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.