A last piece of advice, and your grades are posted.

A recent blog post from lifehack.ogr on how to improve one's resume had the follow point:

3. Proofread past spell check.

Just about everyone runs a spell check on their resume. But I’ve seen so many typos that a computer can’t catch: misused words, misspelled business names — I’ve even seen a resume with the applicant’s name misspelled! You should always read over documents to double check them, and if you can get a friend to read over your resume, go for it.

After reading portfolios for the past week, the advice to read past the spell check hit home. Let me offer an example I encountered on a more or less regular basis. A student would claim they had learned to improve their proofreading technique or to start work on critical texts earlier, giving the writing process time to help them produce more polished documents. In the next paragraph, I would encounter a word like "sue," as in, "I have learned to start work well before it was sue." The student had obviously hit the "s" when they intended to hit the "d" in "due." It was equally obvious, the student never read a final copy of their work out loud; instead, they continued to trust spell check to mark each and every word which was miss used or miss spelled. By claiming to proofread more carefully but not including reading out loud on such a critical document, like the cover essay to the portfolio, the student's credibility nose-dived.

So, here is my last piece of advice for the semester, "In critical documents, 'Proofread past spell check.'"

Have a good break. Grades are now up and posted. I will be happy to answer questions after I am back from break on 5 January.

Steve

Free stuff for 2009...

Hard economic times means students have even less money than usual; so, ever cent saved counts. Enter open source and online applications.

Over the semester, you have learned to use google docs, an online web based word processor. You can use google gears to use docs when you are offline, or you can do with I do and downloadopenoffice.

Open office is a lot like MS Office, and if you can use one, you can use another. Like MS Office, openoffice suffers from feature bloat, but there are times when you need access to features for specialized formatting, etc.

We've talked about Zotero as an online research tool. Today another online research tool crossed my desk, Webnotes. Follow this link to see what the fuss is about:

WebNotes Offers a Virtual Highlighter for Web Research

Sites like Google Docs and Zoho offer a host of applications you might normally have to buy. For instance, I haven't used Outlook for over a year to organize my life, instead everything pours into google mail--another application you've learned to use and one you get for free from the community college. Gmail has recently added todo lists, contact management, and applets to google calendar and docs, all from the mail gmail page. Look under LABS in the setting tab.

If paper time management is more your style,google the hipster PDA--a free template for a paper based personal manager. Remember, next semester is always a new semester; so, between semesters you can set up new time management tools to help you get more done.

Steve

Extended Office Hours Finals Week

Good morning,

I want to let you know how to find me over the next week. After Friday you will be in finals week, so I am going to extend my office hours. Here's my schedule:

Thursday, 12/11
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 8:30-11:00 advising in Rm 206 Burnette; 11:00-12:00 teaching a 111 section; 12:00-2:15 in the Academic Support Center
Friday, 12/12
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-10:00 teaching; 10:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Monday, 12/15
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus; 12:00-2:15 in Academic Support
Tuesday 12/16
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Wednesday 12/17
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Thursday 12/18
9:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus; 12:00-2:15 in Academic Support
Friday 12/19
9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus

Sometime over the weekend of 12/20, I will turn in grades and head out for Christmas Break. During Christmas Break, I have promised my wife I will not be teaching, accepting emails, etc., and she and the family will have all my attention. Any questions will have to wait until my return to campus on 8 January; so, if you have a question now, ask. As always, I will be happy to accept emails and telephone calls and make appointments outside the office hours I list above. However, emails will need to be fairly short and the questions specific. If you need lengthy explanations, call or stop by. My home number is 804-262-8585.

Please do get in touch over the next days and let me answer questions about the portfolio, read drafts, etc. If you stop by and I am not in the office, come on in and sit down. I will limit excursions to my mailbox, to check in with colleagues, etc.; and, I will try to limit time outside my office to 20 minutes or less, so if you stop by and don't find me in, come in, have a seat, and wait. I will soon return.

You will notice I will continue to work in the Academic Support Center, Monday and Thursday afternoons. Fill free to stop by and ask questions, my sessions there are usually handled as group sessions, and anyone is welcome to come in and join, ask questions about writing assignments, etc. The same holds true for the hours I am advising in 206 Burnette. Those coming in for advising have dibs over my working with my students, but it has been my experience few students do stop by for advising this week.

When you do come in for a meeting, bring a copy of your portfolio to discuss, and try to bring two copies of your cover essay.

Steve

You need to return your second history paper.

Good morning,

Yesterday, Tom and I had a miscommunication. Tom had not recorded your grades on your second history paper, and I returned them. To get your grade recorded, you have several options:

1) Bring your paper to class on Friday, so Tom can record the grade;
2) Bring your paper to Tom's final, so Tom can record your grade; or,
3) Include a copy of your paper--one showing your grade--in the final portfolio for my class.

If Tom doesn't get your paper back, then he has agreed to count your grade on my portfolio as your second paper grade.

As always, write with questions, or you can bring them up in Tom's class on Friday.

Steve

Framing your claims with examples and analysis.

One group sent a claim and the evidence they plan to use to back up the claim. As you develop paragraphs to support the various claims you will make in your cover essay, I thought you might profit from the exchange, so find it below:

Claims

1.) I learned a great deal of information from my group members.

Example of supporting my claim: X corrected my articles providing me with a starting point on what I needed to work on this semester. After receiving some much needed advice, I looked at what my worst grammatical mistake was and researched ways that provided me with a solution to the problem.

Here, you should go on to include an example of an article Cate corrected in the portfolio evidence section. In the section of your cover essay where you discuss the article, point to the article you've included and make sure to note the specific advice you found useful and the specific aspects of the article you changed based on this advice. [Other advice: I might pull out the section on fixing your worst grammatical mistake and develop it into a separate section or paragraph. Paragraphs should focus on one central idea, develop in, and then you move on to another paragraph.] Back to the claim and the paragraph you are developing to support it.

Notice you are building up what you can think of as a basic body paragraph in academic writing, one where you do the following:

1. You make a claim.
2. You explain exactly what you mean by the claim in another sentence or so.
3. You point to a specific example/quote/summary/paraphrase/fact, etc. which illustrates your claim.
4. You explain/analyze your example, etc., pointing out the specific aspects of it which are significant to the reader fully understanding your claim.
5. You transition into your next paragraph using a sentence, phrase, or keyword.

To provide a full example, you might go on to develop your paragraph as follows:

Claim: I learned a great deal of information from my group members.
Explanation: For example, X corrected my articles providing me with a starting point on what I needed to work this semester.
Example: In the evidence section of this portfolio, I have included a rhetorical analysis with which X helped me. You can see it on page Y of the evidence section.
Analysis/Discussion: X pointed out what I later decided was my worst grammar problem--the need to make sure my subjects and verbs agree in number. For instance, you might look at this sentence, "In this situation, the noise was found in both the assumptions Tom made about the audience and the background of the audience." Originally, it read, "the noise founds" X told me to read the sentence out loud. When I did, I realized "noise founds" did not sound right, so I changed it to "the noise was found."
Transition: All semester, I received this kind of valuable advice from my group.

Notice how linking your claim to specific a specific article you include in the evidence section allows you to point to specific aspects of the article and fully discuss and develop your claim. Many students never make this leap. They link to an example to back up their claim, but they don't go on to discuss and explain the significance of the evidence to understanding their claim. Not taking this step in the difference between a "B" or "C" paper and an "A" paper. Discussion and analysis of a claim takes more time and work, but by the time you are done, your reader knows exactly what you mean, and they are *sure* you have given your claim a lot of thought. This last gains you ethos and makes your claims more likely to be believed.

More on setting goals and gaining them...

Achieve Your Goals by Focusing on Critical Activities

The Value of Writing Well

Lifehack.org has posted a good article on the value to be gained in learning to write well. Here's the link:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-value-of-writing-well.html

Here's my favorite quote from the article:

"...businesses repeatedly cite “communication skills” as the single most desirable trait in new employees."

Why is all the work in a 111 or 112 English course worth your time and effort?

"Good writing pays better than does bad."

For this semester, the end is in sight. Your portfolio will soon be finished and turned in. While patting yourself on the back, remember a lesson my father told me my wedding day, "This is just the start of all you'll need to know and do to make the marriage work." The same holds true for writing. Like putting work into a good marriage, learning to write well pays all back nine fold in terms of the life you can live.

Steve

Portfolio, Question and Answer Session

A group in another class has engaged me in a series of questions and answers using google docs. The session is focused on questions they have about the portfolio. Here is a link to the ongoing session:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg5rkm34_28dpd896gk

It is very possible some of your own questions may be answered here; so, I thought I would post a view only link.

