(NOTE: This is repost of a message from Sept. 29)
Good Day,
Everything related to Module 1 and Module 2 has been graded and returned to you. It will take me until Monday or so to get your essay exams graded and returned.
In the meantime, you all have Module 4 to work on. Remember that you should be exchanging drafts for peer review no later than Friday. Peer review groups are set up at the discussion board for this module now. I've done some minor shuffling of teams to balance things out.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 27
Good Day,
We're shifting gears and moving into production mode this week, so you should concentrate on getting a draft of your chapter outline for Module 4 pulled together.
We're shifting gears and moving into production mode this week, so you should concentrate on getting a draft of your chapter outline for Module 4 pulled together.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 24
Good Day,
I am significantly under the weather today, folks, so this will be quite short.
I am significantly under the weather today, folks, so this will be quite short.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 20
Good Day,
Most of your energy this week should go into the essay exam for Module 3. Remember, this exam is open book and phone-a-friend (i.e. talking about the exam with others in class, peer reviewing your answers, etc. is entirely encouraged.) Remember, I am not looking for a brain-dump single-draft fill-in-the blank type of exam response. I am looking for very thoughtful and very polished essays.
Most of your energy this week should go into the essay exam for Module 3. Remember, this exam is open book and phone-a-friend (i.e. talking about the exam with others in class, peer reviewing your answers, etc. is entirely encouraged.) Remember, I am not looking for a brain-dump single-draft fill-in-the blank type of exam response. I am looking for very thoughtful and very polished essays.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Module 3 Essay Exam
EXAM 1: First half of the textbook
Everyone must respond to TWO (2) questions in Part I.
Everyone must respond to both parts of the question in Part II.
Part I: Everyone must respond to TWO (2) questions in Part 1.
Everyone must respond to TWO (2) questions in Part I.
Everyone must respond to both parts of the question in Part II.
Part I: Everyone must respond to TWO (2) questions in Part 1.
- Using specific examples, describe how you might use the Visual/Verbal Cognates to a plan a document.
- Define verbal and visual conventions, then discuss Kostelnick and Roberts' principles of conventions in terms of the rhetorical situation (writer, reader, text, context).
- Describe how Gestalt Principles of Design should work in conjunction with Kostelnick and Roberts' taxonomy of visual vocabulary.
- Below are several versions of a sentence from a set of instructions. Discuss how the meaning of each sentence changes as the emphasis shifts to different words. Discuss the impact of these changes on clarity, tone, and ethos.
Part II: Everyone must answer both parts of this questionA. Please check all controls before starting the engines.
B. Please check all controls before starting the engines.
C. Please check all CONTROLS before starting the engines.
D. Please check all controls before starting the engines.
E. PLEASE check all controls before STARTING the engines.
- Using Kostelnick and Roberts' Visual Language Matrix as a starting point, analyze the set of documents in Chapter 1 of our textbook (Figures 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 -- In the section "How Fred's Document Responds Visually...." starting on page 7). A blank grid template is available in the Module 3 folder on the course home page.
- Then, in your own words, offer both a description and a critique of the documents that extends beyond the discussion offered by Kostelnick and Roberts. Be sure to use the language from the textbook to show your understanding of the concepts. Be sure your answer uses good document design to guide your readers through the text.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Daily Message September 15
Good Day,
Just a short message today.
Remember that your revised Module 1 Analytic Memos are due by 11:59 p.m. tonight. I should have them graded and returned to you by Monday.
Your comprehensive mid-textbook exam will be available here in this space at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. That will give you an entire week to draft and revise. Note the emphasis on "draft and revise." You'lll have a week with our own big juicy brain, two textbooks, and the collected wisdom of the big juicy brains of your associates here in class. I'm looking for a high level of thought and polish on these.
We're bumping up against the first spot in the semester where we start to lose people (major financial aid deadline on the 20th, I think.) If you must drop the class, please drop me a quick a line through WC email or post a quick note to your discussion group to let us know.
That's it from my end today.
You all enjoy this beautiful weather!
Julie
Just a short message today.
Remember that your revised Module 1 Analytic Memos are due by 11:59 p.m. tonight. I should have them graded and returned to you by Monday.
