Hi, everyone. I know you're busy getting your work done, and I'll be spending the next few days giving you lots of feedback, so I'll be busy, too:). It's time for course evaluations, and since our class is online, so are the evaluations. You can find the link to the evaluations through the Course Content page in Blackboard. They're the same questions you're used to answering, so when you have a spare moment, please feel free to pop over there and do them. I know that taking this course in the summer can be hard and taking it online can be even harder even though it's often more convenient, and there were certainly times when I wished I could see you all face to face (especially at this time of the semester because I always make cookies for students on the last day of class, and I'm really sorry I can't do that for you!). But, I hope that you've gained something valuable you can take with you and that you leave with a positive experience. I have enjoyed getting to know you the little bit I have; your research questions have been really heartening to me and I know that you will continue finding ways to make your reading, writing, and research experiences at UTPA as meaningful as you can and that you will ask lots of good questions of your teachers so you can do that.
If you have any difficulty with the course evaluations, let me know. This is my first time with online evaluations through Blackboard, but I think it should be a pretty straightforward process. If it's not, we'll work the problem together as we always do:). If you have any additional comments to make about the class, please don't hesitate to send them to me via email or to add them at the end of the evaluation process. I respect your comments very much.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Final week's work
I have posted your Portfolio reflective essay assignment in google docs in the "Portfolio Reflection" folder (I have also put a link to this assignment under course documents on the right side of the blog). At the bottom of that document are the instructions for turning in your portfolio (your "final" thing to do for our class). I'm pasting those here as well.
Portfolio Guidelines and Checklist:
You will create a document (First name_Portfolio) in your individual folder which contains the following (in this order):
1. Your portfolio reflective essay
2. Your final draft of your reflective essay for your researched project (including works cited)
3. Your final draft of your "thing" (if you have a link for your "thing," just include it there, and I'll follow it to your "thing")
This Portfolio document will be due by noon on Thursday, but you're welcome to turn it in earlier if you finish. I will give you feedback on the pieces of your portfolio up until Wednesday evening. If you have a draft of your portfolio reflective essay that you want feedback on, you can upload it to the portfolio reflection folder, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. If you have questions, just email me at jcharlton@utpa.edu, particularly if you are concerned that your document is not uploading properly. You can always send me your doc through email as a backup. I will not be able to accept late projects as I have very little time to get your portfolio graded and your final grades turned in on Friday.
I'm out of town until Monday night, and I'm having a little trouble inserting comments on your docs in the mobile version of google docs, but I think I have a workaround for that, though I'lll only be commenting in the late afternoon and evening tomorrow. Good luck with your revisions and the writing of your reflective essay for your portfolio. Remember, the most important part of writing your portfolio reflection is to be VERY specific, referring to specific revisions you've made in response to particular comments, particular blog posts, readings, etc. The worst thing you can do is be vague or too general in your claims.
Portfolio Guidelines and Checklist:
You will create a document (First name_Portfolio) in your individual folder which contains the following (in this order):
1. Your portfolio reflective essay
2. Your final draft of your reflective essay for your researched project (including works cited)
3. Your final draft of your "thing" (if you have a link for your "thing," just include it there, and I'll follow it to your "thing")
This Portfolio document will be due by noon on Thursday, but you're welcome to turn it in earlier if you finish. I will give you feedback on the pieces of your portfolio up until Wednesday evening. If you have a draft of your portfolio reflective essay that you want feedback on, you can upload it to the portfolio reflection folder, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. If you have questions, just email me at jcharlton@utpa.edu, particularly if you are concerned that your document is not uploading properly. You can always send me your doc through email as a backup. I will not be able to accept late projects as I have very little time to get your portfolio graded and your final grades turned in on Friday.