Steve

Tricks for Drafting

Drafting is the stage of the writing process where you get the ideas you've captured in pre-writing into a draft ready for revision. It is also the stage where the dreaded notion of "writer's block" most often comes into play. Writer's block, that is, the inability to write, usually happens for one of two reasons: 1) you are trying to do too much and a kind of verbal constipation occurs; or, 2) the anxiety associated with the text you are crafting triggers a procrastination response. For help with how to overcome procrastination, look at my earlier post on the subject. You might also follow this link for some solid advice on some tactics for overcoming writer's block:

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/HANDOUTS/writing/writblock.htm

For advice about how to avoid verbal constipation, read on.

Drafting is about one thing, getting your ideas out of your head and into a form that can be revised. That is. It is, however, far from uncommon for writers who are just learning the craft to try to do too much besides asking themselves, "What do I say next?," and then writing down what comes to mind. Instead, they are try to revise their ideas or discover what they can say or proofread or some combination of all three while they try to draft a text. All you should try to do when drafting is getting the ideas discovered in pre-writing into a form which can be revised and proofread. You do this one at a time and section by section.

Trying to do everything at once results in taking a fairly tough job--crafting a draft--and making it much, much harder than it has to be. A good analogy is trying to cook every dish in a complicated meal while setting a formal table and entertaining guests. Just as a good meal shared with others requires planning out what needs to be done first, second, etc., so does crafting a successful text. Put off starting the entree until the last moment before your guests arrive, and you might as well send out for pizza.

Good writing takes time and focus, especially crafting long or complicated texts well. Just as not every meal is complicated to cook, you can write some kinds of texts with little forethought or planning. Just as a large meal requires a different level of planning, trying to craft a long, complicated text at the last moment is a recipe for disaster. Until you know the kinds of texts you can just write and those which need careful planning and a lot of time to draft and revise, give yourself more time than you think you need. A good rule of thumb is to double your first estimate and then add in ten percent.

Give yourself permission to take the time needed, to plan ahead, and to do each step in turn, and then you can succeed. Try to do everything at once without any plan, and--most likely--you will fail. Repeatedly fail, and you soon find yourself hating to write and thinking you can never learn. Learn to hate writing and you will loose confidence in your ability to write, and every time you write, you will feel anxious, because you want to succeed; indeed, you need to succeed, but you expect failure. Go through this cycle long enough, and you will avoid writing. Once the avoidance becomes habitual and unconscious, you'll have writer's block. So? Take the time needed to succeed and build confidence, not set yourself up to fail.

As always, write or call with questions.

Steve

Final Portfolio: Frequently Asked Questions. This is a must read.

Frequently asked questions about the final portfolio?

How much of my final grade for the course will it count? 60%. The other 40% is determined by your class participation.

When is the portfolio due? 19 December, 1:30 PM.

Should I continue to do the weekly rhetorical analysis and comments while I work on the portfolio? Only if you have some which you didn't complete; otherwise, no.

What goes into the portfolio? 1) a 5-10 page cover letter; and, 2) a 10-25 page collection of work. Total length should not exceed 35 pages.

Can I turn it in after 19 December? Only if there is substantial evidence of hardship. A crashed printer, failure to backup, or catching a cold doesn't count. I expect you to plan for such events and to have started early.

How to turn the portfolio in? You can turn your portfolio in either as a long google doc, which you share with me, or in a manilla folder, which you turn into me by 1:30 PM at my office, 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus. If you go the google documents route, name your document: "Your Last Name, ENG 111, Fall 2008." You fill in your name and section number. At a later date, I'll let you know which hours I will be in the office on 19 December.

Can I turn my portfolio in early? Of course. Make arrangements with me. Having said this, remember, your class participation grade will continue to play a factor in your overall grade. Finish early and bail on your group, and you will take a hit on your final grade. Part of your job is to make sure everyone in your group succeeds.

How can I receive my portfolio back? If you turn in a physical copy, include a self-addressed large envelop, and I will mail your portfolio back to you; otherwise, I will leave comments in the google doc of your portfolio.

How will I know my grade on the portfolio? Grades will be posted once the school processes them. If you wish, you can include a note in your google doc portfolio giving me permission to state your grade for the portfolio and/or course in my comments. Remember to edit your share list accordingly. Those with whom you share your docs based portfolio will be able to see any comments I make and your final grade. In either case, please remember how harried I will be. Because I want to give you as much time as I can to help you succeed, I'm giving you up until the last day possible to turn in your portfolio; this means, I am only giving myself a day or so to read them, review them in the context your work over the semester, and turn in your grade. I won't have much time to chat in comments. Please do feel free to contact me after to the grading period for more extended comments or to discuss any questions you have about writing in the future.

How many pages long should a portfolio be? No longer than 35; no shorter than 20. Don't panic. You've written more than enough to meet these demands. In fact, you will be surprised how much you have to week out to meet them. Now, give yourself a pat on the back, and the next time you are asked to write a lot, remember how much you can write...if you use the right process and if you spread the work out.

How long is a page? A page is double spaced. It is written using twelve point typeface. The spacing between paragraphs is the same as that between lines within a paragraph, that is, double spaced. Each page has one inch margins side, top, and bottom.

How should I format my reflective cover essay? Start with the date, drop down a couple of lines and open with, "Dear Steve,...: End with something like, "Sincerely, ..." You've written a letter. This one is just typed, double spaced, and written to convince me to give you a specific grade. Remember, the object is to convince me you have earned the grade for which you argue. Try to anticipate any objections I might have to your argument, and address them in your reflective essay. Such concerns will be about class participation, if you've taken advantage of the opportunities to learn which have been offered, if you've learned the material in the course, and--most important--if you've learned to become a better writer and communicator.

Why is the cover reflective essay SO long? The cover letter serves the same learning function as does a final. That is, to allow the student to review all the material covered in the course, to provide the chance for the student to integrate the material covered, and, last and least, to allow the teacher to judge the students learning and performance in the course. It needs to be long to cover the various material you've learned and to allow you space to provide sufficient detail and evidence to convince me you've learned it all.

Then why not a final? It's a course in writing and communication. You need the practice, and this is a *difficult* rhetorical situation you'll encounter later in life. Such self assessment happens every year in annual reviews. In this case, in the process of putting together the portfolio, I get you to review what you should have learned, get you to gauge and assess your learning (hence, making sure you really learn instead of just memorize), and I get to give the knowledge and skill set one last chance to set.

What tone should I use in the reflective essay? Use first person, that is, "I." You should have figured out by now, I am fairly informal, but I am your professor, and as an audience, I'm charged with making sure you have learned to write well. This means I'm looking at everything involved with your writing, including your grammar, usage, and punctuation. After all, you are supposed to have learned some tricks to help you in proofreading and revision in this course. It's only fair you should practice them. Having said this, I am more concerned you learned the concepts in the class, including Kaizen and how to improve your writing--including surface level polish--through researching specific problems and fixing them. I also expect you've improved in how well you proofread. After all, you've been practicing revision, critique, and proofreading all semester.

What style should I use in the reflective essay? The KISS/SVO<24. style="font-weight: bold;">What should I say in the reflective essay? Your essay will consist of a series of claims backed up with support. You main claim or focus for the letter will be what grade you deserve in the course, but you will need to make a series of lessor or sub-claims (and back these up) for you to convince me your major claim for a grade is valid. Prove your major and sub-claims using evidence from the writing you have done this semester. To figure out what sub-claims you need to make, think of the major ideas, terms, and skills you have had an opportunity to learn this semester, and make claims about these. For instance, one of the major ideas you had a chance to learn involved rhetoric. You might make a sub-claim like the following:

"I understand rhetoric better than I did at the beginning of the semester, and I have learned how to use rhetorical analysis to gain a richer critical understanding of the communication which happens around me and to build on this understanding to become a better writer and communicator."

You the evidence you might use to prove this claim might be taken from on of your rhetorical analysis. You might compare your early work this semester with your later work, or a draft version to a final version you have revised. You might discuss each of the primary ideas in a rhetorical analysis, to show me you understand them, and then quote from different rhetorical analysis to show me how your understanding of the terms has grown. You might tell me a story about day-to-day communication this semester and how rhetorical analysis helped you understand and be a better communicator in a communication situation in which you found yourself.

Your cover letter will be made up of different claims you make concerning what you have learned and how you have performed in the class--not just rhetoric. Make sure you develop each of these claims with more than adequate support. Remember, one of the main things I am judging you on is on the quality of your claims and how well you develop the support for each claim you make.

What advice can you give me about what to say in the reflective essay and how to approach writing it?

