Policies

Email is the best way to contact me outside of class if you have questions or concerns.

Likewise, there may be instances when I will need to contact you by email. It is your responsibility to check your Emory-based email account at least once every 24 hours.

Generally, I will respond to all student email within 24 hours (although on weekends and holidays, it may take a little longer).

We will meet very frequently individually and in small groups over the course of the semester.  There will be times when I will ask the entire class to sign up to meet with me to discuss particular assignments, but you are also always free to request additional meetings with me whenever you’d like to do so. You can use this web form to sign up for a 30 minute appointment with me whenever is most convenient for you. If there isn’t anything available in a suitable time frame or if you have some specific need, don’t hesitate to send me an email and we can make separate arrangements.

Expect to meet with me at least two or three times outside of class over the course of the semester.

Life’s too short. Are you familiar with that truism? A semester really is too short a time to cover all this material unless we’re each here, contributing to a discussion on each of the topics we’ll cover. And, due to the ongoing pandemic and other challenging circumstances in the world and in each of our lives, more of us are getting sick more frequently these days.

If you are sick or facing other challenges, understand that I will be flexible about attendance. Please make sure to email me so that we can discuss your individual circumstances. I make no distinction between excused and unexcused absences, so no documentation or excuse is required for an absence, but a conversation or email with me is a good idea so that we can make sure we're on the same page and that you're managing the needs for the class.

All of that said, our time together is important. The flexibility around absences makes it even more important that you attend each and every class session when you can — honor the importance of what we do together by being present and engaged as much as is possible.

Readings are listed on the course schedule on the day they are due. Please come to class having carefully completed the assigned readings. If it becomes apparent that y’all as a class have not done the reading, or have not paid close attention to the reading, I will institute quizzes.

As you are reading, think about how you can demonstrate that you have paid close attention to the text. What questions do you have after reading? What conclusions can you come to about the purpose of the text? How does the text reinforce, influence, or challenge what you think about the ideas we have been discussing in class? When you are assigned text readings, you should also annotate your text with your thoughts. Do not simply highlight. Instead, write down your understanding of what is happening on the page; underline passages that are important; write questions next to passages that you don’t understand or don’t agree with. If you don’t want to write in your book, write on sticky-notes to serve the same purpose. In-text note taking will be very valuable in writing your quests, as your ideas and thoughts are suddenly much easier to recall, find, and use in your writing.

Participation means more than simply being physically (or even virtually) present – it means coming to class with the assigned reading completed and being ready to contribute in a thoughtful and respectful manner to discussion, peer editing, or other in-class assignments. You should have whatever text we’re discussing that day and any other necessary materials with you in class to refer to during discussions.

To receive full credit for class participation you must contribute actively and regularly to class discussions in an informed and constructive manner. Participation also includes taking part in the asynchronous parts of the class by writing posts on your site, completing sketch assignments in a timely and thoughtful manner, commenting on your peers’ writing, taking an active part in collaborative writing tasks in Google docs or other writing spaces.

I expect students to take their work seriously, to come to class prepared and willing to participate, and to treat peers and their ideas with respect.

Since we are composing multimodally throughout the course, you are encouraged to bring to class and operate laptops, tablets, and/or smart phones. I encourage you to develop best practices for negotiating among virtual communities and the real time of the classroom — and we will spend time reading, thinking, and discussing how to deal mindfully with the distractions presented to us via our electronic tools.

Fundamentally, I will expect you to remain attentive to and respectful of your peers and me while at the same time engaging with digital resources.

Conferences, lectures and other classroom presentations presented through video conferencing and materials posted on Canvas are for the sole purpose of educating the students enrolled in the course. The release of such information (including but not limited to directly sharing, screen capturing, or recording content) is strictly prohibited, unless the instructor states otherwise. It is also strictly prohibited to record in person class sessions without explicit permission from me. Doing so without the permission of the instructor will be considered an Honor Code violation, and may also be a violation of state or federal law, such as the Copyright Act. All University policies remain in effect for students participating in remote education.

Anything I post here on the class website is obviously free for you to link to or make use of on your own public sites.

The Assignments pages will include descriptions of the major assignments for the semester. In addition, you will have frequent, shorter and generally less formal, writing assignments which are posted on the site under the heading of sketch assignments.

It is vital that you keep up with these as they are assigned. They help prepare you for class, provide you with skills that you'll build upon in future assignments, and give you practice opportunities for writing, critical reading, and thinking. If you know you will be absent, you should post your assignment early.

All work is due on the date and at the time specified on the calendar. There is usually a fair amount of flexibility already built into those due dates. I will deduct points for late work if you haven't spoken to me in advance to make some arrangement.

