Friday, March 27, 2009

No Post for Friday, April 3rd

For the sake of celebrating the end of the semester, and to give you a break after turning in the issues paper, no post for Friday, and only 4 comments for the week. Enjoy General Conference!

Issues Paper Reflection: for Thursday, April 2

Please remember to find a main focus for your reflection (see PH Ch. 7) and to write a reflection that will be useful to you. For this reflection, your goal should be both to explore audience implications and to reflect on the writing process.

In one paragraph, answer the following question:
What student/national journal or conference did I choose that I could submit my issues paper to? What makes my paper appropriate for this journal and what in my issues paper makes it adapted to this particular audience? Would my issues paper be both accessible and interesting to a general academic audience?

In a second paragraph, address some of the following (or related questions) as you see fit, exploring what particularly helps you reflect on the writing process and that you may be able to apply to your writing in the future:
• What did I learn about writing through the issues paper? How can I apply this to my writing in the future?
• What parts of the writing process were effective and what parts were less so?
• What areas of writing do I still need to strengthen?
• In what areas did my writing improve through the drafting process?
• What did I learn about creating ethical, pathetic, and logical appeals through writing?
• Why was kairos important for my paper?
• What did I learn about voice and/or style?
• Am I pleased with the results of my issues paper? Why or why not?

Types of comments to put on each other's posts: evaluate their choice of journal/conference and give another suggestion of something else they could submit to as well; write about some part of the process that you had a similar experience on; make a connection to something else reading their post made you think of.

Paper Progress: for Tuesday, March 31st

Write a paragraph which talks about your paper progress since last week. Between Friday and now, what have you done on your paper. ALSO, during the 40 minutes of class time which you'll be given to work on your paper, what specifically are you planning on working on?

Comments: for your first comment, respond to someone else's post with something that you think will be useful to them. For your second comment, respond to your own post at the end of class Tuesday evaluating what you managed to do during class time.

Label to put on post: paper progress

Friday, March 20, 2009

Week of March 23-27: NO BLOG POSTS but a few important things to remember

What? No blog posts? Is that possible? Did something happen that messed with our instructor's mind? Well, I am pleased to announce the first day of spring, but the decision was truly made by the fact that you have two drafts next week.

So for Tuesday, bring A PRINTED COPY of your 8-10 page rough draft. We'll be doing some peer review activities.

And for Thursday, bring A REVISED PRINTED COPY of you 8-10 page rough draft. Staples please--they're all over campus, I can think of 10 spots in the library where you could staple papers, so just do it.

And for Friday--class it canceled... so let's skip the blog then too. (Don't worry--the blog will be back next week. Just a slight hiatus.)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Introduction + 3 Pages: for Friday, March 20

Post your introduction plus the first three to four pages from your paper. (Determine the length by writing 3 or 4 pages double spaced in Word--then post it here).

Types of comments that will be useful: What works so far? Are they major problems so far in the set up? Does anything seem to be missing? Are sources being incorporated smoothly through the use of quotes, paraphrases, and summaries? Do you see any problems that might become bigger in the rest of the paper?

Label to put on post: intro +

Revised Thesis + Outline: for Thurs, March 19

In class on Tuesday you wrote a tentative thesis. Now you need to revise and strengthen your thesis, and write a DETAILED outline for your paper.

First include your thesis, and then your outline. The more details you include, the better--including quotes, statistics, etc. (Sample outlines will be given in class on Tuesday.)

Comments will be made during class.

Label to put on post: outline

Major Viewpoints: for Tues. March 17

Now that you've done your research, let's do a little more assimilation, categorizing of your research. This will help you figure out how your thesis, your argument, fits into the discourse of what everyone else is saying and writing about this issue.

When you're thinking about your issue, it's easy to over-simplifying, to say people are either FOR something or AGAINST it. But most the time it's much more complicated than that. There tend to people that are FOR except with one element, or AGAINST but with a different proposed solution to the problem. And there tend to be a lot of people somewhere in between.

Your assignment is to categorize your sources into 4 or 5 main viewpoints. Give a 1-2 sentence summary of each viewpoint and then give a list of the sources that relate to that viewpoint.

Example:

My topic is on how we should use new media in the composition classroom. The debate seems to be not on whether or not we should use new media in the composition classroom, but on how we should use new media in the composition classroom.

Major viewpoints on how new media should be used in the composition classroom:

1. People that argue that we need to teach advanced technologies, complex database programs, and really focus on giving our students technical skills. (Sources: Simmons and Grabill.)
2. People should focus on new media writing as a way of taking advantage of "networks", of connections, of using new media to create those connections. (Sources: Rice.)
3. People should use new media in the classroom by requiring students to write projects by using multiple genres. (Sources: DeVoss, Yancey).
4. People should use low-bridge approaches, with technologies that are easy or that the students already know (like blogs), to incorporate new media in the classroom. (Sources: Anderson.)

Types of comments to make: You'll receive time to make these comments during class, and we'll discuss comments then.

Label to put on post: viewpoints

Saturday, March 7, 2009

No Post for Friday, March 13

No post for this day--just remember to do four comments on Thursday's post.

Partial Annotated Bibliography: on Thursday, March 12

NOTE: Unlike normal, this post is NOT due before class starts. Instead, this post is due by the end of class in the library on Thursday.

Please post at least 15 sources of your annotated bibliography, in MLA format.

Reminder: In this post you are proving that you have 15 sources; on Friday, by 4 p.m., you will turn in a printed annotated bibliography that has 18 sources with both citations and annotations.

There are only TWO Blog posts this week (Tuesday and Thursday) but I still want you to make 6 comments over the week. Post 2 on Tuesday's reflection, and then POST 4 comments in response to this post. Please post these 4 comments by midnight on Thursday that your peers have time to revise before turning in their annotated bibliographies on Friday.

What to comment on: This post has a required comment type. You are going to find errors in your peers' citations, and then help correct them to make each citation have perfect MLA formatting. You may make several comments on one person's post or spread your comments between four people's posts. Try not to comment on an error that's already been spotted and written about.

Label to put on post: annotated bibliography

Blog Reflection: for Tuesday, March 10

For today's post, please write a short (1 paragraph) reflection about what your experience has been so far with using a blog in English 150.

I'm not very interested in comments on the logistics of the blogs (number of posts and comments per week) or on suggestions about other online locations for the blog, largely because we've discussed these things already.

What I am interested in is how the blog has facilitated your learning and/or your writing. Here are a few questions that may help you as you write your reflection (you may focus on just one, on several, or write about something related): What has been your overall experience with the blog? What have been your favorite blogs posts? What have been your least favorite blogs posts? Have certain types of posts really helped you with your writing? Has the discussion through blog comments helped your learning? Do you feel like you've participated in true discourse with your peers? To you, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a blog over traditional assignments of the same size? Does the fact that all of your peers are going to read what you write change how/what you write? Give specific examples if it fits with your reflection.

Types of comments that will be useful: Build off of what your peer has said--if they wrote about a different aspect of the blog than you, then comment about that aspect as well. If you disagree with something they said, feel free to share. Or if something in their blog post really resonates with you, share why you agree and give a personal example.

Label to put on post: blog reflection