A last piece of advice, and your grades are posted.

A recent blog post from lifehack.ogr on how to improve one's resume had the follow point:

3. Proofread past spell check.

Just about everyone runs a spell check on their resume. But I’ve seen so many typos that a computer can’t catch: misused words, misspelled business names — I’ve even seen a resume with the applicant’s name misspelled! You should always read over documents to double check them, and if you can get a friend to read over your resume, go for it.

After reading portfolios for the past week, the advice to read past the spell check hit home. Let me offer an example I encountered on a more or less regular basis. A student would claim they had learned to improve their proofreading technique or to start work on critical texts earlier, giving the writing process time to help them produce more polished documents. In the next paragraph, I would encounter a word like "sue," as in, "I have learned to start work well before it was sue." The student had obviously hit the "s" when they intended to hit the "d" in "due." It was equally obvious, the student never read a final copy of their work out loud; instead, they continued to trust spell check to mark each and every word which was miss used or miss spelled. By claiming to proofread more carefully but not including reading out loud on such a critical document, like the cover essay to the portfolio, the student's credibility nose-dived.

So, here is my last piece of advice for the semester, "In critical documents, 'Proofread past spell check.'"

Have a good break. Grades are now up and posted. I will be happy to answer questions after I am back from break on 5 January.

Steve

Free stuff for 2009...

Hard economic times means students have even less money than usual; so, ever cent saved counts. Enter open source and online applications.

Over the semester, you have learned to use google docs, an online web based word processor. You can use google gears to use docs when you are offline, or you can do with I do and downloadopenoffice.

Open office is a lot like MS Office, and if you can use one, you can use another. Like MS Office, openoffice suffers from feature bloat, but there are times when you need access to features for specialized formatting, etc.

We've talked about Zotero as an online research tool. Today another online research tool crossed my desk, Webnotes. Follow this link to see what the fuss is about:

WebNotes Offers a Virtual Highlighter for Web Research

Sites like Google Docs and Zoho offer a host of applications you might normally have to buy. For instance, I haven't used Outlook for over a year to organize my life, instead everythingpours into google mail--another application you've learned to use and one you get for free from the community college. Gmail has recently addedtodo lists, contact management, and applets to google calendar and docs, all from the mail gmail page. Look under LABS in the setting tab.

If paper time management is more your style,google the hipster PDA--a free template for a paper based personal manager. Remember, next semester is always a new semester; so, between semesters you can set up new time management tools to help you get more done.

Steve

Extended Office Hours Finals Week

Good morning,

I want to let you know how to find me over the next week. After Friday you will be in finals week, so I am going to extend my office hours. Here's my schedule:

Thursday, 12/11
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 8:30-11:00 advising in Rm 206 Burnette; 11:00-12:00 teaching a 111 section; 12:00-2:15 in the Academic Support Center
Friday, 12/12
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-10:00 teaching; 10:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Monday, 12/15
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus; 12:00-2:15 in Academic Support
Tuesday 12/16
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Wednesday 12/17
7:30-8:15 at Atlee High School; 9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus
Thursday 12/18
9:00-12:00 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus; 12:00-2:15 in Academic Support
Friday 12/19
9:00-1:30 in my office at 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus

Sometime over the weekend of 12/20, I will turn in grades and head out for Christmas Break. During Christmas Break, I have promised my wife I will not be teaching, accepting emails, etc., and she and the family will have all my attention. Any questions will have to wait until my return to campus on 8 January; so, if you have a question now, ask. As always, I will be happy to accept emails and telephone calls and make appointments outside the office hours I list above. However, emails will need to be fairly short and the questions specific. If you need lengthy explanations, call or stop by. My home number is 804-262-8585.

Please do get in touch over the next days and let me answer questions about the portfolio, read drafts, etc. If you stop by and I am not in the office, come on in and sit down. I will limit excursions to my mailbox, to check in with colleagues, etc.; and, I will try to limit time outside my office to 20 minutes or less, so if you stop by and don't find me in, come in, have a seat, and wait. I will soon return.

You will notice I will continue to work in the Academic Support Center, Monday and Thursday afternoons. Fill free to stop by and ask questions, my sessions there are usually handled as group sessions, and anyone is welcome to come in and join, ask questions about writing assignments, etc. The same holds true for the hours I am advising in 206 Burnette. Those coming in for advising have dibs over my working with my students, but it has been my experience few students do stop by for advising this week.

When you do come in for a meeting, bring a copy of your portfolio to discuss, and try to bring two copies of your cover essay.

Steve

Framing your claims with examples and analysis.

One group sent a claim and the evidence they plan to use to back up the claim. As you develop paragraphs to support the various claims you will make in your cover essay, I thought you might profit from the exchange, so find it below:

Claims

1.) I learned a great deal of information from my group members.

Example of supporting my claim: X corrected my articles providing me with a starting point on what I needed to work on this semester. After receiving some much needed advice, I looked at what my worst grammatical mistake was and researched ways that provided me with a solution to the problem.

Here, you should go on to include an example of an article Cate corrected in the portfolio evidence section. In the section of your cover essay where you discuss the article, point to the article you've included and make sure to note the specific advice you found useful and the specific aspects of the article you changed based on this advice. [Other advice: I might pull out the section on fixing your worst grammatical mistake and develop it into a separate section or paragraph. Paragraphs should focus on one central idea, develop in, and then you move on to another paragraph.] Back to the claim and the paragraph you are developing to support it.

Notice you are building up what you can think of as a basic body paragraph in academic writing, one where you do the following:

1. You make a claim.
2. You explain exactly what you mean by the claim in another sentence or so.
3. You point to a specific example/quote/summary/paraphrase/fact, etc. which illustrates your claim.
4. You explain/analyze your example, etc., pointing out the specific aspects of it which are significant to the reader fully understanding your claim.
5. You transition into your next paragraph using a sentence, phrase, or keyword.

To provide a full example, you might go on to develop your paragraph as follows:

Claim: I learned a great deal of information from my group members.
Explanation: For example, X corrected my articles providing me with a starting point on what I needed to work this semester.
Example: In the evidence section of this portfolio, I have included a rhetorical analysis with which X helped me. You can see it on page Y of the evidence section.
Analysis/Discussion: X pointed out what I later decided was my worst grammar problem--the need to make sure my subjects and verbs agree in number. For instance, you might look at this sentence, "In this situation, the noise was found in both the assumptions Tom made about the audience and the background of the audience." Originally, it read, "the noise founds" X told me to read the sentence out loud. When I did, I realized "noise founds" did not sound right, so I changed it to "the noise was found."
Transition: All semester, I received this kind of valuable advice from my group.

