Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Advertising 3960 What Happened in Class

We listened to question presentations of three students (Heather, Emily, and ).

The instructor returned the rough drafts of the four-page sales letter and gave students pointers for revision.

To do for next class:

Next chapter in Arens, per reading schedule
Get ad into Eileen with payment

Social Advocacy What Happened in Class

Students turned in their position paper, which was a group project they had worked on for the past month. Update: The instructor is on p. 15 of reading the paper. Have read legislative updates (Faith).

In the first section of the class, the instructor announced that the class would be getting a new assignment which would call upon them to either persuade or testify before a governing body. Toward that end, she showed some of the paperwork she had prepared in the past for her appearance before the FAA's hearings on flight patterns over NJ. In addition, she showed the students other documents, such as a press release and letters to her representatives.

Next the class was given the assignment for April 26 and May 3, which is a 3-minute speech on their education affordability issue.

After the break, the instructor went over the first eight of Saul Alinsky's strategic rules for radicals. She showed a Powerpoint showing each rule. Students divided into small groups and examined the activist work of the Nuclear Nebraska group for examples. They reported back to the class on how this group used (or didn't) use the rules.

The last item on the agenda was to go over the Burma-Shave campaign, as this was the style of sign the NN used.

Next week:

Follow the reading schedule: Ch. 8, Craigin, Action 7, Kush (Opposition Research).
Think about which type of speech you might like to deliver for the 3" speech.

Writing 102 Mon-Wed

Monday:

Link for transitional phrases.

The midterm exams were corrected in class ans returned to the instructor to record the grade.

The instructor returned Pt. 3 and asked students to knit the three points together using transitional phrases. She explained the different types of phrases and showed how they improve the reading experience by cuing the thought process of the writer. She put a list of phrases on the overhead projector and asked students to add a total of 10 to their three points.

Next class:

Students should go through Lester's Ch. 10 to see if there are additional ways to blend in reference material that they have not yet used.

At our next class, we will write our subhead and conclusion. We will also discuss poetry. The instructor will provide a hard copy of our final assignment, which has to do with drama.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

129 Public Speaking Students

Persuasive links are at left. I will be adding more later today.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Saturday Writing 102 Mar 26

IMPORTANT: No class on Saturday. My car overheated on the way back from Cranford tonight.



Fair paraphrase (redo worksheet)

Poetry presentations

Public Speaking 129 What Happened in Class

Return “I Am” papers and do corrections
Four speeches: Gus, Carla, Luis, Mae
Listening exercise with tape/Ch. 6

The instructor returned "I Am" papers and we talked about common errors. The most common error was the comma splice, so the instructor showed the class three ways to resolve the comma splice. We did some written exercises and the instructor showed a .ppt on the semicolon. We also talked about fused sentences

Next we listened to four student speeches. Gus spoke on astrobiology and how NASA is studying life on other planets. Carla talked about antidepressants and Mae's topic was sustainable living. Luis spoke on how phones have changed our lifestyle.

Dates for the persuasive speech are April 23, 30, and May 7. The instructor will publish a list of persuasive speech topics by Sunday at 12N. Students should notify the instructor which topic they would like. A link will be posted at left.

In the final part of class, we watched a tape on listening.

To Do for Next Class:

Read Ch. 7
Work on speech outline: if you are speaking on April 9, practice. If you have given your speech, begin research on your persuasive topic.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Advertising 3960

Thursday

We met in the computer lab, Rm. 403.

Learning objectives:

Account Management and Newspaper Ad Production:

--Learn how to prepare copy for an ad
--Obtain copy approval
--Insertion orders, payment
--Deadlines

Each person wrote their copy and did a coupon layout. The instructor distributed the assignment sheet and coupon layout templates. Students wrote the copy and did a coupon layout.

The long sales letter was due today and the instructor took them and will give them back on Monday.

Next class:

Students will be presenting their questions from the chapter.
Read Ch. 10 Arens, per the reading schedule distributed in class.

Monday

At the Monday class, the instructor spoke at Comm Club about new ways of finding jobs in communication.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Social Advocacy What Happened in Class

The instructor gave students time to work on their group paper.

Next she introduced the subject of writing a letter to a legislator. This lesson was designed so the students paraphrased from a fact sheet about the issue.

The paraphrases were then turned into a letter to the students' representatives.

We wrote the letters and the instructor proof read them.