If something comes up and you cannot get a major assignment completed on time, please email or speak with me as early as possible to make arrangements. If you contact me in advance, I will do my best to be reasonable and to work with you to come up with a solution that allows you to succeed while remaining fair to the rest of the class and meeting my needs as the instructor of the course. If you email me 10 minutes before an assignment is due, or 3 hours after it’s due, I am much less likely to be able to make such accommodations.

Please consider all writing for this class to be “public.” Part of becoming an effective writer is learning to appreciate the ideas and feedback of others. In this course, our purpose is to come together as a writing community. Avoid writing about topics that you wish to keep private or that you feel so strongly about that you are unwilling to listen to the perspectives of others.

When I return a graded assignment to you, I request that you read my comments about your work carefully and wait 24 hours before coming to speak with me about your grade. I have found that asking for this “cooling-off” period results in more productive discussions about graded work.

The Emory Writing Center (EWC) is open year-round to support writers (students, staff, and faculty) in Emory College, the Laney Graduate School, the School of Nursing, and the Medical Imaging Program. We offer one-on-one remote and in-person tutoring for writers working on a range of composition projects (essays, applications, reports, theses, etc.), at any stage of the writing process (from brainstorming to final revisions). Writing Center tutors work on idea development, structure, use of sources, style, grammar, and more. We are not a proofreading or editing service, but rather offer strategies and resources writers can use as they compose, revise, and edit their own work. Tutors also support the literacy needs of English Language Learners (ELL); several tutors are trained ELL Specialists. The Writing Center is located in Callaway N111 and a maximum of two appointments are allowed each week.

You can learn more about the Emory Writing Center and make an appointment on our website. Our opening day each semester is set one week after the add/drop/swap deadline, to allow for our tutors to finalize their schedules. Please review our policies before your first appointment, including our new policy on inclusivity and respect.

General policies

Policy on inclusivity and respect

As a student, you may experience a range of challenges that can interfere with learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, substance use, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These challenges were present even before the global pandemic and now, with the current situation, it is even more likely that all of us will be dealing with these challenges and others. Mental health concerns and/or stressful events may diminish your academic performance and/or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities.

Free and confidential counseling services and support are available from the Emory Counseling Center (or by phone: 404-727-7450). This can be an invaluable resource when stress makes your work more challenging than it ought to be. All of us benefit from support during times of struggle.

If you are facing any sort of financial hardship — which might mean finding it challenging to secure your housing or food needs, or might just mean that you’re worried about purchasing the texts and other materials you might need for this class — I encourage you to let me know. I will help put you in touch with administrative resources and/or provide any resources that I can. Such conversations will be held in strict confidence.

Article Five of the Emory University Honor Code defines academic misconduct as “any action or inaction that is offensive to the integrity and honesty of the members of the academic community,” which may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• • Cheating
  • Plagiarizing
  • Lying and Dishonesty
  • Violating Community Standards
  • Violating Standards in the Honor Code Process

Please read through the description of the Honor Code linked above and make sure that you understand what it says because it is in effect in this course. We will spend time in this course discussing these issues and you must observe that Code at all times. It is the responsibility of every faculty member and every student in the university to support the honor system here.

I take plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty seriously. Should I suspect that you engage in academic dishonesty in this course, I will refer the case to Emory’s Honor Council. You may also receive a zero on the assignment(s) in question.

The Honor Code is in effect throughout the semester. By taking this course, you affirm that it is a violation of the code to cheat on exams, to plagiarize, to deviate from the teacher’s instructions about collaboration on work that is submitted for grades, to give false information to a faculty member, and to undertake any other form of academic misconduct. You agree that the instructor is entitled to move you to another seat during examinations, without explanation. You also affirm that if you witness others violating the code you have a duty to report them to the honor council.

Most students plagiarize because they don’t understand how to properly use sources, or they panic over a deadline. If you have questions about using/citing sources, or you need an extension or support, ask me! I want you to succeed.

There are situations and contexts within this course where you may be asked to use AI tools to explore how they can be used.  Outside of those circumstances, you are discouraged from using AI tools to generate content (text, video, audio, images) that will end up in any student work (assignments, activities, responses, etc) that is part of your evaluation in this course. Any student  work submitted using AI tools should clearly indicate what work is the student’s work and what part is generated by the AI. If any part of this is confusing or uncertain, please reach out to me for a conversation before submitting your work.

Again, for emphasis: the Emory University Academic Honor Code is in effect all semester. It violates the code to plagiarize—intentionally or unintentionally, including by submitting AI-generated text as your own.