Notice how linking your claim to specific a specific article you include in the evidence section allows you to point to specific aspects of the article and fully discuss and develop your claim. Many students never make this leap. They link to an example to back up their claim, but they don't go on to discuss and explain the significance of the evidence to understanding their claim. Not taking this step in the difference between a "B" or "C" paper and an "A" paper. Discussion and analysis of a claim takes more time and work, but by the time you are done, your reader knows exactly what you mean, and they are *sure* you have given your claim a lot of thought. This last gains you ethos and makes your claims more likely to be believed.

The Value of Writing Well

Lifehack.org has posted a good article on the value to be gained in learning to write well. Here's the link:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-value-of-writing-well.html

Here's my favorite quote from the article:

"...businesses repeatedly cite “communication skills” as the single most desirable trait in new employees."

Why is all the work in a 111 or 112 English course worth your time and effort?

"Good writing pays better than does bad."

For this semester, the end is in sight. Your portfolio will soon be finished and turned in. While patting yourself on the back, remember a lesson my father told me my wedding day, "This is just the start of all you'll need to know and do to make the marriage work." The same holds true for writing. Like putting work into a good marriage, learning to write well pays all back nine fold in terms of the life you can live.

Steve

Portfolio, Question and Answer Session

A group in another class has engaged me in a series of questions and answers using google docs. The session is focused on questions they had about the portfolio. Here is a link to the ongoing session:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg5rkm34_28dpd896gk

It is very possible some of your own questions may be answered here; so, I thought I would post a view only link.

Steve

Tricks for Drafting

Drafting is the stage of the writing process where you get the ideas you've captured in pre-writing into a draft ready for revision. It is also the stage where the dreaded notion of "writer's block" most often comes into play. Writer's block, that is, the inability to write, usually happens for one of two reasons: 1) you are trying to do too much and a kind of verbal constipation occurs; or, 2) the anxiety associated with the text you are crafting triggers a procrastination response. For help with how to overcome procrastination, look at my earlier post on the subject. You might also follow this link for some solid advice on some tactics for overcoming writer's block:

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/HANDOUTS/writing/writblock.htm

For advice about how to avoid verbal constipation, read on.

Drafting is about one thing, getting your ideas out of your head and into a form that can be revised. That is. It is, however, far from uncommon for writers who are just learning the craft to try to do too much besides asking themselves, "What do I say next?," and then writing down what comes to mind. Instead, they are try to revise their ideas or discover what they can say or proofread or some combination of all three while they try to draft a text. All you should try to do when drafting is getting the ideas discovered in pre-writing into a form which can be revised and proofread. You do this one at a time and section by section.

Trying to do everything at once results in taking a fairly tough job--crafting a draft--and making it much, much harder than it has to be. A good analogy is trying to cook every dish in a complicated meal while setting a formal table and entertaining guests. Just as a good meal shared with others requires planning out what needs to be done first, second, etc., so does crafting a successful text. Put off starting the entree until the last moment before your guests arrive, and you might as well send out for pizza.

Good writing takes time and focus, especially crafting long or complicated texts well. Just as not every meal is complicated to cook, you can write some kinds of texts with little forethought or planning. Just as a large meal requires a different level of planning, trying to craft a long, complicated text at the last moment is a recipe for disaster. Until you know the kinds of texts you can just write and those which need careful planning and a lot of time to draft and revise, give yourself more time than you think you need. A good rule of thumb is to double your first estimate and then add in ten percent.

Give yourself permission to take the time needed, to plan ahead, and to do each step in turn, and then you can succeed. Try to do everything at once without any plan, and--most likely--you will fail. Repeatedly fail, and you soon find yourself hating to write and thinking you can never learn. Learn to hate writing and you will loose confidence in your ability to write, and every time you write, you will feel anxious, because you want to succeed; indeed, you need to succeed, but you expect failure. Go through this cycle long enough, and you will avoid writing. Once the avoidance becomes habitual and unconscious, you'll have writer's block. So? Take the time needed to succeed and build confidence, not set yourself up to fail.

As always, write or call with questions.

Steve

Final Portfolio: Frequently Asked Questions. This is a must read.

Frequently asked questions about the final portfolio?

How much of my final grade for the course will it count? 60%. The other 40% is determined by your class participation.

When is the portfolio due? 18 December, 1:30 PM.

Should I continue to do the weekly rhetorical analysis and comments while I work on the portfolio? Only if you have some which you didn't complete; otherwise, no.

What goes into the portfolio? 1) a 5-10 page cover letter; and, 2) a 10-25 page collection of work. Total length should not exceed 35 pages.

Can I turn it in after 18 December? Only if there is substantial evidence of hardship. A crashed printer, failure to backup, or catching a cold doesn't count. I expect you to plan for such events and to have started early.

How to turn the portfolio in? You can turn your portfolio in either as a long google doc, which you share with me, or in a manilla folder, which you turn into me by 1:30 PM at my office, 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus. If you go the google documents route, name your document: "Your Last Name, ENG 111, Fall 2008, BIO ENG LC." You fill in your name. At a later date, I'll let you know which hours I will be in the office on 18 December.

Can I turn my portfolio in early? Of course. Make arrangements with me. Having said this, remember, your class participation grade will continue to play a factor in your overall grade. Finish early and bail on your group, and you will take a hit on your final grade. Part of your job is to make sure everyone in your group succeeds.

How can I receive my portfolio back? If you turn in a physical copy, include a self-addressed large envelop, and I will mail your portfolio back to you; otherwise, I will leave comments in the google doc of your portfolio.

How will I know my grade on the portfolio? Grades will be posted once the school processes them. If you wish, you can include a note in your google doc portfolio giving me permission to state your grade for the portfolio and/or course in my comments. Remember to edit your share list accordingly. Those with whom you share your docs based portfolio will be able to see any comments I make and your final grade. In either case, please remember how harried I will be. Because I want to give you as much time as I can to help you succeed, I'm giving you up until the last day possible to turn in your portfolio; this means, I am only giving myself a day or so to read them, review them in the context your work over the semester, and turn in your grade. I won't have much time to chat in comments. Please do feel free to contact me after to the grading period for more extended comments or to discuss any questions you have about writing in the future.

How many pages long should a portfolio be? No longer than 35; no shorter than 20. Don't panic. You've written more than enough to meet these demands. In fact, you will be surprised how much you have to week out to meet them. Now, give yourself a pat on the back, and the next time you are asked to write a lot, remember how much you can write...if you use the right process and if you spread the work out.