Your comprehensive mid-textbook exam will be available here in this space at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. That will give you an entire week to draft and revise. Note the emphasis on "draft and revise." You'lll have a week with our own big juicy brain, two textbooks, and the collected wisdom of the big juicy brains of your associates here in class. I'm looking for a high level of thought and polish on these.
We're bumping up against the first spot in the semester where we start to lose people (major financial aid deadline on the 20th, I think.) If you must drop the class, please drop me a quick a line through WC email or post a quick note to your discussion group to let us know.
That's it from my end today.
You all enjoy this beautiful weather!
Julie
Monday, September 13, 2010
Daily Message for Sept. 13
Good day,
I hope that you all had a good weekend. I spent a pleasant very early morning this morning responding to your Analytic Memo drafts for Module 1. If you participated in this process, you’ll find my comments on the assignment link in your Assignments dropbox.
I hope that you all had a good weekend. I spent a pleasant very early morning this morning responding to your Analytic Memo drafts for Module 1. If you participated in this process, you’ll find my comments on the assignment link in your Assignments dropbox.
Early morning Monday
Good Morning,
It's the crack of dawn, and I know some of you early birds are probably already out here looking for a daily message. I'm finishing feedback on your Analytic Memo drafts right now (should be done within the next couple hours), and I'll post a more detailed daily message once I've finished those and have a better sense of topics we need to address this morning.
Julie
It's the crack of dawn, and I know some of you early birds are probably already out here looking for a daily message. I'm finishing feedback on your Analytic Memo drafts right now (should be done within the next couple hours), and I'll post a more detailed daily message once I've finished those and have a better sense of topics we need to address this morning.
Julie
Friday, September 10, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 10
Good Day,
I see that I'm starting to get revised Analytical Memos in the Assignment Dropbox. Remember that you can take until 6 p.m.(ish) on Saturday to submit your revised draft for the optional instructor review. Just submit your draft through the link the Module 1 Analytic Memo on the Assignment dropbox. (Submit your original and revised drafts as separate documents.) Also, to participate in the optional instructor review you must have submitted your peer review drafts on time, provided feedback to your peer partners (unless no one else in your group posted a draft), and revised your memo. I'll get feedback on your drafts back to you by the beginning of the day on Monday.
You should have started Module 2. I want to emphasize your understanding the taxonomy for visual vocabulary. I expect you to be able to use the concepts explained in this chapter throughout the course and use the language when you perform the various analyses that you will be asked to do in the exercises and the projects.
You will also want to familiarize yourself with his matrix. And while you may not use it in all of its glory, it really is a marvelous tool for understanding documents (those you read and those you create) more fully and in more complex ways.
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. I'll check in on class again later today to make sure there aren't any problems simmering before the weekend arrives. If there are problems, I'll address them on the discussion board in WebCampus. If not, I'll check in here again on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
Julie
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 9
Good Morning,
No mail, discussion posts, or anything else for me today! Should I feel lonely? Excluded? Or should I feel like people are finally getting a little comfortable with the course? I'll take the latter! :)
After the disruption of the holiday, things seems to be settling into a routine, which means I can cut back a bit on the daily message volume. You can look for posts from me on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I won't post anything new on Tuesdays or Thursdays unless problems crop up.
Status settings in gradebook
Speaking of problems, I have received over the last 24 hours, quite a bit of concerned commentary about those items in the gradebook related to Module 1 with status listings (Complete, Not Complete, Non-Participant.) If you have Not Complete or Non-Participant status on anything, it means that as of Tuesday morning you had missed a posting of some sort for the Introductions or you had not posted anything at all (drafts or response) to your peer group. I'll revisit these status settings next week when I grade Module 1. These status settings are not intended to provoke undue concern about grades, but they are a sign that I take participation in the "ungraded" portions of this class seriously. They give me a baseline for estimating your level of class participation at the end of the semester.
Deadline extension for optional instructor review
They also help me assess where the class is as a whole in terms of making progress on a module. As of now, our class as a whole is slightly behind schedule with Module 1; a number of people are still awaiting feedback from their peer groups. Consequently, I'm going to adjust our deadlines for this project slightly. The final revised documents are still due next Wednesday, but if you need a little more time to revise your draft for the optional instructor review, you can get it to me up until 6 p.m. on Saturday, and I will get feedback to you by 8 a.m. Monday.
