Grammar Conventions Genre, Media, and Disciplinary Conventions Citation Conventions
You might notice on the Evaluation Criteria for the Writing Program that Conventions is one of the categories for assessment. If you are worried this means you will be graded on how many grammar mistakes you make, let us put your mind at ease, somewhat.
When it comes to discussing (and assessing) Grammar–as well as Genre and Citation–we intentionally choose the word Conventions rather than Rules. Conventions are “how things are usually done.” Thus, we do expect you to be aware of how things are usually done; however, if you do things in a way that they are not usually done, we do not consider you a rule-breaker and lower your grade. We may correct you and advise that in this situation following the conventions is best. Or we may agree with you that the unconventional approach works quite well.
Conventions do mean understanding the standard uses of grammar and spelling, and one course goal is to employ format, syntax, punctuation, and spelling appropriate to various rhetorical situations in a stylistically sophisticated manner. The ENG 104 & 114 goals also mention documenting sources appropriately, which is another type of convention.
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