support people who never did the work in the first place.

General Project Guidelines

To receive the full number of points, the items in your portfolio must meet these requirements:

• Is a polished and professional document that makes a good first impression.
• Includes all the required information and document sections.
• Is well-developed in terms of content, with effective details, examples, and evidence to support all assertions.
• Uses reader-friendly words, phrases, and structure.
• Uses document design principles to organize information and make it easy to read.
• Uses accurate/appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and formatting.
• Use a standard documentation style to cite any work from which you borrow material, including the readings.

Peer Feedback

Your Peer Feedback work is worth 10% of your course grade. You will work in an online writing group to give and receive constructive feedback on the writing projects in your portfolio. You will share drafts of your project, give one another support and feedback, and help one another keep on track in the course.

What Does Formative Feedback Look Like

We’ve all had the experience of receiving feedback that didn’t really help us improve our work. The information may have been too vague, or it may have focused on the wrong things. Worse, the readers may have been afraid to hurt our feelings, so they didn’t tell us much of anything at all.

Our goal is to make sure feedback in this course is always helpful by focusing on formative feedback (rather than summative feedback). Let’s begin with some definitions:

One widely-used analogy explains the difference between these two kinds of feedback this way: A chef is using formative assessment when she tastes a dish while cooking to decide if she needs to add anything more. Diners are using summative assessment when they taste the finished dishes and share their comments.

In your writing group, you are helping one another form and improve the project. You won’t make judgments of quality; you will focus on comments that help the others in the group strengthen their projects by giving detailed and constructive feedback.

Grading Strategy

I grade your peer review work based on completion, using two general questions:

• Did the person submit a draft for the item to their writing group?
• Did the person respond constructively to the drafts of all group members?

If the answer to both questions is “Yes,” you will earn a Complete (signified by a checkmark in Canvas Grades). If the answer to either question is “No,” you will earn an Incomplete (signified by an X in Canvas Grades). Peer Feedback is graded after the Grace Period (see the Late Policy tab) ends, and it cannot be revised or completed after the Grace Period.

Quizzes and the Final Exam

Quizzes are worth 15% of your course grade, and the Final Exam is worth 10% of your course grade. The quizzes and final exam are (typically) multiple-choice and true-false tests that come from textbook readings. There may occasionally be short answer quizzes, if needed.

• Each Quiz covers a specific chapter from the textbook. Quizzes are open book with no time limit. They must be completed in one sitting (in other words, you cannot save your work and come back later to finish it).
• The Final Exam is comprehensive, covering all of the textbook readings. It is open book and must be completed within 2 hours maximum. It too must be completed in one sitting.

One technical note: Please empty your cache before taking a quiz or the final exam.  Your quiz or final exam may time out unexpectedly if you do not.

Grading Strategy

You will receive immediate grades on multiple-choice and true-false quizzes and on the final exam. Correct answers will be released after the end of the Grace Period (see the Late Policy tab). I will grade short answer quizzes, if used, after the end of the Grace Period.

The lowest Quiz grade is dropped. There are no redos and no make-ups for Quizzes nor for the Final Exam.

Participation

Participation is worth 15% of your course grade. In a face-to-face classroom, your participation grade would be based on the ideas you contribute to class discussions, including how often you share ideas and how much your ideas contribute to the conversation.

Since this course meets entirely online, your participation will be based on the ideas you contribute to posts in Piazza. Just as it works in the face-to-face classroom, your grade will be based on how often you share ideas and on how much your posts, comments, and follow-ups contribute to the conversation.

There are two kinds of posts in Piazza:

• Posts You Add: You can add your own questions and notes—just be sure they are relevant to Technical Writing. You can share resources that you find, such as videos, infographics, and recent news stories.
• Posts I Add: Every Tuesday through Saturday during the course, I’ll post advice articles, how-to webpages, relevant infographics, and other resources. Everyone should read through Discussion Posts, especially since they frequently relate directly to the projects you are working on.

You can comment, make suggestions, and add follow-ups to either kind of post. You are particularly encouraged to answer questions that others in the class ask. Be sure to respond with significant, well-explained comments. This is not the place for “yeah, I agree” or “me too” kinds of comments. Instead, aim to contribute ideas, engage with others, and extend the conversation.