The instructor read and edited each letter, which was then returned to the student for mailing. Students were instructed to mail the letter immediately and to obtain

To do for next class:

1/2 page on what you did for the group (researchers have already turned their paper)

Paper

Finish reading chapters designated on reading schedule

Writing 102 M-W What Happened in Class

Wednesday

We did Langan check-ins.

The instructor distributed the exam, which was in two parts. Students took the first part of the exam in class and then were given the second part, where they had to locate sources in the library and write out MLA citations.

Students turned in Pt. 3.

Next class:

Have one or two more Langan chapters completed. The instructor will check them in

Monday:

We took care of a few details, such as knowing what date poetry papers must be submitted to the instructor for photocopying. We went over the dates for roundtable discussions and added a few students names/dates to the list.

The instructor gave students a checklist of items for the poetry presentation. They are:

  • Picture of poet
  • Poem (do the reading yourself or find an mp3)
  • Explication of what the poem means (one page)
  • The poet's place in the genre, i.e., Shakespeare's standing as a poet of sonnets. (One page.)
  • One article of literary criticism
Note: the third and fourth items must be done using MLA citation.

The instructor informed students who missed the class before spring break that they had to send for the .ppt and go through it on their own. Then they had to write a summary of the .ppt. They should send to the instructor's email address given out early in the term.

We did a preliminary check-in of Langan; final check-in is Wednesday.

Finally, we worked through a handout on what is considered "fair" paraphrasing. We underlined similarities in the original source and the paraphrase. Then we examined what was wrong in each situation.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Public Speaking 129 What Happened in Class

Note: The Mozilla add-on I was talking about in class is called Nuke Anything Enhanced.

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The instructor asked for students to trade their full-sentence outlines with a colleague. She put the book outline on the overhead doc cam and we went through the various sections of the speech. Students wrote what was needed on each speech outline. Students took these outlines with them to work from, but they should not be thrown away. They will be turned in at a later date.

We wrote numerous parts of the speech in class. We wrote the benefit to the listening to the speech ("what's in it for me?"). In addition, we wrote the internal preview. We discussed creative introductions and the instructor gave examples of introductions she had seen that aroused audience interest.

The instructor returned "I Am" papers with corrections. At a future class, we will do personality profiles and a discussion on the paper in conjunction with what was learned from the "I Am" paper. Students who received their papers need to bring them to future classes, as we will be working with them for this exercise and also for an English grammar/usage corrections session.

Carla gave her "how to" speech.

Finally, the instructor discussed the use of Powerpoint in presentations. She showed students a scholar who dislikes Powerpoint (Tufte). The datagraphics work of Tufte was also discussed.

In addition, she showed students "royalty free" and "public domain" imagery. She discussed stock photos and how they can be used (with watermark). We talked about how photographs had to be cited, just like other information does.

She went over what items must be turned in at the time of the speech: notecard (no more than 50 words), full-sentence outline, and Annotated Works Cited. She reminded students of the assignment in the syllabus and how they needed to go over the assignment before full preparing their speech so they could do important items like naming two library sources.

Next class:

Speeches: Gus, Carla, Luis, Mae
Chapter 6, Listening

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Writing 102 Mon-Wed

Wednesday

This was the last class before spring break.

Links to dates of student poetry roundtable.

The midterm will be given on March 22. Students who have perfect attendance to date do not need to come to this class or take the exam.

The instructor returned Pt. 2 with corrections. She showed students how to look up the correction symbols in Hacker. From Hacker, students then looked up the rule (boldfaced, listed as section).

After doing this, a worksheet called "Fair Paraphrasing" was handed out. Students were asked to read this before the March 25 class.

The last item was the poetry assignment. The instructor showed the students the three important links at the blog. She then explained the assignment and showed students where to go for the information, such as an mp3 recording and criticism of a particular poem.

Next class:

Read handout, "Fair Paraphrasing"
Write Pt. 3
Work on poetry roundtable
Study for midterm.
Have Langan completed through Ch. 15




Monday:

The instructor took Pt. 2.

Next we listened to a lecture with accompanying .ppt on plagiarism.

The instructor told students about how many pages per day would be necessary to complete if they were to complete Langan at Ch. 15 by the week after midterm. The book must be half completed by that time.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Social Advocacy What Happened in Class

Agenda:

--Discuss Nuclear Nebraska
--Windmill .ppt

Go over previous class notes from blog.
Education protest video.

Research federal bills.

Research NJ bills.

Advertising 3960 What Happened in Class

Thurs., Mar. 11

The instructor reminded students to go to the Comm Club on Mar.22. Do not come to class at 2 p.m. on this date. The Comm Club presentation is the instruction for the class for that day. The topic is how to find a job in communications.

Next we went to the computer lab in 403 to work on the outline for the copywriting assignment. Students obtained the assignment from their email and each student selected a formula for their sales letter. Next they wrote their outline for their particular type of business. They provided a copy to the instructor before leaving for the day and for their spring break.

Next class:

Read Ch. 8. Instructor will be emailing exam for Ch's 5 & 8.
Work on rough draft of four-page sales letter.
Work ongetting materials needed for the newspaper ad coupon




-----------------

Tues., Mar. 9: I have uploaded the assignments (Part B, Copywriting assignment) at Blackboard.

The size of the coupon is
4.5 x 2.75 inches

Important:
For our March 22 class, we will attend the instructor's presentation at Comm Club in CAS 451 from 3:20-4:30 p.m. We were supposed to be in the computer lab on that date, so we will meet at the computer lab on Mar. 25 instead. See red date below.
---------------

We talked about the newspaper project and what was due when. The following was posted at the Feb. 18 blog post:

Part A due on Monday, Feb. 22
Email instructor offer or ad information from Mar. 1-11
Instructor has all ad material returned: Mar. 18
Computer lab date to prepare ad materials for newspaper
ad layout staff: Mar. 25. Go directly to Lab 403.
Deadline date: April 1

Two questions were posed that the instructor needed to ask about:

a) can we get color if desired?
b) is the coupon size the same as on the flyer

The instructor will post Part B at Blackboard; students should print fill it out and print it for the class on March 11

Next we went over the copywriting assignment, which will also be posted at Blackboard. Students each read a section of the assignment and the instructor explained each part.

Next class:

Print out Part B from Blackboard and turn it in at the next class.
Obtain the assignment from Blackboard and decide on a format. Write an outline for the next class.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Public Speaking What Happened in Class

We went over Annotated Works Cited. Several students put their AWC on the document cam and we examined how they did the citations. In some cases we made corrections.

Next the instructor found the pages in the book on which to base the full-sentence outline.
We reviewed how each section was labeled. If we had more time, we would have done each of the first sections in class. Since we did not have time, the instructor will look at any students full-sentence outline by email. You may send it to the address at comcast, given to you at the beginning of the semester.

We added speaking dates to the link. Students who were not in class should figure they will be going on the first week of presentations, which is March 26.

Next week:

Read Ch. 5 in text (nonverbal communication)
Write full-sentence outline
Catch-up speech: one "how-to"

Friday, March 5, 2010

Writing 102 Saturday What Happened in Class

The instructor returned Pt. 1 and took students' Pt. 2s.

We discussed poetry and today Humberto presented paper featuring Poe's work with cinque.
First Humberto removed the cruxes from the poem. Then we read the papers and discussed the meaning of the poem.

Two other students, Kenia and Jennifer, were ready to present their papers but we ran out of time.
We will discuss these poems next week.

At the end of the class, we worked on finding the correct form of citation for the literary criticism. We used the green pamphlet and used p. 11, 3rd one down as the model. The instructor helped students write the citation so they could add it to their poetry papers for next week.

Next week:

Poetry presentations
Turn in Pt. 3
Instructor returns Pt. 2
Read the other half of the "How to Read a Poem" (link at left)
Work on Langan. By midterm, half the book must be completed.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Writing 102 What Happened in Class

Wednesday:

Link to student choice of poetry genre.

Students chose their poetry genre and we recorded the choice on the table linked above. Students also learned how to put a document on the web using Google software.

The instructor told students how to get articles and research on their topic to come to them by making a Google or Yahoo personalized news page. She explained how to make the page and we then went to the computer lab and each student put their page together. Students entered their keywords for their page and the instructor suggested they check it at least every two days and save any articles in their research documents file.

Studens turned in their keywords at the conclusion of class.

Next class:

Turn in Pt. 2
Read Lester Ch. 6
Langan must be halfway completed by midterm






Monday:

1) Turn in Point 1
2) Person Consistency
3) Direct and Indirect Quotes


Students exchanged Pt. 1 with a colleague and looked at how the student did internal text citations. The instructor then collected each student's work. At this point in the class, the following should have been completed and turned in:

  • Tentative working thesis with three points
  • Annotated Works Cited
  • Definitions
  • Point 1, 2 pages
Next we did a person consistency worksheet. After the instructor told the class about person consistency in academic papers, we did a paragraph and found ways to write the paragraph that kept it consistent.

