Class and Office Hours Week of March 1st

This week on Monday (February 28) and Thursday (March 3) my office hours are cancelled. I am out of town for a conference this week and you will have a substitute instructor on Thursday, Mrs. Melissa Aday. If you have any questions on revising your drafts, don't hesitate to email me, as I will be checking my mail frequently Monday and Tuesday. 


As I did last week, I will post potential quiz questions to the blog no later than Wednesday afternoon to help you focus your reading homework. Your assigned reading for 3/3 is from the First Year Writing textbook, chapter 5, pages 153-166. I will also post an extra credit question related to your reading. These extra points will accrue and can be used to make up points on quizzes missed due to absence or to supplement lower quiz scores from the beginning of the semester. 

Potential Quiz Questions for 2/24

The answers to the following questions can be found in your E-handbook reading and the Grammar Girl Podcast on the serial comma:

1. What are the four purposes of constructing an argument?
2. What are the three characteristics of an arguable statement?
3. What are the three major types of appeals used in an argument?
4. Identify three types of logical appeals.
5. What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning? Be able to define each.
6. When must you use a serial comma?

Additionally, from your First-Year Writing reading, focus on the John Stuart Crossfire example, as we will discuss this in class. 

Extra Guidelines for Peer Critiques

The following questions can be used to guide you as you read the drafts you are assigned to peer critique. In addition to the questions asked of you in the assignment prompt, these questions will help you break down your commentary by specific areas of the draft. These questions can be useful for organizing your own thoughts on the drafts, targeting specific issues within each critique. Notice that none of these relate to the small editing issues within a draft. You will need to focus on the larger issues presented here rather than commenting on specific spelling, grammar, or mechanical issues. The exception would be identifying a pattern in those type of errors that you can briefly mention.


Overall thoughts: What are the main strengths and weaknesses of the draft? What might be confusing to readers? What will readers need to know more about?

Assignment: Does the draft carry out the assignment and meet the stated criteria?

Thesis: Does the draft follow through with what the thesis promises?

Audience: Does the draft interest and appeal to its intended audience?

Major Points: Do any points need to be explained more or less fully? Do any points seem confusing? Should any be eliminated or added? Are they well supported?

Organization and flow: Is the writing easy to follow? Are the ideas presented in an order that will make sense to the reader? Do effective transitions ease the flow between paragraphs and ideas?

Paragraphs: Which paragraphs are clearest and most interesting? Which need further development?

Homework for 2.24.11

• E-handbook Chapter 11
• First Year Writing Chapter 5 pp. 135-153
• Bring a copy of your literature review to workshop as a class
• Note: If you do not bring a copy of your literature review to class, you will be counted absent
• Grammar Girl: The Serial Comma
• http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/serial-comma.aspx

Draft 1.1: The Literature Review Assignment Checklist

• Have I explained my purpose for the review?
• Have I explained the significance of the scholarly work I reviewed?
• Are my sources scholarly and reputable?
• Have I synthesized the sources, providing insight into the significance of the scholars' contributions and their relationship to each other?
• Have I reached the 1500 word count minimum?
• Do I have at least eight sources?
• Have I correctly provided in-text citations and a works cited list in MLA format?

Your literature review should include:
    a. an Introduction with a clear Thesis that identifies a common theme (i.e. "Though most scholars within field ABC believe that XYZ is true, there are a few scholars who refute those claims")
    b. a Body which discusses particular themes within the works (remember you are not discussing one author per paragraph, but one theme per paragraph)
    c. a Conclusion that readdresses your thesis or calls for further research

Reading Homework for 2.10.11

1. E-handbook chapters 13, 15, and 17
2. Grammar Girl Podcast # 3: First, Second, and Third Person
• http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/first-second-and-third-person.aspx

You will be quizzed over the content of both the e-handbook reading and the Grammar Girl podcast.

Brief Assignment Four Checklist: Annotated Bibliography

Remember that the focus of your annotations should be on evaluating the sources rather than summarizing their content. While a brief amount of summary is appropriate, you want to spend most of your time evaluating the accuracy, usefulness, and quality of the source through the evaluation criteria we discussed in class and which can be reviewed in your e-handbook chapter 14. 

