From UMassWiki

Due November 27:

1. (optional): your professional resume following the format presented by Tommie Joyner.
2. (required): Please read and respond to the following blogpost: "connected by a single gun" (hippo86).

POP QUIZ! On hints of connected dialogue.

Contents 1 In-Class Activities: November 27 2 Homework due 29 November 3 In-Class Activities: November 29 4 Homework due 4 December

In-Class Activities: November 27

1. Quiz.
2. Resumes (if completed for extra credit)
3. No activity in Grammar Matters. Hmmmm.
4. Annotations posted? Let me know who is having trouble so the wiki team can facilitate. We'll deal on Thursday in lab.
5. I'm grading the annotations now; the plan is to return them Thursday . . .
6. Did anyone do any of the extra credit?

Homework due 29 November

1. Read and post to hints of connected dialogue. As usual, be sure you are logged in to your Wordpress Weblog first. Work within the context of our class - and "to" the boundaries established both by the context and all of our communication to date.
2. Read and post to ever hopeful (Annapolis). Please read whatever comments have already been posted; and remember that with any posts you know make if you include references/quotes you earn a baseline point for each one. Include links when possible (another baseline point). Consider that your audience will include Palestinian and Israeli academics and other students here at UMass. How will you contribute to a conversation? What do you want to say about this issue? If there are previous comments, include them in your reading and thoughtfulness before you write your response.

NOTE: You can comment either by "signing in" - which involves creating a TypeKey account (that will make it easier to do this again, because the system will 'remember' you; it also might work with other sites using the same security system), or comment "anonymously," filling in your own info each time. Use your wordpress URL if you want to (potentially) draw people to it and/or allow people more of a sense of the person behind your words.

If you want to be "anonymous" to the wider world (realizing that many in the class know each other's alter-identities) you can still do this even with TypeKey, just be sure to use your Wordpress blogname so I know who you are for credit! Steph^(talk) 20:39, 27 November 2007 (EST)

WikiTeam, please note the updated info and requirements on the WikiTeam page. Can you meet tonight?

In-Class Activities: November 29

A wiki day! Meet in the computer classroom, please.

1. [technicalities]. What are the first-year students saying in this conversation that you can extract and apply to the challenges you face, now, with moving from the summary/review in your annotated bibliographies to the necessary semiotic analysis that will help you choose and construct an argument for your Final Paper? (As always, login to your own Wordpress blog first, and write your response in a word processing document that you save. Also - remember baseline points are earned per citation, and please include links if you can - neatly! We gotta start getting this stuff "right".)
2. Aaron will guide us through adding work to the template. Different than the usual way; you must click "edit" at the top not to the right of the section. Replace the text with the name of your piece. Save. Now, scroll down and click ON the red text and paste your writinginto the new page. Save.
3. What? So What? Now What? From review of the literature (annotated bibliography), to collective/cumulative summary, to analysis. What's your point? What does all this evidence and examples mean as best as you can tell, and what meaningfulness do you want to convey to your readers: the audience of peers at least, and the interested public at best? What will YOU choose to put in conversation with your chosen topic (semiotically, think triangulation according to the four components of content, context, media, and function? (ElR6) (Starting now. Add links to previous class info for more points, in other words, collaborate with each other to build on first steps to deeper detail and prove to me you a) know what you're doing and b) can help each other find necessary resources.)

Homework due 4 December

READ: The Classroom is Changing and think about it. If you want to comment for extra credit, feel free (login to your own Wordpress weblog first), otherwise, imagine the ideas as possibilities for approaching the rest of the homework.

(complete in no particular order; follow your own particular logic - pay attention to what it is (how do you work, and does how you work produce the results you want? If yes, keep it; if not, what could you adapt or experiment with doing differently?)

• Definition of your rhetorical situation (extra credit to anyone (ElR6) who adds relevant links to course info about this, be sure to "sign" your contribution! Ditto for the rest of the points, here, too.)
• Notes of your cumulative summary: themes, patterns, points of tension in your literature review
• with evidence (examples, quotes, paraphrases) for EACH "theme, pattern, point of tension)
• One-two page typed description of your analysis of these themes, patterns, and points of tension (Bring three print copies, we will discuss in class).
• Identification of the third element you will use to bring your selected semiotic tension into focus and meaningfulness for your audience
• Statement (one sentence) of the exact, precise POINT that you aim to make
• Chart of the four semiotic elements that establish the boundaries of your argument
• Anything else that helps you prepare to write your first draft (including an actual first draft, recommended)