"Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.” E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22
‘One
day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form
in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are
half-asleep, ‘Hammer your thoughts into unity’.
For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did
by that sentence [...]” William Butler Yeats (Nobel Prize 1923; cited
in Frank Tuohy, Yeats,
1976, p.51 )
PROJECTS
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PROFESSOR LOOKING FOR IN THIS ASSIGNMENT?
What I am looking for is an attempt on your part to get as close as you can to
PERFECTION
(knowing of course than no one can be perfect)
requirements for first website version of projects:
Another basic principle of this course is reading. The first test of reading throughout the course will be the ability to read directions and suggestions for assignments, no matter how confusing they may seem at first, and especially the ability to search through details and “read the fine print,” as they say.
Project One.
Project Two.
For project two you have three options.
1.
Continue project one.
You do not need two additional books, but you still get extra points for new
direct quotes (up to twenty points) and new pictures (up to ten points).
2.
Choose a new person for project two.
3. Convert project one into a place and person on the MOO.
Here is an option for Project 2A and 2B for those who are feeling overwhelmed at this point in the semester and think they will have more time at the end.
Normally, project 2A and 2B are formal writing. (If you repeat errors from Project 1 they will be heavily penalized.) 150 points are at stake for formal writing in Project 2A and for project 2B an additional 100 points are at stake for formal writing. (250 total)
Instead, you can choose to transform your first project into a BOT and a place in the MOO with 100 points at stake for the informal writing involved in this version of Project 2A and 50 points at stake for the informal writing involved in this version of Project 2B. (150 total) See
Then at the end of the semester your LR Final would be worth not 50 but 150 points and would become formal writing. Formal writing for the LR Final would not require more research but would require as near perfection as you can get in grammar, punctuation, etc. (If you repeat errors from Project 1 in your 150 point LR final they will be as heavily penalized as they would be in the regular 250 point Project 2.)
Both Projects:
2. EACH PROJECT (except project two option three, conversion to a MOO project) consists of at least seven pages (2,450 words). However, if project 1B exceeds 2800 words then projects 2A and 2B can be shorter, as long as the total for 1B and 2B is at least 5600 words (the equivalent of sixteen pages, the requirement for a Substantial Writing Component course). For example, let's say a student's project 1B ended up being 3000 words. 5600-3000 is 2600 required for project 2B. 2B itself requires 350 new words over project 2A. Thus this student's project 2A could be as little as 2600-350 or 2,250 words. (When the student revises this project 2A of 2,250 words to make project 2B he or she adds 350 words, for a total of 2600 words, bringing the grand total of both projects up to 5600 words.)
If project two is a new MOO project, rather than a conversion of project one, the Storyboard counts as one of the pages. A MOO project can be as many as six different mini or sub projects (each at least 350 words). In other words, it could be one seven-page paper on character or place or a combination of them; or it could be two, three, four, five, or six, separate projects, as long as the total is 2,450 words or more. Each project or subproject must include an identification of where exactly in our MOO it will "connect" with a character or room already there. (If separate projects are connected to each other, one only need indicate where the first one connects.)
3. The initial account of where the MOO project(s) will connect will be known as a Storyboard and will be the first stage of the project. It is to be at least a page (350 words) and will count as the first page of the project (reducing the remainder to 2100 words). It will be due before the rest of the project so that the instructor will have enough time to make sure there are no conflicts between the proposed projects. If there are such conflicts the instructor will help the students work them out.
4. All projects must be concise, and have correct spelling and punctuation, consistent tense usage, logical transitions between sentences, and above all, the best word and best punctuation in the best place (see below). We will NOT use MLA parenthetical documentation. Documentation is to be by footnotes (not endnotes) using the format indicated in the section from the University of Chicago Style Manual in your course anthology. Grades are based not only on content but also on number of errors and infelicities in writing style. The smart thing is to try to write technically perfect papers.
5. Specificity and Details are particularly important. To get an A you will need to show that you are good at communicating a sense of place, at making your place come alive for the reader.
