Summer 2011

IMPORTANT UPDATE: if you've stumbled by here looking for my summer course website, note that it now lives at a new Wordpress site. This site will no longer be updated, but I'm leaving it up for reference and links to old student sites, some of which are really good. Have fun looking around, and remember to join us on the new site.

Welcome to Summer session 2011! I'll be teaching 2 sections of the SEEK Critical Reading and Writing Workshop. Section RWR 3 meets Mondays-Thursdays from 1:30-4 PM in Shepard Hall 210 from July 5-25. Section 2RWR 1 meets from August 8-18 from 10 AM- 12:30 PM in NAC 4/148.

For students, see the required sections on the course syllabus, research, CCNY, and library resources. All required assignments and handouts not in the coursepack will be uploaded here. (Some of these will require Flash and, therefore, don't work with iOS yet. I'm working on changing that.) Visitors can feel free to browse and check out various sections, though I ask that only students take the technology poll since that's who I need the data from.

Prof. Hank Williams

Week of 8/15

Big news this week is (of course): final papers are due Tuesday 8/16 at the beginning of class. Tuesday, we'll do an in-class workshop for presentations and Wednesday and Thursday will be the presentations themselves. I'll have a few more things to say (and link to), but for now check out this guide to body language from INC magazine (via the Lifehacker website) and this more general how-to from Lifehacker itself. The latter is focused on talks that use slides (such as Powerpoint/Keynote), but the basic ideas of simplicity, storytelling, and clarity are true for almost anything.

On Presentations

Here's Carmine Gallo's written summary (in Businessweek) of his video I showed today on presentation tips.

Here's the order:

Wednesday: Isa, Diana, Gissell, Miriam, Hong, Kai, Alicia, Julissa, (time permitting) Luvasia

Thursday: Asha, Brieanna, Kaydee-Ann, Mimi, Ching Ching, Arieanna

For those of you using video clips, try downloading them with Keepvid.com or a similar video capture site and saving on a USB key. That way, you don't have to worry about slow playback. As a back-up, post the link to your blog, so you can pull it up quickly without showing the entire class your e-mail inbox.

[Edited Tuesday 8/16, 4:50 PM]

For Monday, 8/18

Remember that a draft of your final paper is due. Please bring both a printed copy and a digital copy on your USB drive with you. Also make sure you have a printed copy of your "Works Cited" page for us to check. (I also strongly suggest that you have an updated back-up either saved in your e-mail or that you use an online file service such as Dropbox for storage.) Please also read the section in the back of the Pocket Style Manual on proofreading and bring the book with you.

For those who missed class, I also gave out details on the presentation for your final projects which will be on the last 2 days of class. See the assignments section of the site for details (scroll down on the page for it). Enjoy the weekend!

For Thursday, 8/10

First, thanks to Daisy Dominguez (ddominguez[AT]ccny.cuny.edu) for the library session today. Stop by at the reference desk if you get stuck looking for sources.

For tomorrow (Thursday), please read "The Anatomy of an Essay" in the SEEK coursepack. Also read the 2 reviews of the latest Harry Potter film that I gave out. You can also find them here and here. Think about the structure of how they're written. How do they start? How do they end? What details of the film does each writer cover to make his point?

Also bring your coursepack (for the essay anatomy piece) and the Pocket style Manual, since we'll be continuing to work on the MLA format. Finally, continue working on your final paper.

For Wednesday, 8/10

Read pages 107-121 on the MLA format in Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual. It's short, but detailed, so you'll have to read it slowly and carefully. Also take a look at the CCNY library website, specifically the sections “Research Resources by Subject” and “Articles via Databases”.

Finally, continue working on your final paper: you'll have a draft due on Monday. What you should do today/tomorrow is type up some of what we covered today in class and figure out what else you need. Bring specific questions about articles/books you need to find for the librarian tomorrow.

Remember to bring your copy of the Pocket Style Manual with you tomorrow. You'll need it if we have time after the library session is over.

For Tuesday, August 9

Hopefully today's library trip gave you a few new sources or things to think about for your topics. For tomorrow, first please catch up on the existing work if you're behind: specifically posting your intended topic to your blog and the 2 reviews or articles about it. Also write a summary of 2 reviews (see the previous post) and turn it in if you haven't done so yet. If you're all caught up, then post the titles of the books/articles you found on the trip to the library today on your blog and post a short (2 paragraph) reflection on what you found/learned on today's trip to your blog.

For tomorrow, Read pages 104-105 (Forming/Supporting a thesis) in Hacker's Pocket Style Manual (the small, spiral-bound book) and bring it to class. Also think about your topic and be ready to do a short writing/formatting exercise about it in class.

Lastly, watch this short Youtube video on using EBSCO, which is one of the more helpful library databases for finding full text articles.

(The video is from a different college, but it's the same EBSCO you can get from CUNY/NY Public.) You can find EBSCO here via the NYPL website. If you're at a CUNY or NYPL branch, you can just search for articles without logging in. From home, you'll need your library account # and password.

if you owe library fines, here's the link to the NYPL's amnesty program Carol Small mentioned today that gives you credit for reading this summer. Just hope you don't run into the Library Cop! Just kidding: the last video's only for fun.

For Monday, August 8

Post 2-3 different reviews of your research topic on your blog if you haven’t done so already. (You can just post links.) If you’re still trying to make a final decision on a topic, Then post one review for each option you’re looking at. If it's a topic that doesn't have reviews, then find 2-3 articles or commentaries and post them. Reminder: these should be from newspapers/mags/ books and not random blogs or unknown websites.

Write a 2-page summary of the reviews you’ve found. Specifically what you should write about are the following: where are the reviews from and who wrote them? What parts of your subject does each one analyze? What conclusions does each review come to? Do they agree on or disagree with each other? Bring a printed copy of your summary with you to class to hand in. It should be typed and double spaced. (Note: if you've got more than one topic, then simply do a 1-page summary of a review for each of the 2 possibilities you like best.)

Read The chapter on “Research” (pp. 92-102) and the “Supporting Your Thesis” and “Organizing your Evidence”/ “Using Sources” (104-106) sections in Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual. Read pp. 98-102 and p. 106 slowly and carefully.

Read the Wikipedia entry for your proposed project(s). Print it/them out and bring it/them to class.