How long is a page? A page is double spaced. It is written using twelve point typeface. The spacing between paragraphs is the same as that between lines within a paragraph, that is, double spaced. Each page has one inch margins side, top, and bottom.

How should I format my reflective cover essay? Start with the date, drop down a couple of lines and open with, "Dear Steve,...: End with something like, "Sincerely, ..." You've written a letter. This one is just typed, double spaced, and written to convince me to give you a specific grade. Remember, the object is to convince me you have earned the grade for which you argue. Try to anticipate any objections I might have to your argument, and address them in your reflective essay. Such concerns will be about class participation, if you've taken advantage of the opportunities to learn which have been offered, if you've learned the material in the course, and--most important--if you've learned to become a better writer and communicator.

Why is the cover reflective essay SO long? The cover letter serves the same learning function as does a final. That is, to allow the student to review all the material covered in the course, to provide the chance for the student to integrate the material covered, and, last and least, to allow the teacher to judge the students learning and performance in the course. It needs to be long to cover the various material you've learned and to allow you space to provide sufficient detail and evidence to convince me you've learned it all.

Then why not a final? It's a course in writing and communication. You need the practice, and this is a *difficult* rhetorical situation you'll encounter later in life. Such self assessment happens every year in annual reviews. In this case, in the process of putting together the portfolio, I get you to review what you should have learned, get you to gauge and assess your learning (hence, making sure you really learn instead of just memorize), and I get to give the knowledge and skill set one last chance to set.

What tone should I use in the reflective essay? Use first person, that is, "I." You should have figured out by now, I am fairly informal, but I am your professor, and as an audience, I'm charged with making sure you have learned to write well. This means I'm looking at everything involved with your writing, including your grammar, usage, and punctuation. After all, you are supposed to have learned some tricks to help you in proofreading and revision in this course. It's only fair you should practice them. Having said this, I am more concerned you learned the concepts in the class, including Kaizen and how to improve your writing--including surface level polish--through researching specific problems and fixing them. I also expect you've improved in how well you proofread. After all, you've been practicing revision, critique, and proofreading all semester.

What style should I use in the reflective essay? The KISS/SVO<24. style="font-weight: bold;">What should I say in the reflective essay? Your essay will consist of a series of claims backed up with support. You main claim or focus for the letter will be what grade you deserve in the course, but you will need to make a series of lessor or sub-claims (and back these up) for you to convince me your major claim for a grade is valid. Prove your major and sub-claims using evidence from the writing you have done this semester. To figure out what sub-claims you need to make, think of the major ideas, terms, and skills you have had an opportunity to learn this semester, and make claims about these. For instance, one of the major ideas you had a chance to learn involved rhetoric. You might make a sub-claim like the following:

"I understand rhetoric better than I did at the beginning of the semester, and I have learned how to use rhetorical analysis to gain a richer critical understanding of the communication which happens around me and to build on this understanding to become a better writer and communicator."

You the evidence you might use to prove this claim might be taken from on of your rhetorical analysis. You might compare your early work this semester with your later work, or a draft version to a final version you have revised. You might discuss each of the primary ideas in a rhetorical analysis, to show me you understand them, and then quote from different rhetorical analysis to show me how your understanding of the terms has grown. You might tell me a story about day-to-day communication this semester and how rhetorical analysis helped you understand and be a better communicator in a communication situation in which you found yourself.

Your cover letter will be made up of different claims you make concerning what you have learned and how you have performed in the class--not just rhetoric. Make sure you develop each of these claims with more than adequate support. Remember, one of the main things I am judging you on is on the quality of your claims and how well you develop the support for each claim you make.

What advice can you give me about what to say in the reflective essay and how to approach writing it?

1. Make good, solid believable claims. Don't try to snowball me. If you screwed up in working with your group or in terms of getting the work done, don't gloss over this screw up. Instead, make it a part of what you discuss in your letter. Remember, I am not interested in excuses or reasons. I am interested in how you used a place where you messed up to learn and to get back on track. I am interested in how you recovered and what you learned in the process. You can turn having done poorly into an asset by discussing it in terms of what you have learned about Kaizen and process, how you corrected your mistakes, or--at the very least--how you might correct them in future.
   
2. Having taught freshman writing most of my adult life, I have very well defined BS meter. Don't make the BS meter go off.
   
3. Don't inflate how much you have learned or the grade you feel you deserve. You might be tempted to say, "I deserve an 'A,' when you feel you deserve a 'C.'" You'll get more credit if you make the claim for a "C." Remember, one thing I am judging is your ability to make effective claims you can backup. If you claim an "A," but can't back up your case, it will count against you. To work, claims must be honest and realistic.
4. In the same vein as 2, be creative in how you back up a claim. You've got all the work and thinking you have done this semester as potential evidence to back up your claims. While I expect the majority of your evidence and support to be grounded in the writing and work you have done for the course, don't forget that you've been learning to think about your writing as a process. This means notes you've taken, email clarifications, revisions and proofreading you have done all are potential evidence to help you support your claims about process. You might also tell stories which illustrate a point you want to make, or you might point to a piece another student has written. Your choices, while not endless, are very wide ranging; so, my best advice is to spend at least as much time going through and figuring out how you will back up your claims as you do. To do this well, go back and review *all* the work you have done for the course and *all* the reading you have been asked to do. Take notes. Your grade depends on how well you do these pre-writing tasks. You can also bring in--up to 1/4th of your evidence section from writing you have done for work and in other classes. Show me how you've allied the lessons from this class to other work, and I *will* be impressed.
   
5. Work with your group. A good pre-writing exercise for this assignment is to go through and review the reading and writing for this class and to take notes on claims you can make about your learning and how you can use writing from and to the class as evidence to back up your claim. Another effective pre-writing exercise is to then get together and share this information as a group. They *will* have had ideas about claims and how to support them which you haven't, and their idea might be the difference between a high and low grade. You might also think about getting your group to critique your claims and the development of them, and when you are finished with an initial draft helping you proofread.
6. If you try to draft this essay and turn in your initial draft in a single pass, you will fail. You have over two weeks to revise and perfect this reflective essay. It counts a *lot* of your final grade. Take the time to do it right. Use process writing. Revise multiple times over the course of the next two weeks. Get an initial draft done early,in the next few days, so you can add ideas to it and let it develop into your best work. Rush this process, and chances are, you will be disappointed in the result.

