NuFS 9, Sections 1 & 2
November 12: The first Diet Assignment is due Thursday, November 12.but due to lab closure on Wednesay of this week (Nov 11), and Test # 7 on Thursday also, it is OK to turn in the diet assignment on the following Tuesday with no loss of points. Detailed instructions for this assignment are available for sale ($0.65) at the A.S. Printshop, where you should ask for the "Diet Self-Study" assignment packet for Dr. Stone's sections of NuFS 9. You should try to be done with everything but the Summary Pages by, at the latest, the day before (Wed. Nov 11) the assignment is due. That will give you sufficient time to do a good job on the Summary Pages. The Summary Pages are where you tie everything together, and hurrying through them usually results in substantial loss of points. |
Read the directions... The most important ingredient to success in all of the assignments is to read and follow the directions very carefully. This is, of course, the usual tired and boring exhortation you've gotten from teachers ever since you could read well enough to decide not to read directions, but it really is the key to doing well. It is all too easy to listen to that little voice inside your head that whispers seductively, "C'mon--don't bother reading all that junk. Just start the assignment and if we have trouble, THEN maybe we'll glance at the directions." You must ignore that little voice, as it will lead you unto a D or F for the assignment. Not good, as bad grades on assignments can drop your course grade from a B to a C or C+.
If you are an ESL (English as Second Language) person, or have difficulty writing correct English for any other reason [true for at least 50% of all SJSU students], be sure to get help with your writing from the Writing Center (http://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/) on the first floor of the Clark Building, or from another student resource on campus such as LARC (http://www.sjsu.edu/larc/). These are both very valuable Campus Student Resources, and you have already paid fees to support these resources. There is no good reason to throw away writing credit you might easily have received, and you will learn better English.
In the two written assignments, be sure to not copy (even with quotes!) anyone else's writing---the writing must be all your own. And don't bother trying to sneak in someone else's writing. You may get away with a bit of it, but it's usually obvious to the reader when the writing style suddenly changes (especially when it's for the better) for a sentence or 3 and then just as suddenly reverts to the previous style.
Turning in assignments on time or late: On the day any assignment is due, you have until the end of the Tues/Thur afternoon office hour (1pm in Fall semester, 3pm in Spring semester) to get the assignment to your instructor in person in his office (CCB 110) in order to not lose 2 "late" points.
Where to turn in an assignment, late or not, other than during class: If instructor office hours are in session, take the assignment to his office (CCB 110). Otherwise, you can take the assignment to the NuFS Dept office (CCB 200). Do not leave assignments outside your instructor's office (CCB 110) in the wall container or on the floor.
Even later: There will be an additional 2pt penalty for each additional class day the assignment is late. So, if it is due on a Thursday and is not turned in by the end of the afternoon office hour the following Tuesday, an additional 2pts will be lost. A maximum of 1/2 credit will be taken off for lateness, even if you turn it in as late as the day of the final exam! Pretty lenient, huh? But that's just the "late" points. To actually receive half-credit, you'd have to have lost no points elsewhere, i.e., do a near-perfect job. And keep in mind that 1/2 off is, in effect, a grade of F for the assignment. But it's still better than zero points.
Actually, it may be better to turn it in late: It may be to your advantage, point-wise, to hang onto an assignment that you started late and on which you did hurried and sloppy work, because you may well lose more points from the sloppiness than you would from the late turn-in. Of course you'd need to fix the assignment before turning it in.
Would it be a good idea to skip class in order to get an assignment turned in on the day it is due? Figure it this way: if skipping class causes you to incorrectly answer just one question on the test for that day's material, that one wrong answer will cost you the same number of points (2) as turning in the assignment one class-day late.