Tips for a Great Final Project

Annotated Bibliography

• Make sure each of your sources are correctly formatted.
• Make sure each of your annotations contain a quote or paraphrased thought and that you correctly cite those quotes or thoughts.  Review how to do in-text citations.  (Please look at the Sample Annotated Bibliography if you haven't)
• I don't want one bibliography from each of your group members.  I want one bibliography per group.  You need to coordinate with your group to get all of your sources into one document, if you haven't already.

Narrative

• Make sure you reach the required page length- 5 to 7 pages- And the required sources- 10 sources.
• Remember to tell a story.  You want to include your research but make sure that you tell a good story.  Create good characters, set the scene well, and make it interesting.
• Make sure you include a Works Cited Page with the sources that you use in your narrative.
• Don't forget your footnotes or your Notes Page. (See Class Documents- Project 4: Footnotes)

Visual

• Make sure it's connected to your narrative somehow.  
• Try and provide us with info that you didn't include in your narrative.
• Be creative. 
• If you're doing a PowerPoint, the less text you use the better.

Course Recap for Thursday, November 29, 2012

Finding Good Source for Your Annotated Bibliography
We talked about the types of sources that I will be accepting this project and the types of sources I will not be accepting.  I want you to have at least 1 print source per person in your annotated bibliography.  I don't want any online sources that don't have authors and aren't backed by some major trusted organization.   Try to avoid major overview websites that aren't hosted by an organization. The sort of sites that list a bunch of facts about your historical event or era but doesn't list where any of their information came from.  Even if the information is true, you would be better off citing that information from a much more valid source.

Here are some tips for finding and citing print sources for your Annotated Bibliography.

1. Use Western's Library Website: www.wmich.edu/library  You can find books, newspaper articles, and journal articles and most of them you can access online.
2. If you find a newspaper article online on the Western website, cite it the same way you would a print source.  Those articles are basically the same text that was printed in the actual newspaper that someone has typed online so you have easy access to it.  So check the MLA guide on the Purdue website and use the instructions for citing a newspaper article. (This is only for newspaper articles you find on the library website. I can't vouch for any you find in any other way.)
3. When using a journal article always check the right hand corner to see if there is a PDF version of the article.  You have to be able to list the page numbers when using a journal article and you will only know the page numbers if you can see the journal article as a PDF. Just like with the newspaper articles, cite it as a print source. 
4.  For print sources you must have the page numbers where the information came from when doing in-text citations- when you quote or paraphrase the information in your own writing.

For your annotations (the descriptions of the sources) I want you to summarize the source and it's relevance to your paper. In that summary you must include at least one direct quote or paraphrased thought for each source. This will give you a chance to practice in-text citations again since you will be using footnotes to note your research in your actual narrative.

Course Recap for Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tips for a Great Unfamiliar Genre Project

• Take very specific and detailed notes in your journals.  It will make the other parts of the assignment a lot easier.
• Attach your examples or give me detailed information about each example so they will be easy for me to refer to.
• Make sure that you establish the essential elements for your genre before you start creating it.
• I'm not expecting perfection but I want you to create as close to a replica of your genre as you can get.  If your genre requires photos, make sure it has photos.  If it's set up a certain way on the page you need to try and find some way to make that happen. 
• Create your how-to guide as if you're writing it for an alien.  Someone who knows nothing about your genre and its inner workings.  Don't take things for granted.  Don't just say things like come up with an interesting topic.  That could mean anything.  Give examples or provide tips that can help the reader get to an interesting topic.
• Include specific examples for your journals in your how-to guide.  It'll help back up your steps and give your readers more guidance.  You studied several examples of your genre.  Your reader did not.
• If you don't know how to begin the how-to guide simply start by describing your own process.  What did you do first?  What choices did you make and why?

