Policies and support

How this course handles real people's apologies, your own examples, AI tools, and what an assessment needs to be markable.

Using real people’s apologies#

This course works from real public apologies — you’ll need at least one for the Apology Autopsy, and you may draw on others across the semester. “Public” means genuinely public: a press release, an interview, a public social media post, a public response to a complaint. Not a private message someone showed you in confidence, and not something you only know because you happen to know the people involved. If you’re unsure whether a case counts as public, ask before you build an assessment around it.

You are never required to write about your own harm#

Some in-class activities and sessions ask you to bring an apology you’ve personally sent or received — Week 1, for instance. What you bring is entirely your choice. Paraphrase instead of quoting if the exact wording would identify someone. Use a case involving other people instead of your own if that’s what you’d rather hand in. No task in this course requires you to disclose a personal conflict, and no marker needs to know which details of a paraphrased example are real.

Talking about the people in these cases#

Analysing a public apology is not the same as diagnosing the person who gave it. Keep the argument on the apology itself — its wording, its timing, its audience — not on the character or private life of whoever said it. If a case turns out to involve something beyond what you’re analysing (an unrelated scandal, someone’s health, a legal matter still underway), that’s a reason to pick a different case, not extra material for the assignment.

AI and generative tools#

You can use AI tools to help draft, edit, or organise your work. What you can’t outsource is the judgement this course actually teaches: which component of an apology is doing the work, whether a pattern is a non-apology, what a redesign should change and why. If a tool helped produce any part of a submission, say so and say how — a line is enough. Work submitted as your own diagnostic judgement should be your own diagnostic judgement.

Citing what you use#

Quote or link the real apology you’re analysing so a marker can check your diagnosis against the source. An assessment built on a case you can’t produce evidence for isn’t markable, however good the analysis reads.