Some issues with the exercises
I want to say a word about doing the exercises. As I work my way through your first exercise (I'll post the scores tomorrow), I find myself being a bit lenient. That is my first reaction in these situations because maybe I haven’t made my expectations for a proper answer clear. So here it is: a proper answer needs to answer the question explicitly while using the concepts and the language from the textbook. The only way that I can tell that you have read the material and understand the concepts is if you refer to the textbook or use the language employed by the textbook. You can’t give an answer based on just what you think and just from your perspective. You must go deeper than that. So in the future, you can be sure that I will be much tougher evaluating your exercises.
Discussions: What's the dealy-o?
Remember that for Module 2, you don't have a project to complete, but you do have to participate in a discussion with your group partners. For now, I've left everyone in the same groups they were in for peer response. If you believe you have been irretrievably let down by your partners during the Module 1 peer review and you wish to be assigned to a new group, please let me know. Everyone will have a chance to sign up for a new group when we get to Module 4. Everything I said about the caliber of the responses for exercises in the previous section also applies to these formal class discussions. You should complete your discussions by Sunday night.
Some notes on Chapter 2
I also want to make a few points about Chapter 2. In my mind, perception is the real key to understanding this chapter. Similar to perception is the term perspective. These two terms in conjunction can tell you much of what you need to know about constructing documents effectively. How do people see a document? What is their perspective for understanding? The better you understand these two terms and how they guide a reader through a document, the more successful that you will be as a writer.
Finally, building on the point I made in the previous paragraph, be sure that in your next exercise that you use the language of the chapter, like Gestalt Principles, figure-ground contrast, grouping, patterns, etc. Work hard on incorporating the skills that Kostelnick and Roberts describe in the section on Gestalt into your own writerly repertoire.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
Have a great day!
Dr. S.
No mail, discussion posts, or anything else for me today! Should I feel lonely? Excluded? Or should I feel like people are finally getting a little comfortable with the course? I'll take the latter! :)
After the disruption of the holiday, things seems to be settling into a routine, which means I can cut back a bit on the daily message volume. You can look for posts from me on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I won't post anything new on Tuesdays or Thursdays unless problems crop up.
Status settings in gradebook
Speaking of problems, I have received over the last 24 hours, quite a bit of concerned commentary about those items in the gradebook related to Module 1 with status listings (Complete, Not Complete, Non-Participant.) If you have Not Complete or Non-Participant status on anything, it means that as of Tuesday morning you had missed a posting of some sort for the Introductions or you had not posted anything at all (drafts or response) to your peer group. I'll revisit these status settings next week when I grade Module 1. These status settings are not intended to provoke undue concern about grades, but they are a sign that I take participation in the "ungraded" portions of this class seriously. They give me a baseline for estimating your level of class participation at the end of the semester.
Deadline extension for optional instructor review
They also help me assess where the class is as a whole in terms of making progress on a module. As of now, our class as a whole is slightly behind schedule with Module 1; a number of people are still awaiting feedback from their peer groups. Consequently, I'm going to adjust our deadlines for this project slightly. The final revised documents are still due next Wednesday, but if you need a little more time to revise your draft for the optional instructor review, you can get it to me up until 6 p.m. on Saturday, and I will get feedback to you by 8 a.m. Monday.
Some issues with the exercises
I want to say a word about doing the exercises. As I work my way through your first exercise (I'll post the scores tomorrow), I find myself being a bit lenient. That is my first reaction in these situations because maybe I haven’t made my expectations for a proper answer clear. So here it is: a proper answer needs to answer the question explicitly while using the concepts and the language from the textbook. The only way that I can tell that you have read the material and understand the concepts is if you refer to the textbook or use the language employed by the textbook. You can’t give an answer based on just what you think and just from your perspective. You must go deeper than that. So in the future, you can be sure that I will be much tougher evaluating your exercises.
Discussions: What's the dealy-o?