1. Make good, solid believable claims. Don't try to snowball me. If you screwed up in working with your group or in terms of getting the work done, don't gloss over this screw up. Instead, make it a part of what you discuss in your letter. Remember, I am not interested in excuses or reasons. I am interested in how you used a place where you messed up to learn and to get back on track. I am interested in how you recovered and what you learned in the process. You can turn having done poorly into an asset by discussing it in terms of what you have learned about Kaizen and process, how you corrected your mistakes, or--at the very least--how you might correct them in future.
   
2. Having taught freshman writing most of my adult life, I have very well defined BS meter. Don't make the BS meter go off.
   
3. Don't inflate how much you have learned or the grade you feel you deserve. You might be tempted to say, "I deserve an 'A,' when you feel you deserve a 'C.'" You'll get more credit if you make the claim for a "C." Remember, one thing I am judging is your ability to make effective claims you can backup. If you claim an "A," but can't back up your case, it will count against you. To work, claims must be honest and realistic.
4. In the same vein as 2, be creative in how you back up a claim. You've got all the work and thinking you have done this semester as potential evidence to back up your claims. While I expect the majority of your evidence and support to be grounded in the writing and work you have done for the course, don't forget that you've been learning to think about your writing as a process. This means notes you've taken, email clarifications, revisions and proofreading you have done all are potential evidence to help you support your claims about process. You might also tell stories which illustrate a point you want to make, or you might point to a piece another student has written. Your choices, while not endless, are very wide ranging; so, my best advice is to spend at least as much time going through and figuring out how you will back up your claims as you do. To do this well, go back and review *all* the work you have done for the course and *all* the reading you have been asked to do. Take notes. Your grade depends on how well you do these pre-writing tasks. You can also bring in--up to 1/4th of your evidence section from writing you have done for work and in other classes. Show me how you've allied the lessons from this class to other work, and I *will* be impressed.
   
5. Work with your group. A good pre-writing exercise for this assignment is to go through and review the reading and writing for this class and to take notes on claims you can make about your learning and how you can use writing from and to the class as evidence to back up your claim. Another effective pre-writing exercise is to then get together and share this information as a group. They *will* have had ideas about claims and how to support them which you haven't, and their idea might be the difference between a high and low grade. You might also think about getting your group to critique your claims and the development of them, and when you are finished with an initial draft helping you proofread.
6. If you try to draft this essay and turn in your initial draft in a single pass, you will fail. You have over two weeks to revise and perfect this reflective essay. It counts a *lot* of your final grade. Take the time to do it right. Use process writing. Revise multiple times over the course of the next two weeks. Get an initial draft done early,in the next few days, so you can add ideas to it and let it develop into your best work. Rush this process, and chances are, you will be disappointed in the result.

What can go into the evidence section of the portfolio? Any of the work you have done this semester. I don't want you to include it all. Go through it looking for the work which will best help you make a case for the grade you think you deserve in the course. Think of the evidence section as evidence you can point to in your cover letter to help prove your claims. It's one thing to say, "I've learned to work better with groups and to use others to improve my writing." This is a great claim, but think how this claim comes alive if you point me to a particular email exchange or place in a google document where you really and truly helped another person in your group or they helped you. A good evidence section is a collection of such places in your learning this semester. The writing and work you include should help you make the case for your claims *and* show off your writing and communication and what you have learned.

Do surface level issues count in the evidence section? Yes, but not as much as they do in the reflective essay or as much as the deep content. If you have to make a choice about what to proofread carefully, make the choice to proofread your reflective essay. Do this last carefully using multiple passes. Know the best choice you can make is to pick good evidence and work which shows you off at your best or which helps you make the case for each claim.

Does this mean I should re-type and proofread everything I include in the evidence section? No. For instance, you might decide to back up a claim you make about having taken the time to read the material in the course carefully, actively, and thoroughly by including a photocopy of notes you took on a hard copy of the reading. Don't retype these notes just to show me you can type and proofread. Include a copy or a link to a scanned pdf. It would be silly to re-type them. The same applies in other instances. Use your best judgment. If you include an analysis you have written or other type of written work, then, yes, revise and proofread. Your measure here is: "Will retyping or proofreading make my audience more likely to respond to my message in the way I hope?" AND "Is this better response worth the time and effort to retype or proofread?" Learning to balance such questions is what the course has been about.

What do I do if I don't see an answer to a question I have about the portfolio? As always, write with questions.

Drafting Tricks: Start your draft with an email.

Drafting in email is a trick I often use. It's easier for me to stay on task and focus my writing when I know I have a particular audience. The upshot? I often start and revise a draft in email, and then I move it over to a word processor for final polish and formatting.

For more on how to use email as a drafting tool, check here:

http://www.lifeclever.com/unstuck-your-writing-with-an-email/

FYI: Working with Groups

Here are three links to reading on how to work well with groups, especially online:

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/group/list7.cfm

http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html?http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html

http://www.kolabora.com/news/2005/01/29/virtual_teamwork_best_practices_focus.htm

My favorite line from these articles is this:

"Communication is the responsibility of both the speaker and the listener. The speaker must actively seek to express the ideas in a clear and concise manner - the listener must actively seek to understand what has been said and to ask for clarification if unsure. Finally, both parties must be sure that the ideas have been correctly communicated perhaps by the listener summarizing what was said in a different way."

It comes from the second article.

Google Docs Help

Here's a good place to find help learning how to use google docs:

http://documents.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=15114

Essay Two Assignment

American History 121-10PR
Fall 2008
Essay Two Assignment
Final Draft Due: Monday, December 1

Write an essay in which you answer one of the following questions:
1. What compromises went into the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Use the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to answer the question
2. By what rhetorical means did different groups support or protest Indian Removal. Use at least two different sources to answer the question.
3. What role did religion and religious ideas play in American movements for personal, social or political change and/or reform? Use at least two different sources to answer the question.
4. How did slaves attempt to modify or protest their enslavement? Use at least two different sources to answer the question

Your essay must:
• Be type-written, double-spaced in a legible font and format, and number between 1200 and 1750 words in length. (This will be 3-5 pages in most fonts). It must answer one of the questions given below.
• Use only readings assigned for the course. For long sources, use the translations provided and refer only to the sections assigned for the course. You may not use outside sources.
• Refer to primary sources at least five times total. You may either quote or paraphrase the source, but the reference must be cited. You may use either parenthetical itations or footnotes to give the author. Like this (author page #) or this.1 You must also cite uses of secondary sources, such as the textbook and lecture, but they do not count towards the five uses of primary sources.
• Do not need to include a cover page or a works cited page.
• Have a strong thesis in the first paragraph, answer the question correctly with reasoned argument, evidence an organized structure and be based on the primary source evidence. Egregious grammatical and spelling errors will adversely affect the final grade.


1 Author, page #.

Stress Relievers

As the semester winds down, a lot of people tend to get wound up and stressed out. So, take a few minutes to de-stress with the following:

1) Listen to some relaxing music. If you don't have any, create your own on this website: http://www.soundsleeping.com/

2) Recite the Student's Prayer:

Now I sit me down to study,
I pray the Lord I won’t go nutty.
If I should fail to learn this junk,
I pray the Lord that I won’t flunk.
Now I lay me down to rest,
I pray to pass tomorrow’s test.
If I should die before I wake,
That’s one less test I’ll have to take!
- Anonymous


3) Or, you can just sit and ponder some silly things:

• Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
• Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
• Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?
• Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
• Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
• Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?
• If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?
• If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?
• If you're in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?
• Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM?
• Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
• Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards as it is forwards?
• Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's called cargo?
• If a black box in a plane is indestructible, why can't they make the whole plane out of it?
• Why is it that when you're driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio?
• Why is it so hard to remember how to spell 'mnemonic'?
• If the front of your car says 'DODGE', do you really need a horn?
• When you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?
• Does fuzzy logic tickle?
• Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?
• What was the best thing before sliced bread?
• Is there another word for thesaurus?
• After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?
• Just before someone gets nervous, do they experience cocoons in their stomach?
• If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
• If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
• Why does the word monosyllabic contain five syllables?
• Why is abbreviated such a long word?
• If you put a chameleon in a mirrored box what color would it change to?
• What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

(Source: http://www.doheth.co.uk/funny/ponder)

Enjoy!

Assignment: Evaluate a Popular Scientific Article

For one of your rhetorical analysis this week, do an evaluation of a popular scientific article.

