• No food or tobacco products are allowed in the classroom.
  
  
• Only students enrolled in the course are allowed in the classroom, except by special instructor permission.
  
  
• Electronic devices (including but not restricted to cell phones, MP3 players, and laptop computers) shall not be used during examinations unless specifically allowed by the instructor.
  
  
• Use of electronic devices during normal class hours distracts other students, disrupts the class, and wastes valuable time. Instructors have an obligation to reduce such disruptions.
  
  
• Turn your cellphones to vibrate when you enter the classroom.
  
  ACADEMIC HONESTY: Academic honesty is expected from all students. Cheating, plagiarism, or collusion will not be tolerated in any form under any circumstances. Plagiarism is defined as “taking and using as one's own the writings or ideas of another.” Any student caught cheating or plagiarizing or aiding another student in cheating or plagiarizing on a quiz, test, individual assignment, or examination may be summarily dropped from the class with a grade of “F.”
  
  
  
  PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is deliberately or recklessly using another’s words, thoughts, or ideas without clearly acknowledging the sources of the information.
  
  Some examples of plagiarism include:
  
  •    Putting your name on someone else’s paper, whether it comes from the Internet or a friend
  
  •    Copying a paragraph or sentences from a book or the Internet without citing the source
  
  •    Paraphrasing or summarizing someone else’s ideas without citing the source
  
  •    Failure to put direct quotations in quotation marks
  
  •    Failure to cite the source of the quotation
  
  •    Providing incorrect information about the source of the material used
  
  •    Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
  
  •    Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not
  
  •    Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
  
  
  
  To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:
  
  •    another person’s idea, opinion, or theory
  
  •    any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge
  
  •    quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words
  
  •    paraphrases of another person’s spoken or written words
  
  •    summaries of another person’s ideas or written words
  
  You give this credit by using parenthetical citations at the end of borrowed material and by having an entry on the Works Cited page for each work mentioned in a parenthetical citation.
  
  You must use a signal phrase with a direct quotation. In addition, you often need to use a signal phrase with an indirect quotation or paraphrase.
  
  Deliberate plagiarism is cheating. Deliberate plagiarism is copying the work of others and turning it as your own. There is also another kind of plagiarism—accidental plagiarism. This happens when a writer does not intend to plagiarize, but fails to cite his or her sources completely and correctly. Careful note taking and a clear understanding of the rules for quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing sources can help prevent this.
  
  In either case the student may receive a zero on the paper and may be dropped from the class.
  
  
  
  CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE: No food or drinks may be used during class. Disruptive behavior and profanity will not be tolerated. Students should not talk when someone else is talking. All pagers and cell phones should be turned off and placed out of sight during class. Students are to be alert and pay attention at all times. Reading anything other than the course texts or doing work for another class will not be permitted.
  
  
  
  CRITERIA FOR IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
  
  The writer should apply his or her own critical thinking to the text by questioning it, analyzing it, evaluating it, arguing for or against a particular idea, or extending its argument.
  
  • Student's name and the date should be in the upper left corner of the page
  
  • Title is centered, not emphasized, and reflects the writer’s main point
  
  • Limit the composition to a single main idea, question, topic, or line of thought--preferably in one
  
  single paragraph.
  
  • Rely on your interpretation and information from class discussions to substantiate that idea or to answer/explore that question, but DO NOT merely summarize. In addition, on occasion and if appropriate, use your own experience to reflect on your particular topic.
  
  • Anchor the composition to the text but extend the discussion by adding to it the writer’s own
  
  conclusions.
  
  • Check your paper for organization, grammar, and mechanics.
  
  
  
  GRADING CRITERIA
  
  
  
  The A paper represents original outstanding work; it shows careful thought, fresh insights, and stylistic maturity. Having practically no mechanical errors to distract the reader, it is free of jargon, clichés, and other empty language. Word choice is marked by a high degree of precision and a varied, advanced vocabulary; sentences are structured in a manner that creates interest and rhetorical power. The tone is appropriate for the designated audience. The reader moves through the A paper effortlessly because of its effective transitions, lucid organization, and thorough, purposeful development. Having finished, the reader feels that he has learned something, that he has received some unexpected and welcome illumination. In the A paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association. Directly quoted passages are gracefully integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.
  
  
  
  The B paper is significantly more than competent. Besides being almost free of mechanical errors, the B paper delivers substantial information and makes sufficient cogent, fresh, and interesting arguments. Its specific points are logically ordered, well developed and supported, and unified around a clear organizing principle that is apparent early in the paper. The B paper's relatively few syntactic, usage, and mechanical errors do not seriously distract the reader, but the language, while neither trite nor bureaucratic, probably lacks the candor and the precision of the most memorable writing. Its transitions, while appropriate, emphasize the logical turnings of the writer's mind, making the reader occasionally more aware of the efforts taken to unify and control an idea than of the idea itself. In the B paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association. Directly quoted passages are integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.
  
