H1N1 Syllabus Addendum

An addendum to our syllabus (see page six) discusses how our absence policy now takes into account suspected cases of H1N1 flu, which should be reported online. The addendum reads:

In mid-September 2009, in light of illnesses likely to result from the H1N1 flu virus, Colorado State University amended its policies to allow students who self-diagnose as having H1N1 ten consecutive, university-excused absences. The attendance policy for CO150.37 and CO150.44 will take this new policy into account, but only if the student has reported having H1N1 on a secure University website (there’s a link on our blog). Under normal circumstances, per our attendance policy, absences due to seasonal flu and other illnesses will not be excused. If you suspect you’ve contracted H1N1 (see a list of symptoms, including high fever, described by the University and also posted to our blog), report your status online and then contact your instructor at raulmoreno@gmail.com. Together we will make arrangements for you to make up in-class work and submit assignments electronically. It is important that you self-isolate and not return to class until you recover.

Open Letter Assignment Correction

Our original Open Letter assignment handout incorrectly listed its value as 150 points. A revised handout (at drop.io) corrects that point total to 100, which is reflected in our syllabus.

Group Inquiry Assignment Posted

"Inquiring Further: Researching a Question-at-issue as a Group, with a Wiki" is now available as a handout. The "research log" and "stakeholder matrix" described in the assignment are also available at drop.io, along with a sample annotation and sample wiki page.

Calendar Post for October 9 and 12

• We will not be meeting on Friday thanks to the English Department's Reading Days, a chance to focus on studying instead of attending class.

• Following Wednesday's orientation at the Morgan Library, tomorrow presents a good opportunity to meet with your fellow group members, update one another on your research progress, and adjust your group's question-at-issue as necessary.

• As of Friday, each group member should be (1) aware of what "more specific question" or aspect of the group's inquiry he or she is pursuing, (2) finding a mixture of popular and academic sources to annotate, and (3) entering those sources and the "stakeholders" contained therein in a research log and a stakeholder matrix (distributed at the Morgan Library and now available at drop.io).

• To arrange a meeting on Friday or over the weekend, find your group members' e-mail addresses on our Writing Studio forums page. There, by Wednesday, many of you posted a 150 to 200-word summary of one group member's orientation toward your question-at-issue. Group members should reply to those summaries by Friday, telling us whether the writer has accurately described your perspective and background. Look for more instructions on our forums page.

• During your group's meeting, visit our course's new College Composition wiki, where each group will be composing a "critical introduction" to the sources it annotates (a total of 10 or 15 annotations, or five for each group member). We'll talk more about wikis and what this introduction should look like on Monday. In the meantime, look for an invitation in your inbox to establish an account at Wikispaces.com. This will allow you to edit your group's page, which you'll find listed in our wiki's sidebar. In creating your username, please use your first initial and last name or your first and last name only.
  

• We'll meet back in our usual classroom on Monday. Plan on bringing drafts of annotations for at least one academic and two popular sources. Recall that a sample annotation has been posted to drop.io. Update: the full assignment handout is now also available.
  

• Also bring to class Thomas P.M. Barnett's "Six Ways to Cool Down Over the Climate-Change Security Scare" as well as John M. Broder's "Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security." Both texts have been posted to drop.io.

• E-mail Raul (see "Contact" in the sidebar) with any questions.
  

Office Hours Update

Today's office hours will take place in the Morgan Library, instead of Aylesworth 268. Raul will be available at one of the wooden tables near the MAPS and TAX collections on the first floor of the library. See our syllabus for more details.

Calendar Post for October 7

• Instead of meeting in our usual classroom on Wednesday, we will meet in Morgan Library classroom EIL1, at our usual time, for an orientation to the library's research tools. Before attending the orientation, please visit the CSU Libraries' C150 page and complete steps one through four under "Before you come to the library." That page also offers a map marking classroom EIL1 in yellow. A handout on additional research help offered by Amy Hoseth, otherwise known as the "Latte Librarian," has been posted to drop.io.

• At our Writing Studio forums page, by Wednesday, please post a 150 to 200-word summary of the interview you conducted with a fellow inquiry group member on October 5 or via e-mail. Questions that might guide your interview have also been posted to drop.io. The Writing Studio forums page displays these instructions:

Please pay careful attention to way you represent this person by proofreading your summary before posting it. Then print your post and bring it to class on October 7 for your group's review. Finally, by October 9, you should respond to the post (click "Reply") that describes your orientation toward your group's question at issue with another post: tell us whether the writer has accurately described your perspective and background.

• In lieu of class on Friday, October 9, we will be participating in the English Department's "reading days," which allow students to focus on studying for a day rather than attending class. Our reading day comes at a good juncture, as we'll be focusing on individually annotating five sources over the coming week in support of the group inquiry assignment. See a sample posted to drop.io for guidance on composing annotations, and watch for a handout outlining the full assignment to be posted this week.

Interview Questions and Annotation Example Posted

A list of questions seen in class today that might guide your interview with a fellow inquiry group member has been posted to drop.io. A link to the Writing Studio forum where you should post a summary of this interview (150 to 200 words) will appear later today on our blog. Recall that e-mail addresses for your fellow group members are available in the Writing Studio under "Classmates."

At drop.io, there's also a sample annotation by Student Y. Note that this annotation provides an MLA citation of the source text but does not use parenthetical references. For our inquiry project, we will be using parenthetical references that follow MLA guidelines in Diane Hacker's supplement (see "MLA in-text citations" on page two).