Week 1 Blog

Hey everyone! Something that stood out to me about this week's readings was how alike animals are to humans. For instance, animals are capable of mourning, communicating, and forming friendships with each other just like us humans. Specifically, I found the article about animals communicating super interesting. I was unaware of how certain sounds or postures that animals utilize indicate that they are trying to communicate something. Like when dogs are in the downward position, they want to play. Overall, I enjoyed the readings from this week and I'm super excited to see what other articles we will be reading about animals.

Regarding the syllabus, Writing 60 has three main assignments, the Scicomm Article, the Advocacy project, and the Final Portfolio. For late work, an assignment can be at most 14 days late for a grade of 9/10 after those 2 weeks, the assignment will no longer be graded. The purpose of a grading contract is to help us become an effective communicator and build on these skills. It is also supposed to help students keep track of their grades throughout the quarter. Students can calculate their grades at any time by keeping track of how many 9s and 11s are received. Everyone starts with an 84, if you get 3 9s it results in a -1, if you get 3 11s it will result in a +1. By adding up all your +1 and -1 to the 84, that will determine your grade. Overall this class is structured so that we students could succeed and improve on our writing skills.