I'm out of town until Monday night, and I'm having a little trouble inserting comments on your docs in the mobile version of google docs, but I think I have a workaround for that, though I'lll only be commenting in the late afternoon and evening tomorrow. Good luck with your revisions and the writing of your reflective essay for your portfolio. Remember, the most important part of writing your portfolio reflection is to be VERY specific, referring to specific revisions you've made in response to particular comments, particular blog posts, readings, etc. The worst thing you can do is be vague or too general in your claims.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Friday's (8/12/11) & This Weekend's Work
Today and this weekend, I want you to work on revising your "thing" and your reflective essay based on the feedback you've received from me and your peers. I'll be giving feedback throughout the day and the weekend a few times a day, but if you need to draw my attention to something because you're working on it right then, just send me an email, and if I can, I'll go look right then. On Monday and Tuesday, we'll work on our end-of-semester portfolio reflection. Your finished portfolio will be due by Thursday, 8/18, at noon (though you are free to turn everything in as early as Tuesday if you're "finished" then). More details on the portfolio on Monday, but just FYI, it will include your revised research project--thing and essay--and your end-of-semester portfolio reflection.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Thursday's Workshop on Reflective Essay
The plan is for everyone to have a draft of the reflective essay portion of your researched project finished by this afternoon. I don't give page length requirements for this because that would be somewhat arbitrary, but if you're not writing 4+ (double-spaced) pages, you probably aren't doing some part of it justice (if yours isn't this long, don't freak out or pad it; I'll give you feedback about how you might develop it). When you're done, post it to the "Researched Project Drafts" folder in Google Docs (if you have trouble, send it to me via email--what's most important is that you get some feedback on it so you can revise this weekend). Then, I'd like you to read your partner's essay and respond to the following things, being as specific as you can and providing suggestions for revision when appropriate:
1. What context does the writer provide for the discussion surrounding his/her research question? What problem or misconceptions are at the root of the question? If the writer doesn't provide a discussion of the context, make note of that.
Pay close attention to the writer's discussion of his/her sources for these next three questions.
2. Organization of Source Discussion: How does s/he present what s/he's learned from the sources--Does she relate a story of finding the sources and present them in the order she found them (almost like a story of her research process? Does he discuss one source per paragraph, or does he organize the discussion more synthetically--by issue, rather than by source?
3. Source Analysis: Does the writer provide an analysis of her source's arguments, or does she just present the source information as "facts"?
4. Documentation: Does the writer document her source ideas correctly--using parenthetical documentation, even when ideas from sources aren't directly quoted? To what extent does the writer incorporate those ideas smoothly and meaningfully into his own writing (introducing a source, discussing the source ideas and its connection to his/her own point, etc.)? For this, you may want to take another look at the meaningful incorporation of sources handout I posted a few days ago).
5. Works Cited: Is there a works cited page? If not, make note of that as the writer will need to create one. If there is one, check it for accuracy. Only sources actually cited in the paper (check what's been parenthetically documented for this) need to show up on the works cited page. Are there sources mentioned in the essay, but not listed on the works cited page (or vice versa)? Also, do the citations include all the necessary info? Is it formatted properly according to MLA (or APA if the writer has chosen a different format)?
Now I'd like you to look carefully at the writer's discussion of the rhetorical choices she made regarding the creation of her "thing."
5. Has the writer focused his/her project on a single audience (teachers OR high school students at X school, parents of kids at Y elementary, etc.), or has s/he tried to reach too many audiences?
6. What claim has the writer decided to make to this audience?
7. What genre did the writer choose in order to reach this audience with this claim? Is there a good match between the claim, the audience, and the genre? In other words, if the writer has chosen a website to convey his message, but his audience isn't likely to have access to the internet, then there's a mis-match there which you'd need to point out.
1. What context does the writer provide for the discussion surrounding his/her research question? What problem or misconceptions are at the root of the question? If the writer doesn't provide a discussion of the context, make note of that.
Pay close attention to the writer's discussion of his/her sources for these next three questions.
2. Organization of Source Discussion: How does s/he present what s/he's learned from the sources--Does she relate a story of finding the sources and present them in the order she found them (almost like a story of her research process? Does he discuss one source per paragraph, or does he organize the discussion more synthetically--by issue, rather than by source?
3. Source Analysis: Does the writer provide an analysis of her source's arguments, or does she just present the source information as "facts"?
4. Documentation: Does the writer document her source ideas correctly--using parenthetical documentation, even when ideas from sources aren't directly quoted? To what extent does the writer incorporate those ideas smoothly and meaningfully into his own writing (introducing a source, discussing the source ideas and its connection to his/her own point, etc.)? For this, you may want to take another look at the meaningful incorporation of sources handout I posted a few days ago).
5. Works Cited: Is there a works cited page? If not, make note of that as the writer will need to create one. If there is one, check it for accuracy. Only sources actually cited in the paper (check what's been parenthetically documented for this) need to show up on the works cited page. Are there sources mentioned in the essay, but not listed on the works cited page (or vice versa)? Also, do the citations include all the necessary info? Is it formatted properly according to MLA (or APA if the writer has chosen a different format)?