6. The number of words is to be specified at the end of the project, after the final sentence (use “word count” under “tools” in Microsoft Word). The minimum for a project is 2450 words. With the exception of bot creations, quotations from others and citations of references are not to be included in your word count. For bots a limited number of short quotations can be included in your word count.
7. For project one, you must include at least two quotations from your sources. Extra points will be given also for incorporating additional quotes from relevant readings in our packet or elsewhere (with identification of author and title and page numbers)
8. You must include pictures in the final web version of project one. (All pictures are to be in color unless the originals were black and white.)This requirement is usually met by inserting electronic files of pictures or photographs into your text (see “Insert” in Word or Dreamweaver). The purpose of the pictures is for you to become acquainted with the integration of verbal and visual rhetoric that has become common these days and to gain some practical experience in preparing a multimedia web site. Pay special attention to ”Effective Visual Design” in your anthology.
a.) Using Photoshop* or a similar program, reduce the size of the pictures of to the size of those you see in the MOO. Reduce the size of any character symbols or pictures (ghosts) you include to the size of those you see in the MOO. (*This program is available in our classroom and in Parlin 6 for your use.)
b.) Insert pictures in text where they belong, not in a gallery or in footnotes at the end. Make sure to identify or title all pictures (in other words, supply captions).
c.) Pictures can be taken from the internet if you supply the URL for each internet picture in a footnote or in a List of Illustrations at the end.
d.) For pictures from print media, you will need to digitize them (make them into a computer file) with a scanner. If you are going to use them on the web 72 dpi is sufficient. There are scanner stations in our classroom, the Student Microcomputer Facility, FAC 212, and in the Rhetoric multimedia lab: PAR 6
7/8: All pictures and quotes are to be footnoted. The footnotes for the pictures should supply the label and the complete source, that is, the URL, or the full bibliographic information, down to the page number. The footnotes for the quotes should indicate clearly who is speaking in the passage and supply the complete source, that is, the URL, or the full bibliographic information, down to the page number.
9. Finally, make sure you proofread the essay carefully for every kind of error, including typos.
10. Get help if need be: take advantage of the services you have paid for in the Undergraduate Writing Center and Jester Learning Center. For more specific help, feel free to email me, or call me on the phone to make an appointment to meet in my office.
11A. Convert your projects into web (html) files. If you have not written your project in a web-site-creation program such as Dreamweaver or Front Page you will need to convert your file(s) into web files, that is, "htm" or "html" files. Most students use Microsoft Word for word processing, so we will use that as our example. After you have written your project and inserted the pictures, with captions, find the “Save as Web file” option in Word. (If your word processing program does not have this option, see the instructor.) Use the “Save as Web file” option. Make sure your file ends in "htm" or "html," not "mht" or "doc" or "wps." (You can not just type "htm" at the end of the file name because that alone won't make the file accessible to the web.) If the resulting file name is long or contains spaces, shorten it. Generally, make file names and folder names as brief as possible to avoid transcription errors later. For example, P1A.doc, rather than Project One about .......... doc. At the next stage then you will have P1A.htm rather than Project One about .......... Brevity is especially important for folder names on Webspace because they will precede file names.
11B. Converted projects are to be uploaded to a web site. If you do not have your own web site, you can use your webspace account. See Putting Pages on the Web Using Webspace in your anthology. Then follow the instructions, written by Brooks Antweil in E375L, sp 05:
1. Go to http://webspace.utexas.edu and log in to your personal page.
2. To make it easier, I made a separate folder called E 375 L just for my project.
3. "Share" the folder that will contain your project (instructions in the course packet).
4. Now go into the new folder. Click the "Upload" button in the tool bar. Find the file (not the folder) that your project is saved under. This will most likely be in your "My Documents" folder in Windows. The one you're looking for is "(filename).htm," so if your file is called "project1," the file you want is called "project1.htm." When this file is uploaded, you will have uploaded the written part of the project, but not the pictures.
