Grammar Girl

For those of you who were not convinced by today's discussion of "based on" versus "based off of," the authoritative Grammar Girl clarifies everything. Enjoy!

Wednesday Writing Day and Appointments

In an effort to serve the specific needs of individual students in College Writing 1, Wednesday will be a "writing day." I will be available to meet with students in my office from 11am to 1:40pm. If you would like to schedule a time to discuss your thesis, sources, analysis of evidence, or anything else related to your paper, please send me an email to arrange a time.

Remember your Composition Books will be coming in with your papers on Friday, so make sure you have all of your in-class writing assignments and Vocabulary Procedures (posted on BB) completed before then.

The Fifth Strategy for Analyzing Sources

For your next blog post, post an example where you analyze your source as you quote. As we discussed in class, you will want to set up your quote by introducing your source and the context of the quote. As you quote, you will want to splice the quotation onto your own writing. Finally, you will want to be able to explain what the quote means and why it is relevant to your conversation.

On Friday, we will be playing the "Dinner Party Game"--a simplified version of Strategy 3: Putting your Sources into Conversation with One Another. Make sure you bring all of your sources to classes (electronic copies on laptops is fine) and that you have read and thought about all of your sources so you can start making connections among your sources.

See you Friday!

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Thank you! It's been a great week of conferences, and I have enjoyed seeing your research and papers take shape. I'm very excited about your topics and look forward to learning more over the next several weeks.

Remember to post either the transcript of your interview or the scheduled date of your interview (and name of person being interviewed) to your blog. Also remember to cc: me in the email requesting an interview. It's fine to ask the person in person, but you will still want to follow up with a confirmation email (and cc: me).

I realize that as many of you move forward with your research and the thinking about your paper, you may be rethinking the strength of the academic article you selected. This is fine and happens all the time in research--thus, RE/search. Feel free to continue your research and find an academic article that will best serve your paper. It's important to find a good fit for the conversation you hope to have in your paper. As you find sources you plan to use in your paper, make sure you summarize them and post to your blog. Your blog serves as a great place to record and share your thinking about your project.

For Monday's class:

• Read pages 67-72 in Rewriting. This section deals with civility in "countering." 
• Bring at least two quotes from each of the sources you are planning on using in your paper. You can just write them out on a sheet of paper, but make sure you note where the quotes came from. 
• As we begin "doing things with texts" in class, you will want to bring your sources with you. Print out your sources and bring your notes to class so that you can refer to them as we workshop and "do things" in class. If an article is too long to print out in its entirety, you can select important pages to print out and bring those or bring your laptop to class.

Have a great weekend! I look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Sample for Interview Questions--Providing Context for your Subject

I am providing an example from a student's email for you to consider as a model. This is a very good example because the interviewer contextualizes the questions for his/her subject. I hope this is helpful for those of you who are still in the process of scheduling and conducting your interviews.

I am writing to you in the hopes that you'd be able to answer several questions about my intended vocation as an airline pilot since you've had much experience working in the field. I am sorry I cannot stage this interview in person but your office hours don't align with my schedule, and hopefully hosting it as an email will allow us to work around this predicament. While most of my questions will revolve around the pilot aspect of aviation, any insight you can provide into the Air Traffic Control side of aviation would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to skip any questions that you do not feel comfortable answering.

1. What kind of effects have you noticed that stress has on you and you're crew-mates' ability to perform their job and has it been a detriment to your health? 

I am asking this question because I am wondering if you have experienced or noticed others having difficult times concentrating while working because of events that have happened outside of the workplace, experiencing moments of high pressure and stress while on duty, or noticed changes in someone's well being due to their career.

2. Have you experienced fierce competition applying for jobs or trying to increase in rank in your company? Do you know if the amount of competition has stayed the same or changed since leaving your field?

I'm particularly curious because I know that getting a job working as an airline pilot for a major company is extremely difficult, and that it is easier to just start off small, but I am also hearing that soon many of the current aviators will naturally start to retire because there was a major jump in hirings several decades ago. I would like to know if you have any opinions about the validity of the statement and if you've seen or heard any stories of pilots working the same position for an unusual amount of time or rising through the ranks very quickly.

3. Have you ever found that your workplace's demands encroached too much upon your home-life?

I'm asking because I'd like to live in a home and start a family, as well as maintain relationships with my mother, father, and sister, and am wondering if you've noticed any pilots having difficulty keeping their work and home separate, and if it put any unwanted stresses on them.

4. Have you gained a new outlook on life because of your job?

Has flying in the military, internationally, or domestically exposed you to new aspects of life that you would have otherwise not experienced? I particularly like that in being a pilot I will be exposed to a lot of traveling and will be able to experience new cultures or styles that in many other jobs would've stayed on the other side of the world.

5. With much more automation being incorporated into aviation, do you feel that the new generation of pilot's may be replaced by computers in the next several decades?

This is a change that most likely would not be done soon, but with all the improvements in computational technology and things like self driving cars do you think that the new pilots coming into the field may be the last as companies start to favor superior but potentially problematic machines instead of the currently preferred flesh and blood human beings?

6. What was your overall experience working as an airline pilot? Do you look back on it as time well spent? Do you wish some aspects of your job could have been improved upon or done differently?

Thank you for any and all answers you provide, as they will all be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to answer these questions whenever comfortable and at your own pace, but if answers could be received in a week or a week and a half I will be very grateful.

Remember Wednesday, October 29 is a "virtual day" for you to devote to your online research for academic sources in Summons. By midnight on Wednesday, you should have at least three academic sources (from peer-reviewed journals, located through Summons) posted with correct MLA citation on your blog.

I will be in my office from 12-4pm on Wednesday and am happy to help anyone struggling with the research.  You are also encouraged to visit the Lewis University Reference Librarians for assistance in your research. Remember, they are the experts at finding sources and their job is to help you in your research. They are an invaluable resource.

On Friday we will have our quiz on Fragments, Splices, and Run-ons.

Preparing for Inquiry

As you consider your topic over the weekend, I hope you find inspiration in the video above (thanks to Beth Wilson for finding and posting this on her blog!). By Sunday evening (no later than midnight), I would like everyone to post their topic proposal on their blogs. It's OK to still be at the "idea" stage and not sure of exact conclusions, this will emerge and come into focus during the research phase, but your proposal should at least indicate some direction(s) you intend to pursue as you move forward. In addition to the proposal, include a list of somewhere between 8-12 questions about your topic that you would be interested in having answered in your research. These questions will help guide your research and begin to prepare you for your interviews. While there are no assigned readings over the weekend (we'll save the second half of "Countering" for later), I encourage you to start investigating your topic and looking for sources to help illuminate your topic.