On this page you will find information on the policies and procedures that will govern the administration of this course. It is extremely important that you carefully read each section as I reserve the right to deduct points or not accept work if you have not followed these rules.
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Prerequisites of Spanish 311 & 312 are strictly enforced. Since this is an on-line course, you are also expected to have passed the CSUSM Computer Competency Requirement and be capable of browsing the World Wide Web, sending and receiving email with attachments, and composing written documents in MS Word. If you have not passed Spanish 311 & 312 with a C or better you will not be allowed to take this course. Skills obtained in these classes are necessary, as a good deal of the course requires an advanced command of Spanish composition and grammar. Additionally, I will not excuse late or incomplete work for reasons of a lack of computer competency.
Email will be used as our primary means of communication for this course, however, please feel free to come to my office hours to chat in person. I usually check email at least once daily Monday through Friday and try to respond within 24 hours. You can also leave voicemail messages for me at my office (760) 750-8054, but my response time might be longer via phone. Since every registered CSUSM student has access to a free email account, I expect that all students will use this account. You should check your CSUSM account daily Monday through Friday during the semester for class announcements, etc. I will not reply to emails from non-CSUSM accounts. If you need help setting up your CSUSM account, please contact the help desk at (760) 750-4790, or at ithelp@csusm.edu or at coursehelp@csusm.edu.
Written work (other than documents that must be signed) is to be typed in Spanish. Since this is an academic course, you are expected to compose your writing using an academic (as opposed to a colloquial) vocabulary. Each piece of written work should be a composition, carefully crafted, organized, edited, and revised before being submitted. Many spelling errors can be avoided by using the Spell Check function of MS Word, and it is expected that students at the upper division level of Spanish have learned the basic rules of written accentuation. It is my policy to not accept written work that has more than 5 spelling or accent errors that could be caught by Spell Check. Such papers, when found, will be returned to the student with no grade. One make-up total will be allowed for the entire semester and must be submitted within 24 hours of my returning the work to the student or it will not be accepted and a grade of F will be assigned. If you need Spanish spell check or help with written accentuation in Spanish, please consult the Language Learning Center, located in University Hall. .
Academic honesty is expected of all students at all times. All work submitted for this course is expected to be original for this course and created solely by the student author. I exercise ZERO TOLERANCE for academic dishonesty of any kind. I will report any and all suspected cases of academic dishonesty to the Dean of Students for investigation and punishment, and I may fail the student on the assignment or in the course. If you are unclear on what constitutes academic dishonesty, please consult the CSUSM General Catalogue. Some examples of academic dishonesty in written work include:
 | Turning in someone else's paper as your own |
| Using words, phrases, or ideas from someone else's work and representing it as your own |
| Listing works in a bibliography and then copying words, phrases, or sentences from that work without indicating their original text source in quotations or through parenthetical reference |
| Turning in a paper you wrote in another class as an original work for this class |
| Using an on-line translator to translate your paper into Spanish from another language |
A note on getting help with your Spanish: As a student of Spanish you are allowed, and indeed encouraged to get help with your written assignments, but you must be careful that the result you produce is still your own work. Help becomes 'too much help' when you produce something that you are not capable of producing on your own. For example, an acceptable level of help would be asking a more experienced peer to read over your composition to check for errors or things that don't make sense. This person might indicate spelling or grammatical errors, or point to sentences or paragraphs that don't make sense. This person might also point out a faulty organizational style to your writing. Based on their indication of problems you revise the work and try again. Alternatively, you might be in the process of composing your work and are having trouble figuring out how to formulate a certain phrase. It would be acceptable to ask a more experienced peer for help on how to formulate that phrase provided that you learn from this experience, i.e. understand why the phrase is formulated like it is and could likely produce more of this type of phrase on your own in the future. Each of these examples represent acceptable levels of help. However, each also has the potential of leading to unacceptable levels of help. For example, it would be unacceptable if your peer rewrote several phrases and sentences of your paper as a way of giving you feedback. Likewise it would be unacceptable for your peer how to dictate several sentences of your paper to you using words and structures that you did not understand and could not produce in the future on your own. The point is that 'help' from a peer should be an opportunity for you to learn and improve and not a service for you to utilize to complete an assignment.
An important caveat of getting help on written work is that you must not assume that just because someone is a more experienced peer or native speaker that this person is also a 'good writer' or is familiar with 'academic Spanish'. Take the time to find a reliable source of help, and remember that you can always contact your professor for help also.
Submission of work When submitting written documents (everything except the forms that require a signature) you must do so via email. You have two options for doing this. You may use the SUBMIT ASSIGNMENTS link on our course home page, or you may email it to Prof. Pellettieri directly.
In order to use the SUBMIT ASSIGNMENTS link on the course home page, you must use a non-web-based email program, such as Outlook or Eudora. When you click on this link it will automatically bring up your email program and you may then attach documents from there. The web page is designed to include a subject in your email automatically. When you submit an assignment, leave the subject line as it is and at the end of it add the name of the assignment. Therefore, if you are submitting your project description, go to the course main page and click "Submit". When your email program launches, your message should already show the subject line "Spanish 399 submission". After the word "submission" in the subject line you will type "description". You will then attach your MS word document and send me the document.
If you use the web to compose and read your email, the SUBMIT button will not work for you. You will need to submit your assignments using web mail. However, you MUST follow these instructions exactly as stated or your work will not be accepted:
| Use only your CSUSM email account. This way your mail will arrive with your name as you are enrolled in my class, thus making it easy for me to identify you. |
| Type the following in the subject line "Spanish 399 Submission 'name of assignment'" For example, "Spanish 399 Submission Project Description". Do not type anything else there. |
Save copies of all your email submissions. Normally your email program automatically saves copies of your sent mail. If you are unaware how to check this, please contact ithelp@csusm.edu. Emails are date and time stamped, so your copy of your sent mail is your proof that you sent in an assignment on time.
When submitting assignments pay attention to make sure you attach the assignment. It is very easy to type the email and forget to actually attach the assignment. Unfortunately, I can only accept your work if it is submitted to me on time, and a message without an assignment attached does not constitute a timely submission of an assignment.
After an assignment due date I will check to see that I have received work from each student. If I have not received work from you, I will email you to notify you. Please do not email me to inquire as to whether I received your assignment. If I did not receive it you will hear from me, so consider no news, good news. If you receive word from me that I have not received your assignment, but you have sent it, you will be asked to send me a copy of your original email with the time and date stamp. Provided you did submit the work on time and there was just some technological glitch in delivery, you will be allowed to resubmit the assignment.
Late work will be accepted only under extreme circumstances (i.e. unforeseen medical or legal emergency) where official documentation can be provided to demonstrate that it was impossible for the student to complete the assignment in a timely manner.
