Patterson, Thomas E. 1999. The American Democracy, 4^th edition. McGraw-Hill, publishers.

1. Integrity seems to be in short supply these days. Call us old-fashioned if you will, but absolutely no forms of academic dishonesty will be tolerated. Academic dishonesty is defined as "any act that violates the rights of another students with respect to academic work or that involves misrepresentation of a student's own work. It includes (but is not limited to) cheating on assignments or examinations, plagiarizing (misrepresenting as one's own work anything done by another), submitting the same or substantially similar papers (or creative work) for more than one course without consent of all instructors concerned, depriving another of necessary course materials, and sabotaging another's work." Individuals suspected of academic misconduct will be handled according to established University rules.
2. This should go without saying, but we will say it anyway: Respect your fellow students and the teaching staff.
3. Even though this is an introductory course that some of you may be taking because you believe you "have to," we nevertheless expect high quality performance from each of you. If you are not interested in the subject matter, you should not take this course.
4. Attendance at lecture is strongly encouraged, but it is not mandatory. We believe that you are capable of weighing the costs and benefits of skipping class. If you have something better to do, then do it. But if you choose to skip class, do so knowing the consequences. As your own experience has taught you, there is a pretty strong relationship between attending class and the grade you receive. Lecture notes will be available on the class web page for you to download if you miss class, but they are no substitute for attending.
5. Because attendance at lecture is not mandatory, we will assume that if you are present for lecture, you are interested in paying attention to the material being covered. If your behavior suggests that in fact, you are not interested in the material being covered, you will be asked to leave.
6. Attendance in discussion sections is required; it will count towards your participation grade.
7. Behavior tolerable in small settings can prove to be enormously disruptive in larger ones. Please arrive on time for lecture. Please do not zip up your backpacks and leave your seat until the class period is over. Respect the rights of your fellow students to pay attention to the lecture without being disturbed by conversation unrelated to the class. If you wish to talk to your classmates about non-class related matters, take it outside. Turn off your cell phone or pager when you come to class. Anyone who receives a cell phone call or a page during lecture will have to leave.
8. If possible, bring only a pencil and your student ID to class on exam days. If you have to bring other material, you may be asked to deposit it in the front of the room before taking your seat.

Bonus points: You will have the opportunity to earn up to one bonus point (equal to 1% added on after final grades are first computed) by doing practice tests online at the following location: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/polisci/patterson/.

The practice tests are available on your CD-ROM also, but you will have to do them online to earn the extra credit. You will be given an email address to which you will submit the practice tests (which are called self-assessments on the textbook web site). Each practice test you submit will be worth 1/10 of a bonus point, up to a total of 1 bonus point. You can do all 16 practice tests (there are 16 chapters in the textbook eligible for the practice tests), but you will receive bonus credit for the first 10 only. Because there is an excess number of tests and because not doing the practice tests will not hurt your final grade, you will not be allowed to submit practice tests after the date listed on the syllabus. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule, so don't bother asking.