What can go into the evidence section of the portfolio? Any of the work you have done this semester. I don't want you to include it all. Go through it looking for the work which will best help you make a case for the grade you think you deserve in the course. Think of the evidence section as evidence you can point to in your cover letter to help prove your claims. It's one thing to say, "I've learned to work better with groups and to use others to improve my writing." This is a great claim, but think how this claim comes alive if you point me to a particular email exchange or place in a google document where you really and truly helped another person in your group or they helped you. A good evidence section is a collection of such places in your learning this semester. The writing and work you include should help you make the case for your claims *and* show off your writing and communication and what you have learned.

Do surface level issues count in the evidence section? Yes, but not as much as they do in the reflective essay or as much as the deep content. If you have to make a choice about what to proofread carefully, make the choice to proofread your reflective essay. Do this last carefully using multiple passes. Know the best choice you can make is to pick good evidence and work which shows you off at your best or which helps you make the case for each claim.

Does this mean I should re-type and proofread everything I include in the evidence section? No. For instance, you might decide to back up a claim you make about having taken the time to read the material in the course carefully, actively, and thoroughly by including a photocopy of notes you took on a hard copy of the reading. Don't retype these notes just to show me you can type and proofread. Include a copy or a link to a scanned pdf. It would be silly to re-type them. The same applies in other instances. Use your best judgment. If you include an analysis you have written or other type of written work, then, yes, revise and proofread. Your measure here is: "Will retyping or proofreading make my audience more likely to respond to my message in the way I hope?" AND "Is this better response worth the time and effort to retype or proofread?" Learning to balance such questions is what the course has been about.

What do I do if I don't see an answer to a question I have about the portfolio? As always, write with questions.

Drafting Tricks: Start your draft with an email.

Drafting in email is a trick I often use. It's easier for me to stay on task and focus my writing when I know I have a particular audience. The upshot? I often start and revise a draft in email, and then I move it over to a word processor for final polish and formatting.

For more on how to use email as a drafting tool, check here:

http://www.lifeclever.com/unstuck-your-writing-with-an-email/

FYI: Working with Groups

Here are three links to reading on how to work well with groups, especially online:

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/group/list7.cfm

http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html?http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html

http://www.kolabora.com/news/2005/01/29/virtual_teamwork_best_practices_focus.htm

My favorite line from these articles is this:

"Communication is the responsibility of both the speaker and the listener. The speaker must actively seek to express the ideas in a clear and concise manner - the listener must actively seek to understand what has been said and to ask for clarification if unsure. Finally, both parties must be sure that the ideas have been correctly communicated perhaps by the listener summarizing what was said in a different way."

It comes from the second article.

Google Docs Help

Here's a good place to find help learning how to use google docs:

http://documents.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=15114

Assignment: Evaluate a Popular Scientific Article

For one of your rhetorical analysis this week, do an evaluation of a popular scientific article.

To do this assignment:

1) Find and re-read the post, "Evidence: Not all Evidence is Created Equal." You were to have read and explored this site severl weeks ago, but if you haven't, follow the link from the blog post to the site on Evidence. There, click "Enter" to enter the English site.
2) On the new page which loads, follow the link, "Can you believe it?"
3) There you will find the seven questions you need to ask of any scientific article or claim. You will use these questions to evaluate your popular scientific article.
4) To evaluate anything, you need to have criteria you can use to judge. In the case of the science article you evaluate, you will use the questions on the link "Can you believe it?" Your goal is to take your article and decide if you should believe the claims being made in it.
5) As you ask each question of the article, take notes on your answer. You will use these notes to write a draft of a text in which you explain your reasoning.
6) Bring a copy of your article, your notes, and a draft of your evaluation to class today.

Steve

Resource Post: Using Firefox and Zotero to Keep Research Notes

As you research, you keep notes. You can keep your notes on three by five cards, in a bound notebook, or in an electronic format, like Google Documents. Electronic formats have the advantage of being able to be sorted by tags or searched by keywords, allowing you to more quickly moved from gathering information to outlining your research.

Readers of research need to know from where your ideas come. Doing respected research means making your means available to your readers, so it can be reproduced, or they can tell where you went wrong. Either way, research without documentation if much like an opinions without supporting evidence, everyone has an opinion, so--while it isn't worthless without support--its value is greatly reduced.

Downloading the free and open source browser Firefox and adding the research extension, Zotero, can help you with the task of keeping research notes. Zotero allows you to capture web pages, paper articles and books published online, or to capture part of them. Each time you capture such an entry, Zotero allows you to capture bibliographic information along with what you have captured. It will even help you prepare bibliographies, and export them to OpenOffice or to Word.

Here's a link to Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/


Here's a link to Zotero: http://www.zotero.org/

Class Canceled: Schedule Plenty of Time to Vote

You know that feeling you get when you hear the Star Spangled Banner play? I know it's corny. I still get that feeling. The librarian who was supposed to open our precinct over-slept, so there was a long line to vote, but I didn't see anyone head back to their cars. For the first time in a while, I was reminded of the time and comfort everyday Americans are willing to give up to make sure the work of the Republic gets done, and I got that feeling.

I got there at 6:00 AM, thinking few others would be there so early. I was wrong. Already the line wrapped around the Ginter Park Library. Those joining the line knew it would be a long wait. We could see the beginning of the line where the end crossed the beginning. Some had been there since 5:00, standing in a cold, slow rain. The only hubbub I heard was the shout of joy in the doors opened.

Too often, I underestimate Americans. I shouldn't. Each time there's been a crisis, I've seen the nation pull together. Each time I think Americans don't care passionately about liberty and aren't willing to do the work necessary to keep the great experiment going, I have been proven wrong. This morning was an example. As folks would come out, more than one walked the long line telling us it was worth the wait. It was.

To make it easier on you to vote, we won't have class today. Originally, I had planned to hold classes. We need the time to finish the semester's curriculum, and I need to hold a session to help you read for labs.

I didn't count on the rain, and I didn't count on the long lines at the polls. I don't know how representative the lines at my precinct were, but I do know I don't want our class to be the reason you don't vote. It's worth the wait, and one of the main lessons I'm supposed to be teaching you is to value your voice and to know you can make a difference with it. One of the themes of the class is Civic Responsibly. You have more important work today than our class.

I will see you on Thursday.

Steve

Evidence: "Not All Evidence is Created Equal."

We've spoken in class about how, at least in academic writing, one uses evidence to support claims and opinions. As a way of helping you "get" how evidence works in the relationship between opinion and support, I thought I might ask you to explore this site:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/index.html

In particular, after you enter the site, I want you to look at the link "Can you believe it?" Note the various questions scientists ask of scientific articles to find out if the evidence is worth anything.

