Journal #10, due Monday, Nov. 3

There is NO reading assignment connected with Journal #10.

For Journal 10, I want you to look over the research logs, source essays, annotated bibliography, and dialogue you've handed in.

Pick out 5 of your most useful sources. For each source, complete the following:

1. Do a bit of research on the authors of those sources. Who is this person? What has he/she studied? written? accomplished? Write up what you find.

2. If the article comes from journal or magazine, research the publication. What is the publication's focus? Who else writes for the publication? Who is the publication's intended audience?

3. If the text comes from a book, research the book publisher. Does the publisher have a focus? Who else / what else does the publisher publish? Does the publisher have an intended audience?

4. Has the author written anything else that might be of use to you? Has the publication (periodical) published any other content that might be of use to you? Has the publisher published other titles that might be of use to you?

Adapt these as best you can to non-text sources.

For example, if you're using a music album as a source, what label produced the album? A label is most comparable to a publisher.

If you're writing up an interview you conducted, who is that person's employer? That company/institution would also be most comparable to a publisher.

If you have questions about how to research specific sources, please let me know.

Meet at Library on Monday

Hi all,

Meet on the second floor of the library (624 S. Michigan Ave.) for class on Monday, October 27. Be prepared to conduct research on your topic.

Contact me with questions.

MLA Works Cited

Thanks to Emily Krieger for this information!

Visit easybib.org if you'd like a little extra help getting together your MLA Works Cited page.

Journal #9 due Wednesday, October 29

Please note that the due date for Journal #9 is different than that listed in the syllabus (originally due Mon., Oct. 27).

Read one of the remaining biographies from On the Job, between pages 115-196. Please include in your posting which biography you've read and its page numbers.

Answer the following:

What and/or who is Smith representing here that hasn't shown up in the first half of the book?

Now that you've heard Smith speak about his book, how does that impact the way you read the passage you've selected?

(If you weren't present for Smith's class visit, read your classmates' responses to Journal #8, think about the follow-up conversation we had in class last Wednesday, and talk with your classmates about what you missed.)

UPDATED Journal #8, due Wednesday, Oct. 22

• As you know, the Annotated Bibliography is due on Wednesday.

• For Journal #8, read "The Falling Man" by Tom Junod, the article you received today in class. Extra copies are in my mailbox. It's available as a PDF on Oasis as well.

• Answer the following questions and post them here, on the blog:
  

1. With what line of inquiry (or question) does Junod begin his research? How do you know?
   
2. As a reader (not a writer), how do you respond to the article's conclusion?
3. As a writer (not a reader), how do you respond to the article's conclusion?

• In a fourth section of your blog posting, write up a response to Danny Smith's visit. What did you find interesting? What surprised you? How does meeting and listening to the author speak impact how you read the text?

As always, contact me with questions.

Open Office, free software that works with MS

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (OO.o or OOo) is an office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office '97-2003 formats - among many others.

OpenOffice.org is based on StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative to users. OpenOffice.org is a free software, available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

The project and software are informally referred to as OpenOffice, but this term is a trademark held by another party requiring the project to adopt OpenOffice.org as its formal name.

Components

OpenOffice.org is a collection of applications that closely work together to provide the features expected from a modern office suite. Many of the components are designed to mirror those available in Microsoft Office. The components available include:

A word processor similar in look and feel to Microsoft Word that offers a comparable range of functions and tools. It also includes the ability to export Portable Document Format (PDF) files with no additional software and can also function as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for creating and editing web pages.

Learn more at Image: OOoWriter.svg.

Sending Assignments Via E-Mail

We'll go over specifics in class on Wednesday. For Wednesday's assignment, the subject heading of your e-mail AND the title of your document should read:

wrii_lastname_firstname_assignmentname_fall08

Please let me know if you have questions.

Journal #7, due Monday, October 13

We're going to break away from what the syllabus outlines for Journal #7. Please note that I've included an UPDATED SYLLABUS on Oasis. 

Instead of OTJ, read "The Cosmic Significance of Britney Spears" by Tom Perrotta. Extra copies are in my mailbox in suite 300. The essay is also saved on Oasis.

After reading the essay, answer the following for Journal #7:

1. Why do you believe Tom Perrotta decided to insert himself and us, the readers (speaking as "I" and "we"), into the essay?

2. How do you respond to that decision? What about it is effective, and what is ineffective?

Wednesday's class, Location TBA

You may have noticed that in the course syllabus, it says we'll meet in a computer lab on Wednesday, October 8, location TBA. Well, since our classroom is a computer lab, that's where we'll be meeting.

On Wednesday I'll also be handing out your grades as they currently stand. There's a grade breakdown sheet saved to Oasis. 

See you then.

Journal #6, due Wed., Oct. 8

Read pages 87-114 in OTJ. Then, complete the following:

1. Write up what you believe is the overarching goal of the entire text. If you need to scan through the pages that follow what you've read so far, that's fine. 

2. After writing up the goal of OTJ, list five questions you have about this goal -- questions you might direct to the author.

3. Additionally, list five questions you have about the writer's research he completed before and while writing OTJ. You might visit "Endnotes" at the end of the book if you're stumped. 

4. Finally, list five (total, not five for a and b each) questions you might direct to the author about a) the biographies of Joe DeLopez and/or William Calabrese and b) the beginning of "Part 3: Who Are We? Organization and Culture of the Chicago Police Department."

Completing the Journal Assignments

I've noticed that some of you who've posted journals on the blog haven't been handing in hard copies of the assignments to me as well. You don't receive full credit for completing the journal unless you both post on the blog and bring me a hard copy.

Let me know if you have questions.