Discussion Guidelines

Your posts in Piazza may be informal, but they should be clearly written. If your readers cannot figure out what you mean, you are not contributing to the class discussion. Beyond that, feel free to be yourself. It’s perfectly fine to have some fun as we talk about technical writing, but do try to stay on topic.

As is the case with all the work that you do in this course, your participation in Piazza is expected to Virginia Tech’s Principles of Community. Please be polite, supportive, and thoughtful.

Grading Strategy

You have control over your Participation grade, though you must to honest as you assess yourself of course. At the end of each week, you report on how you have participated in the class conversations in Participation Self-Assessments These self-assessments will use the Quiz tool in Canvas (but they are NOT quizzes). You will indicate what you have read, what you have replied to, and how you have participated in the class conversation. Your Participation Self-Assessments are automatically graded in Canvas.

Generally speaking, this table shows what you need to do to reach the goal you set for your participation grade each week:

The number of points and relevant activities may fluctuate during the term, but the information in the table above will typically match the points in your Participation Self-Assessment. I will, of course, spot check your responses against the messages and statistics in Piazza.

Optional Course Participation Self-Assessment

At the end of the term, you will have the opportunity to review your work and write an overall evaluation of your participation in the course, using a rubric to guide your analysis. With this rubric, you will examine your participation for timeliness, collaboration, significance to the discussion, synthesis of course ideas, and appropriate, professional tone.

Your Course Participation Self-Assessment will count as a weekly participation grade. It is an optional activity. The lowest weekly Participation Self-Assessment grade is dropped. If you are satisfied with the grade you have for Participation, you do not need to complete the Course Participation Self-Assessment.

Summary of Grade Info

The information posted here summarizes the details included on the tabs for each class activity. The idea here is that you can find the information quickly and easily, without having to read through the whole page.

Late Policy

My late policy includes a grace period that should cover most problems that come up, whether academic conflicts, an illness, a religious holiday, or a personal issue. It applies to all graded work and can be used multiple times. You do not need to ask in advance or explain why your work is late. Just take advantage of the grace period, as explained below, for any work OTHER than your final exam:

• The due date is the day that your work is due. Every student has a 3-day grace period after the due date during which the project can still be submitted.
• The grace period occurs between the due date and the deadline. Work submitted during the grace period will be marked as late in Canvas; however, there is no grade penalty for work submitted during the grace period.
• The deadline comes 3 days after the due date and is the final moment that Canvas will accept a project (listed as the “available until” date in Canvas). There are no extensions on deadlines. If you do not turn in your work by the end of the grace period, you receive a zero for that activity, and you cannot revise. Unlimited, punishment-free revisions are NOT intended to support those who never did the work in the first place.

Final Exam: There is no grace period or make-up option for your final exam. Your final exam must be submitted by the due date (11:59 PM on Wednesday, December 12) so that I can turn course grades in on time. If you have three exams on Wednesday, December 12, let me know and we can make alternative arrangement.

In the case of extenuating circumstances, let me know immediately. I understand that things happen. As long as you are honest and timely in letting me know what’s going on, we can try to work something out.

An overview of each of these activities with details on how they are graded is included on the relevant tabs on this page. Complete descriptions and instructions for assignments are on the individual assignment pages, which you can access within each module. Due dates for all assignments will be indicated on the course schedule and on assignment pages. Please view the information included in all of the tabs here to learn all of the policies and practices related to the work you will do in this course.

Your grade in this course is weighted, based on the kinds of work you do, as shown in the table below and the pie chart on the right:

General Grading Details

• All work and participation in this course is governed by the  Undergraduate Honor System.
• Every assignment in this course is worth 100 points.
• All submissions in this course are due by 11:59 on their designated days (see individual assignments).
• I do not round grades.
• The Grades tool in Canvas calculates your grade and will have the current grade you have earned in the course.
• I use the default Virginia Tech grade scale for Letter Grades with +/- for the course grade (shown below).
• I will grade your work as soon as reasonably possible. More details are included on the tabs for the different kinds of activities.
• I do not provide extra credit for people who have not met satisfactory performance goals.

Virginia Tech Grade Scale for Letter Grades with +/-

Questions about Your Grade(s)

If you have questions/concerns/issues with your grade(s), please send me a private message using the Canvas Inbox as soon as you can. Remember that to protect your privacy, I only discuss grades in the Canvas Inbox.

