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Online Activities/Writing Exercises for Week 10
(Tip: the page links in the table of contents below is to help jump to a specific task in this assignment. I suggest you read through the page first and use the table when you need to review a specific section.)
As your Syllabus states, ten percent of your grade is based on the online activities and practice writing that we'll call Online Activities/Writing Exercises.
For week 10, we're going to include
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Do note that the order I present these may vary from week to week, depending on what we're doing.
Step 1: Post a response in the Writer's Café forum.
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Note: to earn full credit, complete this step by Thursday midnight.
- First: Summarize an article in Common Culture from one of the chapters we've not read together--Advertising (Ch. 2), Technology (Ch. 5), or Sports (Ch. 6). Or choose an article from one of the chapters we have read from together but that we as a class did not read. Also, do not choose an article you used in a previous paper.
- Your summary should be complete in expressing the supporting points that the author uses in backing up his or her thesis. Therefore, it should be a substantial paragraph.
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- Second: Evaluate the article, explaining what you found effective, what you found ineffective, and why.
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- Third: Write topic issue questions (questions that could be answered yes or no) from the article that have two or more positions and that are held by thoughtful people (yes, there may be a fringe element who feel that all filmmakers should be lined up and executed for their spread of moral filth upon our nation--avoid extremes such as these).
- Example: From Sydney Pollack's essay "The Way We Are," you might come up with the following questions:
- Should filmmakers create movies that will morally improve society?
- Do movies only reflect the values of the society they are produced in?
This is in preparation for your essay 4, so I would suggest that you choose the topic you would most want to deal with in an essay with three or more sources.
(Hint: you can also use the questions you post as part of your prewriting. But again, send your letter and prewriting in their respective drop boxes.)
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Step 2: Post again in Writer's Café
Again, note: to earn full credit, complete this step by Thursday midnight.
Post the bibliographic information--MLA works cited style--for an outside article, either off of the World Wide Web or the LCC Library Databases.
Review the virtual lecture, Using MLA Works Cited.
- And note that you can underline your book and magazine titles with the toolbar just above the Message box. (Apple users--you'll need to use Firefox to get the html editor toolbar).
Include a sentence or two about the source, what it's about and what you find interesting about it.
Here's a link to Google you can use:
And click here to try several others.
Don't forget, though, to search the LCC Library databases. As you know, you will need to for the essay 4 prewriting.
(Hint: you can also use this as part of your annotated bibliography.)
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Step 3: Read and reply to other class members' Writer's Café responses.
- You can agree, disagree, question, qualify what your fellow class member says.
- You also need to explain why you think so, again
with support from your own experiences and observations, or from another article or web
page.
- Extra points--if you include support from an article or web page, you will earn some extra points. Make sure you include what you did in your letter.
You will need to respond at least twice to fulfill attendance requirements. However, you may enjoy responding to more.
- And you likely will find yourself writing a stronger letter--and earning more points--with fuller participation.
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Step 4: Write Online Activity letter:
Tell me about your experience in the Writer's Café forum and in class discussing the pop culture articles and ideas for essay 4.
- And include your two favorite issue questions posted, not including your own, which I'm sure are first rate as well!
I would like you to include quotations from the online conversation. You should be able to copy text from Netscape or Internet Explorer from the Edit pull down menu.
However, please do not simply copy and paste entire postings, so that
your letter ends ups a string of quotations.
In other words, the goal of the letter is to tell me what you experienced with and learned from the interaction with each other.
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- And make sure to use names, so it is clear whom you are talking about.
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Step 5: Send online activity letter
Use the letter drop box found at Pages & Workspaces>Course Calendar and workspaces>Week 10.
These letters are due by Saturday midnight, 11/3/07.
- It is true that you have a 24 hour grace period for the letter (see the syllabus about our late policy) but this doesn't extend to the online activities. The Writer's Café activities cannot be completed past Saturday midnight. Otherwise, you will likely earn no points.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call me or e-mail me. My phone number and office hours are right above the Table of Contents on the Online Syllabus. I do have voice mail for my phone if I'm not in.
Also, I will be available during my office hours by phone, in person, through email, and on AOL Instant Messenger (my user name: profdan1032) if you want to talk about the assignments. (If you want to meet at some other time, contact me and we can arrange such.)
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Created by Dan Holt 10/27/1997
Revised
31 Oct 2007 12:48 PM -0500