To do this assignment:

1) Find and re-read the post, "Evidence: Not all Evidence is Created Equal." You were to have read and explored this site severl weeks ago, but if you haven't, follow the link from the blog post to the site on Evidence. There, click "Enter" to enter the English site.
2) On the new page which loads, follow the link, "Can you believe it?"
3) There you will find the seven questions you need to ask of any scientific article or claim. You will use these questions to evaluate your popular scientific article.
4) To evaluate anything, you need to have criteria you can use to judge. In the case of the science article you evaluate, you will use the questions on the link "Can you believe it?" Your goal is to take your article and decide if you should believe the claims being made in it.
5) As you ask each question of the article, take notes on your answer. You will use these notes to write a draft of a text in which you explain your reasoning.
6) Bring a copy of your article, your notes, and a draft of your evaluation to class today.

Steve

Registering for Classes

It's that time again! Time to register for your Spring classes.

Before you get ready to register, take a look at your current schedule, your current obligations and what classes you still need for your major. When you set a schedule, bear in mind that you should add in 2-3 hours of study time for every hour you're in class. (And, if you're taking online classes - you can use the number of credits for a class to figure out how many hours you're expected to be in class. That's why they're called credit hours. 1 credit = 1 hour of time in class) So, plan accordingly. Taking a full schedule is not feasible for a lot of students in one semester. And, if you have multiple obligations (ie. school, work, children/family, church, organizations, etc.), then it gets even more complicated. Here's a list of steps to help you get started:

1. Get the tools you need to have at the ready - blank weekly calendar, a list of the classes you've completed so far (print off your unofficial transcript), the college catalog, and the schedule of classes. You'll also need a writing utensil - I recommend a pencil with a good eraser!
   
   
2. Make a list of your current obligations and any set times that these fall under. Add these to the blank weekly calendar.
   
   
3. Look at the college catalog under your major for the courses you still need to complete. Make a list of the next set you'd like to tackle.
   
   
4. Look in the back of the college catalog for each of the courses in your list to make sure that you've met the pre-requisites. (Update your list from step 3 if necessary.)
   
   
5. Using your list of preferred courses from step 3 (once you've checked pre-req's), find the classes in the Schedule of Classes that best fit your schedule. Write them into the weekly calendar. (Also, make a note of the 5 digit number at the front of the class, the location (campus and room number), and section number in your calendar somewhere. That way it'll be really easy to actually register when the time comes.)
   
   
6. On Monday, register for classes using your weekly calendar!

If you get stuck, stop by and talk to an Advisor. That's what they're there for! First Year students, your advisor is in the Student Success Center. Non 1st Year students, contact the division office for your major to find your Advisor's name and contact information including office hours.


Important Information:

• Early Bird Registration begins Monday, 11/10!!!
• To check tuition due dates, go to: http://reynolds.edu/jsr_ar/paying_for_college.htm
• College Catalog: http://www.jsr.vccs.edu/catalog/ Check here for course pre-requisites and for a list of the courses that you need to complete for your degree.
• Schedule of classes - Pick one up outside the Student Success Center or view it online athttp://reynolds.edu/_schedules/default.htm

Another neat Election Map

Check out the NY Times map. The "bubble" tab is especially interesting; the bigger the bubble, the stronger the showing for each candidate in that county.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

Resource Post: Using Firefox and Zotero to Keep Research Notes

As you research, you keep notes. You can keep your notes on three by five cards, in a bound notebook, or in an electronic format, like Google Documents. Electronic formats have the advantage of being able to be sorted by tags or searched by keywords, allowing you to more quickly moved from gathering information to outlining your research.

Readers of research need to know from where your ideas come. Doing respected research means making your means available to your readers, so it can be reproduced, or they can tell where you went wrong. Either way, research without documentation if much like an opinions without supporting evidence, everyone has an opinion, so--while it isn't worthless without support--its value is greatly reduced.

Downloading the free and open source browser Firefox and adding the research extension, Zotero, can help you with the task of keeping research notes. Zotero allows you to capture web pages, paper articles and books published online, or to capture part of them. Each time you capture such an entry, Zotero allows you to capture bibliographic information along with what you have captured. It will even help you prepare bibliographies, and export them to OpenOffice or to Word.

Here's a link to Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/


Here's a link to Zotero: http://www.zotero.org/

Take the Time to Vote

You know that feeling you get when you hear the Star Spangled Banner play? I know it's corny. I still get that feeling. The librarian who was supposed to open our precinct over-slept, so there was a long line to vote, but I didn't see anyone head back to their cars. For the first time in a while, I was reminded of the time and comfort everyday Americans are willing to give up to make sure the work of the Republic gets done, and I got that feeling.

I got there at 6:00 AM, thinking few others would be there so early. I was wrong. Already the line wrapped around the Ginter Park Library. Those joining the line knew it would be a long wait. We could see the beginning of the line where the end crossed the beginning. Some had been there since 5:00, standing in a cold, slow rain. The only hubbub I heard was the shout of joy in the doors opened.

Too often, I underestimate Americans. I shouldn't. Each time there's been a crisis, I've seen the nation pull together. Each time I think Americans don't care passionately about liberty and aren't willing to do the work necessary to keep the great experiment going, I have been proven wrong. This morning was an example. As folks would come out, more than one walked the long line telling us it was worth the wait. It was.

Readings for Wednesday 11/5

I have put a PDF called W11 "The Age of Jackson" in the course documents section. Please print, read and bring to class for WEDNESDAY.

Reading assignment for Friday

For Friday, please one or more letters from:

http://library.uml.edu/clh/All/alet.htm

Try to pick some from different points on the page, so everyone does not cover the same material. Post to the list a short response, explaining what can be learned about life at this mill from the letters of the people who worked there. Print your letter, your paragraph, and bring both to class.

WWI at Ft Lee

There will be a presentation on WWI at Ft Lee on Nov 11th. I will offer extra credit if anyone wishes to go and report on it. See info attached:

Training Trench Tour: 1. Amy Wood, FT Lee, Archeological office

WWI Demonstration in miniatures:

1. Joe Brimer, USAF Ret, Military Historian: Trench Warfare 1914-19182. John Wright, USAF Ret, USAF Historian: Aerial Warfare 1914-1918WWI Living History Interpreters-

Displays:

1. "Gunny" Phil Gibbons, WWI USA Quartermaster NCO
2. Charles Bonnell, WWI USA Officer
3. Andrea Wilson, WWI Red Cross Worker
4. Rick Potter, USA Pilot, Lafayette Escadrille
5. Joy DeMatteis, Salvation Army worker
6. Brian Petruskie, US Cav soldier

Guest Lecturers and Programs:
1. Dr. Steve Anders, OQMS, Lecture History of FT Lee 1917-1919
2. Prof. Ed Lengel, UVA, Author, Lecture on his book about Meuse-Argonne 1918
3. Prof. Malcolm Muir, VMI, Lecture on US navy in WWI
4. Prof Rockenbach, VSU, Lecture on "The Military Melting Pot: Race and Ethnicity in the A.E.F."
5. Francoise Bonnell, USAWM Ed Spec, Lecture on Women in WWI
6. Prof Thomas Barnes, UC Berkley, Lecture on no subject provided yet
7. Prof Paul Alkebulan, VSU, Lecture on "Black Americans on the Home Front

Veteran Celebration:

1. COL Gwen Bingham, CASCOM

Evidence: "Not All Evidence is Created Equal."

Assignment for 111.

We've spoken in class about how, at least in academic writing, one uses evidence to support claims and opinions. As a way of helping you "get" how evidence works in the relationship between opinion and support, I thought I might ask you to explore this site:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/index.html

In particular, I want you to look at the link "Can you believe it?" Note the various questions scientists ask of scientific articles to find out if the evidence is worth anything.

Steve

Who are you?

After talking to a couple of students recently, I'm reminded of something I had forgotten - a lot of students don't really know who they are or where they're going. So, a lot of you haven't declared a major, and many more of you are likely to change your major. That's ok. The whole point of college is to find out who you are and how to get there. That's one of the reasons behind the SDV class that you're required to take. As a part of the class, you complete the Career Assignment to help you select a major. You get advised on what classes to take for that major. And, you even go through some activities to figure out what type of learner you are or what type of personality you have. But, there's a lot more to who you are than just what you can get in one short class. Everyone should have at least a basic idea of what's important to them and some sort of moral code. It's important to take some time and think about things like this - ponder, ponder, ponder. After all, how can you figure out where you're going if you don't even know who you are?

