Final Grade: This course does use the +/- grading scale with plusses given to the top

two points
and minuses given to the bottom two points of a letter grade range. For example, an 80 to an
81.9 is a B- and an 88 to an 89.9 is a B+. Solid A’s are for excellence; generally the math simply
works out such that to get a solid A requires consistent A work throughout the semester.

If you wish to take this course as S/U you must tell the instructor by the second class meeting.

A student may receive an “I” (incomplete) for the course if the student has completed at least
50% of the course work with a passing grade and has provided the instructor with documentation
of necessity. The documentation of necessity must explain (1) why the student is unable to
complete the assigned work on time and (2) when the work will be completed. Depending on the
nature of the uncompleted work I reserve the right to change the assignment or substitute it with
a different type of assignment.

Reporting of grades: Students are encouraged to meet with me during office hours or by
appointment in order to go over their grades and general progress in the course. Since you will
be given back all graded material, you are also expected to maintain a general estimate of your
grade and progress in the course. Final course grades will be officially posted to Oasis by the
Registrar’s Office the week after finals; see the Registrar’s Office calendar for more details. I
will not discuss grade details via email.

Emails: Part of the general college experience is preparing you for the professional world. Part
of that is knowing how to write a professional email. As such I expect you to practice on me.
When you email me include an appropriate subject line, have at least some type of salutation and
closer, in which you identify yourself (do not expect your email address to do that for you), and
to the best of your ability use proper grammar and spelling.

Attendance: Students are given two free absences and two free tardies; meaning that you can be
absent and tardy twice without valid documentation before it begins to adversely affect your
grade. For every unexcused absence over two 2 points will be deducted from your final grade
and for every unexcused tardy over two 1 point will be deducted from your final grade with a
maximum total of 10 points being deducted from both categories combined. A tardy is arriving
to class after I have finished taking attendance or leaving the class early without prior
notification of and consent by the instructor. Also, if a student is tardy it is her or his
responsibility to see me after class to insure that they have not been marked absent. To have an
absence or tardy excused you must provide proper documentation. Proper documentation must
be from an objective third party such as a doctor’s note, towing bill and so forth. Proper
documentation does not include notes from parents, notes from roommates and so forth. Also,
such documentation must be given to me as soon as possible; under no circumstances will
anything be accepted after Friday December 14th at 5 pm, and depending on the circumstances I

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reserve the right to not accept documentation prior to that deadline; for example, if you were
absent on September 15th and wish to give me documentation on November 15th, a full two
months later, I may not allow it. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to obtain notes from
another classmate.

Basic Ethical Systems Quizzes (20% of Final Grade): This quiz will be on the basic ethical
systems of Aristotle, Kant and Mill. The purpose of the quiz is to insure that you have a basic
understanding of the three ethical systems most prominent in the history of philosophy. It will
have true/false, multiple choice, and short answer sections.

Five Reaction Papers (20% of Final Grade): These are one to two page papers that should
critically engage the readings assigned on the day they are due. The purpose of this assignment
is to insure that you are doing the readings and engaging with them critically. The requirements
for the papers are fluid in order to allow you to engage with them as you think is most profitable
for your understanding. You may engage between one and all the readings for the day on which
the paper is due. You may elucidate what you find appealing, useful, implausible, not practically
viable, etc. Using real world examples, though not necessary, is encouraged since one of the
goals of the course is to apply theory to practice. They are graded according to how well you
express yourself, how thoroughly you engage the reading(s), how correct your grammar and
spelling are, and the general effort apparent in the work. Each student will be given a number
between 1 and 4. You are to turn in your paper as a hardcopy in class and uploaded to
Safeassign according to the number you are given and the corresponding days listed in the
Course Schedule below.

SafeAssign Clause: The University of South Florida has an account with an automated
plagiarism detection service which allows instructors and students to submit student assignments
to be checked for plagiarism. I reserve the right to 1) request that assignments be submitted as
electronic files and 2) electronically submit assignments to SafeAssignment, and/or 3) ask
students to submit their assignments to SafeAssignment through myUSF. Assignments are
compared automatically with a database of journal articles, web articles, and previously
submitted papers. The instructor receives a report showing exactly how a student’s paper was
plagiarized. For more information about SafeAssign and plagiarism, go to
http://www.c21te.usf.edu.
PLEASE REMOVE YOUR NAME FROM THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER AND REPLACE
IT WITH YOUR USF ID#. ALSO REMOVE YOUR NAME FROM THE FILE NAME AND
REPLACE IT WITH YOUR USF ID# (e.g., “U12345678 Essay 1.docx”) BEFORE
SUBMITTING IT TO SafeAssign. Pursuant to the provisions of the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA), students are requested to maintain confidentiality as a way to keep
their personal contact information (i.e. name, address, telephone) from being disclosed to
vendors or other outside agencies. By your submission, you are also agreeing to release your
original work for review for academic purposes to SafeAssign.
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