5. When you saved the project in ".htm" format, Word also created a folder with the same name as your project to hold the multimedia files (read "pictures"). The default name of this folder is "(filename)_files"; (using the previous example it would be "project1_files"). In the same directory as your "project1.htm" file in webspace, create a folder with the same name as the one that Word created for you. You have to do this because Internet Explorer will not let you upload the entire folder. To do this, click "New Directory" in the webspace toolbar and type in the exact name of the folder that word created. Make sure that all spaces and underscores are there, and all words are spelled correctly, because the name of this folder is going to be "sensitive."
6. After you have created a folder called "project1_files" (just an example), click on this folder to open it. NOW, you can upload all of the files that are in the folder Word created. Make sure to upload every file that is in your Word folder. In other words, click the "Upload" button in the toolbar, and then upload each individual file from the "project1_files" directory on your computer.
Once
you have uploaded your complete project you need to make sure all
files related to the project have their permissions
set to "share" in
Webspace.
Then you need to make sure they all work together properly by accessing them on a different computer and checking the results. If you use a PC check your webspace file on an internet-accessed Mac or vice versa. This is the only effective way to make sure your site is working properly.
12. To post projects, for others to see and comment on, go to Blackboard (courses.utexas.edu) and choose our course. Choose Discussion Board and then Project One (or Two as the case may be). Then post the webspace URL of your project in proper HTML format so that the respondent need only click on or select your project title and the project pops up without the respondent being required to type in your whole URL into a separate window. In other words, type in actual HTML code like this:
<a href="http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E603B/index.html">Return to Course Page</a>
Of course, you will subtitute the correct webpace URL for "www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E603B/index.html" and your own project name for "Return to Course Page."
13.
(a) When it is time to hand in the “hard” copy of your project, make all the
changes in your text and your
website suggested by your peers that seem useful to you. Then make
all the changes necessary to make them fit the requirements specified above:
not only those concerning word count, pictures, citations from books, and quotations,
but especially those concerning word choice, documentation, punctuation
and proofreading. Remember that Revising is discovery learning, especially
when you
"Getting the words right" applies to every word, including even the little prepositions that accompnay verbs. Concerning the latter, consider, for example, the phrase "My curiosity triumphed in convincing me": the best preposition would be "by" rather than "in." In the past you would know this automatically because of the amount of reading you had done, but now, apparently because many of even the best students don't read as much, you might have to look it up. Where would you look it up? In the kind of dictionary that gives detailed definitions and examples, such as the Oxford English Dictionary. If you were to look up the verb "triumph" you would see that using the preposition "in" is usually reserved for objects as in Shakespeare's "Which triumpht in that skie of his delight" and "triumphing in their faces." When you refer to an action such as "convincing," the most appropriate preposition is "by," as in Scott's "triumphed by anticipation over their surrender." When you use the "wrong" preposition the knowledgeable reader is halted in his or her reading and the effectiveness of your writing is weakened.
"Getting the words right" also applies to punctuation, as we know from our excerpt from Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Footnote numbers, for example, should not be put in parentheses, should be set above the line, and follow any punctuation marks except a dash. Citations and footnote placement are to follow the U. of Chicago rules (see the course anthology). There is no need for a bibliography if full information is provided in the notes.
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(13 b)Then, when you have polished the project to the best of your ability, made it as "perfect" as possible, save it as a web file as you did before and upload it to replace the old file on webspace. (If you neither added nor subtracted pictures you should have to repeat the uploading of the picture file only if you change the file name of the project.)
(13c.)Returning to your latest version of your word processing file (the one that matches exactly the text that is on the website) print out only the text, double spaced, with wide margins and page numbers; and with the word count and the U.R.L. (address) of the website at the end.
(13d.) Place this document in a pocket folder with your NAME ON THE OUTSIDE.
14. ALSO IN THIS FOLDER, include
[1] the Storyboard prospectus, if it is a MOO project, with the instructor comments. [2] All the suggestions for revision of your project by your peers on the Discussion Board, highlighting the suggestions you incorporated in your essay. You do this NOT by printing out each suggestion separately but by copying and pasting them into a single Word document.
