Over the weekend, please remember to:

(1) finish the in-class assignment. The instructions/information are now posted on the Unit IV page -- look for the Word doc titled "APA Citations/References HW" on the left side of the page.

(2) start your research for Project IV. The end of the semester will arrive sooner than you think; by getting an early start on Project IV and staying on task, you'll save yourself a lot of stress at the end of the month. Remember to keep a log of your subject/search terms. Also, be thinking about the area of debate/discussion you want to focus on in your literature review. Feel free to email me with any questions you may have.

Enjoy your weekend!
 
For Thursday's class, please remember to:

(1) continue thinking about your Project IV topic and email me with any questions or concerns you may have;

(2) read the 2 PDFs posted on the Unit IV page -- "Environmental Pollutants" and "Realms of the Soil." Remember to pay attention to the annotations in the margins as well as read the front matter which introduces each piece. There will be a short reading quiz at the beginning of Thursday's class.

(3) Look over the PDF titled Scholarly vs. Popular Sources (available on the Unit IV page as well). Information on this sheet will not be a part of the quiz (although the bonus question might relate to it).

Enjoy your Wednesday off!
 
For tomorrow, please read the Annotated Bibliography Handout from the UNC Writing Center as well as the information on Annotated Bibliographies in the NFG, pages 116-124. (Please note that the Daily Schedule has been updated to reflect recent changes.)

Please be prepared for a quiz on the objective information. The quiz will not cover the sample annotations in the NFG; however, you should read them as they provide examples of an assignment you are asked to write; you will find the 2nd example (not the 1st) more closely resembles the annotations you will be asked to write.

Also, please read over the assignment sheets for Projects IVA & IVB as well as the samples and the topic selection information.

Keep in mind that Projects IVA & IVB are linked -- that is, they are two individual parts of a larger project. The Annotated Bibliography is a formal write-up of the information you would have to collect in order to write the Literature Review. The research you do for the Annotated Bibliography will form the content of the Literature Review; if you take the Annotated Bibliography seriously and put a significant amount of effort into it, then the Literature Review will be much easier to write.
 
The Project III Cover Letter sheet can now be found on the Unit III page of the course site at the very bottom of the right-hand column. If you did not get a chance to finish this in class, please do so and email this to me before the end of the day. If I do not have it in my Inbox by 5 p.m., I will not accept it. Please note that I will check to see if I can open the file that you attach and send you an email letting you know that I have received your cover letter.

Also, while there is no direct homework for the weekend, I strongly encourage you to look over the assignment sheets for Projects IVA & IVB and start brainstorming possible topic ideas. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Other than that, have a great weekend and enjoy the return of Spring!
 
Please remember that the final draft of Project III will be due at the end of class tomorrow: Friday, April 1st.

You will need to turn this draft in along with your portfolio in a 2-pocket folder (remember to include the post-it note with your name on it). This portfolio should include: your index card with your research question (amended, if need be), a copy of your observation notes, any and all pre-writing activities/rough drafts you submitted, your final draft, your peer review sheet, and your signed checklist. You will type up and include your cover letter during tomorrow's class.

Please also remember to bring your journals to class tomorrow for the open-note uber-quiz as well as for the journal check! Please be reminded that after you have completed the uber-quiz, you MUST bring both your quiz and your journal up to me. If you do not turn your journal in, I do not remind you that I need to see it. This is your responsibility!
 
Please remember that tomorrow's class will be an in-class drafting day. Aside from the journal prompt, you will have the entire duration of class to work on Project III -- which should be particularly useful for fixing sentence-level issues such as past tense, passive voice, and objective specific language. Please feel free to ask me any questions during this time, or ask me to look over something -- briefly -- for you. (As in, I can't really read over your entire Results Section, but I can look at a few instances of passive voice.)

Make sure you bring a copy of your draft with you to class!

Also--the Project III Checklist is now available on the Unit III page. Be sure to check previous course announcements for key information, and remember that we will have a Peer Review session on Thursday, March 31st. The Peer Review sheet will be posted shortly.
 
