Dr. Wesley Venus

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Below are listed frequently asked questions, the answers to which may be useful to you. These questions are given first as questions, but the particular answers are available further down. Click on the question that is most relevant to you, and the page will skip down to the answer you are looking for.

• Can I make up class participation assignments?
• On my essay rubric, what do you mean by "careful" and "thoughtful"?
• Why are you doing this to me?
• Why did you underline this sentence in my essay?

Can I make up class participation assignments?

No. There are several purposes for the in-class writing assignments. One of them is that they are used to generate class discussion during the class for which they are written. Writing them involves productive participation in class.

On my essay rubric, what do you mean by "careful" and "thoughtful"?

Those are the two descriptive requirements I give on my grading rubrics for most classes. In ENGL 1101 an essay needs to be one or the other to earn a B, and it needs to be both to earn an A. We'll discuss what both of the terms mean before each writing assignment, but a concise answer is that an essay that is "careful" is one that answers the essay topic with particular care for the guidelines of the assignment, and an essay that is "thoughtful" will respond to the essay topic with some originality and insightfulness. An essay can be careful without being especially thoughtful, and vice versa.

Why are you doing this to me?

Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by "this." For my writing classes, most of the assignments given are meant for the purpose of improving your writing. Assignments are designed to keep students a little uncomfortable, to get them to do things that are just a little outside they range of what they are familiar with doing. The idea is to challenge you just a little because otherwise, how else can a person improve?