We also worked on direct and indirect quotes. We had a worksheet for this, too.

The instructor handed out the written research paper assignment with the table of the difference parts of the paper.

Next class:

We will meet at the classroom and then go to the library to set up keyword alerts for student research (provided the instructor can get a room)

Start writing Point 2, which will be due next Monday, March 8

Read Ch. 4 in Lester

Work on Langan. Half the book must be done by midterm.

Social Advocacy What Happened in Class

Note: Students, please see this story on towns wanting to add $50-100 per student to cover municipality costs for fire services, etc. While it's happening in Cranford and So. Orange now, does anyone doubt that Union and Elizabeth will try for this additional money?
  • Nuclear Nebraska
  • Position Paper

We broke into dyads and students answered questions on Ch. 5. We then went over the questions in class.

One important fact about organizing emerged during the question discussion, and that is that people do not observe the rules. The instructor told students it would be to their advantage to make sure their adversary is following the rules every step of the way.

On the back of the Ch. 5 questions were Ch. 6 questions which students should fill out as they do next week's reading.

* * *

Next we started on the position paper. The instructor told students they had to organize the production of this paper themselves as a lesson in how to organize. She gave students tools, such as the structure of the paper, software (Blackboard shell, Google sites).

Researchers gave a report to the class on what they turned up so the class would have a general idea of the findings.

Then the researchers handed over their work to writers. The writers and researchers had time to talk while the rest of the class went to the computer lab to investigate the capabilities of the software.

While in the lab, students organized and the working thesis is keeping education affordable for NJ residents.

Students who were not at the previous class were given assignments:

Vincent and Jeffrey are floaters. They passed their contact information to class members. Their job is to fill in on assignments where there is no designated person to handle the need.

Vincent and Jeffrey are also preparing a presentation on how to use Microsoft Word's editorial capabilities in the production of the document.

Karly was given the position of an additional editor.

Pedro was in class but was unable to attend the fiilm. Since the film organizers have opened up the possibility of showing the film, he will be working with them to see if there is the possibility of showing the film on campus.

Robert was given the responsibility of analyzing the Google web site software to see how it can work for the needs of the group.

We decided on a deadline date of March 29 for the position paper.

To do for next week:

Writers should be writing their section.

Read Ch 6, Craigin, fill in questions
Read Action 6, Kush

Do individual assignments for the position paper as described above

Writing 101-02 Saturday, Feb. 27

In-text citations. Students had their Pt 1 written, so the instructor asked them to add their internal text citations according to the handout she provided. We first read the handout. Then we went through the citations and corrected them accordingly.

Current research for research paper topic. The purpose of this project was to make sure students are alerted to current developments in their field.

We went to the lab and the instructor gave students a lab worksheet. The purpose of the session was to make a personalized news page using the key words from the research in which the student is currently engaged. The instructor showed her own page, which is a Google page. Yahoo also has this service. Students extracted key words from their searches and from their research and built the page accordingly. Now all that needs to be done is to click the page once a day or once every few days and collect and save the stories pertinent to one's research.

Next week:

Write Pt. 2
Work on Langan. The book must be 50% completed by spring break
Read Lester, Ch. 4
Work on poetry roundtable. Three poems will be read next Saturday.

Advertising 3960 What Happened in Class

Thurs., March 4

We did an exercise that taught the difference between features and benefits.

We watched videos of commercials that were mentioned in the text.



Monday, March 1


What we learned in this class:

  • difference between features and benefits
  • how to translate a feature into a benefit (2 strategies)
We started the class by discussing the experience of taking the Ch. 4 test. About half the students had taken it. Some disadvantages of this system are that the questions are quite detailed, which does not meet the instructor's objective of having a broad overview of the material.

The instructor is preparing the Ch. 5 test and will notify students when it is ready.

Next the instructor spoke about the account management assignment. She showed the class a flyer that was used by the previous class. She is going to adjust the flyer and duplicate it for student use and it will be distributed at the next class.

Next the instructor distributed direct mail pieces for use during the lecture, which was about translating features into benefits. She defined features and benefits and students then looked at their direct mail piece to see if they could find features/benefits.

She gave the class two strategies for translating a feature into a benefit.

Next class:

Read Kennedy, 129046.
Read Ch. 5 if you have not already read it.


The market research assignment will be posted here on Tuesday.