Project Portfolios 1 and 2

Your Project Portfolios are worth 25% of your course grade each, for a total of 50%. These portfolios are collections of the original writing that you do in the course, such as memos and reports. The details on the projects included in your portfolios are explained in the assignment pages.

Grading Strategy

I grade the items in your portfolio using a system based on how your work will be assessed in the workplace. No supervisor will grade your writing in the workplace. Instead, your supervisor will either say, “Yes, this is ready to use,” or “No, you need to revise this before we can use it.”

The rubric for each portfolio lists the different projects you will complete and two levels:

• Ready to Go in the rubric means the item is ready to use in the workplace.
• Not Ready in the rubric means that the item is not ready to use in the workplace.

If all of the items in your portfolio are “Ready to Go,” you will earn a 100 for your portfolio. If you have work that is not “Ready to Go,” there is no reason to worry. Just as work is treated in the workplace, if your portfolio is returned with items that are not ready, you can revise and resubmit. It’s like a “do over” in a game. There is no penalty at all. The system is set up so that everyone in the course has the opportunity to earn a 100 for each of the two portfolios. You can certainly accept a lower grade if you like, but that decision is yours.

There are two guidelines to keep in mind:

• All revisions must be submitted by November 30. University policy stipulates that no projects can be due during the last week of classes.
• If you do not submit an item, you may not revise it. For instance, if you skipped writing something, you earn no points. Unlimited revision is not meant to support people who never did the work in the first place.

General Project Guidelines

To receive the full number of points, the items in your portfolio must meet these requirements:

• Is a polished and professional document that makes a good first impression.
• Includes all the required information and document sections.
• Is well-developed in terms of content, with effective details, examples, and evidence to support all assertions.
• Uses reader-friendly words, phrases, and structure.
• Uses document design principles to organize information and make it easy to read.
• Uses accurate/appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and formatting.
• Use a standard documentation style to cite any work from which you borrow material, including the readings.

Peer Feedback

Your Peer Feedback work is worth 10% of your course grade. You will work in an online writing group to give and receive constructive feedback on the writing projects in your portfolio. You will share drafts of your project, give one another support and feedback, and help one another keep on track in the course.

What Does Formative Feedback Look Like

We’ve all had the experience of receiving feedback that didn’t really help us improve our work. The information may have been too vague, or it may have focused on the wrong things. Worse, the readers may have been afraid to hurt our feelings, so they didn’t tell us much of anything at all.

Our goal is to make sure feedback in this course is always helpful by focusing on formative feedback (rather than summative feedback). Let’s begin with some definitions:

One widely-used analogy explains the difference between these two kinds of feedback this way: A chef is using formative assessment when she tastes a dish while cooking to decide if she needs to add anything more. Diners are using summative assessment when they taste the finished dishes and share their comments.

In your writing group, you are helping one another form and improve the project. You won’t make judgments of quality; you will focus on comments that help the others in the group strengthen their projects by giving detailed and constructive feedback.

Grading Strategy

I grade your peer review work based on completion, using two general questions:

• Did the person submit a draft for the item to their writing group?
• Did the person respond constructively to the drafts of all group members?

If the answer to both questions is “Yes,” you will earn a Complete (signified by a checkmark in Canvas Grades). If the answer to either question is “No,” you will earn an Incomplete (signified by an X in Canvas Grades). Peer Feedback is graded after the Grace Period (see the Late Policy tab) ends, and it cannot be revised or completed after the Grace Period.

Quizzes and the Final Exam

Quizzes are worth 15% of your course grade, and the Final Exam is worth 10% of your course grade. The quizzes and final exam are (typically) multiple-choice and true-false tests that come from textbook readings. There may occasionally be short answer quizzes, if needed.

• Each Quiz covers a specific chapter from the textbook. Quizzes are open book with no time limit. They must be completed in one sitting (in other words, you cannot save your work and come back later to finish it).
• The Final Exam is comprehensive, covering all of the textbook readings. It is open book and must be completed within 2 hours maximum. It too must be completed in one sitting.

One technical note: Please empty your cache before taking a quiz or the final exam.  Your quiz or final exam may time out unexpectedly if you do not.

Grading Strategy

You will receive immediate grades on multiple-choice and true-false quizzes and on the final exam. Correct answers will be released after the end of the Grace Period (see the Late Policy tab). I will grade short answer quizzes, if used, after the end of the Grace Period.