Well, after some serious soul-searching of my own this past weekend and thirty-something odd years of trials and experiences, I think I've finally figured out some things of my own. I've come up with a list of "rules" for myself. Now, you can take them as your own, or leave them. It matters not to me. I just thought you may find it useful to see what someone else has come up with - and, just how many years/how long it's taken them. And, bear in mind - these are subject to change. I'm not saying any of my own little "rules" are perfect or won't get outdated (- or that they'll even work for someone else). So, keep in mind that you will need to periodically sit down and ponder through all of this again. And, remember - "Not all who wander are lost." Some of the greatest bits of knowledge and insights come from the process and pondering. That's one of the fun parts of life and of college. It should be an adventure - both fun and scary - but, still an adventure. Anyway, here's my list. Good luck on creating your own!

1. Any problem can be solved with some thought and a good glass of wine. (And - of course - I am NOT advocating that you drink. Alcohol is optional and should be consumed in moderation by those of legal drinking age. 'nuf said!)
2. Breathe. Oxygen is a good thing.
3. Follow your heart - until it's time to follow your head.
4. Look for alternatives.
5. Trust your instincts - even if they don't seem justified.
6. Things will go wrong. You will screw up. Do the best you can and learn from your mistakes.
7. You can always improve.
8. Never stop learning.
9. Appreciate good friends. They are few and far between.
10. Try not to make excuses. Be honest to yourself at least.
11. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." (Emerson) Don't be afraid to change.
12. "To be great is to be misunderstood." (Emerson) Get over it.
13. You are stronger than you think. Test your limits. Try new things.
14. Don't forget the importance of taking care of yourself sometimes.
15. The little things are important. "Details Matter." (Alberti)
16. Allow people to give you what you need.
17. It's painful, but it's only a growth spurt. This too shall pass.
18. Quit trying to be everything to everyone else. Just be yourself. They can take it or leave it.
19. You do not need to explain yourself to anyone.
20. It can always be worse.

-Prof M

I agree with Prof M. College is about coming to know yourself, what you want to do, and preparing for the future; and, it's about realizing this process is part of the life you lead, not something which happens and ends. I like teaching freshmen because it is in the freshman year where much of the work of finding one's self, learning how to learn, and learning what one wants to live for happens. It is a time when many folks make the transition into being real adults, capable of helping them selves and others.

There isn't a set schedule for this process, and most students--including myself--grope and stumble through much of the first couple of years of college. This is one reason I delay giving grades. There's a lot of growing going on in the first semester, and the student the at the end of the semester is sometimes hardly recognizable when compared to the student who walked into my class. Before I judge a student's work, I want to give them a chance for as much of the growth to happen as possible.

Many of my core values I learned in the thought and reading and work which came from going to college. On reason I ended up getting a degree in English was because it offered a chance to come to know myself and the world through reading and thinking about the best which has been said and thought. In fact, I keep a file of key quotes which inform how and why I live.

When folks visit my and Jena's office, they are sometimes surprised to see a rather large poster of Walt Whitman on a pink background. My wife gave it to me when I went back to graduate school. It isn't my favorite picture of Walt, but the poster does have my favorite quote. Over the years, it has served me much as have Jena's rules for living. Here it is,

...this is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. (From the "Preface" to the 1855 edition of _Leaves of Grass_)

Couple Whitman's advice with Thomas Jefferson's, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." and "Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits."

Throw in Henry David Thoreau's, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." and his advice to "Simplify! Simplify!," and you have the essential cornerstones of what I believe makes life worth living, especially a modern American life.

Finally, add in William Morris's "Give me love and work - these two only."and "No man is good enough to be another's master." and "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Mix them all together and you have a summary of why I live and what I hope to accomplish in this world. I strive to live deliberately and simply, to know myself, to devote myself to others, to stand up to tyranny where ever I find it, to seek to be the master of no one but myself, to work and enjoy my work and duty knowing they help others and myself and create useful beauty, and--finally and most importantly--to love others and be worthy of being loved.

Prof. Steve

Tom???

Update on Field Trips.

We just received word the Reynold's van we were to use for transportation on the Creepy Hollow and Tuckahoe Plantation field trips is down for repair; so, it won't be available either Thursday or Friday as planned.

Rather than cancel the field trips, we thought we might ask if folks are willing to carpool or transport themselves on a strictly voluntary basis. We need to make clear that: 1) attendance on both field trips is voluntary [but fun and educational]; 2) the college can assume no liability when you take personal transportation; and, 3) while guests are welcome, the college can't pay for their entrance fees, etc. Anyone--student or guest--who plans to attend must have signed a release form prior to leaving campus, both for you and any guests. For anyone needing to sign a release form, we'll have extras with us when we meet at the at the Flagpoles.

Here is when to meet at the Flagpoles for each field trip:

* For Creepy Hollow, meet Thursday, 23 Oct., 6:45 PM.
* For Tuckahoe Plantation, meet Friday, 24 Oct, 8:30 AM.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and Friday,

Jena, Tom, and Steve

FYI: Four Year College Transfer Days

J. Sargeant Reynolds
Community College
4 Year College
Transfer Days

Tuesday, Oct. 21st (Burnette Hall- PRC) & Thursday, Oct. 23 (1st Floor Lobby- DTC)
11am until 1pm
Meet with Admissions Representatives
Learn about Guaranteed Admission Agreements
and Transferability of Classes

Randolph-Macon UVA
Bluefield College VA State University
Hampton University VCU
ODU Virginia Tech
JMU Mary Washington
NC State University Radford University
University of Richmond
and many more!

An example of a good, solid rhetorical analysis.

A few students have asked I post an example of the kind of rhetorical analysis for which I am looking each week. Below is a good, solid example. It could be improved, but I am impressed with how the author has placed himself in the rhetorical place of the person he is analyzing. The author of the analysis does a good job of identifying his rhetor's audience, and looking at a specific problem the rhetor is facing and how the rhetor crafts his message to overcome these problems. There are even specific examples. I would prefer the author had taken a few extra minutes to proofread, but over all, I would give the following example an "A."

Here's the example:

Watching preist perform the mass is an excellent example of Rhetoric. His ethos is established by the clothes he wears, the logos can be simply achieved by backing up your statements with scripture, and pathos can easily be achieved when people come to church, looking and expecting to feel better about themselves. The audience is generally the same group of people. Old people who come from habit, young people who come because they're forced to, and people in the middle looking for answers about life. The message stays pretty consistent from week to week: live right, but if you can't you can be forgiven. The thing that makes their job difficult is keeping the attention of this audience week to week when you need to send the same general message. They try to do this by varying the stories and examples they use. I cannot imagine this is as easy to do as it sounds. The three groups I described which compose the congregation are very diverse. Many of the stories I can relate to do not apply to many of the near-deads who sit up front. Very frequently the situations they find humorous don't do anything for me. Our priest seems to have discovered the secret to making everyone pay attention. His Homilies often conist of you might be a redneck if jokes and comparisons to professional football. Everyone likes these.

Driving Directions to Jamestown

Here's a link to driving directions to Jamestown from Richmond:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-dd&utm_term=road%20route

Google maps estimates a tad over one hour from downtown Richmond. I've never made it in less than one and a half hours, but I drive slowly.

If you want to map it yourself, the address is:

Jamestown Settlement, 2218 Jamestown Rd, Williamsburg, VA

See you tomorrow at 10:00.

Steve

Reading: Kaizen and Process, Take Two

Now you are getting your head around the basic elements of communications---the sender, the message, the receiver, noise, and feedback, it's time to talk some down and dirty about how to improve your writing. The basic notion of how to make improvements in any process (like writing), can be found in the industrial management philosophy of Kaizen.

If you do a quick google of "Kaizen," you'll learn it's the industrial management philosophy which led to Japan being the technological and industrial powerhouse it is. This way of approaching process brings together the best of Western ideas about motion study and efficiency and Japanese notions of how communities and individuals work. It's one of a handful of the most powerful ideas to emerge from the 20th C, and it came into being at the end of WWII.

The US wanted to build a working democracy out of the wreckage of Japan at the end of WWII. Japanese industry was geared up for war, and the US had learned from how it had handled Germany at the end of WWI that for democracy to work, you had to have a certain amount of wealth flowing through out a viable economy; so, the US sent in some of our best industrial engineers to help Japan to build a consumer industrial base.

These folks were well grounded in how to set up a factory to mass produce, but they didn't have a clue as to how Japanese culture functions. The upshot was they tried to impose the latest 1930s/'40s motion and process theory and failed miserably. Japanese culture sees work holistically. It tends to see the individual as part of a community, and the function of work not so much as a means of producing a product but as a means of maintaining the viability of the community and the pride and sense of status of the individual within the community. Luckily, the Japanese were able to work with the well intentioned Americans to come up with a theory of industrial process which combined the best of both ways of working.

