English Seminar 上級
Some basic guidelines/instructions

1. Only English will be used in this class. Please ask if you do not understand!!! I will not be angry, and other members of the class will be grateful to you. (I know that I speak too fast sometimes!!) When you speak English, do not worry about making mistakes or if some people seem to speak more fluently than you do.

2. Your grade in this class will be calculated on the basis of your attendance record, your preparation for classes, your participation in classes, and all your other work. (For details, see the example of the 2006-2007 syllabus/timetable.)

3 You are expected to attend, and participate in, all classes. If you sleep in class or fail to participate, or to do the required preparation work, you will be counted as absent. If you miss more than five classes, even for club activities, you will fail the course. If you are late for classes twice, this will count as one absence. If you are away because of illness, it would be a good idea to produce a medical certificate. If you know that you are going to miss a class please tell me, for example by sending an e-mail.

4. You should prepare for each class. If you miss a class, please find out what you missed, and what the homework was, for example by looking at this website. Make sure that you do the homework and prepare for the next class properly. If you have to miss a class when you were due to do some group work or a group presentation, you should try to contact another group member and give them your contribution (for example by fax or e-mail).

5. Your work should be your own. For example, you should not just copy something from the Internet, or recycle a friend's report - or even a report that you have submitted once before, to another class. If you cannot do the work without help, please tell me and I will help you. Do not ask friends or relations to correct your work outside class. On the other hand, once you have done written homework, it is a good idea to get together with a friend from this class and check each other's homework for careless mistakes. (We will normally do this in class; if you have done this outside class, please write a note about this on your homework.)

6. When you do written assignments outside class, you should normally use a computer. Remember the format and other rules you practiced in Study Skills. Try to use your own words as much as possible. If you copy from somewhere else, you should use quotation marks and identify the source. You will learn how to do this as part of the preparation for your term paper.

7 You will have two opportunities to give individual presentations. One of these will be the final presentation, which will be a presentation-style summary of your long essay. The other will be given at some point during the term. The topics of these two presentations can overlap, but they must not be completely the same.

8. All work must be ready on the date prescribed. (This includes both presentations, and reading and writing assignments.) If work is completed after the date given, your grade will be lowered. However, exceptions will be made in special cases, such as illness.

9. Help me to create a hard-working, friendly and supportive atmosphere in the class. If you do not understand something, please ask. If you have a suggestion about how the class is run, please share it. If I make a mistake or forget something, please tell me before the class is over and everyone less has left the room!


Good Luck! I hope you enjoy the class!