Remember that for Module 2, you don't have a project to complete, but you do have to participate in a discussion with your group partners. For now, I've left everyone in the same groups they were in for peer response. If you believe you have been irretrievably let down by your partners during the Module 1 peer review and you wish to be assigned to a new group, please let me know. Everyone will have a chance to sign up for a new group when we get to Module 4. Everything I said about the caliber of the responses for exercises in the previous section also applies to these formal class discussions. You should complete your discussions by Sunday night.
Some notes on Chapter 2
I also want to make a few points about Chapter 2. In my mind, perception is the real key to understanding this chapter. Similar to perception is the term perspective. These two terms in conjunction can tell you much of what you need to know about constructing documents effectively. How do people see a document? What is their perspective for understanding? The better you understand these two terms and how they guide a reader through a document, the more successful that you will be as a writer.
Finally, building on the point I made in the previous paragraph, be sure that in your next exercise that you use the language of the chapter, like Gestalt Principles, figure-ground contrast, grouping, patterns, etc. Work hard on incorporating the skills that Kostelnick and Roberts describe in the section on Gestalt into your own writerly repertoire.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
Have a great day!
Dr. S.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 7
Welcome Back,
Your mission this week is to continue forward progress on your Analytic Memo (and reflection) for Module 1 and to complete the readings and reflection for Module 2.
What's due this week:
Your mission this week is to continue forward progress on your Analytic Memo (and reflection) for Module 1 and to complete the readings and reflection for Module 2.
What's due this week:
Friday, September 3, 2010
Daily Message Sept. 3
Hi All,
You should post a draft of your analytic memo (only) in your peer review/discussion group by tonight. (The only group you'll be able to see/access is the group to which you are assigned. If you have questions about group membership, go to the Roster tool, select the Groups tab, and locate the group with your name in it.)
You should post a draft of your analytic memo (only) in your peer review/discussion group by tonight. (The only group you'll be able to see/access is the group to which you are assigned. If you have questions about group membership, go to the Roster tool, select the Groups tab, and locate the group with your name in it.)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Peer groups are available now
Good Evening,
Your peer review/discussion groups are available now. You'll only be able to see the group to which you are assigned. If you'd like to see who else is in your group, you can go to the Roster select the Groups tab.
You should post your draft analytic memo as soon as you have it ready.
Please let me know if you find that you have not been assigned to a group or have been assigned to more than one group.
Dr. S.
Your peer review/discussion groups are available now. You'll only be able to see the group to which you are assigned. If you'd like to see who else is in your group, you can go to the Roster select the Groups tab.
You should post your draft analytic memo as soon as you have it ready.
Please let me know if you find that you have not been assigned to a group or have been assigned to more than one group.
Dr. S.
Daily Message Sept 2
Good Day,
By this afternoon, everyone will have been assigned to a peer review group. I'll give people until noon today to sign for a group if they wish; after that I'll assign anyone who isn't already in a group to a group. Remember, you don't have to completely fill a group. If you have a partner you'd like to work with, and only the two of you sign up for a group, I'll add a third person to your team before the day is over.
By this afternoon, everyone will have been assigned to a peer review group. I'll give people until noon today to sign for a group if they wish; after that I'll assign anyone who isn't already in a group to a group. Remember, you don't have to completely fill a group. If you have a partner you'd like to work with, and only the two of you sign up for a group, I'll add a third person to your team before the day is over.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Please sign up for a peer/discussion group
We need to assign people to peer review/discussion groups in the next day or so.
Since many of you have taken classes together previously, I thought I'd give you the option of signing up for a discussion/peer review group this semester (and choosing your own partners). You can accomplish this by clicking the "Sign up for discussion/peer group now" link on the home page, and following the instructions.
Daily Message Sept. 1
Good Day,
Today, I want to talk briefly about the rhetorical situation.
Background readings vs. K&R
I know that you have all read the background readings in the Course Introduction module, and I know that you have all read the first chapter in our textbook. I hope that you can see how the two discussions of the rhetorical situation blend together.
Today, I want to talk briefly about the rhetorical situation.
Background readings vs. K&R
I know that you have all read the background readings in the Course Introduction module, and I know that you have all read the first chapter in our textbook. I hope that you can see how the two discussions of the rhetorical situation blend together.
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