From the US, they took the notion of process, that is, when you do something over and over (like writing a sentence, paragraph, or email), you tend to follow the same steps and tend to need the same stuff. If you break down such repeatable activities into set steps, you can focus on one aspect of the process at a time and work to improve its efficiency. You might, for instance, make sure the tools you need for a task are at your workstation instead of stored across the room, saving you the time needed to get up, loose your train of thought, and go across the room to get a pencil or keyboard. The idea is as you improve the efficiency of the individual steps, you improve the overall efficiency of the process and your ability to compete.

Now American thought tended to think of process efficiency as a means to an end. You get a factory up to a certain level of productivity per man hour, and you can compete. The Japanese had the brilliant insight---based on Zen notions of work based meditation--that one never reaches a perfect process; instead, one can just improve the process at hand; but, and this is a big but, you can make small, continuous improvements to whichever processes is in place. Literally, one's focus isn't on the end product, but on the doing or the work necessary to a task. You practice and perfect the doing of a task, not the product of the task. The upshot is they created the notion of continual small improvements to process or Kaizen. It's quite literally a continuous focus of improving how the task is done and assuming that a good process will produce a good product which can compete.

There are some additional flourishes. Kaizen rewards workers who come up with a means to improve how their task is done. It creates time in a production schedule to have regular meetings of the workers, management, and sales folks to discuss process and product. The idea is everyone needs to understand the big picture, so they can understand their part. In any event, small groups meet to make decisions about which improvements to process to implement and to judge if a change in process is an improvement or not. There's also the notion of low hanging fruit vs. high hanging fruit. That is, one always begins work on a process from the process already in place. This process already allows you to receive some gain or, to use the Kaizen metaphor, pick the lowest hanging fruit. As you make improvements, you add to your gains by being able to pick the lowest hanging fruit and some higher hanging fruit. The upshot is your return in the investment of improving process is always increased return.

Kaizen can be applied to any process, from coding to writing to your morning routine. Let's talk about writing. You currently use a series of processes when you write. As you write and revise your inventory of WPA Outcomes, think how you produce writing currently and give these processes your attention. Break writing down into the steps you follow as you produce. For instance, how do you proofread? How do you draft? Do you build in time for revision? We'll be discussing how composition and rhetoric has broken down the task of writing and making speeches, but my goal here is to just give you some language for thinking about the processes you use as you create and write. I encourage you to think about processes in the work you do or want to do. Once you begin noticing the steps you follow and can accept the notion of improving how you produce through making small, continuous changes in these processes, you'll be half-way to becoming a writer.

Here are the tricks of Kaizen:

1) Pat yourself on the back. Whatever process you are now using is picking the lowest hanging fruit.
2) Know your goals.
3) Take small steps toward your goals by improving the process.
4) Pat yourself on the back for picking higher hanging fruit and moving toward your goals.
5) If a step doesn't work out, figure out why and make another change. Use the loss as an opportunity to learn. You are still picking fruit.
7) Keep the pace of change slow but steady. Every few weeks, figure out your next change and keep implementing the change until it becomes habit and routine.
8) Take time to review. Know you are making progress and picking higher fruit than you were. As you review, reward yourself and internalized your success. It is only from success that you gain confidence.
9) Include others in your goals and work toward them. Listen to their insights. Often, from outside, they will see those things which you cannot from the inside. Let these others share in and celebrate your success. Again, you gain confidence from public acclimation.
10) Don't expect the moon; instead, move toward it. As change and improvements accumulate, you will eventually obtain the moon.
11) Usually, when you reach the moon, you find out it wasn't about being there; it was about the journey, the successes along the way, your own growth, and the confidence you have gained for the next project.

Write if you have questions, comments, or observations.

A New Perspective on the Election

The debates are finally behind us. It has been a contentious election. The character and competence of both candidates has been called into question. These one time colleagues have turned into the bitterest of enemies.

The candidates represent vastly different philosophies of government. Both are deeply concerned about foreign relations, and domestic concerns threaten to embroil us in foreign wars. A recession looms in the near future. One candidate believes in a strong central government--the only kind of government he believes can save us from war and keep the nation strong. The other is more liberal and argues the value of change and reducing the power of the federal government. He wants us out of foreign intrigues. There were times when it looked as if the candidates might cross the boundary of words and come to blows. It will be a wonder if the two men speak for a decade.

Sound familiar? This is a fairly accurate description of the election of 1800 and 2008. In 1800, the year John Adams, Arron Burr, Thomas Jefferson battled it out to become the nation's third president, the Federalists--those who favored a strong centralized government--had held office for a decade.

Today, we don't realize how remarkable a peaceful transfer of power is. We expect whomever "overthrows" Bush to do so with no violence. In 1800, there were worries about a civil war between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson--a Democratic-Republican--won only after a constitutional crisis and the election was resolved by the House, not by a popular landslide. In the Electoral College, Jefferson tied for President with Arron Burr, the guy who ends up being Vice President and who kills Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson !!! won by the narrowest of margins.

The nation and the great experiment survived. I suspect it will survive McCain and Obama. There probably won't be a duel. If there is, my money is on Palin.

A Cherokee comic, Will Rogers, once said,

It’s a show that no American should miss. It’s entertainment, and it’s enlightening….as bad as we are, and as funny as we do things, we are better off than the other Countries, so bring on more conventions. The bigger, the noisier, the crazier, the better. No nation likes any ‘Hooey’ like we do. We are all cuckoo, but we are happy. (July 10, 1932)

Colonial Williamsburg, a place you might visit Saturday afternoon following our morning tour of Jamestown, recently published an "interview" with Jefferson concerning his own contentious election. Follow the link to read and understand that 2008 has more in common with 1800 than you ever might think:

An Interview with President-elect Thomas Jefferson on the Election of 1800

You might also listen to the podcast, "The Will of the People," on the election of 1800 and our inheritance of contentious politics. Find it here:

http://www.history.org/media/podcasts.cfm

Last but not least, you might read Jefferson's first inaugural address, the one where he pulls the nation back together by reminding us--regardless for whom we vote--we are all Americans. Ex-President Adams quietly leaves town rather than attending Jefferson's address. Can you imagine Bush not showing up for the inauguration of whomever wins? We've come a long way.

FYI: How to Obtain Free Credit Reports

I understand next week in SDV you'll be talking how to manage your finances. The Virginia Credit Union offers free financial advice to members. Here's what they have to say about obtaining your free annual credit reports:

Free Annual Credit Reports

An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the nationwide credit reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

Three ways to request your free credit report

The three companies— Equifax, Experian and TransUnion— have set up one central service through which you can order your free annual report. You should not order free credit reports directly from the credit reporting agencies.

• Online at www.annualcreditreport.com (Cookies must be enabled on your browser). You will be able to access it immediately.
• Call toll-free (877) 322-8228. Your report will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days.
• Complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form (pdf) and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Your request will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days of receipt.

When you order, you will be asked to provide your name, address, social security number and date of birth. To verify your identity, you may also need to provide some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment.

Report ordering tips

• When you order your reports, request that no more than the last four digits of your Social Security Number appear on copies of your credit report.
  
• While you may decide to do so, you are NOT required to purchase or subscribe to any other services from a credit reporting company in order to get a free credit report.
  
• Consider marking your calendar to request a report from a different company every few months, as a preventative measure against ID theft, rather than ordering all three at one time.
  
• Beware of e-mails, Internet ads and telemarketing calls that promise to obtain your "free annual credit report" on your behalf. In particular, e-mail messages or Internet ads claiming to be from www.annualcreditreport.com are likely to be scams.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights as a Set of National Goals

I was doing the reading for this week, and I realized how much in common the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has with you your goals, planning, and habits assignment (see posts below).

We are so used to living under the guidelines of a Constitution and Bill of Rights which is 200 plus years old, it is easy to forget these documents were once shiny, brand new, and radical. These documents represented the goals folks wanted to follow and a plan to get there, but folks still had to figure out what it meant to live lives in a a nation planned with the goal in mind of maximizing everyone's liberty. In short, at the point where the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written--1790 or so, the nation and individuals were learning the habits the nation needed to live as free men and women in a society of equally free men and women.

This sense of not having everything figured out is so important to your understanding early America and your selves.

In many cases, you are going through the same steps toward learning how to live a life which allows you to reach your goals and to maximize the benefits which come with freedom. Think about it. You have all these goals and the expectation of the liberty which comes from gaining adulthood and maturity. You have a sense of what you must do to pursue your idea of happiness, but you are still learning the knowledge, skills, and developing the habits it takes to be a happy, successful adult in a free--more or less--society. This is one of the things college does for you and for society; it gives new adults a space to figure out their dreams and prepare for the future.

