Idiom Shortage Leaves Nation All Sewed Up In Horse Pies

The Onion has a great article about the ongoing idiom shortage.

APA Style

Here's the powerpoint file.

Student Writing Contest

The College Association for Language and Literacy is holding its annual writing contest. Prizes are:

1. $500
2. $200
3. $100

Categories are:

1. Business writing - Reports or Journalistic Articles
2. Academic Essay with sources
3. Creative writing - Poetry and Song Lyrics
4. Creative writing - Short stories, personal essays, scripts

Maximum 1000 words per submission.
Deadline: April 25, 2008

Final exam readings

The readings for the final exam have been decided. They will be "Dot-com this!" by Stephanie Nolen from The Globe and Mail, Aug 28, 2000. pg. R.1. This is in the course textbook, Writing by Choice. You can also get it through the library's online databases: Canadian Newsstand: Major Dailies ProQuest. The second article, also available in the textbook and online, is "Peer mediation as an alternative to the criminal justice system" by June Maresca from Child and Family Canada, fall, 1996.

The first thing you should do is read both of them carefully. One of them is full of crap inaccurate claims. Which one is it and what are the claims? Once you've read them, you should think about what kind of topics will be on the exam. These will be stated like this:

"Argue that ... should OR should not .... Be sure to support your answer with specific reasons and examples."

Have a good break.

Debate feedback

Thanks again to everyone who debated yesterday! Please remember to post your sources to the blog.

Remember, these are simply observations, not criticisms. Both debates were well fought. I hope these comments will help improve future debates.

Debate #1
For

• The debate began with an extended discussion of a particular example of a class using a blog and various other technological innovations in one class. It's good to use sources, and there were some useful and appropriate quotes & ideas that came out of this one, but:
• There was too much reliance on this one example, which may not be representative.
• The article was said to have come from "the newspaper", which is vague. Be specific: e.g., "an article recently published in the Toronto Star."
• There were lots of claims about what was being achieved because of technology, but there was no evidence to back up those claims.
  
• There were some other good stats there, such as >90% of schools are connected to the net.
• There was talk about "building communities". This is a buzz word. You need to think carefully about using buzz words because some readers will find the cliche annoying.

Against

• Had three strong points:
  
• distractions such as facebook
  
• information may not be well source
• opportunity for cheating
• These points were well argued with personal examples. That's fine, but again, systematic data from a reputable source will be more convincing than personal examples.

For

• Addressed the issue of distractions, but failed to mention the other points.
• You need to be prepared to answer your critics' arguments so that you're not caught off guard. Imagine what they'll say and prepare your defense.

Debate #2
For

• The debate started with a blistering list of reasons. This can sometimes be an effective debate tactic, but it is NOT effective in writing where you should limit your number of main points and hopefully choose them so that they seem to belong together.
• Ended up with a few stats, but they were mostly informational rather than supportive. For example, they gave the number of kids with ADD. That's great, but it doesn't show us that technology actually helps any of those kids.
  

Against

• This side took a similar strategy, though they expanded a little more on their reasons, which is always a good thing to do.
• The didn't actually come out and say it, but they suggested that use of technology would mean no personal instruction. This strategy could go either way.
  
• They used emotive language like, "just electronic waves", which can be useful, although it shouldn't be the basis for your arguments.
• Some personal examples, but not much research to back things up.
• Said, "You can restrict access to the internet during tests to avoid cheating, but such barriers can be overcome." This is a good preemptive strike.

For

• They started out by clarifying that they're not talking about the extreme position of getting rid of teachers that the against side was hinting at. Scored some good points here.
• Addressed a number of the other against points too.
• Failed to sum up.
  

Against

• They began by challenging the validity of the claims and asking if they could be backed up. They suggested that the examples were not representative. This is a very strong tactic.
• Introduced a new argument: people are getting lazier because of technology. This is not the best time to introduce a new point.
• Failed to sum up.
  

Debates

In the future, just do a search for them and you'll find them. They're here.

HI

Hi Professor,
Who is debating tomorrow..... and what the topic?

Essays

I'm still missing a lot of essays. If you know anyone who hasn't handed theirs in, please, bug them to talk to me.

Monday's class

In the first part of the class, we discussed evidence and hedging. In the second half, we did an in-class summary worth 5% of your final grade. If you missed this, you need to see me about making it up in the test centre or in my office. Makeups will be graded no higher than 60%.

Essays

Your first essay is due today (Thursday, February 7). So far, I have received only 5.

Global Warming With U.S Former V.P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M67Ce-i-PPQ&feature=related

George Bush on Global Warming

Hello Sir!

Hello sir i don`t think i can make it today, i am stuck. so can we postpond the debate dates please?.

NO GO

Right now, I'm stuck at home. The roads here haven't been plowed and I can't get through. I'll post a new message if the situation changes.

UPDATE: It's 9:35 and the road here still haven't been plowed. It's looking like we'll have no class today. Check back here around noon.

Handouts from Monday

Sorry, I should have had these up a couple of days ago:

1. The handout showing how much you need to change text in paraphrase and how to give full attribution.
2. The textbook section and the related summary example.
3. The in-class summary assignment. Note that you should read this before Monday Feb, 11.
   

Edit example

Here are two edited versions of the essay that I asked you to edit last week. The first one shows all the changes that have been made. Anything in red italics has been added. The deleted material is written in red and struck out. I tried to base the essay on the original and keep as much of it as I could, but it was very difficult and the result is probably not as good as if I had just started from scratch.

The second version only shows the final material, but it uses different colours to show how the various themes flow through the essay.