Meeting Times During Finals Week

A number of students have asked if they can come to my office and get work back next week and/or check on their final grades.  I think the easiest thing for me to do is just schedule one office hour during each of our final exam times.  You can come to my office during any of these times, regardless of when your class meets, but by using the exam times I can at least be assured that everyone will have an opportunity to come in during a time when they’re not scheduled for another exam.

Monday:  8-9 and 12-1

Wednesday:  8-9 and 12-1

Thursday:  10-11

Again, you can come during whichever of these times is most convenient for you, regardless of when your class meets.

Midterm Grades Updated

I’ve updated your midterm grades again.  They now reflect all of your required work for the semester.  They DO NOT include the extra credit SAN assignment.  Even if you’ve already turned yours in, I won’t be grading those until after the deadline on Friday.

Pickup Proposals

I am going into my office this evening to finish grading your Proposals.  You can pick them up tomorrow (Wed., April 30) during my open conference hours (8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.).

Addendum–Midterm Grades

Your revised Midterm Grades also don’t include tonight’s homework assignment from Ch. 13.

Extra Credit Value

I just punched in the numbers for the Extra Credit and it looks like the full 10 points is going to be about +4.8% on your final grade.  (This is really a little higher than I meant for it to be, but we wound up with not quite as many points overall as I had originally anticipated.)

Anyway, this is just an FYI to help you decide whether you want to do the EC or not.

Midterm Grades

I went in and updated your midterm grades. They should reflect your current grade, not including your Proposals, which I will have graded sometime next week. You can review your current grade through MyFSU and that will give you a better idea of whether or not to do the extra credit assignment.

Ch. 13 Homework

I just noticed that I gave you Ch. 15 last week, so we’ll be doing Ch. 13 this week. It’s a little out of order, but not a big deal.

As always: Complete all of the following and email your work to me no later than 10:00 p.m. Friday, April 18 23 at the email address given in the syllabus.

Although I prefer that this work be included in the body of your email, I understand that sometimes it’s better for you to send it as an attached file, so I will accept that also.

Remember to include your name and class time at the top of your email.

Reading Questions

1. What four elements are all part of the thinking and writing involved in synthesis?
2. Why is synthesis important to research writing?
3. What are the three criteria for the writing assignment in this chapter?
4. What are the five thinking steps the authors give for analysis-synthesis writing?
5. About what percentage of a synthesis essay should be analysis? How much for the synthesis?

Chapter Exercises

• Individual Task, page 363, 1-3
• Reynolds’ assignment:
  1. Read Goodman, pages 377-78, and Buss, pages 378-81.
  2. Formulate a focusing question (page 365)
  3. Analyze the rhetorical strategies for each (page 368, LLT 2)
  4. Identify the main themes and ideas of each (page 369, LLT 3)

Remaining Course Schedule

• W 4/23:  Open Conference Day, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  Turn in Proposals if they’re ready.
• F 4/25:  Open Conference Day, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  Last day to turn in Proposals without penalty.  Pick up Position Papers.  Online Homework also (posted on Wed.)

• M 4/28:  Open Conference Day, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• W 4/30:  Open Conference Day, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• F 5/2:  SAN Extra Credit Essay must be emailed to me do later than 5:00 p.m.

As soon as I have your Proposals graded, I will email you about when you can pick them up in my office.  Because this is a writing class, there is no final exam.

Sometime next week I will announce times during final exam week when I’ll be available if students wish to see me about final grades.

Next Week: Self Assessment Narrative

A few students (well, more than a few) have been after me to offer some extra credit.  I’ve decided to do so, but in the following way.  Instead of the Self Assessment Narrative (SAN) being a graded assignment next week, it will be for extra credit.

Read Ch. 25, paying particular attention to pages 727-34, and write a single reflective essay discussing either your Exploratory Essay, Informative Paper, or Position Paper. Follow the guidelines given on pages 732-4 in constructing your essay.  Although these are only guidelines, not requirements, you should try to cover all four areas in your essay.

Email your essay to me no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday, May 2nd for UP TO 10 points of extra credit.  In order to get the full 10 points your essay must be at least 400 words long and attached to your email as a word processing file (and in the proper paper format as required in the syllabus).  If you do less, you will get fewer, possibly even 0, points.

