Technical and Professional Communication

Attendance

We will be treating this classroom precisely as we should be: as a work environment. You don't get "absences" and "excused absences" in the workplace outside of school; neither will you receive them here. You will, like any "real world" worker, be docked for missing work, missing time, being late, and missing deadlines.

In short, if you miss a day of class, you will automatically be docked 25 points from your final grade; these points will be deducted from your original base Attendance/Participation total of 250. A clear pattern or absences -- in my estimation, that means a total of five  -- will result in automatic failure in the class. You will receive a verbal warning from me when you accrue three total absences, and an electronic mail message when you have reached a total of four.

Warning: coming to class unprepared (haven't done the reading; too tired to bother staying awake) is, in my opinion, as good as missing class altogether. If you are obviously unprepared or inattentive I will ask you to leave and count you absent. If you are late for class (I reserve the right to define "late" at my own discretion, but this generally means "more than ten minutes"), I will make note; two lates will be counted as one absence.

If you miss a scheduled conference or meeting with me, that will count as two absences. The rationale for this is simple: if you miss a class, we can still use the time productively with everyone else who attends. If you miss a conference, you are completely wasting my time, and missing an appointment to boot.

That all said, I would like to point out that I'm more than willing to listen to legitimate excuses for missed time and late work. If you're sick, you don't go to work; similarly, don't come to class and infect everyone! If you oversleep, or skip because you're panicked about an exam in another class, tell me -- I'll appreciate your honesty; I did my share of both when I was in college, too! (No, that doesn't mean the absence won't count; but honesty is best in all cases.)

If there is a case involving illness or other personal/family crisis, I will do everything I can to help you out. For my own records, I would appreciate documentation along the lines of a letter from the Health Center, your family physician, or the Dean of Students, as appropriate.

First Week Attendance Policy: In the past, Tech/Pro has been an extremely popular class during the first week of registration and re-shuffling of schedules. Often, many more students than are registered for a particular section will show up on the first day of the semester and attempt to add the class. For this reason, any student who misses either or both classes during the first week of the semester without appropriately contacting the instructor will be automatically dropped from the roster to free up a seat for someone else.