Now I'd like you to look carefully at the writer's discussion of the rhetorical choices she made regarding the creation of her "thing."
5. Has the writer focused his/her project on a single audience (teachers OR high school students at X school, parents of kids at Y elementary, etc.), or has s/he tried to reach too many audiences?
6. What claim has the writer decided to make to this audience?
7. What genre did the writer choose in order to reach this audience with this claim? Is there a good match between the claim, the audience, and the genre? In other words, if the writer has chosen a website to convey his message, but his audience isn't likely to have access to the internet, then there's a mis-match there which you'd need to point out.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Notes on Reflective Essay for Researched Project
On Thursday, you'll be drafting your reflective essay for your researched project. Here's what the researched project assignment says about the reflective essay:
A Reflective Essay: This is the part that will look like a more traditional “research paper” in that this is where you’ll write about your sources. It’s designed so that you can take much of your plan of inquiry (minus the part about how you actually located your sources since this isn't a research narrative where you tell the story of your "discovery" of your sources) and revise it into your reflective essay (the revision is significant, yes, but it’s better than starting from scratch). So, the audience for the reflective essay is ME. It’s where you can show me what you know about your question and the context of it. This is where you’ll be citing your sources in traditional academic fashion (parenthetical documentation and works cited pages will be required), but more important than that, you’ll be showing me how you’ve synthesized your research, analyzed the information, and come to your own claim in response to all you’ve learned. Please re-read Kantz as you’re writing this final essay as it’s important that you NOT just tell a story of your research process ("First I searched this database using these keywords; then I found this article, which said X) or organize your paper by discussing one source at a time. That’s more what your plan of inquiry is, and that’s an ok place to start. But, what I want to see here is you making a claim based on/in the context of an analysis and synthesis of the conversation surrounding this question. That means including the major ideas/perspectives you came across in your research. I also want you to write about what you made (your “thing”) and why. What choices did you make about audience, purpose, claim, and genre, and why did you make those choices?
I've put up a link to a handout on meaningful incorporation of source material (click the link here or on the right side of our blog or directly through our 1302SII Google Docs folder); it has a lot of helpful hints about the technicalities of quoting and paraphrasing source ideas, but also addresses the philosophy behind when and why you do it. Think of this as an add-on to what you've learned from our course reading this semester, particularly from Kantz. Remember that you don't have any arbitrary guidelines about how many sources to use or how many times to quote people. That is all completely dependent on your own project. But know that I expect you to have done a pretty thorough search of the databases on your subject, so if you're only quoting from internet sources or only referencing 1-2 sources, you can expect me to ask you to justify those choices:). Failing to acknowledge sources would result in a failing grade for your portfolio, but that's something we can address in revision, so it should never get to that point. If you have questions, that's part of what I'll be happy to address.
If you have any questions about the writing of this part of your project, post them here so others can benefit from the responses, ok? Good luck to you!
A Reflective Essay: This is the part that will look like a more traditional “research paper” in that this is where you’ll write about your sources. It’s designed so that you can take much of your plan of inquiry (minus the part about how you actually located your sources since this isn't a research narrative where you tell the story of your "discovery" of your sources) and revise it into your reflective essay (the revision is significant, yes, but it’s better than starting from scratch). So, the audience for the reflective essay is ME. It’s where you can show me what you know about your question and the context of it. This is where you’ll be citing your sources in traditional academic fashion (parenthetical documentation and works cited pages will be required), but more important than that, you’ll be showing me how you’ve synthesized your research, analyzed the information, and come to your own claim in response to all you’ve learned. Please re-read Kantz as you’re writing this final essay as it’s important that you NOT just tell a story of your research process ("First I searched this database using these keywords; then I found this article, which said X) or organize your paper by discussing one source at a time. That’s more what your plan of inquiry is, and that’s an ok place to start. But, what I want to see here is you making a claim based on/in the context of an analysis and synthesis of the conversation surrounding this question. That means including the major ideas/perspectives you came across in your research. I also want you to write about what you made (your “thing”) and why. What choices did you make about audience, purpose, claim, and genre, and why did you make those choices?
