Engl 208 spring 2019 grade contract

1. ENGL 208 Spring 2019
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To students in my writing course,
A traditional, points-based grading system in a writing class can seem like an artificial way for a
professor to assert his or her authority—you submit a paper, and I tell you exactly how “good” it is
on a scale of 1-100. On the next assignment, you wonder how you could better satisfy my
expectations and earn a better grade. Repeat.
Imagine you were joining some seminar—in cooking or painting, entrepreneurship or yoga. What
would your ideal learning environment look like? Would you be graded with a number on every
brushstroke or triangle pose? Or would you prefer to focus on actually improving yourself, with the
help of constructive feedback from the instructor?
I believe this kind of personally motivated learning environment is preferable in a writing course.
Therefore, although I will assign final letter grades for this course, the focus of the work we do
during the semester will be on evaluative feedback, not grading. Conventional grading often leads
students to think more about grades than about writing; to worry more about pleasing me or
psyching me out than about figuring out what you really want to say or how you want to say it; to be
reluctant to take risks with your writing; this contract should help take the focus away from a grade
on something you create and place it on the effort you put into that creation. A grade won’t make
you a better writer, effort will.
For these reasons, I am using a contract for grading. I will give you plenty of feedback on much of
your writing. But I will not put grades on your papers and my comments will have no effect on your
final grade for the course—up to the grade of B.
You’ll find the terms of this contract below.
You are guaranteed a final grade of B if you meet the following conditions:
(1) Reading. Respond to class readings. We will have readings every day, and you are always
responsible for carefully reading them and responding to them in the designated way.
(2) Attendance. Do not miss more than one week’s worth of class (three class periods).
(3) Notebook. Maintain a daily writing notebook. In your notebook, you will also write responses to
in-class free-writes. I will collect these occasionally to determine if you are fulfilling this requirement.
(4) Late assignments. Don't have more than one late major assignment. I do offer extensions on
individual assignments, but only when requested at least 24 hours ahead of the due date, and for a
Contract for a Final Grade of B

2. ENGL 208 Spring 2019
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legitimate reason.
(5) Major assignments need to meet the following conditions:
—Assignment Guidelines. Every assignment will have certain objective, measurable guidelines
that must be met in order to earn a B. These will be made explicit on the assignment sheet.
—Engagement. For every essay, you need to find some way to engage with your writing. Don’t
just follow the requirements of the assignment in a rote way—find something that will excite you,
something that makes you curious, or perplexes you, or troubles you. Something that furrows your
brow or makes your chest tighten. That is, don't just tell a story about how fun it is to go to hiking in
the Sawtooths or a simple parable about why dishonesty is bad or why democracy is good. Root
your essay in a felt question about honesty or democracy—a problem or an itch that itches you. This
class is Personal & Exploratory Writing, and we will take the exploratory aspect of that title quite
seriously.
(6) Final Portfolio. Near the end of the semester, you will submit a final portfolio of revisions.
These revisions must be significant to be eligible for a B. Requirements for significant revisions will
be made clear on the final portfolio assignment sheet.
Getting an A
As you see, the grade of B depends on behaviors. Grades of A, however, depend on quality. Simply
following assignment guidelines and meeting basic expectations is not sufficient to earn an A. Thus
you earn a B if you put in good time and effort; I will push you all to get a B. But to get an A, you
have to make your time and effort pay off into writing of genuine excellence (and also meet the
conditions for a B). Notice that for grades up to B, you don't have to worry about my judgment or my
standards of excellence; for higher grades you do. Your final portfolios will play a big role in
decisions about excellence.
Knowing where you stand
This system gives you a clear idea of what your final grade looks like at any moment. For whenever I
give you feedback on any major assignment, I will tell you clearly if you have somehow failed to
satisfy the contract for a B. I will also tell you if I judge your draft to be genuinely excellent and thus
to exceed the contract for a B. As for absences and lateness, you'll have to keep track of them, but
you can check with me any time.
Grades lower than B
I hope no one will aim for lower grades. The quickest way to slide to a C or F is to miss classes and
show up without assignments. If you are missing classes and behind in work, please stay in touch
with me about your chances of passing the course.
Summary of Contract
As stated above, grades in this class are determined largely on behaviors. Below you will find a
concise breakdown of the behaviors you must exhibit to earn an A or B, as well as the behaviors
that will guarantee you a C or below.

3. ENGL 208 Spring 2019
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To be eligible to earn an A, students must:
—Have no more than 3 absences
—Have zero late assignments
—Have submitted every major assignment
—Have consistently written in their notebook
—Have critically engaged with the readings
—Submit a final portfolio of five revisions
To be eligible to earn a B, students must:
—Have no more than 5 absences
—Have no more than one late assignment
—Have skipped no more than one major assignment
—Have only occasional skipped entries in their notebook (one per week)
—Have responded to the readings (skipping no more than one week’s response)
—Submit a final portfolio of four revisions
A student will automatically earn a C or below if they:
—Have more than 5 absences
—Submit more than one late assignment
—Skip more than one major assignment
—Do not consistently use their notebook
—Submit a final portfolio with fewer than four revisions