The grade you receive is not the point of this course. Nor is the amount of specific information you memorize about software techniques or the theory of interactive rhetoric. Rather, the course is about process : the process of document production, start to finish; the process of working with a team; the process of continually learning new techniques in a communication medium that continually grows and changes, and in which this year's software will be obsolete next year; the process of implementing your own creative vision. You are the best judge of how well you do; not the instructor.

Nevertheless, the university stipulates that students receive grades in this course. Accordingly, here are the rules:

• Each of the five Tasks is of equal weight--that is, each is worth 20% of the final grade. Attendance counts under task 1, Helping Others.
• A student must complete all five tasks to receive a final grade at all. That is, if you do four out of five perfectly, but do not complete the fifth, you fail.
• Each of the course projects will be judged by these criteria:
  • Does the project meet (or exceed) its audience's needs and expectations?
  • Does the project suit the medium in which it is written?
• Grading in this course is not competitive. On the contrary, the more you help others to improve their own work, the better your grade is likely to be. In a group that behaves synergistically, each for the benefit of all, it's quite possible that every student will earn an A.