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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Here’s The Owl

Your assignment for next week (Thursday morning) is to create a Works Cited page using the MLA format, for at least 15 “sources” at your place. Try to use as many different sources as possible: books, articles-in-books, a CD, a DVD film, an article from a journal, a newspaper article, etc.

Pay attention to punctuation and formatting: in MLA format, they all mean something.

Here’s the MLA format page at The Owl at Purdue, where a lot of examples for many formats are available. If you can’t find an example for what you’re looking for, try one of the many other MLA format pages available online.

This assignment is due on Thursday, Nov. 5th.

To sum up, your homework is as follows:

  1. Read the essays for critique next Thursday, Nov. 4th.
  2. For next Tuesday (Nov. 2nd), write a personal essay using the “indirect mood” technique we explored earlier.
  3. Post on the discussion board about what you want to discuss on our Tuesday classes for the rest of semester. Eon Joo started the discussion here.
  4. Today’s new assignment, write Works Cited page in MLA format for fifteen different “sources” found around your home, for Thursday, Nov. 4th.
  5. Of course, keep working on your essay. It will be critiqued soon, but that’s no reason to stop working on it for now!

Rant!

Here’s an angry rant to a sister… sounds a lot like my rant at my sister in high school, who often took my shirts. (The brat!)

Next Week’s Speech Contest

There’s some confusion about the Speech Contest and what students are expected to do. I explained it at the beginning of semester, but I’ll clear it up once more for you:

  1.  All students in English Language & Culture Department courses are expected to attend the two main Department events: Mosaic (in late November) and one day during the The Speech Contest event (which is on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th.)
  2. Attendance will be taken at these events and will affect your grade in English Language & Culture Department courses. Even if you are not a member of the English Language & Culture Department, if you are taking a course in our department, you are required to attend these events.
  3. You only need to attend ONE of the speech contest days: ie. Monday OR Tuesday OR Wednesday — it’s your choice. But you must attend at least one. The information about times and places (and who is speaking) is posted outside the Department Office, at 205 Dasol Gwan.
  4. Attendance at these events is in addition to, and not instead of, regular course meetings. It’s extra, and I’m not canceling classes for it. You’re expected to attend class as usual, in addition to attending these events.
  5. No, you cannot come for only one hour. You are required to attend for the full event if you want your grade to reflect attendance.
  6. Everyone is busy! (Even your professors!) So please don’t complain or feel frustrated, just try to have fun or learn something. I’m pretty sure you can do both if you try.

See you at the Speech Contest!

PDF Problems?

Some students have told me about problems opening PDF files. It seems that Adobe has upgraded to Adobe 9.0, and some older PDF files (especially made in non-Adobe software) isn’t displaying correctly anymore. If this happens to you, you can still access my PDF files using one of the following methods:

If these methods don’t work for you, then let me know and I’ll try find another way for you to access my PDFs, until I (maybe, someday) get a chance to ugrade them.

Essay for Crit

Here’s the essay for critique for Thursday’s class.

So Young’s Midterm Essay (for Crit, PDF)

By the way, sorry for the delay but I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the file work for everyone. There was an update in Adobe and now older PDFs don’t always work. If you’re having trouble seeing this file, try one of the following things:

Good luck!

Slow on the Script, But Here’s a Progress Report Sample

Hi everyone,

Sorry,  but I’ve had to change our plans in terms of getting the script ready. I’ll be giving it a good hard look this weekend, and I’ll give you back the script, with my editing notes, on Monday. Week 9 (ie. starting Oct. 27th) we will need to get to work on the art, as well, so I’m going to split you into two groups: one to get the script in later sections finished while the others work on the art.

By the way, it looks like we might be having a few pages excerpted in a publication sometime soon, so we’ll really need to get going!

Also, I have an idea I’d like to suggest for the opening and closing pages of the book, as well — something that doesn’t necessarily need much scripting, but which will help us tell the story. We’ll talk about that on Monday, too.

So have a nice weekend, try to get some work done on your progress report if you have time, and gather your strength, because it’s going to be a busy seven weeks getting this book made!

By the way, speaking of your progress report, here’s a sample:

Midterm Progress Report (PDF)

Your Midterm Exam MP3s

Here are the MP3s!

Once again, the link to the PDF for self-evaluation is here:

Remember, Wednesday is the deadline. I strongly recommend you fill out the form as soon as possible.

Midterm Self-Evaluation Form

Here it is! You need it, so get it here!

Listening & Speaking 2 midterm self-evaluation form (PDF)

Your MP3s should be available here soon. Remember, you have 48 hours to submit this to my mailbox. NOT (!!!) under my office door, okay? Good!

Your Exam

Some students have asked what the exam will focus on.

We’ll be watching an episode from Season 1 of the TV show This American Life and then discussing it.

The discussion will be anything students in the exam want to talk about. It will involve approximately 30 minutes of discussion. I don’t care so much what you talk about, but I do care that you find a way to talk… that is, find a way to make conversation about whatever we’ve just watched. Your #1 job, again, is to be interesting. I also expect you to be attentive, to listen to others, to encourage others to speak, to be able to change the subject, and to actually find a way to use what we watched as the basis for a conversation.

You will be asked to  submit a self-evaluation form from the website. The self-evaluation form will be very simple, and will help you evaluate two things:

1. Your performance on the exam, and

2. Your performance in the class up to now.

For the exam portion of the self-evaluation, I will ask you to consider the following things:

NON-GRADED (This will not affect your grade on the exam):

GRADED (This will not affect your grade on the exam):

Please understand, however, that your self-evaluation will not necessarily determine your grade. If I think you have been too generous — or too tough — in evaluating yourself, I will let you know. This self-evaluation is as much a tool for your learning as it is a tool for grading. As I said, I think examinations in conversation courses are somewhat nonsensical anyway. But I do encourage you to take seriously this opportunity for an interesting conversation, and for self-reflection.

Resumes

Some students have discussed the upcoming job seminar that will come after exams. If you’re looking for a guide to writing resumes, there are a few online. I recommend most students use a Skills-Based resume, because it lets you highlight your strengths (abilities) and deemphasize your weaknesses (lack of experience).

I can’t find the model resumes I have on file — they’re on a hard drive in a box somewhere, and I’m still moving from one apartment to another — but there are some good guides online.

Remember, the #1 rule for resumes is putting yourself in a good light. It’s your tool for selling yourself, so always find a positive way to express everything on it.

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