English Department

Welcome to the home page of the ConVal High School english department. Here, you can find information on the department, including our quality standards for writing, our position on academic honesty, and information on the John P. Sullivan Award.

Department Staff

Quality Standards for Writing

Although we certainly require our students to write for many different reasons, there are some standards which define good writing no matter what the purpose. The ConVal English Department (with help from WRITER'S INC. and the State of New Hampshire) has identified the following Quality Standards for Writing:

Good writing is...

• Original (the subject or the way in which the subject is covered is lively and interesting)
• Organized (the ideas are presented in a sensible order)
• Detailed (the details are specific and colorful)
• Clear (the sentences clearly and smoothly move the writing forward)
• Correct (the final product is neat and correct)
• Effective (the writing is interesting and informative)

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Position on Academic Honesty

The English Department, along with the rest of the Conval High School staff, is committed to the intellectual development of all of our students and we feel that the only way to accomplish this growth is through a student’s original and individual work. Students who attempt to receive credit for work which is not their own are depriving themselves of an opportunity to learn and progress.

According to the LITTLE BROWN ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS "Plagiarism (from a Latin word for 'kidnapper') is the presentation of someone else's ideas or words as your own" (Aaron, p.133).

Whether you are copying a paper from the Internet or another student, copying someone else's homework, looking at another student's answers on a test or quiz, resubmitting work that has already received credit or not giving adequate attribution for information from a source in a research paper, you are guilty of academic dishonesty.

All types of academic dishonesty will receive the harshest penalty: zero credit for the work submitted. If the assignment carries sufficient weight, such action could result in a failure for the entire course. In addition, students will be referred to the administration for possible further consequences.

As your teachers we want you to understand the importance of this policy and have you share it with your parents.

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John P. Sullivan Award

Presented to a graduating senior at Conval whose four-year achievement in English best exemplifies those qualities of scholarship and appreciation for language and literature exhibited by John Patrick Sullivan, English teacher at Peterborough High School and Contoocook Valley Regional High School 1969-1999.

Those qualities include a passion for literature and a willingness to read widely and deeply, a demonstrated ability to read the text closely and creatively, fluency and precision with our language, both written and spoken, and evidence of a sense of humor and an appreciation for irony.

Presented to:

• Eric Weiss 1999
• Jesse Allen 2000
• Michael Borden 2001

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