As you work on Project III, please keep in mind the following key pieces of information:

(1) With regards to 1st person ("I," "me," "us," or "we"): use of 1st person is allowed in the introduction (my initial research question was...) and the conclusion (future improvements I can make are...). However, do NOT use 1st person in either the methods & materials section (no I did this...) or the results section (no I saw this...). There are exceptions, of course, but this a general rule.

(2) Remember that I will be looking for passive voice in the methods & materials section (notes were taken by the observer in a spiral bound notebook) and in the results section (a latte was purchased by Subject A). You do not need to attempt to use passive voice in the introduction, discussion, or conclusion.

(3) If you are including visuals in your lab report, please make sure that your visuals are the "right size" -- namely, that they are not so small that they are not legible, but also that they are not so big that they take up 1/2 of the page.
Also, if you are using a visual, please remember that this visual must be labeled with both a label (i.e. Figure 1) and a title (i.e. Beverage Orders by Starbucks Patrons). Both of these pieces of information must be on separate lines and must be flush with the left margin. Also, the title must be italicized. (This is a new piece of information.)

(4) The Number Rule is also different in APA. According to the style guide, numbers should be written out (1) when they occur at the start of a sentence (although this should be avoided) and (2) when common fractions are used (i.e. one half, two thirds). All other numbers may be written as Arabic numerals.

(5) If you are describing the race/ethnicity of the people in your observations, remember to be as objective as possible. Do not use adjectives like white, black, or Oriental. Instead, use "Caucasian," "African American," or "of Indian/Asian descent."

(6) Every time you mention a specific time, you must specify whether it is a.m. or p.m.. Note also that a.m. and p.m. are spelled with periods (as they are technically abbreviations) and not as "am" or "pm." Also, phrases indicating time are usually set off by a comma: At 1:53 p.m., a latte was purchased.

 
Please be aware that even though this is a writing course, there WILL be a final exam. Attendance at this exam is mandatory. The final exam is worth 5% of your final grade and, given it's remarkable similarity to the end-of-unit quizzes, is designed to be a sort-of extra credit assignment. Be reassured that there will be no timed-writing exercise and you will not have to write an essay. The exam will focus only on objective skills and lessons that you should take away from this course.

With that in mind, the final exam dates will be as follows:

ENG 101-002 - MTRF - 8:05-8:55 a.m.
     WEDNESDAY, MAY 4th 2011 -- 8:00-11:00 a.m.

ENG 101-013 - MTRF - 9:10-10:00 a.m.
     WEDNESDAY, MAY 11th 2011 -- 8:00-11:00 a.m.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you think you will have any scheduling conflicts. If so, I will need proof that another final exam has been scheduled at that time. (In other words, wanting to be done early and go home does not count as a valid scheduling conflict.)

APA Reading

3/21/2011

 
While the NFG does an excellent job of giving you detailed instructions as to how to cite sources in the text as well as how to create a references list according to APA guidelines, their description of formatting a paper leaves something to be desired. Also, the NFG does NOT reflect recent the APA 2011 changes.

However, please glance over pages 509-519 -- if only briefly before you toss it into your backpack for tomorrow's class. (You may find the Diana Hacker website more helpful in this regard.)

However, you may find pages 488, 494-95, 501, 503 & 504 in the NFG particularly helpful. On these pages, the NFG breaks down popular sources by the information you need for bibliographic citations. It may prove useful for the future to acquaint yourself with this information!
 
For Monday, the homework is as follows:

(1) Complete the textual analysis of the "Politics of Cohabitation" available now on the Unit III webpage. Please type this assignment up as you will be handing it in on Monday.

(2) Read "Unmarried With Children" (pgs. 141-145) available now in PDF form on the course website. (You will have to rotate this PDF once counterclockwise in order to read it. Sorry!) Be prepared for a quiz on Monday! (Pay particular attention to where and when the text was originally published!)

(3) Remember that your rough draft will be due on Thursday, March 24th! The more complete your rough draft is, the more beneficial conferencing will be for you.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather!