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Posts from March 2018

#WeekendWatch: Citations & Bibliographies in MSWord

#WeekendWatch: Citations & Bibliographies in MSWord published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

If you use Microsoft Word, you can take advantage of the program’s built-in tools for managing your citations and bibliography. Tools are available in both the Mac and Windows versions. There are some slight differences between the two platforms, but the basic capabilities are the same.

Our #WeekendWatch is a series of Lynda.com videos that demonstrates how the tools work in Word 2013. The series “Including Citations and Bibliographies” will take 16m28s overall to view. It includes

Watch any or all of the videos. You might watch the first three now, and then come back later when you are working on the back matter for your report to focus on the last video.

Screenshot from the Lynda.com video Including Citations and Bibliographies

If you prefer reading your instructions to watching videos, the support page Add a citation and create a bibliography on the Office website tells you how to complete all the steps. These instructions apply to Word 2016, 2013, 2010. and 2007.

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

#FridayFact: You Need to Be a Fact-Checker

#FridayFact: You Need to Be a Fact-Checker published on 14 Comments on #FridayFact: You Need to Be a Fact-Checker

Meme: Skeptic Cat demands proofTo avoid being accused of spreading untrue information, be a fact checker. When you write a document in the workplace, your first task is to compose the document; but before you send that project out to your readers, you need to do some fact checking to verify the ideas.

You know all about fact checking from the news. Fact checking isn’t just for political speeches however. In the same way that you will doublecheck your calculations in a budget, you need to confirm the facts and sources that you include in your report.

Read more about the importance of fact checking in the Medium post Three Important Reasons Why You Need to Fact Check Your Content, and then follow up by reading Five Tips for Fact Checking Your Content! Pay particular attention to Tip #3, which will result in different answers for every career field.

If you’d like to add a comment, focus on Tip #3, which will result in different answers for every career field. Tell us “what counts as a legitimate source” in your field, and why you believe it is legitimate. What about it makes it reliable?


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

#InfographicInspiration: Research Steps

#InfographicInspiration: Research Steps published on 24 Comments on #InfographicInspiration: Research Steps

Since you are gathering information for your Genre Analysis Report this week, our #InfographicInspiration for focuses on the research process. The image below breaks the research process into eight steps that are typical for academic projects.

Your Genre Analysis Report probably includes the steps in this infographic, except perhaps the final step “Repeat.” It’s important to realize that research, like most creative projects, can take a much messier route than the infographic suggests. People rarely march through research in a 1-2-3 order. They back up, jump ahead, and redo.

As you look at this infographic, compare it to the way that you usually work. You might comment on any of the following:

  • How is your process the same as the one in the infographic?
  • How is your process different than the one in the infographic?
  • What steps do you follow that are not represented in the infographic?
  • If you created a visualization of your research process, what would it look like?
  • If the infographic inspires you to talk about something not covered in these questions, tell us about it.

Infographic: Steps in the Research Process
Click for larger image and transcript

 


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

#WednesdayWrite: Improving Your LinkedIn Profile

#WednesdayWrite: Improving Your LinkedIn Profile published on 14 Comments on #WednesdayWrite: Improving Your LinkedIn Profile

Lighted LinkedIn Sign from the LinkedIn officeIn the Midterm Evaluation Feedback, you asked that I add some job application resources to the course. Even if you have already landed your dream job, it’s a good idea to keep your materials fresh and up to date. The Muse offers a four-step guide on How to Get Your LinkedIn Profile Ready for Your Job Search in 30 Minutes.

Read through the guide and apply the tips to your LinkedIn profile. Once you finish, share a comment based on step two of the guide, which instructs you to “Change Your Headline.”

For your comment, give us a before and after version of your headline. Here’s the example from the guide:

Before: Marketing Associate at XYZ Company

After: Marketing Associate | Content Strategist | Copywriter | I help companies build brands, engage audiences & drive revenue

You can also read through the comments that others post for ideas on how to improve your own headline. If you have additional things to say about LinkedIn, you can include them in your comment as well.

 

Photo credit: Linkedin Office by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine on Flickr, used under public domain.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

#TuesdayTutorial: Conducting Research for Your Report

#TuesdayTutorial: Conducting Research for Your Report published on 9 Comments on #TuesdayTutorial: Conducting Research for Your Report

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

I’m sure you have done many research projects during your time as a student. Starting back in elementary school, you were asked to find outside sources and use them to create a project about your topic. Essentially that is your task for the Genre Analysis Report.

To review what goes into conducting research, watch the Lynda.com video on Conducting Research to Collect Information.

After you watch the video, share a source that you have found and describe what you found in it. Read through the other comments to avoid repeating anyone else. You can also look at others’ comments for sources that you might add to your project.

Screenshot from the Lynda.com course Conduct Research to Collect Information

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

Genre Analysis Report Overview

Genre Analysis Report Overview published on

This is the post for the week of March 26, 2018.

Once you turn in your Short Proposal, you will turn your attention to the Genre Analysis Report, which is your focus for the rest of the term.

Readings for the Week

Tasks for the Week

  1. By 11:59PM on Monday, March 26, submit your 03/23 Labor Log in Canvas, if you are using the grace period.
  2. By 11:59PM on Monday, March 26, submit your project in the Short Proposal assignment in Canvas. If you are using the grace period, submit your project by 11:59PM on March 29.
  3. Assume that your proposal has been accepted, and begin work on your Genre Analysis Report. I have never rejected a proposed topic, but I do ask for slight changes occasionally.
  4. Keep track of your sources for your bibliography. Use the instructions in Step 3 of the assignment to guide your research. This is a large project, so I encourage you to work steadily over the next month, rather than waiting until the last minute.
  5. (Optional) Fill out the Completion Checklists for Midterm and for March to track how you are doing in the course. You can read more about how the checklists work in the Changes to the Course Grading System post.
  6. By 11:59PM on Friday, March 30, write your 03/30 Labor Log in Canvas. The grace period for your log entry ends at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, April 4. I’ve added a day to the grace period since Passover starts on Friday and Easter is on Sunday.

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

Changes to the Course Grading System

Changes to the Course Grading System published on 2 Comments on Changes to the Course Grading System

A lot of you told me in your midterm evaluation that you were anxious about the grading system in these ways:

  • Some of you worried about how well you were doing on the portion of your grade that would mean that you earned a grade higher than a B in the course.
  • Several of you used a form of the word competition to describe how you felt about the course because of the curve that is mentioned on the syllabus.
  • Some have commented that you aren’t sure how you are doing in the course because of the unusual grading system.

About the Grade Curve

Your worries about the grade curve concern me for several reasons:

  • If you are anxious about the course, you aren’t able to focus on doing your best work.
  • This labor-based grading system is intended to make you feel free to take risks and revise as much as you like—it’s meant to make you less anxious, not moreso.
  • Tombstone inscribed, Grade Curve RIPI did some additional reading on the kind of Complete/Incomplete, no-grades system that I am using, and I found this comment on Jesse Stommel’s blog: “Grading on a Curve: In brief, it pits students against each other, discourages collaboration, and privileges the students who our educational system has already privileged.”

As a result, the statement on the Requirements page that “Grades higher than a B will be based on a bell curve” will not be used in this course. The passage is marked out on the page. The difference between a B+, A-, and A are still related to the value of your contributions and how they demonstrate your leadership and add support to the writing community; however, you will not be compared to any other student.

 

About Your Grade in the Course

I posted details on How Canvas Grades Work, which I intended to help you tell how you are doing in the course. That information does seem to be adequate, so I want to try something new.

I have created three completion checklists for the course:

By completing these checklists (quizzes in Canvas), you will tally up how you are doing in the course. There are 100 points for each week, for a total of 1500 point overall.

These checklist quizzes are totaled automatically. You can complete them as many times as you like so you can keep a running tally on work in progress.

Because of the way the Canvas gradebook works, I cannot make the points total properly. You will have to add the scores on the three checklists yourself. Divide the number of points you accumulate by the number of points possible to get an idea of your grade in the course. Here’s an example:

  • The midterm checklist is worth 700 points.
  • If you did not do any extra work toward a B and you missed one labor log, you would accumulate 586 points.
  • 586/700 = 83.7 (so you are close to a B in the course)

The checklists are based on the assumption that if you turn in your major projects, you will eventually earn a Complete on that work. You must earn a Complete on all five major projects to earn a B or higher in the course.

About Your Final Exam

The completion checklists are a simple way for you to keep track of the work that you have done in the course. You can use the points from the checklist as you write your Final Exam, in which you propose the grade you should receive in the course.

The final exam and its purpose in the course are NOT changing. The numbers from the checklist will give you a general idea of where you stand, but your actual grade in the course will be based on how effectively you present your argument in your final exam.

Remember that the numbers from the checklist are a guideline only. You explain how I should read those numbers when you write your final.

Questions?

If you are confused or want to respond to these changes, you can leave a comment on this post.

 

Photo Credit: Tombstone: What up Holmes by Warren Rohner on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 25, 2018

#WeekendWatch: Comma Splices

#WeekendWatch: Comma Splices published on 11 Comments on #WeekendWatch: Comma Splices

At one point or another, you are bound to make a comma splice. We all have. I make them most often when I’m texting and not paying attention to what I’m doing. It’s not the worst error you could make, but it is one you should avoid in professional writing.

So you know comma splices are a problem to avoid, but do you know what they are? Watch this tutorial video from Texas A&M (2m14s) to find out!

 


 
Last updated on Monday, March 19, 2018

#FridayFact: There Are Lots of Bad Ideas About Writing

#FridayFact: There Are Lots of Bad Ideas About Writing published on 7 Comments on #FridayFact: There Are Lots of Bad Ideas About Writing

Cover of the book Bad Ideas About WritingThere are lots of misconceptions about how writing works. I bet everyone in this course has had teachers who followed different rules for the same situation.

Formatting was always different from one teacher to the next when I was in college. One teacher would want the page numbers in the upper right corner. Another would want the page numbers center bottom. Still another would want your last name at the bottom left and the page number at bottom right.

When it came to writing, one teacher insisted on a formal outline before you began a first draft. Another said the best way to write was to just start freewriting. Yet another teacher wanted brainstorming or cluster maps.

Who’s right about all these things? Who decides on the rules that we follow? Monique Dufour and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson suggest

Think of good writing as the thoughtful use of an evolving repertoire, rather than adherence to a static list of commandments. In order to become a skillful writer, one discovers and experiments with a range of techniques. A writer draws upon this repertoire to meet the needs of the project, the ideas at hand, and the rhetorical situation. (p. 123)

It turns out all those very specific techniques that people believe are “the only way” to write are just another bad idea about writing. Dufour and Ahern-Dodson explain why in their piece “Good Writers Always Follow My Rules” in the online textbook Bad Ideas About Writing (2017).

Read through Dufour and Ahern-Dodson’s chapter and/or browse some of the other topics covered in Bad Ideas About Writing. All of the pieces are short, four to five page on average.

Once you have looked at the variety of bad ideas about writing in general, consider leaving a comment that explains a bad idea about technical writing that you have witnessed in your experience in your field. Your comment should explain the idea and why it’s a bad idea. You can include details about your experience as well, but you do NOT need to write a whole entry like those in Bad Ideas About Writing.

 


 
Last updated on Monday, March 19, 2018

#InfographicInspiration: Overused Words

#InfographicInspiration: Overused Words published on 19 Comments on #InfographicInspiration: Overused Words

If you’re like me, you have a few words or phrases that you find yourself using too much. When I make my final passes through anything I write, I watch for these overused words and rephrase whenever possible.

I’ve become pretty good at finding my overused phrases. If you have difficulty finding them in your documents, try pasting the entire text of your document into a word cloud app like TagCrowd. Set the tool to “Show frequencies” so that you can see the number of times you use the words.

Be smart about your word clouds however. It’s normal for words like the topic of your document to be repeated frequently. Suppose you’re writing a proposal for a new way to manufacture widgets. In that case, you’d expect the word widgets to be used frequently. There would be no need to change it.

What kinds of words are you likely to want to change? That’s where today’s #InfographicInspiration comes in. The image shows 44 Overused Words and Phrases to Be Aware Of and suggests alternative words to use instead. One more tip: You want to have variety in your documents, but don’t let this list of overused words and phrases block your writing. Go ahead and use whatever comes to mind in your first draft. Use the list when you are revising and editing.

If you want to comment, share details on what you always check for when you proofread. For me, for instance, I have to check my use of not/now. I am notorious for typing not when I mean to type now. Point in case: I once sent out a message to everyone who used our company’s software announcing that “The new release was not available.” Talk about embarrassing! What mistakes do you always double-check for?

44 Overused Words & Phrases To Be Aware Of (Infographic)
Source: www.grammarcheck.net

 

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.


 
Last updated on Sunday, March 18, 2018

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