Policies
- Academic Dishonesty:
- Cheating will not be tolerated. If academic
dishonesty is suspected, it will be reported to the judicial
coordinator and to the All University Judicial Board, where appropriate.
- Grading scale:
- All papers and other work for credit
will be graded on the basis of a raw score
equal to the percentage of the total number of possible points (100). The
final letter grade will be determined by the total raw score. Thus, two
people with the same raw scores will receive the same letter grade. The
scale of determination, however, is made only at the end of the course,
once all the grades are in. Estimates may be offered earlier.
- Class attendance:
- Students are expected to attend classes. In
the unlikely event that a class needs to be canceled (e.g., because of
weather), I will try to leave a message on my voice mail (575-5826).
- Spelling and Grammar:
- Mistakes in spelling and grammar are not
appreciated. While no points will be taken off any paper or examination solely for mistakes in spelling
or grammar, clarity is important in philosophy and errors in spelling or,
particularly, grammar can make writing more difficult to understand. The
same applies to illegibility. A paper with such errors may therefore
receive a lower grade than it otherwise would, because it may therefore be
less clear than it could be. Furthermore, the instructor may disregard
any claim made in an ungrammatical sentence.
- Reevaluation:
- Any student may request that any paper or other course work be
reevaluated if she or he feels that it has been unfairly or carelessly
graded. No penalty will be imposed for taking advantage of this option,
of course, but neither is there any guarantee that the grade will not
decrease if the work looks inferior on the second reading.
- Incompletes:
- Failure to complete the assigned work on time is
not
a sufficient reason to be granted a grade of "incomplete" in the course.
Giving birth to a child the morning of the final examination is, if a good
faith effort has been made up to that point to keep up with the work.
- Courtesy:
- Please use common classroom courtesy. For example,
- Attend class. (It's part of what you're getting for your money; you may
learn something valuable (in life or on exams); and not attending sends a "I
don't care what you have to say" message to the teacher.)
- Please be on time to class whenever possible. (Coming in late distracts
other students; and you may miss the main focus of the day and thus not fully
understands what follows.)
- Please don't leave early unless it is an emergency. (Hey, it is rude to
walk out on someone. I'll try to end on time. If you know you'll have to
leave early for a doctor appointment, for example, you can let the teacher know
(e.g. through e-mail.)
- Don't talk to others in class when class is in session (before the bell and
after class is fine) unless the instructor suggests it. (Your talking can make
it harder for other students to hear the instructor; the instructor has to
strain his voice to overcome the noise; and you might miss something
important.)
- Please turn off telephones and audible pagers. (There are exceptions to
this, of course, but class is no time to be talking calls from friends; and
the noise disturbs others.)
- Please don't eat in class. (It makes noise and distracts others. If you
are pregnant or a diabetic, that's a different story.)
- Please clean up after yourself. (Don't leave your mess for others.)
- Be courteous to other students. (They're persons and they're paying
for this too.)
- Special Needs:
- If you have special needs (e.g. require a
notetaker or are deaf or blind), please bring a note from the student access
office within the first week of class.
(Of course is something develops during
the course of the semester, let the intructor know as soon as possible.)
Richard
Lee, rlee@uark.edu,
last modified: 5 August 2003