Steve

Update on Fieldtrip

We just received word the Reynold's van we were to use for transportation on the Creepy Hollow field trip is down for repair; so, it won't be available as planned.

Rather than cancel the field trip, I thought I might ask if folks are willing to carpool or transport themselves on a strictly voluntary basis. I need to make clear that: 1) attendance for the field trip is voluntary [but fun and educational]; 2) the college can assume no liability when you take personal transportation; and, 3) while guests are welcome, the college can't pay for their entrance fees, etc.

Anyone--student or guest--who plans to attend must have signed a release form prior to leaving campus. For anyone needing to sign a release form, I'll have extras with me when we meet at the at the Flagpoles tonight, Thursday, 23 Oct., 6:45 PM. We'll arrange transport tonight for everyone from the cars which are volunteered.

FYI: Four Year College Transfer Days

J. Sargeant Reynolds

Community College

4 Year College

Transfer Days

Tuesday, Oct. 21^st (Burnette Hall- PRC) & Thursday, Oct. 23 (1^st Floor Lobby- DTC)

11am until 1pm

Meet with Admissions Representatives

Learn about Guaranteed Admission Agreements

and Transferability of Classes

Randolph-Macon UVA

Bluefield College VA State University

Hampton University VCU

ODU Virginia Tech

JMU Mary Washington

NC State University Radford University

University of Richmond

and many more!

An example of a good, solid rhetorical analysis.

A few students have asked I post an example of the kind of rhetorical analysis for which I am looking each week. Below is a good, solid example. It could be improved, but I am impressed with how the author has placed himself in the rhetorical place of the person he is analyzing. The author of the analysis does a good job of identifying his rhetor's audience, and looking at a specific problem the rhetor is facing and how the rhetor crafts his message to overcome these problems. There are even specific examples. I would prefer the author had taken a few extra minutes to proofread, but over all, I would give the following example an "A."

Here's the example:

Watching preist perform the mass is an excellent example of Rhetoric. His ethos is established by the clothes he wears, the logos can be simply achieved by backing up your statements with scripture, and pathos can easily be achieved when people come to church, looking and expecting to feel better about themselves. The audience is generally the same group of people. Old people who come from habit, young people who come because they're forced to, and people in the middle looking for answers about life. The message stays pretty consistent from week to week: live right, but if you can't you can be forgiven. The thing that makes their job difficult is keeping the attention of this audience week to week when you need to send the same general message. They try to do this by varying the stories and examples they use. I cannot imagine this is as easy to do as it sounds. The three groups I described which compose the congregation are very diverse. Many of the stories I can relate to do not apply to many of the near-deads who sit up front. Very frequently the situations they find humorous don't do anything for me. Our priest seems to have discovered the secret to making everyone pay attention. His Homilies often conist of you might be a redneck if jokes and comparisons to professional football. Everyone likes these.

Reading: Kaizen and Process, Take Two

Now you are getting your head around the basic elements of communications---the sender, the message, the receiver, noise, and feedback, it's time to talk some down and dirty about how to improve your writing. The basic notion of how to make improvements in any process (like writing), can be found in the industrial management philosophy of Kaizen.

If you do a quick google of "Kaizen," you'll learn it's the industrial management philosophy which led to Japan being the technological and industrial powerhouse it is. This way of approaching process brings together the best of Western ideas about motion study and efficiency and Japanese notions of how communities and individuals work. It's one of a handful of the most powerful ideas to emerge from the 20th C, and it came into being at the end of WWII.

The US wanted to build a working democracy out of the wreckage of Japan at the end of WWII. Japanese industry was geared up for war, and the US had learned from how it had handled Germany at the end of WWI that for democracy to work, you had to have a certain amount of wealth flowing through out a viable economy; so, the US sent in some of our best industrial engineers to help Japan to build a consumer industrial base.

These folks were well grounded in how to set up a factory to mass produce, but they didn't have a clue as to how Japanese culture functions. The upshot was they tried to impose the latest 1930s/'40s motion and process theory and failed miserably. Japanese culture sees work holistically. It tends to see the individual as part of a community, and the function of work not so much as a means of producing a product but as a means of maintaining the viability of the community and the pride and sense of status of the individual within the community. Luckily, the Japanese were able to work with the well intentioned Americans to come up with a theory of industrial process which combined the best of both ways of working.

From the US, they took the notion of process, that is, when you do something over and over (like writing a sentence, paragraph, or email), you tend to follow the same steps and tend to need the same stuff. If you break down such repeatable activities into set steps, you can focus on one aspect of the process at a time and work to improve its efficiency. You might, for instance, make sure the tools you need for a task are at your workstation instead of stored across the room, saving you the time needed to get up, loose your train of thought, and go across the room to get a pencil or keyboard. The idea is as you improve the efficiency of the individual steps, you improve the overall efficiency of the process and your ability to compete.

Now American thought tended to think of process efficiency as a means to an end. You get a factory up to a certain level of productivity per man hour, and you can compete. The Japanese had the brilliant insight---based on Zen notions of work based meditation--that one never reaches a perfect process; instead, one can just improve the process at hand; but, and this is a big but, you can make small, continuous improvements to whichever processes is in place. Literally, one's focus isn't on the end product, but on the doing or the work necessary to a task. You practice and perfect the doing of a task, not the product of the task. The upshot is they created the notion of continual small improvements to process or Kaizen. It's quite literally a continuous focus of improving how the task is done and assuming that a good process will produce a good product which can compete.

There are some additional flourishes. Kaizen rewards workers who come up with a means to improve how their task is done. It creates time in a production schedule to have regular meetings of the workers, management, and sales folks to discuss process and product. The idea is everyone needs to understand the big picture, so they can understand their part. In any event, small groups meet to make decisions about which improvements to process to implement and to judge if a change in process is an improvement or not. There's also the notion of low hanging fruit vs. high hanging fruit. That is, one always begins work on a process from the process already in place. This process already allows you to receive some gain or, to use the Kaizen metaphor, pick the lowest hanging fruit. As you make improvements, you add to your gains by being able to pick the lowest hanging fruit and some higher hanging fruit. The upshot is your return in the investment of improving process is always increased return.

Kaizen can be applied to any process, from coding to writing to your morning routine. Let's talk about writing. You currently use a series of processes when you write. As you write and revise your inventory of WPA Outcomes, think how you produce writing currently and give these processes your attention. Break writing down into the steps you follow as you produce. For instance, how do you proofread? How do you draft? Do you build in time for revision? We'll be discussing how composition and rhetoric has broken down the task of writing and making speeches, but my goal here is to just give you some language for thinking about the processes you use as you create and write. I encourage you to think about processes in the work you do or want to do. Once you begin noticing the steps you follow and can accept the notion of improving how you produce through making small, continuous changes in these processes, you'll be half-way to becoming a writer.

