1. ENGLISH IV SURVIVAL GUIDE
Mr. Sharbatz
ENGLISH IV
SURVIVAL GUIDE

2. The Survival Guide
After reviewing many of your assignments, I have noticed several recurring issues.
Eliminating these issues will greatly improve your grade as we go forward in the course.

3. Syllabus The syllabus will be followed.
This means NO late assignments will be accepted!
I have been accepting assignments to help you get off on the right foot, but I will no longer do so.
This includes everything (daily writing prompts, homework assignments, projects; everything!)

4. Type it Out!
All assignments must be typed. If you do not have a printer, you may the assignment to me. If you do not have internet access, you may bring in the assignment on a usb drive (the syllabus recommends that you have one for this class). If you do not have a computer, you may use the computers at school either before school, after school, or during directed studies.

5. In-Class Assignments
When we do work in class and are hand-writing assignments, you must write legibly! I have been having a lot of trouble with some of your daily writing prompts and textbook responses. I have spent a lot of time deciphering and have been giving students a break when I could not make something out. From now on, if I cannot read it, it is incorrect.

6. Use Complete Sentences!
The most common comment I have used so far in grading papers is that you must use complete sentences. This problem has been more common with hand-written assignments, but has occurred in our bigger essays as well.
In addition to writing in complete, proper sentences, when answering questions you really should be restating the question in your answer.

7. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!
I have received several plagiarized papers thus far. All papers that are determined to be plagiarized will receive a score of zero and all additional applicable consequences will be given as well per school policy.
If you have any doubts or questions, ask BEFORE you submit the paper.

8. Know Your Terms
There have been far too many incorrect responses due to lack of knowledge of key terms.
I will do my best to be clear with what I am looking for but you need to know the basic vocabulary of the class (simile, tone, theme, etc.). If you come across a term you are not sure about, look it up! How can you answer questions when you do not know all of the words in the question?

9. Write a Sufficient Amount
Most of the assignments I have received have had answers that were insufficient. The best results have been when I stated a minimum word count. If you cannot write enough on your own, I will start to regularly assign a word count quota.

10. Word Choice
Choose your words wisely. This is English IV. I am tired of seeing the incorrect usage of there, their and they’re. To, too, and two is another problem set of homonyms. If I see these errors in particular, you will lose one point for each instance in your papers.
Word choice also relates to sentence structure. Be sure to vary your structure to write effectively.

11. Spell Out Your Words
I do not want to see text message abbreviations in your papers. This is unacceptable. Any item containing an abbreviation will be marked incorrect.

12. Do Not Use Contractions
Self-explanitory.

13. Read!
Do the assigned reading assignments. Discussion sessions will be excruciating if some of the class has not done the reading. In fact, we will not be able to discuss at all. We will have to do individual written responses to questions, which will be impossible to complete for those that have not read and failing grades will begin to pile up.

14. Participate!
Many of you have done very well with participation, but at least half of you do not participate at all in terms of answering questions or reading aloud in class.
I will be incorporating participation points into your grade more regularly as we continue.

15. More to Come…
I will be adding more items to this survival guide as they come up. I will say, “I’m putting it in the guide” and you can keep up with it by checking the class website.
Be sure to utilize the class website, especially if you are absent.