Friday: Today's discussion; course policy explanations; and more about social media/Storify

We made it to the end of the second week!! And it's a LONG weekend! 

Source: Janine @Flickr.com

FRIDAY'S CLASS DISCUSSION:

1. More on how to annotate your sources (See SG 6.6, and 10.4) 
2. Ideology: what it is, how it functions, with examples from popular culture (patriotic sayings, commercial jingles, political slogans, song lyrics, and culturally iconic words/images/phrases). See Writing Public Lives chapter 10 for more information. [Since that textbook was suggested but not required, I will see if I can post parts of the chapter on d2l. If I can I will let you know.]

POLICY QUESTIONS 

1. Deadlines: the official deadline for turning in blogs is still Saturday at midnight. In the assignments posted on this course blog, I am giving you a suggested timeline to keep you on track. If the official deadline changes, I will say so on this blog.
2. Extensions: the official policy for asking for an extension on a deadline is that you must ask me, before the deadline, via email. And of course I have to agree to it, so don't assume that I will grant it just because you ask (in other words, look for my email response). This means that if you wait until the last couple of hours to request an extension, I may not see it or be able to respond before the deadline (I am not always up/online at midnight on Saturday nights). Ask sooner rather than later.
3. If you miss class: You are responsible for finding out what you missed from your classmates. Please do not email me to ask what you missed: I post a short summary on this blog. In college (unlike high school), your professors as a matter of policy will not fill you in on what you missed if you have to miss class; that is what the class schedule/syllabus is for (even the summary on the blog is more than most professors provide). As much as we might like to be helpful in this way, it's a professional boundary issue: most professors at a large university have hundreds of students, sometimes several hundred. We just can't be responsible for catching students up if they miss class. However, I'm more than happy to see you during office hours or before or after class to answer questions!

MORE ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA AND STORIFY

1. Remember that social media includes not just Twitter or Facebook, but sites liked LinkedIn. (Anything that requires you to network and have followers). There are even social media sites specifically for academics (Academia.edu is one such site).  Sometimes academics will post on those sites, if they aren't on Twitter or Facebook. 
2. When you look for social media sources on Storify, remember that the little tabs on the top right of the search box mean you can search different social media sites: they are represented by icons. Mouse over the icons to see what they represent. 

Screenshot from Storify. 

Wednesday's discussion; BLOG POST 9

The discussion in today's class elaborates on the assigned reading for this week about citations, posted in the Week Two Overview post.  If you have not yet done the assigned reading, do so now so that you are caught up by Friday. 

Randall Munroe (en:User:Xkcd) - http://xkcd.com/285/
http://xkcd.com/285/

Today in class, we discussed the politics of citation. 

1. What kinds of citations have you noticed in the different sources you have looked at for your controversy?
2. Social Media - what is the Facebook or Twitter equivalent of citations? What purpose do they serve?
3. General Media - quotes, copyright notices (New York Times article example), hyperlinks
4. Scholarly sources - MLA style, APA style, Chicago style, etc.
5. Why is it important to cite your sources?
6. What do the requirements about citing sources reveal about the values are important in our culture?

2. We also briefly touched on the politics of summary: the difference between quotes, paraphrases, and summaries, and why accurate summary is important. The example we discussed in class is the Planned Parenthood/fetal tissue harvesting controversy.

For Friday:

1. Finish the assigned reading in the Student's Guide and Rules for Writers.
2. Post blogs 5-8. 
3. If you purchased the (optional) Writing Public Lives textbook, read Chapter 10 “Patterns of Belief: Analyzing Cultural Values and Ideology in Controversies.”

BLOG POST 9: Annotated Bibliography Draft 1

1. List the six sources you have so far in alphabetical order by last name to make the beginnings of your bibliography. Use the citation style appropriate to your subject matter.
2. Review the Student's Guide 6.6 and write a short annotation for each source. Follow the examples on pages 112-13. Be sure to include the last point in the annotation, in which you describe how you think you might use each source in your controversy analysis.

