Group Research Reports Online!

Thanks for the great semester, guys. Now that I have all the signed permission forms, I've uploaded your group research reports via Scribd. I've linked to them below.

Group 1 Research Report
Group 2 Research Report
Group 2 Appendix
Group 3 Research Report
Group 3 Appendix
Group 4 Research Report

What did you find?

As you may have noticed, the blog post assignments have been winding down -- I've been trying to give you all plenty of time to work on your research projects. Over the weekend, though, I'd like you each to write a brief blog post telling us about what you think is the most interesting finding your group has made. Was there something that surprised you? Piqued your curiousity? Connected back to something you found particularly interesting in one of the readings? Tell us about it.

There's no required post length for this one, but as usual, please remember to read and comment on a few of your peers' posts. I know I'm looking forward to reading about what you found!

Plagiarism, College Culture, and You

For this week's blog post, I'd like you to reflect on your own personal experiences, and compare those to the student experiences you read about over the break. What has your experience as a student at SFSU been like? How has your experience differed from the experiences of the students at Notre Dame, as described by Susan Blum in My Word? Try to avoid describing your experience in abstract, general terms. Instead, be specific; tell us a story to illustrate what your experience has been like.

As usual, your post should be about 500 words, and I expect you to comment on at least two of your peers' posts.

Responding to "My Word"

Over the break, you're going to finish reading My Word; your blogging assignment is to write a post (approximately 500 words) in response. You can respond to whatever interests you most in these last couple chapters, or you can think about whether or not you agree with Blum's description of college culture, and the pressures students face which lead them to plagiarize. If you want to think further ahead, you may want to think about whether or not Blum's ideas would "translate" to SFSU.

Have a great break; I look forward to reading your blog posts, and I look forward to reading your essays when you get back!

What are you reading?

This week's blog assignment is to write a post about what you've been reading lately. You can write about what you're reading for your classes, if you've come across something interesting, but the idea is to share what you like to read on your own time. What are your favorite books? What are you looking forward to reading over spring break?

This semester, I've mostly been reading stuff for this class, or for my thesis (I recently finished Unstrange Minds: Mapping the world of autism which was really interesting, and gave me some leads on more texts I may want to include in my literature review.) But I've also managed to sneak in some fun reading here and there. I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire this semester (both by Stieg Larsson) and really enjoyed them, so I can't wait until the third book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, comes out in May. This week, I read Perdido Street Station by China Mieville; I thought it was just ok. It's a pretty highly regarded sci-fi novel, but I felt like the author was really just good at describing the crazy stuff he came up with, not so good at moving the plot along or developing his characters. I've read one of his other books and thought it was a bit better, so I guess I'll have to finish the series out -- I hate leaving a series unfinished!

Now I'm looking forward to developing a reading list for the English 214 classes I'll be teaching this summer. Any recommendations?

Had to Share

I love this comic, but this one was particularly hilarious, especially for an English teacher!

The Blog Post as Idea Draft

Sorry guys, I thought my post about the weekend extra credit blog post had gone up...I just noticed now that it didn't. Oh, well, that's why we have iLearn! Anyway, this week your blog post task is an easy one: write your post as an "idea draft" for your essay. That means you get to write your blog post on the Essay 2 topic; just think of the blog post as a chance to informally work through your thoughts on the topic. If you're one of those people who usually leaves your blog posting until later in the week, you may want to change up your strategy this time -- the earlier you post, the more time you give me to comment and maybe help you out if you feel like you're a bit stuck!