In-class writing exercises
Every class session will begin with a brief in-class writing exercise. These exercises are meant to help you practice and hone your ability to write clearly, concisely, and appropriately for your intended audience. You will work on these individually at the beginning of class for the designated time, and submit them via Canvas EEE by the designated time in class. Late submissions are accepted through 11:59pm the day the in-class exercise is due.
- 5 points: On-time submission where you put in a good effort
- 3 points: Late submission where you put in a good effort
- 0 points: Otherwise :(
Attendance
Being present in class has several benefits:
- You hear additional information relevant for the in-class exercises and the assignments you're working on.
- You have a chance to ask the professor and your classmates for help on things you're currently stuck on.
- You have dedicated time to make progress on your assignments.
Because of this, you will receive credit for class attendance in order to encourage you to in fact attend regularly. (I understand that life happens. But trust me, you'll get much more out of this class if you come to it.) You will only receive full credit if you arrive on time and stay for the entire class session. Otherwise, partial credit will be given at the professor's discretion.
- Extra credit (>5 points): 90% < session attendance <= 100%
- 5 points: 80% < session attendance <= 90%
- 4 points: 70% < session attendance <= 80%
- 3 points: 60% < session attendance <= 70%
- 2 points: 50% < session attendance <= 60%
- 1 point: 40% < session attendance <= 50%
- 0 points: Otherwise :(
Latex exercises
These exercises are designed for you to practice formatting and typesetting using the Latex software available through overleaf. There are several throughout the quarter, with time in class to work on them. They're typically due before the start of the next class session. Late submissions are accepted through 11:59pm the day the latex exercise is due.
- 5 points: On-time submission with no serious mistakes
- 4 points: Late submission with no serious mistakes
- 3 points: On-time submission with serious mistakes
- 2 points: Late submission with serious mistakes
- 0 points: Otherwise :(
Peer review
Peer review (the primary form of feedback we get in science) is an important component of scientific writing -- both receiving peer reviews and generating helpful peer reviews. For every abstract draft you generate, there will be a peer review component -- this means you need to have a draft of your abstract ready for review at the appropriate time, and you need to generate helpful peer reviews. In this class, that means having your draft ready the day we're doing peer reviews in class, and generating peer reviews during class for your classmates to use when revising their abstracts. Because peer reviews happen in class, no late drafts will count for credit and no late peer reviews will count for credit.
- 5 points: On-time submission where you put in a good effort
- 3 points: On-time submission where there's still enough there to peer review
- 0 points: Otherwise :(
Peer reviews (each one -- you'll typically do two per class session):
- 5 points: On-time peer review where you put in a good
effort
(or your assigned draft wasn't available) - 0 points: Otherwise :(
Revised abstract drafts
Once you have your peer reviews, you will then try to incorporate that feedback into a revised abstract draft. This revised draft is typically due the following class session after peer reviews are done (late submissions are accepted through 11:59pm the day the revised abstract is due). Because these are still drafts, they're graded primarily on your effort to incorporate the comments. Your revised draft should highlight (color-code usually) the parts of your draft you updated based on your peer reviews.
- 5 points: On-time submission where you put in a good
effort
and highlighted the parts you updated - 4 points: Late submission where you put in a good effort
and highlighted the parts you updated - 3 points: On-time submission where
your effort was not-so-good
and/or you didn't highlight what you updated - 2 points: Late submission where
your effort was not-so-good
and/or you didn't highlight what you updated - 0 points: Otherwise :(
Midterms: Re-revised abstracts
Twice during the quarter, you'll submit a re-revised abstract. This will build off one of the revised abstract drafts you've already submitted, incorporating your growing knowledge about how to write well about language science (and also allowing you to experience the iterative cycle of revision involved in science writing). These serve in place of midterms, and will be graded more stringently according to the rubric below. Late submissions will be accepted through 11:59pm the day the re-revised abstract is due for a 10% penalty (-10 points off the top).
- First paragraph:
- Context for main question & main question itself (10 pts)
- Methods to answer question (5 pts)
- Results summary (10 pts)
- Other paragraphs:
- Relevant background (by other people) (10 pts)
- Specific details about your approach & analysis (10 pts)
- Specific details about your results (10 pts)
- Interpretation of results (10 pts)
- Connection to larger context of language science and/or future
extensions
(10 pts)
- Style:
- Lexical choice (5 pts)
- Sentence structure (10 pts)
- Tailored to intended audience (5 pts)
- Within abstract length limit & obeying formatting guidelines (5 pts)
Final abstract
Your final abstract will be generated based on a paper we haven't spent time on in class. You'll draw on your science writing skills to generate a draft, incorporate feedback from peer reviews, and produce a final abstract targeted to a specific audience. Late submissions will be accepted through 11:59pm the day the final abstract is due for a 10% penalty (-10 points off the top).
Extra credit
Extra credit can be earned on a per-assignment basis by helping answer your classmates' questions, using the discussion thread on the message board dedicated to questions about class assignments.
If someone helps you on your assignment, please indicate who it was and how they helped you as a comment when you turn your assignment in.
Academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty includes cheating on any assignment, having someone else complete an assignment for you (or doing this for someone else), copying someone else's assignment, and any activity in which you represent someone else's work as your own.
If you are caught being academically dishonest, you will receive a 0 for the assignment and you will be reported for academic dishonesty at the very least. Additional action may be taken, depending on the nature of the incident. Please see the information about academic integrity here, and more about what it means to be academically dishonest.