Here are the tricks of Kaizen:

1) Pat yourself on the back. Whatever process you are now using is picking the lowest hanging fruit.
2) Know your goals.
3) Take small steps toward your goals by improving the process.
4) Pat yourself on the back for picking higher hanging fruit and moving toward your goals.
5) If a step doesn't work out, figure out why and make another change. Use the loss as an opportunity to learn. You are still picking fruit.
7) Keep the pace of change slow but steady. Every few weeks, figure out your next change and keep implementing the change until it becomes habit and routine.
8) Take time to review. Know you are making progress and picking higher fruit than you were. As you review, reward yourself and internalized your success. It is only from success that you gain confidence.
9) Include others in your goals and work toward them. Listen to their insights. Often, from outside, they will see those things which you cannot from the inside. Let these others share in and celebrate your success. Again, you gain confidence from public acclimation.
10) Don't expect the moon; instead, move toward it. As change and improvements accumulate, you will eventually obtain the moon.
11) Usually, when you reach the moon, you find out it wasn't about being there; it was about the journey, the successes along the way, your own growth, and the confidence you have gained for the next project.

Write if you have questions, comments, or observations.

Creepy Hollow Field Trip

It looks as if funding will be in place for a field trip next week to Creepy Hollow Hayride. Please set aside the evening of Thursday, 23 October, and work with one another to plan transportation.

Steve

No class today, 16 October.

There should be a note on the class door, but I also wanted to let you know there would be no class today. Check the blog below for your assignment. Spend the class time today work-shopping the drafts of your reflective essay or doing some group study for your upcoming biology exam.

Regardless, don't forget to bring in two hard-copies of your drafts for Tuesday.

Steve

Assignment: Goals, Habits, Motivation, Kaizen, and Writing.

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about Kaizen, that is, making small, continuous high impact improvements as a way of moving toward your goals. You've brainstormed and written about your goals. You've identified a habit either to acquire or to shed. Now I'd like to bring together this assignment with some reading and further writing.

You will be tempted to skip the reading, and take what I've said in lecture as all you need to know about goals, habits, Kaizen, and writing. Many of you have managed to get by in school with doing little to no reading. Don't do it this time. Like rhetoric, Kaizen and using habits to become a better writer lays at the heart of this class, and it is one clear path to becoming a better writer. You know I have never BSed you. Read these articles. They are more than worth your time and effort. You won't find everything useful. Remember the 17% rule; but, you will gain some important perspective on how to achieve your goals or to find them. Why else are you attending college?

The only way to become a better writer is to make becoming a better writer a goal and then begin to acquire the skills, habits, and knowledge you need to craft and understand effective writing and speaking. Combine this work with practice and thought, and --over time--you'll become as good a writer as you want. Why go to the trouble? Well, you have to to pass the class. However, one of my favorite writers boils it down to a simple truth, "Good writing pays more than bad."

To help you get a handle on how the process of moving from goal to habit to achievement works, below I've brought together a few of my favorite posts on setting goals, how to move from goals to habits, some tips on ways to acquire habits, and some tips on how to stay motivated. You need to read these.

Print out each article, put them in your habit's project file and bring your file to class. I will be checking. You have a week from today to complete this reading. This will have you reading and re-reading one of the articles per day, taking notes, taking some time to think about what you've read, and then writing about it and discussing what you've learned. This writing and discussion can take place either within your group (using a google doc) or with the whole class (using the class discussion list). Your choice.

As you read each article, take notes, and read actively. After you finish each article, take a fem moments to summarise what you thought were its major points and what part of its advice resonates with you (or didn't). As you write about the advice or resources you find, use your habit and your work on it as a focus for your discussion. Talk about the advice you find particularly helpful, and how it might change or alter your goals or your work on your habit. Finally, read what others have to say. Help them get a handle on the reading. Comment on what they say. Discuss. I'll be paying particular attention to this set of linked assignments when I decide on your class participation grade.

Here's the reading:

Setting Goals:

Written Goals for Skeptics

Simple Goal Setting

Lifetick: Goal-setting software that actually helps you achieve your goals

Habits:

Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals into Habits

How to Establish New Habits the No Sweat Way

Things to Avoid When Changing Habits


Finding Motivation:

Ultimate Guide to Motivation

Another Site to Help You Learn Biology

This site, Biology for Kids, covers the basics of biology. You can learn cell structure, different kinds of life forms, how microorganisms work, etc. If you are looking for a place to gain some extra perspective on what you are studying in biology, you could do worse. Here's the link:

http://www.biology4kids.com/

FYI: Proofreading/reading tool

Proofreading is easier the more distance you can get from your work. One way to do this is to get someone else to help you proofread by reading your work out loud. This proofreading method works best when both you and your reader have a copy of your work; this way, whenever something sounds odd or off, you can put a check off to the side and use these checks as an index to things in your paper you want to check. Asking questions of your reader, like, "What was the main point of my paper?," "What would you improve?," or "Did I stay on topic?, is also a good way to get cheap feedback on your writing.

What do you do, however, if you can't get another reader to read your paper out loud? There's tech. While a computer reader won't be able to answer questions about your writing--at least, not yet. It will read you back your words EXACTLY as you wrote them. Add in a hard copy and a pen with which to put check marks off to the side, and you have a workable part of a decent proofreading system.

Check out this free text-to-speech web based converter:

http://readthewords.com/

Assignment Due Tuesday

1. A draft of your reflective essay.
2. Prewriting on a section you will add to the reflective essay in which you brainstorm or freewrite on the question of your performance in the learning community to date and how you might improve your performance.
3. Read Peter Elbow's short article on "Writing for Teachers." You can find it here:

http://engbiolcfall2008reynolds.googlegroups.com/web/Writing%20for%20Teachers%2C%20Peter%20Elbow%2C%201981.pdf?gda=OXoR0WEAAAAq3hjgY0d4MAQ2ZZfEzYIF41aaApyJ6ayRgrXqlqyJ2i_XWJP6OUcMZKgv9komVVPUBOJ2fLR2J2BGhWO3rMYS0mr293Ntz0e-WtPqaxxpAFMJP-kItwVPBwjdKujmMDOVcV4Kf5x1iV4X6-2IalYA&gsc=FrDymwsAAACsMwjb3Hsi1sU1IrNHX_fO

And I will sent it via the list.