Blog Post 8: “Evaluation of social media sources”

Blog #8: “Evaluation of social media sources”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire

• Watch this video to learn how to use Storify to examine social media coverage about your controversy. Storify video
• Use Storify [Sign up for free; You can choose to sign up with your Facebook or Twitter account if you wish] to find 2 more sources for your project. This time, however, you are looking for social media sources about the subject of the controversy.

• Try recycling the search terms you developed in previous blogs...
  

Blog Post 7: “Evaluation of Scholarly Sources”

BLOG #7: Title your blog post “Evaluation of Scholarly Sources.”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Identifying_reliable_sources/Archive_41

Now that you’ve settled on a specific controversy within your discipline (in Blog Post 6), use one of the library databases (Academic Search Complete, LexisNexis, JSTOR, and/or Web of Science) or Google Scholar for 2 more sources for your project. This time, however, you are looking for scholarly sources about the subject of the controversy.

Remember that the features of scholarly sources are described in...

Blog Post 6: "Evaluation of General Sources"

BLOG #6: Title your blog post “Evaluation of General Sources.”

Use Google to perform a General Internet Search in order to find 2 sources for your project. Use the following search terms, substituting in the name of your discipline or subject:

• name of discipline controversy 2015
• name of discipline controversy 2014
• name of discipline debate 2015
• name of discipline debate 2014

Feel free to experiment with other sets of search terms. Browse through the first 5-to-6 pages of results for your different searches to get a sense of...

Blog Post 5: "My field of Study"

As we discussed in class today, we are adding a new component to blogging: peer review. This means that your blogging will include commenting on at least two (2) of your classmate's blog posts. You will then go back to your own blog post, read the comments others have left, and respond to those comments. More specific directions are below.



Blog #5: Title your blog post “My Field of Study”

(or feel free to swap out another term you like better - for example, “My Major” or “My Discipline or “My Profession,” etc.).

Our Research Question for this Module is “What kinds of public debates and arguments are taking place in my field / major / discipline?” In order to answer this question, you’re going to have to seek out the places in mass media where...

Week 2 Overview ---The Class pace picks up substantially!!

By Chris Brown (originally posted to Flickr as Marathon Runners) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to Week Two! This week, the pace of the class picks up substantially. You will be writing five (5) blog posts, each of which will require some reading and/or online research first. You will also be giving feedback on the blogs of your classmates. This will require you to develop a rhythm that we will follow throughout the course: research, write, peer review, revise, reflect. 

The goal of this week's readings and activity is to decide upon a controversy in your field of study and begin to find sources for your Controversy Analysis (Project one). By the end of the week, you should have the draft of an annotated bibliography with at least six sources. 

Week’s reading from textbooks:

1. Read Student’s Guide Section 5.1 “Working with Sources: An Overview” (pages 79-80) & Section 5.2 “Summary: Main Ideas” (pages 81-2) and Rules for Writers Chapter 55 (pages 448-56)
2. Read Student’s Guide Section 6.4 “Evaluating Sources” (pages 100-5) & Section 6.5 “Engaging with and Keeping Track of Your Sources” (pages 105-110).
3. Read Student’s Guide Section 6.6 “The Annotated Bibliography” (pages 111-3).

Week’s reading/learning online:

1. Peruse Google search guides  Closely skim the following three websites about using Google (you can probably find videos to demonstrate any of the particular strategies they suggest):
1. How to Search Google
2. 20 Tips to Use Google Search Efficiently
3. 13 Google Search Tricks to Make Life a Whole Lot Easier

2. Complete at least TWO of the following Academic Database Tutorials
1. Searching Academic Search Complete
2. Searching news content in LexisNexis
3. Searching JSTOR
4. Searching Web of Science

3. Watch the Storify video tutorial and create a sample “story” about your controversy

Week's blog posts (to be described in more detail in subsequent posts):

1. BLOG #5: “My Field of Study”
2. BLOG #6: “Evaluation of General Sources”
3. BLOG #7: “Evaluation of Scholarly Sources”
4. BLOG #8: “Evaluation of social media sources"
5. BLOG #9: "Draft Annotated Bibliography"