The lowest Quiz grade is dropped. There are no redos and no make-ups for Quizzes nor for the Final Exam.

Participation

Participation is worth 15% of your course grade. In a face-to-face classroom, your participation grade would be based on the ideas you contribute to class discussions, including how often you share ideas and how much your ideas contribute to the conversation.

Since this course meets entirely online, your participation will be based on the ideas you contribute to posts in Piazza. Just as it works in the face-to-face classroom, your grade will be based on how often you share ideas and on how much your posts, comments, and follow-ups contribute to the conversation.

There are two kinds of posts in Piazza:

• Posts You Add: You can add your own questions and notes—just be sure they are relevant to Technical Writing. You can share resources that you find, such as videos, infographics, and recent news stories.
• Posts I Add: Every Tuesday through Saturday during the course, I’ll post advice articles, how-to webpages, relevant infographics, and other resources. Everyone should read through Discussion Posts, especially since they frequently relate directly to the projects you are working on.

You can comment, make suggestions, and add follow-ups to either kind of post. You are particularly encouraged to answer questions that others in the class ask. Be sure to respond with significant, well-explained comments. This is not the place for “yeah, I agree” or “me too” kinds of comments. Instead, aim to contribute ideas, engage with others, and extend the conversation.

Discussion Guidelines

Your posts in Piazza may be informal, but they should be clearly written. If your readers cannot figure out what you mean, you are not contributing to the class discussion. Beyond that, feel free to be yourself. It’s perfectly fine to have some fun as we talk about technical writing, but do try to stay on topic.

As is the case with all the work that you do in this course, your participation in Piazza is expected to Virginia Tech’s Principles of Community. Please be polite, supportive, and thoughtful.

Grading Strategy

You have control over your Participation grade, though you must to honest as you assess yourself of course. At the end of each week, you report on how you have participated in the class conversations in Participation Self-Assessments These self-assessments will use the Quiz tool in Canvas (but they are NOT quizzes). You will indicate what you have read, what you have replied to, and how you have participated in the class conversation. Your Participation Self-Assessments are automatically graded in Canvas.

Generally speaking, this table shows what you need to do to reach the goal you set for your participation grade each week:

The number of points and relevant activities may fluctuate during the term, but the information in the table above will typically match the points in your Participation Self-Assessment. I will, of course, spot check your responses against the messages and statistics in Piazza.

Optional Course Participation Self-Assessment

At the end of the term, you will have the opportunity to review your work and write an overall evaluation of your participation in the course, using a rubric to guide your analysis. With this rubric, you will examine your participation for timeliness, collaboration, significance to the discussion, synthesis of course ideas, and appropriate, professional tone.

Your Course Participation Self-Assessment will count as a weekly participation grade. It is an optional activity. The lowest weekly Participation Self-Assessment grade is dropped. If you are satisfied with the grade you have for Participation, you do not need to complete the Course Participation Self-Assessment.

Summary of Grade Info

The information posted here summarizes the details for each class activity. The idea here is that you can find the information quickly and easily.

Late Policy

My late policy includes a grace period that should cover most problems that come up, whether academic conflicts, an illness, a religious holiday, or a personal issue. It applies to all graded work and can be used multiple times. You do not need to ask in advance or explain why your work is late. Just take advantage of the grace period, as explained below, for any work OTHER than your final exam:

• The due date is the day that your work is due. Every student has a 3-day grace period after the due date during which the project can still be submitted.
• The grace period occurs between the due date and the deadline. Work submitted during the grace period will be marked as late in Canvas; however, there is no grade penalty for work submitted during the grace period.
• The deadline comes 3 days after the due date and is the final moment that Canvas will accept a project (listed as the “available until” date in Canvas). There are no extensions on deadlines. If you do not turn in your work by the end of the grace period, you receive a zero for that activity, and you cannot revise. Unlimited, punishment-free revisions are NOT intended to support those who never did the work in the first place.

Final Exam: There is no grace period or make-up option for your final exam. Your final exam must be submitted by the due date (11:59 PM on Wednesday, December 12) so that I can turn course grades in on time. If you have three exams on Wednesday, December 12, let me know and we can make alternative arrangement.

In the case of extenuating circumstances, let me know immediately. I understand that things happen. As long as you are honest and timely in letting me know what’s going on, we can try to work something out.