See you Tuesday.

Steve

Catch up on missed election speeches and debates.

Going for the extra credit for discussing the election with your classmates? Looking for a subject for this week's rhetorical analysis? Tired of not knowing about the speech about which everyone is talking?

Follow the following link to legit online access to tonight's debate, past speeches, etc.:

http://lifehacker.com/5059937/catch-tonights-presidential-debate-on-hulu

Thanks to lifehacker...

FYI: Real World Advice on Acquiring Better Study Habits

One of my favorite blogs, AskMetafilter, does nothing more than act as a place where folks can write in with a question and get good suggestions on how to answer it.

Recently, a graduate student wrote in asking how to acquire better study habits than those which got him his initial degree, and he got some good advice--advice I wish I had heard long before graduate school.

Please note: the question was posed by a graduate student, who was suddenly looking at the task of preparing for comprehensive exams. Think of all the classes you've ever taken and an exam where any question from any class is fair game, and you have a good idea of what comps are like. One reason folks with a masters or a doctorate know how to study is most of us had to sweat comprehensives at one time or another, but the skills I had to learn then would sure have made my life as an freshman much, much easier.

Here's the link:

http://ask.metafilter.com/103544/Help-Ive-fallen-and-I-cant-get-up

FYI: Apostrophes

Apostrophes are the bug-a-bear of many writers, not just students learning the ropes. If apostrophes give you fits, you might follow this link:

English Apostrophe Society

The society is dedicated to stamping out the over use and misuse of apostrophes in English. They have some truly funny pictures of places where folks used an apostrophe or six where they shouldn't have. More important, they have some easy to follow rules for when and when not to use apostrophes in your writing.

Today's post is thanks to Instructify.

Steve

Notes on Proofreading.

Below you'll find my notes on various tips and tricks to help you proofread better. Over the rest of the semester, try out as many of the techniques I discuss as you can. Not every technique will work for every writer, but I'm confident you will find three or four which will help you catch surface level issues you are now missing.

Remember, proofreading differs from revision. When you proofread, you're looking at the surface level and polishing grammar, spelling and usage. When you revise, you're concerned with clarifying what you say, perfecting the organization, adding to your text, and cutting. In short, in revision, you want to deal with meaning and deep level issues. You proofread *after* you revise; otherwise, the effort you put into proofreading may well be wasted. One last note: one difference between editing and proofreading is that one edits another's text while one proofreads one's own.

On texts of some length, proofreading/editing is often the final step in the writing process prior to publishing your text. Proofreading usually takes place nearer the end of the revision process than at the beginning. Why? Because it doesn't make sense put in the effort to proofread every sentence and word level issue until your draft is fairly solid. In other words, why proofread and edit sentences and words which might still be cut or changed?

You can also waste time proofreading haphazardly. Once you've learned how to proofread systematically, your prose will be more successful and polished, and you'll save effort and time over haphazard, disorganized means you may currently be using.

In any event, here are my own notes on proofreading. You can now update your writing inventory on learning various techniques involved with different stages of the writing process.

Those notes just below are the main ones to remember:

It's nearly impossible to effectively proofread your own work. You know what you mean to say. When you read your own work, you often read over mistakes. My best piece of advice is to get others to proofread your work. Try to get at least three people to look at your work prior to turning it in. If necessary, hire someone or create a writer's group to help you with proofreading.

EVERYONE makes mistakes. Don't kick yourself for your mistakes, learn to recognize them and how to fix them. Even then, you'll still make mistakes.

I once worked for an academic journal. Four sets of eyes proofed each article--the professor who wrote it, myself, the departmental secretary, and the editor. Still, EVERY time we got the journal back from the printers, I opened it to a random page and found at least one mistake. EVERYONE, even professionals, make mistakes. I know, for instance, there are more than a few errors in these notes.

When you proofread, you're trying to do something called breaking set. This means you want to change the set or usual way you read, so you don't read over mistakes. Most of the proofreading tricks I list below have to do with changing how you read, so you can see what you've written.

1. Give yourself time to proofread. It's easy to find yourself adding the last sentence to a text at the last possible minute. As we finish drafting, the last thing we want to do is acknowledge there's yet more work to do. We want to be done. Resist the temptation. Give yourself time to proofread. Your final product will be better for the time. To give yourself time, set your deadline for finishing your draft in time to revise the draft for content and structure and to still have time to proofread.

2) Read backwards from the last sentence to the first. When proofreading for spelling, read backwards one word at a time. Learn to isolate each word, even those which have been passed by the spell check. It doesn't catch every misspelling. When proofreading for sentence issues, read backwards one sentence at a time.

3) Read slowly and out loud. You'll be surprised how reading something out loud, as opposed to silently, will let you hear errors you'd otherwise overlook.

4) Read to someone else. Reading your paper to someone else forces you to take an audience into account. Not only can the person you're reading to ask questions about content, they can mark places in a copy of your paper where they're confused or they hear an error as you read. When you hear a mistake or a piece of awkward phrasing, you can mark it and come back later to fix it.

5) Print out your text. If you usually read your papers on the screen, make a hard copy. As you find errors, mark them, and later revise your electronic copy. When we're drafting and hit the creative zone, we often work quickly and have a hard mental focus on meaning. These habits of reading quickly and thinking in terms of meaning and adding or cutting content can track over into efforts to proofread on the screen. Remember, when you're proofreading, you're not so much worried about content or organization (hopefully, each of these elements was polished earlier in the writing process), when proofreading you're looking at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar and only at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar.

6) Get someone else to read your work to you. Print out two hard copies. Get a friend to read your work to you. Both of you mark places which don't make sense or appear to be problematic. Use both copies as an index when fixing your text. Go back and look at each place which was marked and try to figure out what caused the area to get marked.

7) Have the computer read the text two you. Make a hard copy and set up the computer to read the text out loud. It will read what's there. Every time you hear an error, mark your hard copy. Use your marked copy as an index to what needs to be fixed. You can find many free text to speech readers by just googling.

8) Give yourself time. Breaking set isn't just about reading backwards or reading out loud. You get close to a text when you draft it and work on content and structural revision. If you try to proofread after working this closely with the text, you'll find yourself seeing what you meant to say rather than what you're actually saying. Horace, a Roman rhetorician, recommended putting what you write away for nine years, that is, until it reads as if someone else wrote it. We don't have such luxury, but giving yourself a day or two to let the text set, even just doing something else between finishing your content revisions and proofreading, gives distance enough so you're can bring fresh eyes back to your text. So, finish your draft and reward yourself with a night's sleep, a night out, or a workout prior to proofreading.

