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Crafting a SyllabusBecause a syllabus acts as a contract between instructors and students, instructors of English 101 should provide students with a syllabus for the course. This syllabus should include three kinds of detail: information about the instructor, information about course procedures and grading policies, and information about daily events and due dates. In the syllabus, English 101 instructors should provide students the following information: office location, office phone number, email address, and office hours. Some Calvin College faculty provide a home phone number as well. In the section on course procedures the instructor should detail the required books for the class, the attendance policy, the policy regarding assignment due dates and late papers, a list of course objectives, and the grading system. In this section instructors should clearly state Calvin College's policy that students who earn lower than a C must retake English 101. In the last section, instructors should provide information regarding the content of class meetings, reading assignments, and essay due dates. Some instructors also include a description of the nature of the assignments. Instructors set their own policy governing late papers. Some assess no penalty for late work; others insist on punctuality and lower the grade of work not turned in on time. Since consistency in this matter is as important as justice and mercy, the committee strongly recommends that each instructor states the policy clearly in the syllabus. Instructors should do all they can to encourage students to attend English 101 regularly. Whereas it is counterproductive to miss any class session of any course, it is especially unwise to miss a class session of this course, in which students learn by inventing, planning, composing, revising, and editing in class with their peers and their instructor. The relevant section of the Handbook for Teaching Faculty (7.4.2) includes the following guidelines concerning class attendance:
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