Class After Thanksgiving Break

Hi, everyone, did you have a nice break, I hope?
I did, but I probably didn't finish everything I needed to for this week.

Today's Agenda:

• Attendance
• Returning graded/commented-on things that have not yet been returned
• Bring rough drafts that you have finished up to the front so I can stamp them with my "DRAFT" stamp. This version will go into the packet when you turn everything in.
• I will review the Tissue Paper Bike the way it is supposed to be.
• I will distribute the Left-Handed paper I wrote that incorporates all the articles you read. I will also show another Left-Handed paper that did not fare so well.
• We will have a lesson on paragraphs that should be Cohesive, Unified, and Developed.
• We will have a lesson on how to format the final paper.
• We will have a lesson on Titles--different ways to come up with good ones.

Final drafts of papers will be due by the end of the week (or today or tomorrow, if you prefer) with the 3 items included within them:
1) Final draft, formatted properly, with running page numbers and last-name headers, and a Works Cited page
2) Rough draft--the one I stamped.
3) One of your sources that you used in the paper (paraphrased, quoted, or summarized).
4) YOUR NAME in Sharpie in BIG LETTERS at the top of the envelope.

Next week: Review of Final Exam (will be OPEN Notes and OPEN Book!)
The week after: Papers are returned and you take Final Exam--won't be longer than an hour at most.

Postscript: 

Returning graded/commented-on things that have not yet been returned--not everything was completed, but I will have everything completed and at my office by Friday at 2 p.m.

Bring rough drafts that you have finished up to the front so I can stamp them with my "DRAFT" stamp. --if you show me your rough draft and I don't have the DRAFT stamp, I will simply initial your draft. This version will go into the packet when you turn everything in.

I will review the Tissue Paper Bike the way it is supposed to be.--I will either have these to return to you by Friday if you come by my office at or after 2 OR I'll scan yours in and send it to you corrected, along with the correct version by then.

I will distribute the Left-Handed paper I wrote that incorporates all the articles you read. I will also show another Left-Handed paper that did not fare so well.--okay, so I didn't "distribute" it, but we went over it in class.

We will have a lesson on paragraphs that should be Cohesive, Unified, and Developed.--I'm hoping you remember to keep your paragraphs DUCKy

We will have a lesson on how to format the final paper.--did that

We will have a lesson on Titles--different ways to come up with good ones--did that

It seemed like everyone was tired in class tonight; I think everyone just wants the semester to be over and all their assignments finished. That's a natural desire. It's mine, too, so when others yawned, I fought it, but I found myself yawning as well.

You guys are a great group, though. I'm fortunate to be teaching you all this semester. I know you've been very patient with me, and I appreciate it, responding with extended deadlines if needed. Thanks for hanging in there.

Making Sure You're in the Right Time Zone

I want everyone (in all the ENGL 102 classes) to double-check that you have the "Time Stamp Format" correctly set to Eastern time. To do this:

1) Log in to your blog and get to a NEW POST page.
2) Click on SETTINGS tab.
3) Click on FORMATTING.
4) Scroll down about 5 entries down on the page until you see "Time Zone."
5) Locate the one that just says "Eastern Time" and select that.
6) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and press SAVE.
7) All of your times should now be set properly.

Entering Conversations and Supporting Your Claims

Tonight, we'll:
1) take attendance
2) go over important aspects of ch. 15
3) explain how to do Synthesis Paper
4) collect or go over in-person the Tissue Paper Bike exercise
5) spend class time doing either Synthesis Paper or end of Tissue Paper Bike exercise
6) we'll go over details of rough draft requirements for next week
7) Homework: Do Ex. 15.1 and Ex. 15.2 in separate posts

Back to the blogs!

Hi, everyone!

Today, our agenda will go something like this:

• I'll take attendance and point out this blog entry for tonight's class.
• I'm going to return any graded material I still have.
• Then I'll collect the Annotated Bibliographies. Yes, they are due tonight.
• At about 6:20 or so, Dr. John Cussen will be appearing in class to conduct student evaluations of me. I will leave the room then and go out in the hall to wait. It usually takes about 15 or 20 minutes. Meanwhile, if you finish before I get back, please get into your blog and answer today's blog question (I will also have you write something at the end of class, as well, on the blog, but first I want to know some things from you.
• Here are the questions:
• What do you know about statistics? Have you ever taken a stats course, and if so, did you do okay in it? If not, you should still answer this last part. I'm going to have a list of statistical terms, symbols, or letters, and I want you to identify which ones, if any, that you know what they mean:     (just for the record: you will not be tested on these or anything...)
• intrinsic motivation
• habitual multitasking
• SD
• mean
• demographic data
• Likert scale
• PCA
• eigenvalue
• variance
• internal consistency
• validity
• construct validity
• multivariant analysis of variance (MANOVA)
• Pillai's F
• p
• ANOVA
• n
• Chronbach's alpha
• zero-order
• Spearman's rho
• parametric regression analysis
• multiple regression analysis
• Pearson correlations
• causality
• correlation
• If any of these terms ring a bell, tell what you think it is. No fair looking on the Internet, though.
• After you've had sufficient time to write this blog entry, I will ask you to take out your "Tissue Paper Bike" exercise and start or continue to work on that. I will circulate around the room helping everyone and checking when you are done, if you finish during this class period.
• Towards the end of class I will give each person a little booklet that shows how you're doing so far.
• Before leaving class, you should also print out and (get a head start on) read (-ing) the article on Docutek called "Electronic Media Use, Reading, and Academic Distractability in College Youth."
• Your assignment:
• Read this article thoroughly and underline or highlight ANY words you do now know.
• Try to sum up this article in your own words in one or two sentences.
• Write the citation for this in both MLA style and APA style. It was an online article taken directly from the scholarly journal's web site, last week.
• Bring your sources notebook to class, along with any questions or difficulties you are having thought out to discuss with me.
• Write a blog entry entitled "My Progress So Far with My Paper" and reflect on where you are in the research project and what is giving you the most trouble.

Rhertorical Context, Good Ideas, and Dissonance

Hi, there! Tonight we're going to do a lot of things, as usual.

1. I'll return your summaries to you and discuss ways that they could have been improved.
2. I'll explain the concept of "rhetorical context," using the article you summarized as a means to explain it. One of the most important things you should get out of tonight's class is a better understanding of the terms "rhetorical context" and "rhetorical situation."
3. I'll show you where to find the article that you must summarize for next week, and point out the criteria again on how I'll grade these (25 pts. total).
4. You'll take a look at the blog page that will now be online and see if your link works, perhaps comment on a few other people's blog entries.
5. We'll talk about the concept of "Dissonance" and how it is related to getting good ideas for your papers.
6. We'll go over the handouts "Framing a Good Guiding Question" and "Looking for Good Key Words."
7. I'll introduce you to the databases and start with the basics of how to search them, including how to make the citations convert to MLA or APA style.
8. You should make Entry #3 on your blog be 3 paragraphs about your 3 top choice topics.
9. I'll show you what I want you to do for Entry #4 (convert the bibliographic style to proper disciplinary--MLA and APA styles).
10. Assignment: Complete Entry #3, Make entry #4, Read chs. 5 and 6, and start locating sources from databases and the Internet.

Tonight's Agenda

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I had asked you to write a 1-paragraph summary of the article I gave you by Eric Gorski. Feel free to comment on this with either the commenting function (see below), or via email at wendywarrenaustin@hotmail.com. So, if I recall this accurately, this summary will be the first thing that I will collect after taking attendance.

We'll be doing a lot of things tonight in class. Mainly:

1. We're going to talk about the beginning process of research, and the importance of keeping your options open for a little while.
2. You'll do Ex. 1.1 in class, if you have not yet been assigned this (I don't think I assigned this, but if I did, that's even better.).
3. We'll discuss what constitutes a Good Guiding Research Question.
4. We'll also discuss how to get some good KEY WORDS to look up various topics, and what LCSH stands for and why it's important.
5. Then, everyone will be instructed in how to set up a research blog that you will use for this class, mainly the homework, notes, and other reflective writings I'll ask you to do now and then. I have a handout on this.
6. For your first post, I want you to say whether or not you did a research paper before, what the experience was like, and anything else you want to add to the question posted on this blog besides simply YES or NO>
7. For your second post, you'll type in or cut and paste Ex. 1.1.
8. Finally, we're going to talk about how to read research articles. This will be the first of several discussions in which we'll discuss how to read more difficult texts.
9. Your homework will be read chs. 3 and 4 in Research Matters.
10. Keep in mind the topic of the "difficult text" you had to read and wonder (and/or be prepared for) whether we'll have a surprise quiz next week on the reading assigned today.

Online Survey

Hi! Here is the link to the online survey mentioned in the syllabus. This is in addition to the little, single survey question you see to the right of this post.

Click here to take the Online Survey