Remember the elements you want to look for in each example

• The audience-How does the piece appeal to that audience?
• The purpose-How does the piece achieve its purpose?
• The tone-what is the mood the piece gives off.  Look for words that describe emotion here.
• The attitude-what is the author's stance.  Is the author simply providing information? Are they being critical? Are they praising the topic?  Offering an opinion.  Is the author or speaker fond of what they're speaking about?
• The design-what does it look like on the page.  This is also a good place to take note of any things you notice about the language of the pieces or how it flows from one subject to the other, how is the plot structured, etc.
• The medium-this is only important for those of you who are allowed to use both print and online sources.  How does the medium change the rules of the genre?
• Make sure you keep track of similarities and note any major differences you see from example to example.

Extra Credit Opportunities
You can gain extra credit by taking your fairytales and transforming them into teen vampire dramas.  Your new piece should contain most of the elements that we came up with in class.  This is due Friday.
If everyone in the class fills out a course evaluation for this course by the last day of class, everyone will receive extra credit.  Please fill these out.  They are very important to me.  I want to know what you liked about the course, what you didn't like, things you think I could've done better, topics you're happy I covered, and things you might've wished I had gone over.  Make sure you fill out the comment sections and not just the multiple choice options.  These help me make the necessary changes to the course to make this class better for future students and helps me improve as an instructor.  I spend a lot of time critiquing your work, here's a chance for you to critique mine.

Introduction to Project 4
You picked your groups for Project 4 and starting brainstorming topics for the piece.  You will be writing a historical narrative.  You will be splitting the research amongst yourselves and then will take everyone's research to create your narrative. We will be revisiting the annotated bibliography and will be learning how to do footnotes. (See Class Documents for Project 4 Assignment Sheet.)

Homework

•  Project 3 Assignment (Due Thurs Nov. 29)
• Extra Credit Assignment-Genre Transformation (Due Fri Nov. 30)

Course Recap for Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Homework

• Final Draft of Project 2 Analysis Paper via email -micealaya.moses@gmail.com (Due Thurs. Nov. 13 by 9 am)
• Bring 2 to 3 examples of your genre to class (Due Thurs. Nov 13)

Course Recap for Thursday, November 8, 2012

Fairy tales
We looked at your fairytales and decided that a few of the rules we had previously created for the genre could be broken.  We believed that the evildoer doesn't have to die, they just have to lose.  And the good character doesn't always have to triumph as long as a lesson is still taught.  The one thing we couldn't part with though was magic or some sort of fantastical element in the piece.  Without that it's a just a regular old children's story. Remember knowing how to follow the rules makes you a good writer,but  knowing when you can break them makes you a better one.

Project 3
You guys were introduced to Project 3 (See Project 3 Assignment Sheet).  You will be researching, analyzing, and observing a genre of writing that is unfamiliar to you and then creating your own example of the genre.  You observations will be recorded in reading/viewing journals.  We will discuss these in more detail in a later class.

The Teen Vampire Romance Genre
We watched two examples of the teen vampire romance genre, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.  You took notes on the audience and the purpose of the two pieces and the pieces similarities and differences.  We will discuss these more in class Tuesday.

Homework

• Decide which genre you would like to write in for Project 3. (Due before class Tues. Nov 13)
• For the two clips we watched in class, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, tell me the audience of each clip and the purpose of it. How does the piece aim to appeal to that audience and what does it use to achieve it's purpose? Then create a checklist of five things you feel are essential to the teen vampire romance drama based on what you saw.  Then give 3 significant differences you saw between the pieces and think about why those differences occur.  Why did the writers and/or directors choose to go that way. (Due Tues. Nov 13)
• Final Draft of Project 2, via email- micealaya.moses@gmail.com  (Due Thurs Nov. 15 by 9am)

Fairytale Assignment

Homework

Write a 1 to 2 page fairytale using the criteria we came up with in class. Of You can't see the text, download it to your computer and then zoom in using whichever picture viewer software your computer has.

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 6, 2012

MEMES!

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!

FEMINIST RYAN GOSLING

SHAKESPEAREAN RYAN GOSLING

LIKES THE LIBRARY RYAN GOSLING