Now think about a whole society going through the same growing pains, but they can't send the whole society to college to learn and figure itself out. Instead, they've got to live and go through a hard process of trail, much error, and strife to figure out what it means to live in a free society and keep it going.

Here's where society was in 1790:

Goals?...check...create a society which maximizes individual liberty
Plan?..check...see Constitution and Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence
Having the habits of respect, tolerance, being free, cussedness, and a developed willingness to work for the public good as well as one's own...not so much.

In 1790, these last still needed to be figured out. Otherwise, women would have had the vote, the slaves would have been freed, a free public education would have been built into the Constitution, etc. Just as you are now, America in 1790 still had to figure out itself, where it wanted to go, and develop the habits of thought and action needed to get there.

What habits are you going to have to learn to be a free adult and help keep the great experiment going?

Field Trip Info!

For the Jamestown Settlement (Saturday, October 18th - 10am!):

When: Everyone who wishes to attend will meet AT Jamestown in front of the building at 10am on Saturday, October 18th. This is optional, and you will need to provide your own transportation.

Where: Directions to the site can be found at http://www.historyisfun.org/General-Information.htm

Incentives: Extra credit will be offered in both Dr. DeMayo's and Dr. Brandon's class. It can also count as an Activity for Prof. Morrison's Activity Assignment.

What you Need: All students planning to attend must complete the attached Risk Assumption Form for the Jamestown Settlement. Completed forms need to be turned in to Prof. Morrison no later than Wednesday, October 15th.

Other Info: Dress warmly. The entire event is outside, and it got fairly windy last year. There is also a place on the site to sit and enjoy a meal at your own expense after the tour concludes. Yes - you can bring a friend or relative from the college or from outside of the college. However, the college will only pay for those visitors who are a student at JSRCC. And, ALL visitors must turn in a completed Risk Assumption Form. The cost for those not involved with JSRCC will be $13.50 per person (unless they happen to allow them at the Group Rate of $6).


For the Tuckahoe Plantation (Friday, October 24th - 8:30am!):

When: All LC students will need to meet in front of Burnette Hall by the flagpoles at 8:30am on Friday, October 24th

Where: Tuckahoe Plantation is located off Patterson Avenue. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.historictuckahoe.com/

Incentives: No extra credit will be offered for this trip. Since the trip is being held during our normally scheduled class time, all students are expected to attend as per each class' attendance policy. (see syllabus!)

What you Need: All students planning to attend must complete the attached Risk Assumption Form for the Tuckahoe Plantation. Completed forms need to be turned in to Prof. Morrison no later than Wednesday, October 22nd.

Other Info: Dress warmly. The entire event does include some outside portions during the tour. This field trip is restricted to LC students as we will be providing a school van with limited seating.

Field trip to Creepy Hollow

It looks as if we'll be able to secure funding for the field trip to Creepy Hollow, but it won't take place tomorrow night. Instead, we've got it tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 23 October, the day before our field trip to the plantation.

Don't forget, this Saturday, we're going on the field trip to Jamestown. I'm looking forward to seeing each of you there.

Steve

Assignment ENG 111: Goals, Habits, Motivation, Kaizen, and Writing.

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about Kaizen, that is, making small, continuous high impact improvements as a way of moving toward your goals. You've brainstormed and written about your goals. You've identified a habit either to acquire or to shed. Now I'd like to bring together this assignment with some reading and further writing.

You will be tempted to skip the reading, and take what I've said in lecture as all you need to know about goals, habits, Kaizen, and writing. Many of you have managed to get by in school with doing little to no reading. Don't do it this time. Like rhetoric, Kaizen and using habits to become a better writer lays at the heart of this class, and it is one clear path to becoming a better writer. You know I have never BSed you. Read these articles. They are more than worth your time and effort. You won't find everything useful. Remember the 17% rule; but, you will gain some important perspective on how to achieve your goals or to find them. Why else are you attending college?

The only way to become a better writer is to make becoming a better writer a goal and then begin to acquire the skills, habits, and knowledge you need to craft and understand effective writing and speaking. Combine this work with practice and thought, and --over time--you'll become as good a writer as you want. Why go to the trouble? Well, you have to to pass the class. However, one of my favorite writers boils it down to a simple truth, "Good writing pays more than bad."

To help you get a handle on how the process of moving from goal to habit to achievement works, below I've brought together a few of my favorite posts on setting goals, how to move from goals to habits, some tips on ways to acquire habits, and some tips on how to stay motivated. You need to read these.

Print out each article, put them in your habit's project file and bring your file to class. I will be checking. You have until Friday, 24 October to complete this reading. This will have you reading and re-reading one of the articles per day, taking notes, taking some time to think about what you've read, and then writing about it and discussing what you've learned. This writing and discussion can take place either within your group (using a google doc) or with the whole class (using the class discussion list). Your choice.

As you read each article, take notes, and read actively. After you finish each article, take a fem moments to summarize what you thought were its major points and what part of its advice resonates with you (or didn't). As you write about the advice or resources you find, use your habit and your work on it as a focus for your discussion. Talk about the advice you find particularly helpful, and how it might change or alter your goals or your work on your habit. Finally, read what others have to say. Help them get a handle on the reading. Comment on what they say. Discuss. I'll be paying particular attention to this set of linked assignments when I decide on your class participation grade.

Here's the reading:

Setting Goals:

Written Goals for Skeptics

Simple Goal Setting

Lifetick: Goal-setting software that actually helps you achieve your goals

Habits:

Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals into Habits

How to Establish New Habits the No Sweat Way

Things to Avoid When Changing Habits


Finding Motivation:

Ultimate Guide to Motivation

Work for Wednesday, 15 October

My back spasmed again this morning getting out of the shower, so I'll not be able to make it in to teach or for office hours; instead, I'll be alternating hot and cold packs and be on my back--again. This doesn't mean you can't be learning and making progress.

Over the weekend, you finished a draft of the section of your reflective essay dealing with what you have learned to date. Also, you wrote a paragraph in which you let me know what I could do to help you learn better, and you completed a prewriting exercise on a section of the reflective essay in which you discussed your performance in the class.

For Friday, I would like you to bring all your work together by producing a unified draft of the entire reflection essay which includes all three sections, that is,

1) A discussion of your performance;
2) a discussion of what you have learned;
3) some ideas on what I could do to help you learn more or better.

Share this draft with your group and with me using google documents and bring two hard copies to class on Friday. The reflective essay is meant to help you develop something called a metadiscouse--an ability to reflect on and think objectively and systematically about your learning and your writing, what you are doing well, and what you can improve. Much of college is learning how to learn on your own, and developing a metadiscouse is essential to developing this skill.

When completing your draft, make sure to make clear claims, explain your claims, and then back them up using examples, quotations from what you have written, the work you have done, and analysis of each. Remember, your goal isn't to just tell me about your performance or what you have learned. Your goal is to show me what you have learned and to show me what you say about your performance is true. Use examples and analysis to show, not just tell.

Second, you should have read Peter Elbow's "Writing for Teachers" over the weekend. Be prepared to discuss the article. When thinking about it, you might remember your primary audience for your reflective essay is me, your teacher. Think about how the reflective essay is like and differs from the examples described by Elbow. We'll discuss this question in class on Friday.

Steve

FYI: Proofreading/reading tool

Proofreading is easier the more distance you can get from your work. One way to do this is to get someone else to help you proofread by reading your work out loud. This proofreading method works best when both you and your reader have a copy of your work; this way, whenever something sounds odd or off, you can put a check off to the side and use these checks as an index to things in your paper you want to check. Asking questions of your reader, like, "What was the main point of my paper?," "What would you improve?," or "Did I stay on topic?, is also a good way to get cheap feedback on your writing.

What do you do, however, if you can't get another reader to read your paper out loud? There's tech. While a computer reader won't be able to answer questions about your writing--at least, not yet. It will read you back your words EXACTLY as you wrote them. Add in a hard copy and a pen with which to put check marks off to the side, and you have a workable part of a decent proofreading system.

Check out this free text-to-speech web based converter:

http://readthewords.com/

Readings for Weds10/15

For Wednesday, please read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights printed in the back of Give Me Liberty. Bring Give Me Liberty to class on Wednesday.

Goal Setting & Time Management

For those of you looking for some ways to change your habits and make better use of your time, here are a couple of helpful links.

http://www.studygs.net/schedule/Weekly.html
This site can help you figure out where you're spending all of your time. It's also good for setting up a schedule on how to spend your time in the future and creating a To Do List (see the links at the top of the page above the scheduling tool.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People
This site gives a brief description of Covey's book. Each of the 7 habits is described, and all are a great way to make progress in anything that you do.

http://zenhabits.net/2008/10/10-simple-ways-to-live-a-less-stressful-life/#more-1437
Finally, check out one of Zen Habit's latest articles on how to live a less stressful life. The whole point of time management is so that you can have more free time, less stress, and some sanity!