You may not use LLM/AI tools to:

• Generate or edit content (ideas, text, or images) for any of your course assignments. That includes sketches and first drafts and final drafts of major projects.
• Allow AI to rewrite your sentences or phrases. I want to hear YOUR voice, not a robot’s.
• Request direct answers to a discussion question.
• Summarize assigned texts in place of actually reading them yourself.
• Asking for a bibliography, quotes, or evidence. (It will often make up false information!)

While not prohibited, I discourage you from using AI tools to brainstorm or conduct research. Such uses are not necessary for this class and carry harmful environmental impacts. Also, I genuinely want to hear YOUR ideas, and making space to think, freewriting, and talking with human peers are highly effective  strategies for brainstorming unique ideas that matter to you. For research, while it works better for other fields, for the kinds of subjects we are discussing in class, AI still often provides inaccurate and biased information while grossly violating copyright law, so you’ll be better served by just going directly to reputable sources.

Be aware that any use of the AI-generated material must be cited properly (MLA format), like any other source, listing the tool you used as the author, and indicating how it was used to further your work. Representing AI outputs as your own is a violation of the Honor Code.

• Explore the nuances of a topic by asking the AI for definitions and key considerations (knowing that it may “hallucinate” or give false answers!)
• Create transcriptions of podcasts and other audio texts. (Just be sure to check the audio to ensure accuracy when quoting from those texts.)
• Create audio summaries of course documents and other written texts to use as a review tool, NOT as a substitute for fully completing assigned readings.
• Generate MLA citations for Works Cited entries. Be sure to check/correct those citations using a current MLA guide, like the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
• Check your writing for spelling and grammar errors. But, as stated above, you may NOT allow the AI tools to edit or rewrite sentences for you.

Be aware that any use of the AI-generated material must be cited properly (MLA format), like any other source, listing the tool you used as the author, and indicating how it was used to further your work. Representing AI outputs as your own is a violation of the Honor Code.

I'm the Instructional Technologist for the Writing Program, so I've read many, many articles and think pieces about student usage of AI and I have participated in, sometimes led, numerous conversations about AI in the classroom. My spouse is a legal technology consultant with a major corporation and one of her her primary areas of expertise is integrating AI for law firms and departments, so I have also read and had numerous conversations about AI in the world beyond the academy. I've thought about this stuff a lot.

That said, here are a few texts that I'll point to that raise some interesting or provocative questions about AI. I don't necessarily affirm or agree with everything in these texts, but as I think about AI in this classroom they are texts that I am in conversation with.

"I'd Rather Read the Prompt" by Clayton Ramsey

"I believe that the main reason a human should write is to communicate original thoughts. To be clear, I don’t believe that these thoughts need to be special or academic. Your vacation, your dog, and your favorite color are all fair game. However, these thoughts should be yours: there’s no point in wasting ink to communicate someone else’s thoughts. In that sense, using a language model to write is worse than plagiarism. When copying another person’s words, one doesn’t communicate their own original thoughts, but at least they are communicating a human’s thoughts. A language model, by construction, has no original thoughts of its own; publishing its output is a pointless exercise.[...] No matter how bad any original human’s writing is, I can (hopefully?) trust that they have some kind of internal understanding to share; with a language model, there is no such luck."

"I have never seen any form of create generative model output (be that image, text, audio, or video) which I would rather see than the original prompt. The resulting output has less substance than the prompt and lacks any human vision in its creation. The whole point of making creative work is to share one’s own experience - if there’s no experience to share, why bother? If it’s not worth writing, it’s not worth reading."

"Statement on AI" Association for Writing Across the Curriculum

"As generative Al becomes more integrated into higher education, WAC scholar-practitioners and programs are positioned to champion teaching practices and policies that keep human learning, creativity, and rhetorical agency at the center of writing instruction. Writing is a deeply human act—a process of discovery, intellectual labor, and participation in academic and civic life. It is also a process shaped by technologies, from the printing press to the word processor to predictive text and generative Al."

"It is valuable to develop a foundational understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative Al tools in order to clarify expectations and facilitate meaningful engagement with your students. These systems generate text based on probabilistic language models rather than cognition, rhetorical awareness, or subject matter expertise. Their default outputs often reflect fluency over complexity, producing smooth but shallow prose. Treating Al tools as neutral aids risks reinforcing those tendencies; positioning Al as rhetorical actors-tools that shape meaning and discourse, are created through human choices, and are influenced by biases and cultural contexts-can help students analyze both its capabilities and the ideological assumptions embedded in its design."