UNIT 3 INSTRUCTIONS

Deadlines

Green Zone (Mar 28-Apr 9): Essays turned in during this time period will receive comments and 10% extra credit. All discussion messages must be posted to the Discussion Forum during this time period to receive credit. If you want response to your Outline before you write the essay, you must post it to the Discussion Forum during this period. Try to do your work within this time period as much as possible to get the most out of this class.

Yellow Zone (Apr 10-Apr 20) (extended because of Spring Break): Essays turned in during this time period will receive feedback and full credit. Nothing posted to the Discussion Forum from this point onward will receive credit or feedback. At this time, submit the collection of all Discussion Messages you wrote for this Unit to me via the Homework Submission Page. Try never to submit your essay later than this period, as doing so puts your grade in jeopardy.

Red Zone (Apr 21-Apr 23): Essays turned in during this time period will not receive any feedback, making it unlikely that you will improve your writing or raise your grade. If you didn't already do so, submit the collection of all Discussion Messages you wrote for this Unit to me via the Homework Submission Page. Try to use this time period only for true emergencies, and do NOT make a habit of turning your essays in during this period.

Since I am not monitoring your performance on the online exercises, they can be done during any "zone." Technically, the same is true of the readings and lectures, but the reality is that you'll need to have read most of these before you can successfully do the Forum messages and essay.

Textbook Readings

Alternate Assignment: You have two options for this Unit. The first option is to follow all the instructions on this page. The alternative (something you can do instead, not for extra credit) is to do the reading, discussion forum, and essay found on the alternate assignment #A page or the alternate assignment #B page. If you choose one of the alternates, you will still do the same Lecture Readings and Exercises found on this page, but the reading, discussion forum, and essay assignments will be from the alternate assignment page instead of this one. Choose between either the chapter in the textbook OR one of the alternate assignments.

For Unit 3, read all the material from Chapter 13 of Behrens & Rosen. Also, pages 34-49. If you have the 11^th edition, it is Chapter 11 and pages 33-37.

Lectures

Evaluating Sources

Though finding information on the Internet is very easy and convenient, distinguishing what is useful and appropriate from what is simplistic, unreliable, or flat out wrong can be more difficult. It's been said that the challenge for this generation will be the ability to sift through massive amounts of information to find what's truly relevant. For this reason, these links to tutorials about Evaluating Sources are especially important. The exercises you'll find in the tutorials are optional and highly recommended.

How to Evaluate Sources

Evaluating Online Sources: A Tutorial by Roger Munger

Conciseness

Conciseness is one of the most important and underrated concepts in good writing. Simply put, it refers to the elimination of useless clutter. Either because they have been influenced by officialese (the jargon of law and business that tries to sound impressive and hide its true meaning) or just because they are trying to fill a minimum page count, students stuff their writing full of too many useless words and phrases. Less really is more. The more quickly you get your point across, the more clear it will be, and the less chance you have of boring your reader.

In asking you to write with conciseness, I am NOT asking you to cut back on detail. On the contrary, I always want more detail from you. Is this a contradiction? No. Detail is information, evidence, and specificity. Clutter is deadweight. A simple example of revising for conciseness would be turning, "We can't determine at this point in time the reason as to why the work is in a state of non-completion" into "We don't know why nobody finished the work." Both statements give the exact same information and detail, but one does it in 8 words and the other in 21.

I will be grading your writing according to its conciseness, so read up on the issue on the following sites and look at their practice exercises. Work through the following sites until you feel you understand the concept:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/01/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/02/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/03/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/04/

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/concise.htm

http://college.hmco.com/english/raimes/keys_writers/2e/students/intrsrch/tutorial/pm.html

Exercises

The following exercises are required: #279, #280, and #374.

Discussion Forum

Posting Discussion Messages (Required)

Reminder: Follow these directions very precisely. Messages that violate these directions will be deleted and will not receive any credit.

To write your message, start a new thread and give it a subject line as follows: the name of the ad (found in the lower left corner of the textbook page), a space, and the page that the ad is found on
If you're not the first to post on an ad, READ ALL the earlier posts about that ad to be sure you’re not repeating what someone else already said. If you can't think of anything new to say, don't write on that ad. Messages that just recap what someone else said get deleted.
To raise your score, you can post replies to other students’ messages, but only if your replies are adding new information or disagreeing (respectfully). Replies that just tell the original poster that they are correct or repeat the same points get no credit.

Questions for Discussion Forum 3

Choose any one of the Discussion & Writing Suggestions from pages 738-747 of the Behrens & Rosens book (595-601 in the 11^th edition) and write a discussion message in response. The point of this exercise is to be very specific about your attention to visual and textual detail and to use the terms, where appropriate, from the readings. Be very clear about what you're referring to -- make the reader see what you mean -- and avoid generalities and claims that you can't back up.

