ENGL 1613 English I Syllabus 010 Spring 2026

Failure Policy: Students are required to complete and submit the three (boldfaced) major assignments listed above. If you do not complete any one of these assignments, you will automatically fail the course.

Late Work: In general, I don’t accept late work; it’s vital that you keep up with the calendar because assignments often build off of others. There are some assignments that are time sensitive and cannot be turned in late under any circumstance such as peer response. If you experience a problem that is going to cause you to be late, email me so we can discuss.

Technology: All assignments must be submitted in their appropriate place in Canvas (and if required, printed). Lost or accidently deleted files will not be an acceptable excuse for not submitting work. Be sure to back up your work. Facing technical problems? Contact KCC’s ITS Helpdesk at 815.802.8900 or helpdesk@kcc.edu.

Minimum Requirements: Be aware that papers that fail to meet minimum requirements (i.e., minimum word count or full page length, number and types of sources, paper type, or paper subject determined by the instructor), may receive a failing score of 0%. You are in college—partial work does not always receive partial credit. Also note that works cited pages do not count toward minimum length requirements and block quotes (quotes of four lines of text or longer) may not be used in papers for this class. Finally, simply meeting the minimum length and source requirements does not guarantee a passing grade.

Plagiarism and Academic Honesty: All instances of plagiarism deemed intentional by the instructor may lead to immediate failure of the course with no opportunity to withdraw and will be reported to the Director of Student Success. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

• using artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, to write your papers
• submitting someone else’s paper
• using published material, including materials published online, without proper attribution
• paraphrasing or quoting someone without giving credit through a signal phrase and/or parenthetical citation (even if the source is included on the Works Cited page)
• working with someone, other than a KCC tutor, to write your paper and submitting it as your own
• If you are in doubt, ask me.

Revisions: Students may choose to revise ONE mandatory assignment for a higher grade (limited to 85% of the original points possible): the rhetorical analysis paper, the annotated bibliography, OR the argument paper. Such a revision must include substantial improvements to be considered. Making surface-level changes (i.e., punctuation or grammar mistakes) isn’t typically considered “substantial.” A writing conference with me is required for a revision score update in the gradebook, and expectations from that conference must be followed.

Communication: The best way to know what to do for class is to consult the syllabus, course calendar, and our Canvas course. If you have a question about what's due, consult the calendar and our Canvas course first. If neither the instruction materials nor your classmates can answer your questions, please reach out to me, preferably within Canvas (if you email me at ahenderson@kcc.edu, then you should use your KCC student email address; other email addresses may be auto-filtered & I won’t even see them). I will communicate important course-related info via KCC email or Canvas announcements. Check your email often—at least once every 2 days. I will typically respond to emails within 24 hours, though sometimes it may be longer.