Allen’s personal comments
We all differ in our physical abilities; however, some of us face more challenges than others do. If you have problems with such things as vision, hearing, dyslexia, or ADD, you need to contact the Student Accessibility Center to see about any accommodations that may be possible. By law, any such accommodations are a private matter between you and the instructor.
I assume you will take the initiative to deal with your issues.
In many cases, simply finding a seat near the front of the room will help with vision or hearing problems; the instructor will not move you if he suspects you have trouble seeing things, so it is your responsibility to find a better seat.
I assume you have passed English 101 (or the equivalent). This means that English 102 will not be spending time on basic grammar issues (which should have been in place before you got into 101) or on essay structure (which you should have gotten in English 101). If you are not up to speed on basic grammar and writing strategies, the websites listed on our Resources for Writers page and the University Writing Center are your resources for improvement.
This course meets three times weekly for 50 minutes per session. If that schedule is too rigorous for you—if you feel you must show up late, duck out in the middle, or leave early—your grade will suffer.
This class begins promptly at the top of the hour. You are late if you show up between five and ten minutes after the class begins. If you show up more than ten minutes after the class begins, you are marked absent. (When you drag yourself in twenty minutes after the class begins, you have missed 40% of the day’s content—and if your first action is to leave for the toilet, is there any point to showing up at all?)
The business of this course is English composition. If you feel you must spend the hour doing your homework for another class or wasting your time texting your friends, your grade will suffer. You may be asked to leave the room.
Most educators agree that an undergraduate college student should expect to spend two hours on homework outside of class for every hour in class. This means that your weekly homework load for English 102 should be about six hours.
I assume you are familiar with the Ashland University Academic Integrity Policy. Essentially this policy says that:
About once every semester, I get a pair of papers so similar that one is an obvious copy of the other. Often students have played the “dictionary game” with them—substituting synonyms to make the papers different enough to defeat electronic plagiarism checkers (“kids” for “children” or “itinerate” for “traveling”), but they are the same paper. When confronted, the excuse is always the same: “My buddy didn’t know how to write the paper, so I loaned him mine as an example.” Here are some rules to remember about sharing papers:
If two students submit papers which are substantially identical, the instructor will assume that plagiarism occurred. It is impossible to determine who is the original author and who copied, so in plagiarism cases where two students submit the same paper, both will receive the same penalty. Do not loan out your rough drafts or permit friends to copy your electronic files.
The normal penalty for shared papers is a zero for both parties.
Fabrication is the intentional falsification or invention of research, data, citations, or other information. Examples of fabrication include:
4. Submitting as one’s own any academic assignment (e.g. written work, painting, sculpture, etc.) prepared totally or in part by another.
6. Permitting one’s work to be submitted by another person as if it were his or hers.
English class is not a team sport. You are not trying to keep everyone eligible “for the good of the team.”
This statement, which was found in a recent copy of the AU Graduate Catalog, is a good summary of what we are aiming at here:
The University promotes liberal arts and professional programs for undergraduate and graduate students. Rooted in Christian faith and an unwavering commitment toward accent on the individual, the University provides students an environment that promotes Ashland University’s values and respect toward each person.
What this means for our course: Whether in writing or in conversation, you will not demean, humiliate, or dishonor others on account of their religion, race, sexual orientation or physical disabilities.
The other members of the class are young adults who have come here—and paid a substantial fee—to gain an education. You do not have a right to deprive them of this education by disruptive behavior. In this context, “disruptive behavior” can include chattering with your friends, playing the class clown, or loud political rants. The instructor reserves the right to ask disruptive students to leave the room or be removed from the course.
You may have gone to a high school where your mere physical presence was all that was required. Nobody ever said or did anything important in class. College is different—you don’t get a diploma for merely putting in your time. If you are so lost in your phone that you aren’t even in the room, or if you choose to do homework for another class, you will lose attendance credit and the teacher will be wondering what other measures to take. (Collecting phones in a basket? Quickie quizzes on classroom content? All are possible.)
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Ashland University.
Revised 8/8/26 • Page author: Curtis Allen • e-mail: callen@ashland.edu.