Catch up on missed election speeches and debates.

Going for the extra credit for discussing the election with your classmates? Looking for a subject for this week's rhetorical analysis? Tired of not knowing about the speech about which everyone is talking?

Follow the following link to legit online access to tonight's debate, past speeches, etc.:

http://lifehacker.com/5059937/catch-tonights-presidential-debate-on-hulu

FYI: Real World Advice on Acquiring Better Study Habits

One of my favorite blogs, AskMetafilter, does nothing more than act as a place where folks can write in with a question and get good suggestions on how to answer it.

Recently, a graduate student wrote in asking how to acquire better study habits than those which got him his initial degree, and he got some good advice--advice I wish I had heard long before graduate school.

Please note: the question was posed by a graduate student, who was suddenly looking at the task of preparing for comprehensive exams. Think of all the classes you've ever taken and an exam where any question from any class is fair game, and you have a good idea of what comps are like. One reason folks with a masters or a doctorate know how to study is most of us had to sweat comprehensives at one time or another, but the skills I had to learn then would sure have made my life as an freshman much, much easier.

Here's the link:

http://ask.metafilter.com/103544/Help-Ive-fallen-and-I-cant-get-up

FYI: Apostrophes

Apostrophes are the bug-a-bear of many writers, not just students learning the ropes. If apostrophes give you fits, you might follow this link:

English Apostrophe Society

The society is dedicated to stamping out the over use and misuse of apostrophes in English. They have some truly funny pictures of places where folks used an apostrophe or six where they shouldn't have. More important, they have some easy to follow rules for when and when not to use apostrophes in your writing.

Today's post is thanks to Instructify.

Steve

Notes on Proofreading.

Below you'll find my notes on various tips and tricks to help you proofread better. Over the rest of the semester, try out as many of the techniques I discuss as you can. Not every technique will work for every writer, but I'm confident you will find three or four which will help you catch surface level issues you are now missing.

Remember, proofreading differs from revision. When you proofread, you're looking at the surface level and polishing grammar, spelling and usage. When you revise, you're concerned with clarifying what you say, perfecting the organization, adding to your text, and cutting. In short, in revision, you want to deal with meaning and deep level issues. You proofread *after* you revise; otherwise, the effort you put into proofreading may well be wasted. One last note: one difference between editing and proofreading is that one edits another's text while one proofreads one's own.

On texts of some length, proofreading/editing is often the final step in the writing process prior to publishing your text. Proofreading usually takes place nearer the end of the revision process than at the beginning. Why? Because it doesn't make sense put in the effort to proofread every sentence and word level issue until your draft is fairly solid. In other words, why proofread and edit sentences and words which might still be cut or changed?

You can also waste time proofreading haphazardly. Once you've learned how to proofread systematically, your prose will be more successful and polished, and you'll save effort and time over haphazard, disorganized means you may currently be using.

In any event, here are my own notes on proofreading. You can now update your writing inventory on learning various techniques involved with different stages of the writing process.

Those notes just below are the main ones to remember:

It's nearly impossible to effectively proofread your own work. You know what you mean to say. When you read your own work, you often read over mistakes. My best piece of advice is to get others to proofread your work. Try to get at least three people to look at your work prior to turning it in. If necessary, hire someone or create a writer's group to help you with proofreading.

EVERYONE makes mistakes. Don't kick yourself for your mistakes, learn to recognize them and how to fix them. Even then, you'll still make mistakes.

I once worked for an academic journal. Four sets of eyes proofed each article--the professor who wrote it, myself, the departmental secretary, and the editor. Still, EVERY time we got the journal back from the printers, I opened it to a random page and found at least one mistake. EVERYONE, even professionals, make mistakes. I know, for instance, there are more than a few errors in these notes.

When you proofread, you're trying to do something called breaking set. This means you want to change the set or usual way you read, so you don't read over mistakes. Most of the proofreading tricks I list below have to do with changing how you read, so you can see what you've written.

1. Give yourself time to proofread. It's easy to find yourself adding the last sentence to a text at the last possible minute. As we finish drafting, the last thing we want to do is acknowledge there's yet more work to do. We want to be done. Resist the temptation. Give yourself time to proofread. Your final product will be better for the time. To give yourself time, set your deadline for finishing your draft in time to revise the draft for content and structure and to still have time to proofread.

2) Read backwards from the last sentence to the first. When proofreading for spelling, read backwards one word at a time. Learn to isolate each word, even those which have been passed by the spell check. It doesn't catch every misspelling. When proofreading for sentence issues, read backwards one sentence at a time.

3) Read slowly and out loud. You'll be surprised how reading something out loud, as opposed to silently, will let you hear errors you'd otherwise overlook.

4) Read to someone else. Reading your paper to someone else forces you to take an audience into account. Not only can the person you're reading to ask questions about content, they can mark places in a copy of your paper where they're confused or they hear an error as you read. When you hear a mistake or a piece of awkward phrasing, you can mark it and come back later to fix it.

5) Print out your text. If you usually read your papers on the screen, make a hard copy. As you find errors, mark them, and later revise your electronic copy. When we're drafting and hit the creative zone, we often work quickly and have a hard mental focus on meaning. These habits of reading quickly and thinking in terms of meaning and adding or cutting content can track over into efforts to proofread on the screen. Remember, when you're proofreading, you're not so much worried about content or organization (hopefully, each of these elements was polished earlier in the writing process), when proofreading you're looking at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar and only at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar.

6) Get someone else to read your work to you. Print out two hard copies. Get a friend to read your work to you. Both of you mark places which don't make sense or appear to be problematic. Use both copies as an index when fixing your text. Go back and look at each place which was marked and try to figure out what caused the area to get marked.

7) Have the computer read the text two you. Make a hard copy and set up the computer to read the text out loud. It will read what's there. Every time you hear an error, mark your hard copy. Use your marked copy as an index to what needs to be fixed. You can find many free text to speech readers by just googling.

8) Give yourself time. Breaking set isn't just about reading backwards or reading out loud. You get close to a text when you draft it and work on content and structural revision. If you try to proofread after working this closely with the text, you'll find yourself seeing what you meant to say rather than what you're actually saying. Horace, a Roman rhetorician, recommended putting what you write away for nine years, that is, until it reads as if someone else wrote it. We don't have such luxury, but giving yourself a day or two to let the text set, even just doing something else between finishing your content revisions and proofreading, gives distance enough so you're can bring fresh eyes back to your text. So, finish your draft and reward yourself with a night's sleep, a night out, or a workout prior to proofreading.

9) Give yourself time to proofread. Slow down. You're not in a race to get through, you're trying to look closely at multiple things, and the process takes time. Slow down. Read slowly. Take the time it takes to truly see and truly edit every sentence and word.

10) Physically touch every word. Talk about breaking set! Read backwards. Read out loud, and touch every word to make sure you're seeing and proofreading each and every word and sentence.

11) Use the grammar and spell checker. The state of the art in grammar and spell checkers isn't quite there yet, but they can help you see some errors. Just don't their word as law. Use them for the things at which they're effective. They can isolate "to be" verb constructions and give you an index to possible passive voice constructions. They can show you long sentences. They can usually recognize subject verb disagreements. They can sometimes help with punctuation. The real trick with using grammar and spell checkers is to learn their weaknesses and to learn how to customize them to the style of writing you want to reproduce.

12) Boo-boo or demon words. You know these words. They're the ones which sneak through the spell checker. Usually they're jargon or proper names you misspell or forget to capitalize. You can customize autocorrect to make corrections for your most typical boo-boo words.

13) Use a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the sentences you're proofreading. This practice forces you to look at the sentence you're proofing, not the next sentence, not the previous sentence, the sentence you're supposed to be looking at.

14) Learn your problem areas. Everyone is prone to making different mistakes. If you or someone else sees a pattern in your mistakes, put it on a personal "list of things I have to look at when proofreading." (This is why it's a good idea to read the papers you get back from teachers and proofreaders. Often your professor will mark errors. Use their work to help develop your list of "things at which I have to look.") By learning to recognize the problems you're prone to introducing into the text and how these errors can be fixed, you'll soon find yourself making fewer errors. Every once in a while, take your copy of "things at which I have to look" and find your worse error. Spend some time researching how to recognize and fix your worse error. Eventually, you'll find your list of common errors getting shorter and your sentence level writing improving in proportion.