9) Give yourself time to proofread. Slow down. You're not in a race to get through, you're trying to look closely at multiple things, and the process takes time. Slow down. Read slowly. Take the time it takes to truly see and truly edit every sentence and word.

10) Physically touch every word. Talk about breaking set! Read backwards. Read out loud, and touch every word to make sure you're seeing and proofreading each and every word and sentence.

11) Use the grammar and spell checker. The state of the art in grammar and spell checkers isn't quite there yet, but they can help you see some errors. Just don't their word as law. Use them for the things at which they're effective. They can isolate "to be" verb constructions and give you an index to possible passive voice constructions. They can show you long sentences. They can usually recognize subject verb disagreements. They can sometimes help with punctuation. The real trick with using grammar and spell checkers is to learn their weaknesses and to learn how to customize them to the style of writing you want to reproduce.

12) Boo-boo or demon words. You know these words. They're the ones which sneak through the spell checker. Usually they're jargon or proper names you misspell or forget to capitalize. You can customize autocorrect to make corrections for your most typical boo-boo words.

13) Use a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the sentences you're proofreading. This practice forces you to look at the sentence you're proofing, not the next sentence, not the previous sentence, the sentence you're supposed to be looking at.

14) Learn your problem areas. Everyone is prone to making different mistakes. If you or someone else sees a pattern in your mistakes, put it on a personal "list of things I have to look at when proofreading." (This is why it's a good idea to read the papers you get back from teachers and proofreaders. Often your professor will mark errors. Use their work to help develop your list of "things at which I have to look.") By learning to recognize the problems you're prone to introducing into the text and how these errors can be fixed, you'll soon find yourself making fewer errors. Every once in a while, take your copy of "things at which I have to look" and find your worse error. Spend some time researching how to recognize and fix your worse error. Eventually, you'll find your list of common errors getting shorter and your sentence level writing improving in proportion.

Adding Collaborators Seems to be Fixed

Reports from most students say the problem with adding collaborators seems to be fixed. Here's what to do if you have trouble:

1. Clear your browser's catch of cookies and temporary files.

If step one doesn't allow you to add collaborators, try:

2. Add collaborators one at a time.

When you share your google doc with a group of collaborators (Shart tab ===> Share with Others ====> Add collaborators window), you have two choices, adding folks as full collaborators or adding folks as viewers. Add your group and me as a full collaborator. This will allow us not only to read and view your document, but it will allow us to leave comments, suggestions, etc. I've had some reports of students not being able to edit once they open a document shared with them, my best guess is that this is because they've been added as a viewer rather than a full collaborator.

Steve

Problems with adding collaborators in google docs.

After touting the wondrous simplicity and ease of use of using google docs to collaborate, Google has picked now to prove me wrong.

If you've tried to add several folks as collaborators, and you've received an error message to the effect, "The server encountered an error. Try again later." You are far from alone. It's a google issue and isn't limited to this class, but is happening all over the web. Here is what I know about the problem and what is being said online about it:

The problem with the server is not you or your machine. There is something else going on, as the same problem is happening with other students and on my machine. From what I've been able to gather, folks are often able to add one collaborator at a time, but trying to add more sometimes--not always--is giving the google servers fits. I've read reports online that faster connections are getting through better, so I suspect some folks are just being timed out by google. The good thing is that google knows of the problem, but it has been unusually slow in fixing it.

For right now, try the trick of adding one collaborator at a time.

Resource Post: "Punctuation Made Simple"

Follow the link to an approachable discussion of punctuation: "Punctuation Made Simple."

Using Word Maps to Learn New Vocabulary

Expressways--a writing textbook--suggests you use mindmaping to learn new words. You can use online tools to make mind maps. Here is a link to two of my favorite online mind mapping tools:

* Bubbl.us
* MindMeister

If you don't know what a mindmap is, here's a link to explain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map


Here is Expressways' advice on how to use a mind map to learn a new word:

Using Word Mapping

Word mapping is a visual method of expanding your vocabulary. It involves examining a word in detail by considering its meanings, synonyms (words similar in meaning), antonyms (words opposite in meaning), part(s) of speech, word parts, and usages. A word map is a form of word study. By the time you have completed the map, you will find that you have learned the word and are ready to use it in your speech and writing.

Set up a mind map with the word you want to learn at the center.

Your mindmap will contain the following nodes:

• Primary Meaning--include the part of speech in this node along with the meaning.
• Secondary Meaning--if the word has more than one meaning, include it here.
  
• Synonyms--use a thesaurus to find these.
  
• Sentences--write two sentences using the word.
  
• Word Parts--break the word down into its root and any prefixes and suffixes.
  
• Other--this is good place to find and put antonyms
  

Use the following steps in completing a word map:

1. Write a sentence in which the word appeared at the top of the map. Figure out which meaning fits the context and write it in the box labeled “Meaning (as used in reading).” Fill in the word’s part of speech as used in this context.
2. Study the dictionary entry to discover other meanings of the word. Fill those in on the map in the box labeled “Other Meanings.”
3. Find or think of two synonyms (words similar in meaning). You might need to use a thesaurus for this.
4. Write two sentences using the word.
5. Analyze the word’s parts. Identify any prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
Write the word part and its meaning in the box labeled “Word Parts.”
6. In the box labeled “Other,” include any other interesting information about the word. You might include antonyms, restrictive meanings, or the word’s history or derivation).

As you create a word map, here are some resources you might find helpful:

Links to online dictionaries taken from this useful post from studenthacks,

"101+ Web Resources for Students":

Dictionaries

• Acronym Finder
• American Heritage Dictionary
• British National Corpus
• Encarta World English Dictionary
• Idiom Connection
• Lexicool
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Roget’s Thesaurus
• Rhyming Dictionary
• Synonym Dictionary

If you want some terms on which to practice, here's a list of the most used words in Academic Writing. At least one study has shown around a 10% improvement in student comprehension of academic texts just by learning these sixty words.

The most used words in Academic Writing

analyze
approach
area
assess
assume
authority
available
benefit
concept
consist
constitute
context
contract
create
data
define
derive
distribute
economy
environment
establish
estimate
evident
export
factor
finance
formula
function
identify
income
indicate
individual
interpret
involve
issue
labor
legal
legislate
major
method
occur
percent
period
policy
principle
proceed
process
require
research
respond
role
section
sector
significant
similar
source
specific
structure
theory
vary