[3] ALSO IN THIS FOLDER, in the same format, include all the suggestions you made to other students. This is the only way you will get credit for them. You do this NOT by printing out each suggestion separately but by copying and pasting them into a single Word document.
(4) All previous projects which I have graded. Include the copies on which I have made my handwritten notes and numbers. In other words, include P1A with P1B and both of them with P2A and all three of them with P2B.
(5) REMEMBER, all documents are to be in A POCKET FOLDER WITH YOUR NAME ON THE OUTSIDE.
GRADING
TIME MANAGEMENT
Late penalties. Because the secret of good writing is allowing time to read and revise: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.
a. For posting late on webspace and the Discussion Board: -10 pts. for each day (not each class day) that the project is late.*
b. For turning in hard copies to me late: -10 pts. for each class day late.*
*Printer and other computer problems are not acceptable excuses (= my dog ate my home work). EXPECT unanticipated problems; you need to do your work in advance so that you can deal with such problems before the deadline.
HOW YOUR PROJECT WILL BE GRADED:
-- "Good" in margin = +3 or more
Inadequate research: up to - 20
Weak unity, coherence, thought progression: up to - 20 (ONLY CONNECT: HAMMER YOUR THOUGHTS INTO UNITY)
Quote included +2, well integrated +3 or more; up to +20 points total for quotations
Pictures on the website: with labels, +2 each, IF also referred to in the text +3 each; up to + 10 points total for pictures (beyond the required picture)
audio well integrated +10 or more; video well integrated +20 or more
Major errors first project: -3, minor errors -2, infelicities –1. Same errors repeated in revision of first project –7, -4, -3; in second project –9, -5, -4; in revision of second project –11, -7, -5. This system is employed to strongly encourage you to master time management, the secret of rewriting.
If you are deliberately making mistakes to make speech or writing more authentic you must follow each mistake with "sic" or I will assume the mistake is yours rather than the speaker's.
When you quote within a quote remember to use italics or single quotation marks to set off the actual quotation from the rest of the words ascribed to the speaker.
No word count –10
Inaccurate word count –25
Word count inflated by counting quotations or references: -5 to -20, depending on the amount of the inflation.
Less than 2450 words: 2300 words or so –10; 2000 words or so –15 etc. Obviously, the more words you write the greater the risk of error. Thus some may be tempted to write as little as possible and thereby expect a better grade than those who wrote more. Hence the penalty must be fairly heavy because we don’t want to penalize those who do the assignment and reward those who do not.
No working URL on hard copy- 5
No pictures - 10
1 or more pictures not working on site: -5
No captions on pictures: -1 per picture
No source information for pictures: -1 per picture
Endnotes rather than footnotes on the website (unless it is a MOO project) -5
MLA parenthetical documentation instead of footnotes - 10
Citations not following U of Chicago style manual - 2 per citation.
No citation, though one is needed -5 per instance.
Both chapter and page no. needed for citations from novels. Both not supplied -2 per instance.
No student suggestions to you printed out - 10
Wrong format for student suggestions to others -5
Wrong format for student suggestions to you -5
Student suggestions to you that you used not highlighted. (At least one must be highlighted.) -5
Storyboard not included -10
Instructor comments on Storyboard not included -5
No indication of how to connect to MOO -10
No page numbers -5
Not double spaced -5
No books cited -20
Only one book cited -10
No folder -10
No name legible on the folder -5
-10 changes not highlighted in Project 1B or 2B.
-10 changes still highlighted in version uploaded to website or MOO.
Numbers in the margin refer to the chart on the inside of the back cover of Bazerman, except for
-- "WC," which means reconsider word choice
-- "UC," which stands for the selection from the University of Chicago Style Manual in our course anthology, &
-- the symbol of the inverted V, which stands for “transition needed between these sentences” (more coherence, more unity needed)
N.B.: Bazerman, of course, insists on American, not British, punctuation.
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