Students who take this class should take a serious attitude toward the course.  I highly appreciate your efforts and cooperation in this class and will grade your work accordingly.  In order to successfully pass the course, you need to complete all the assignments assigned in this course, which means that you first need to finish the assigned readings before you come to each class so that you can actively participate in discussions on the chapters you have read.  Second, you need to complete the written assignments on time as well.  Later submissions of assignments will receive penalty (5 points per day delay). However, in case a student feels crunched for time on some reasonable ground, s/he can ask for extension. Class participation is important in this class as we are going to have different class activities such as group discussions, group exercises, and some small in-class projects. Since we meet once a week regularly, students are required to attend all class meetings. If s/he has more than 3 unexcused absences, his/her grade may be lowered.  Excused absences, which must be requested in writing or by phone (Emails are okay) , may be granted for religious holidays, organized and documented university events, or documented illness/family emergency.  In the case of religious holidays and university events, s/he must notify me in advance.  In case of illness or family emergency, s/he needs to make arrangements with me to make up missed work.  Plagiarism is absolutely forbidden.

Textbooks Used for This Course:

Charles Kostelnick  Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators

Carolyn Handa. Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. A Critical Source Book.

Online readings.

Grading Policy

I will grade a student's assignment in light of its quality.

     1.  Any turned-in assignment that responds to the writing instructions well, has adequate use of the theories or principles and other sources in justifying the author's points, possesses insightful comments, with substantive contents to the point, and is well organized and focused, free of errors and with a professional appearance, will receive a grade from 90 to 100 (A).

    2.  Any turned-in assignment that is able to use relevant sources ( theories and principles learned), though not so adequately, to support the author's points, has persuasive adequate arguments, and is well organized, but with a few minor errors, or the document design of which may needs a little improvement, will receive a grade from 80 to 89 (B).

    3. Any turned-in assignment that does not respond to the writing instructions well, is not well organized because of some irrelevant, digressive paragraphs or details that do not support the author's points, lacks the necessary depth with inadequately justified points and inadequate use  of sources, and  has some improper design features and some other errors will receive a grade from 70 to 79 (C).

    4.  Any turned-in assignment that responds poorly to the writing instructions, uses limited sources to justify the authors' points, lacks the necessary depth with superficial discussion, and is under-developed, not well focused, sloppily edited with no professional appearance will receive a grade from 60 to 69 (D).

    5. Any turned-in assignment that does not respond to the writing instructions, uses no sources, and is poorly organized with numerous errors, short of relevant discussions and has an ugly document appearance will receive an 'F.'

Assignment Evaluation:    

        10%     Web board responses (5 responses)

        20%     Class participation  (only when you do not have three absences, otherwise you will get 10%)

        30%     Three short papers

        15%     Analytical paper

        5%       Photoshop project

        10%     Presentation of your document design project                   

        10%     Document Design Project

Others

All through the semester, some of you may have some problems such as falling behind the class, not knowing where the class is headed, having trouble understanding the reading, or needing help with your writing, etc. In this case, don't panic; it is just very natural. You will let me know what trouble you have so that I can help you.

I will be in my office in the afternoon from 3:00 to 6:00 on every Thursday throughout the semester.