  
  
  The C paper represents average college-level work. It is a competent expression of ordinary thoughts in ordinary language; its content/focus is general, commonplace, or trivial, or it is not adequately related to the assignment. Its development is vague, incomplete, or inconsistent; and its organization lacks adequate or appropriate transitions or relation of ideas. The C paper, in addition to meeting all the requirements of the assignment, exhibits a writing style that is basically correct and is marred by a relatively few syntactic, usage, and mechanical errors. By relying on generalities rather than precise, illustrative details, the writer of a C paper leaves the reader feeling not much better informed than when the reader first picked up the essay. In the C paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association. Directly quoted passages are integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.
  
  
  
  The D paper has only skeletal development and organization. Its serious mechanical errors, together with the awkwardness and ambiguity of its sentence structure, make the reader feel slighted, as if his time and attention were of little concern to the writer. In addition, a paper which exhibits major weaknesses in any specific area—content, development, organization, grammar and mechanics, documentation conventions, or writing style—or which fails to address the assignment is usually considered, at best, a D paper.
  
  
  
  As writing that falls below minimal standards for college-level literacy, the F paper shows lack of thought and purpose, little or no organization, numerous mechanical errors, and a garbled or immature style. Sometimes inadequacy in one area is enough to fail a paper—the writer, for instance, may not have control of punctuation, producing fragments or comma splices in almost every paragraph; generally, however, serious weaknesses occur in several areas of concern.
  
  A paper will earn the grade zero if it contains plagiarized content in any form, including the failure to acknowledge the source of any borrowed material (summarized, paraphrased, or directly quoted) and unmarked exact wording (directly quoted from either a primary or a secondary source), whether a specific well-chosen word, a phrase (two or more words), a clause, or full sentence(s). A paper can earn a zero if it does not address the assigned topic or if directions have been either ignored.
  
  
  
  EVALUATION METHODS: Students’ final grades will be determined after considering a number of factors: grades (compositions, in-class writing assignments, grammar tests, quizzes, exams), class participation, group work, and attendance). Each composition will be assigned a grade based on the essay rubric. The final exam will count 20 percent of the final course grade. Class participation and attendance will weigh more heavily on final grade determination if the grade is a “borderline” case.
  
  Compositions will be returned to students as quickly as possible after they are submitted. At that time they will be reviewed and discussed relative to the various kinds of errors made on the papers. Students will then correct and/or revise their papers and keep them in their folders.
  
  
  
  

Circumstances under which information may be released:

An adult student may submit, to the Registrar, a handwritten, signed note granting permission for release of information. The note must specify what information may be divulged, and it must specify the name of the person to whom the information may be given.

A parent or guardian may be given access to information about a student by providing a copy of a filed tax return that shows that the student was listed as a dependent of that parent or guardian. The tax return must be for last complete tax year. Again, this documentation must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office.

A parent or guardian may be given access to information about a student if the student logs on to My.LamarPA.edu and sends an email to the Registrar granting permission. The email must specify what information may be given and the name of the person to whom it may be given.

Co-enrollment students are protected by the same privacy laws as adult students.

The Registrar’s office is located in the Student Center room 303B, and can be reached at (409) 984-6165.

• Establishing broad and multiple perspectives on the individual in relationship to the larger society and world in which s/he lives, and to understand the responsibilities of living in a culturally and ethnically diversified world.
  
  
• Stimulating a capacity to discuss and reflect upon individual, political, economic, and social aspects of life in order to understand ways in which to be a responsible member of society.
  
  
• Developing a capacity to use knowledge of how technology and science affect their lives.
  
  
• Developing personal values for ethical behavior.
  
  
• Developing the ability to make aesthetic judgments.
  
  
• Using logical reasoning in problem solving.
  
  
• Integrating knowledge and understand the interrelationships of the scholarly disciplines.

1. Sign in to your my.lamarpa.edu account.
   
   
2. Click on the “My Services” tab.
   
   
3. Click on the “Student” tab.
   
   
4. Click on Student Records.
   
   
5. Click on Degree Evaluation.
   
   
6. Select the term you are planning on registering for (i.e. Summer I, Summer II, Fall, or Spring)
   
   
7. Verify that the Curriculum Information (your MAJOR) is correct
   
   
8. Click on “Generate New Evaluation” at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
9. Click the radio button next to Program
   
   
10. Click on the Generate Request button.

All of the classes that you have taken that apply to your declared major will be listed on the right. If you have a class that still needs to be completed, a “NO” will be listed on the right next to the required class.