I've put up a link to a handout on meaningful incorporation of source material (click the link here or on the right side of our blog or directly through our 1302SII Google Docs folder); it has a lot of helpful hints about the technicalities of quoting and paraphrasing source ideas, but also addresses the philosophy behind when and why you do it. Think of this as an add-on to what you've learned from our course reading this semester, particularly from Kantz. Remember that you don't have any arbitrary guidelines about how many sources to use or how many times to quote people. That is all completely dependent on your own project. But know that I expect you to have done a pretty thorough search of the databases on your subject, so if you're only quoting from internet sources or only referencing 1-2 sources, you can expect me to ask you to justify those choices:). Failing to acknowledge sources would result in a failing grade for your portfolio, but that's something we can address in revision, so it should never get to that point. If you have questions, that's part of what I'll be happy to address.
If you have any questions about the writing of this part of your project, post them here so others can benefit from the responses, ok? Good luck to you!
Wednesday's Work (8/10/11) & Homework for Thursday
By Wednesday morning, you should have already uploaded your drafts of your "thing" to the Researched Projects Drafts folder in Google Docs (you all now have editing access, so there shouldn't be any problem there). Please name your file Your First Name_Thing_Draft 1 so we can keep track of them. So, Part I of Wednesday's work will be for you to give each other feedback on your "thing." Here are the questions I want you to answer as you read:
1. What do you think this writer is trying to claim in his/her "thing"? In other words, what's the claim s/he is making? If there's any confusion, explain what exactly is leading you to be confused. What suggestions do you have to help the writer make his/her claim more clear and/or persuasive?
2. Who do you think the audience for this thing is? How can you tell? Be as specific as you can be with this.
3. How appropriate is this genre for the audience and/or claim? In other words, has this writer written a brochure when a T-shirt might have been more appropriate? What suggestions might you have for choosing a more apt genre?
Once you've given your feedback, read through the feedback your partners and I have left for you and make notes about what you'd like to revise. Were you trying to communicate one thing, but your partners thought you were saying something different? Is your choice of genre working out or not? How might you make productive changes (even completely re-thinking, if necessary, what you're doing)?
Then, Part II of Wednesday's work is to get started on your reflective essay (see the assignment sheet again for details--this is the part that looks most like a research paper, though with significant additions where you write about your rhetorical choices in designing your "thing"). You need to have a draft of that ready for feedback on Thursday afternoon (Save it as Your First Name_ReflectiveEssay_Draft1 and put it in the Researched Project Drafts folder in Google Docs). We're moving quickly, but think of this as one step at a time, and you won't be overwhelmed:). Only a few days left, and Summer II will be done! Again, email if you have any questions (jcharlton@utpa.edu).
1. What do you think this writer is trying to claim in his/her "thing"? In other words, what's the claim s/he is making? If there's any confusion, explain what exactly is leading you to be confused. What suggestions do you have to help the writer make his/her claim more clear and/or persuasive?
2. Who do you think the audience for this thing is? How can you tell? Be as specific as you can be with this.
3. How appropriate is this genre for the audience and/or claim? In other words, has this writer written a brochure when a T-shirt might have been more appropriate? What suggestions might you have for choosing a more apt genre?
Once you've given your feedback, read through the feedback your partners and I have left for you and make notes about what you'd like to revise. Were you trying to communicate one thing, but your partners thought you were saying something different? Is your choice of genre working out or not? How might you make productive changes (even completely re-thinking, if necessary, what you're doing)?
Then, Part II of Wednesday's work is to get started on your reflective essay (see the assignment sheet again for details--this is the part that looks most like a research paper, though with significant additions where you write about your rhetorical choices in designing your "thing"). You need to have a draft of that ready for feedback on Thursday afternoon (Save it as Your First Name_ReflectiveEssay_Draft1 and put it in the Researched Project Drafts folder in Google Docs). We're moving quickly, but think of this as one step at a time, and you won't be overwhelmed:). Only a few days left, and Summer II will be done! Again, email if you have any questions (jcharlton@utpa.edu).
Tuesday's Work (8/9/11)
Today, I want you to draft your "thing," whatever that might be. If you haven't gotten an okay from me about your audience, purpose, genre, and claim, please make sure you do yesterday's work first (and ASAP). You need to have a completed draft of your thing put in the "Researched Project drafts" folder in Google Docs by this evening. If your thing is not something you can cut and paste, take a picture of it and upload that or upload the link to the YouTube video, etc. If you have any questions, just let me know, and I'll try to help you. I'll leave notes later on today about how I'd like you to give one another feedback. You'll be in the same groups as before.
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