• Have I created entries for at least six scholarly sources located in the TTU library database?
• Do my source citations follow MLA format correctly?
• Are my annotations at least 100-150 words long?
• Do my annotations evaluate the accuracy, usefulness and quality of the source?
• Have I discussed the context in which the source appears?
• Have I considered the assumptions the author makes about the subject?
• Have I made effective and specific references to the source in order to support my discussion of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the source? 

Annotated Bibliography Guide

This example and explanation of an annotated bibliography comes from the Purdue Online Writing Lab website:

Stem Cell Research: An Annotated Bibliography

Holland, Suzanne. The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate : Science, Ethics, and                        Public Policy. Boston: MIT Press, 2001. Print.

This is the annotation of the above source. In this example, I am following MLA 2009 (3rd ed.) guidelines for the bibliographic information listed above. If I were really writing an annotation for this source, I would offer a brief summary of what this book says about stem cell research.

After a brief summary, it would be appropriate to assess this source and offer some criticisms of it. Does it seem like a reliable and current source? Why? Is the research biased or objective? Are the facts well documented? Who is the author? Is she qualified in this subject? Is this source scholarly, popular, some of both?

The length of your annotation will depend on the assignment or on the purpose of your annotated bibliography. After summarizing and assessing, you can now reflect on this source. How does it fit into your research? Is this a helpful resource? Too scholarly? Not scholarly enough? Too general/specific? Since "stem cell research" is a very broad topic, has this source helped you to narrow your topic?

Senior, K. "Extending the Ethical Boundaries of Stem Cell Research." Trends in                        Molecular Medicine 7 (2001): 5-6. Print.

Not all annotations have to be the same length. For example, this source is a very short scholarly article. It may only take a sentence or two to summarize. Even if you are using a book, you should only focus on the sections that relate to your topic.

Not all annotated bibliographies assess and reflect; some merely summarize. That may not be the most helpful for you, but, if this is an assignment, you should always ask your instructor for specific guidelines.

Wallace, Kelly. "Bush Stands Pat on Stem Cell Policy." CNN. 13 August 2001. 17 August 2001. Television.

Notice that in this example, I chose a variety of sources: a book, a scholarly journal, and a web page. Using a variety of sources can help give you a broader picture of what is being said about your topic. You may want to investigate how scholarly sources are treating this topic differently than more popular sources. But again, if your assignment is to only use scholarly sources, then you will probably want to avoid magazines and popular web sites.

Notice that the bibliographic information above is proper MLA format (use whatever style is appropriate in your field) and the annotations are in paragraph form. Note also that the entries are alphabetized by the first word in the bibliographic entry. If you are writing an annotated bibliography with many sources, it may be helpful to divide the sources into categories. For example, if I were putting together an extensive annotated bibliography for stem cell research, I might divide the sources into categories such as ethical concerns, scholarly analyses, and political ramifications.

For more examples, a quick search at a library or even on the Internet should produce several examples of annotated bibliographies in your area.

Topic Ideas

The annotated bibliography will be due next week and you will need to select a topic in order to complete this assignment. Thinking of a topic can be difficult when you have no specific limits, so I have included a list of possible topic ideas below. Of course you don't have to choose one of these and they are all broader areas that would need to be narrowed, refined, and focused on a problematic issue. However, they are here to help get you started on choosing your topic. 

• Identity theft
• Genetically modified food
• Online voting
• Canadian or Mexican prescriptions ordered online
• Insider trading
• Televised trials
• National identification cards
• Standardized tests
• Farm subsidies
• Minimum wage
• Insanity plea
• Investigative journalism (does it create stories that aren't there?)
• Facebook and other online social media's impact on face to face interactions
• Bilingual education

Additionally, below are some questions to ask yourself when brainstorming for your own topic:

• What do I already know something about?
• What would I like to explore more fully?
• What subjects do I care about?
• What would I like to become an expert on?
• What subjects evoke a strong reaction from me?

If you would like to get feedback on a possible topic, don't hesitate to email me or visit me in my office hours to discuss your ideas.