Change of Plans

It looks like I’m not going to have your Position Papers graded and back to you tomorrow (Wed. April 23).  I had really hoped to get this done, but I’m just a little behind.  The plan was to pick up your Proposals, give back your Position Papers, and then discuss next week’s schedule.  I’m going to post something here shortly to explain next week, and since I can’t give you your papers back, there’s not much point in meeting in class tomorrow.

So here’s what I’m going to do.  Tomorrow I will be in my office from about 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. or so to catch up on my grading and meet with any students who need help with their work.  If your Proposal is done, you can turn it in to me during that time.  If it’s not finished  and/or you need a little extra time, you can turn it in as late as Friday without penalty.

Thus, on Friday I will also be available in my office during that same time frame (from about 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) so that you can get your Position Papers back, and also turn in your Proposals, if you haven’t already done so.

Ch. 15 Homework

Complete all of the following and email your work to me no later than 10:00 p.m. Friday, April 18 at the email address given in the syllabus.

Although I prefer that this work be included in the body of your email, I understand that sometimes it’s better for you to send it as an attached file, so I will accept that also.

Remember to include your name and class time at the top of your email.

Reading Questions

1. What three rhetorical aims do the authors give as examples for writing evaluations?
2. Which of the three rhetorical aims in question 1 is focused on in this chapter?
3. What is the writing project for this chapter?
4. In your own words what is the Criteria-Match process?  What two steps comprise this process?
5. What two main factors do the authors say determine the criteria for an evaluation?
6. What are the five other considerations entailed in establishing criteria?
7. What are the four specific steps the chapter gives for making an evaluation argument?

Ch. Exercises

• Thinking Critically, page 462, 1-5
• Thinking Critically, page 468, 1-5

Schedule Reminder

• F 4/18:  Online Class:  Ch. 13 blog homework; consult w/instructor via IM or email as needed.
• M 4/21:  Open Conference Day (drop in meetings with students during regular class hours, ASC 3066).
• W 4/23:  PROPOSAL DUE.

The Proposal is due ONE WEEK from today.  So get working and good luck.

Proposal Assignment

Remember that your assignment is to write a Policy Proposal that addresses a public issue related to Ferris and/or the Ferris community.  The three parts to this assignment require that you

1. Call your audience’s attention to a problem
2. Propose a solution to that problem
3. Justify your solution

Topics can be about campus life, housing, traffic, food service, etc.  (Try to avoid parking on campus because that’s a topic that gets really overdone.)  You can also write about curriculum and program issues related to your major or general studies.

This should involve research, probably three sources minimum.  Since it’s a campus issue, you might want to consider using information from FSU’s web site and/or some sort of primary research, i.e., conducting a short interview or giving out a questionnaire to some of your classmates.

Unlike other assignments, this one should be divided by the following section headings, which clearly identify the three parts of the proposal

• Description of the Problem
• Proposal for a Solution
• Justification

Keep it simple and to the point.  3-4 pages, double-spaced (can be longer), plus Works Cited page (MLA).

Paper Guidelines

Remember that we are writing formal papers now.  That means that the majority of the paper should be written in third person.  The first person (”I”) should only be used when relating relevant and important personal information.  Phrases like “In my opinion” or “I believe” should be cut from the writing.

Also, you want to avoid using contractions, slang, or anything else that is usually associated with informal writing styles.

Keep in mind the requirements for proper paper formatting, as stated in the syllabus:

All essays and papers should be formatted as follows:  text double-spaced with the first line of each new paragraph indented ½ inch; the required font for this course is Times New Roman 12 pt; the writer’s name, course and section number, meeting days and time, date handed in, and an accurate word count should be at the top left (corner where the paper is stapled) of the first page; the title of the paper/essay should include the name of the writing assignment followed by a colon and a title for the paper of the writer’s choosing.  All succeeding pages should be numbered, preferably in the top right corner. Assignments should be printed in black only, and be clear and legible.  Assignments that do not follow these guidelines will be penalized up to and including refusal of a grade.

Finally, your papers must use proper MLA documentation and include a properly formatted Works Cited page (see ch. 22 in your textbook for instructions and a student paper example if necessary).

Conference Day

Tomorrow (Friday, April 11) is an open conference day.  I’ll be in my office from around 8 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m. to meet with students about their Position Papers, which are due on Monday.  Please feel free to stop in at your convenience.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.