Saturday, November 8, 2014

Lessons, Week of 10-13 November 2014


English 1301

You and Mr. Hall

Angryverbs.blogspot.com


BlahBoard

8 November 2014

 

Week of 10-13 November – Various topics

 

Evaluating Sources

 

College writing is professional writing.  Step away from emotions, passion, moods, feelings, and opinions, and evaluate sources for reliability.  The bullet list on p. 544 and the tables on pp. 545, 548, and 549 of your text will be useful.  Do not source Schmoop (and, really, the very name is its own caution), Wikipedia, SparkNotes, Cliff’s Notes, encyclopediae / encyclopedias, YahooAnswers, TMZ, Wookiepedia, FaceBook, YouTube, BuzzFeed, and other popular culture sites.  They can be both entertaining and useful, but one does not go to Wookiepedia for, say, engineering knowledge.

 

However, sites with professional-sounding names are also not necessarily reliable; anyone can create a nice-looking site and call it “The National Association of Professional (whatevers).”

 

All this is why I wish for you to filter your sources through the AC portal – the site swamis have ensured that the sources are academic / professional.  If you are still having trouble with the AC portal, talk to the smart kid next to you who has managed to access it.  If even he or she can’t help you, you’ll have to take extra time to determine whether the sites you’ve accessed otherwise are truly worthy of you or if some of them were generated by a sixteen-year-old who can sling big words around.  Do have me verify a site if you have any doubt at all about it.

 

Lessons for the Week of 10-13 November

 

How-To (expository, for our purposes) Essay.  The assignment includes a handout.  Because of Veterans’ Day scheduling this is not due until next week.

 

Test

 

We’ll take another test on MLA research papers.

 

Research Paper

 

Continue writing your research paper.  Most of you seem to be making good progress (some few exceptions), but don’t grow complacent.  Remember that this one paper is 15% of your final grade.

 

Bibliography format – something called Easybib is available for free on the ‘net.  This will help you set up your bibliography according to the MLA format.  Be sure you are following the MLA style and not one of the many others.  Paying for a site to help you with your bibliography is needless; the good ones are free.

 

Veterans’ Day

 

Note the use of the plural possessive: Veterans’ Day, not Veteran’s Day.  We have more than one veteran.

 

As advised last week, Tuesday morning’s class is optional / no attendance taken / free space / king’s X.  I will be available on the AC campus for you, though I do not anticipate being on site early or staying late.

 

Thursday Morning Class

 

Disassembling the footings of keyboards in the computer lab might be therapeutic (the concept eludes me), but they should have been reassembled once the therapy was accomplished.  Leaving tasks for others to accomplish is not The Bulldog Way.  I have saved the parts for you for reassembly this week.

 

SEUSSODYSSEY

 

Delightful!  Thank you! That was a fine bit of dancing, singing, and merriment, and I am very proud of you who put this together. 

 

Note that SEUSSODYSSEY  is italicized because it is the title of a full-length play. Here it is in all caps because it is that way on the program.

 

 

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