Posting an Outline (Optional)

You have the option to post an outline for the essay that you'll be writing so that I can give you feedback before you get too far into the writing process. Like anything else posted to the forum, it must be posted during the Green Zone. I will respond as quickly as possible, but you should expect that it may take me a couple of days. Just as importantly, I will only respond to Outlines that follow the directions below...

First, obvious as it may seem, first read through the essay choices in the next section and decide what you will write about. These aren't suggestions, they are your only options. Make sure you are writing on one of the topics and that you are writing about exactly what's asked, not some close or similar topic.

HOW TO CREATE AN OUTLINE FOR THIS CLASS

I. The outline must begin with your thesis statement, which as explained above is exactly one sentence and states some kind of argument that is going to need supporting proof.

II. Beneath it, list three or more major points that you will cover to prove this thesis. EVERY ENTRY IN THE OUTLINE MUST BE A COMPLETE SENTENCE. For example, if you are proving what are the causes of a certain situation, each major point will be one of the causes (e.g.,"One cause of x is y"). If you are writing to prove that something is true, each major point might be one step in your argument (e.g., "We can tell x is true because of y").

III. Finally, beneath each major point, list at least two entries that show what kind of proof or detail you will use to explain that point. For example, if you are proving that one cause of the postal strike is bad working conditions, you would list some examples of these bad conditions. It is acceptable if you are not quite prepared with two entries for every major point when you turn in the outline, but try for as many as possible.

Sample Outline:

Thesis: Luxury cruises destroy the entire point of travel.

They are devoted to covering as many destinations as possible in a short time, rather than seeing anything in depth.

The Princess Mediterranean cruise covers 14 cities in 3 days.

Day 3 of the cruise covers over 50 different sights spread out across Naples.

They provide a predictable place to sleep and eat, sheltering people from the diversity of their destinations.

You won't get to know the families that often run hotels in their own home.

You won't get to feel what it's like to live in a home in these countries.

They control the amount of time you can spend ashore, limiting the kinds of experiences or problems you can have.

You will never learn how to solve the problem of being lost.

You will never experience the nightlife.

Click here now to go to the Discussion Forum.

Essay

By now, you all know the importance of sticking to the thesis as written and of bringing in outside sources. This time around, I will be paying very close attention to HOW you integrate those sources. Don't allow them to take over your paper, and don't borrow their words too closely except when quoting (when, of course, you use quotation marks).

Remember that your job in this class is not just to copy and paste web material together into an essay. Though you'll need to research information on the Internet, your job is to write YOUR argument and use the researched material to support what YOU are saying. If you find that the majority of your essay consists of words pasted or paraphrased from elsewhere, that is a big problem because it means you are plagiarizing (stealing) your essay rather than writing it yourself.

The one thing that you can do to keep yourself safe from an accusation of cheating is always to make clear which words and which information are taken from another writer. ALWAYS give credit to your source by mentioning the author or publication. We'll learn more about the best way to do so, but any way is better than no way, so begin this habit from day one: when writing anything that is not originally yours, make that fact clear.

To submit the essay, visit the Homework Submission Page and log in with your name and your id#. Once you've confirmed your identity, you'll be taken to a page where you can both submit your work and see all your grades so far. Paste your essay into the field provided (don't worry about the lost formatting), and click the Submit button. To check if your essay was received, come back a second time to the Homework Submission Page and look at the "Here are your Current Grades" section. If Essay1 is listed there (even though there won't be a grade yet), then you can be sure your essay was received. If even the text Essay1 doesn't appear, there's a problem. Try again and if it still doesn't work, then let me know.

Remember that if you realistically expect your grades and writing to improve, you must turn your essays in before the Red Zone so that you can benefit from feedback. Waiting for the Red Zone and obtaining no feedback at all drastically decreases your probability of passing the course.

Above all, remember that you cannot take material from an outside source without acknowledging that you're doing so. Even if you completely reword information, you are still obligated to say, "according to Mr. Smith...." In the next unit, we'll discuss how to acknowledge your sources formally, but right from the beginning you must start the habit of always making clear when your information can from somewhere other than your own brain. Taking words or ideas without giving credit is considered plagiarism (stealing) and will result in an automatic F for the assignment and being reported to the college's disciplinary system where it will form part of your permanent record. Do whatever it takes to make it clear when your words OR ideas have come from another writer, and don't plan on saying that you "stole by accident."

Approved Topics for Essay 3

Write an essay in response to any of the following questions found on pages 747-748 (609-610 of the 11^th edition) of Behrens & Rosen: 1, 3, or 6. Look at the posts in the Discussion Forum to get an idea of the best way to write specifically about what you see in the ads and how they achieve their effects.