Office Hours

Folks-

There will be a class in ACAD 201 on Monday morning, so I am going to have to move my office hours. Most likely, I will be either near the couches on the second floor of the ACAD building or in the faculty lounge on the third floor.

New & Nifty Ways To Contact Professor Wend!

During office (9am-11am MWF in the large computer lab in ACAD) and E-Office hours (9pm-11pm W) I have come up with the following nifty ways to contact me:

Yahoo! Messenger: professorwend
Google Talk: professorwend@gmail.com
AIM: professorwend

The really cool news: I now have a voicemail/office phone number. You can reach me during office/e-office hours at 609-836-0641. During other hours you will be prompted to leave a voicemail for me.

Sound Advice From Dr. Kinsella

Sound advice from Dr. Kinsella to his Intro to Literary Research classes. Will be helpful for your final papers as well. Nothing we haven’t discussed, but still useful to think about again.

Paper Three: Concerns So Far

Folks-

For the most part I am really enjoying your papers. I am, however, seeing a pattern of erroneous errors. As this weekend goes on, I will try to document them here:

• Numbering your works cited: I did this for years too before someone stopped me, but you don’t need to number the entries in your works cited. Alphabetize them without the numbering. AND remember to indent the second and subsequent lines of each entry.
• Wordiness: Try to avoid using “that” twice in a sentence. If you remove one of them, your sentence structure and logic will be a lot better.
• Page count: Seriously, when I say “three to five pages” that doesn’t mean two full pages plus a few lines. I am looking for at least three full pages.

Argumentation Papers/Final Paper Rough Drafts

Folks-

I have received your argumentation papers and revisions for the process analysis papers. I am going to try to grade as many as possible over the holiday, but I also have other responsibilities this week which may keep me from getting through them all. Any papers I don’t grade will be graded early next week. Please be patient.

Remember: you have a rough draft for your final paper due by class on Monday. Please send it to me at your earliest convenience during the holiday. See you on Monday!

Process Analysis Paper Final Drafts

Folks-

I have received your final drafts to my email. I spent some time this morning going through them and sending confirmation emails. If you didn’t get one yet, don’t panic I just did not get to your email yet. I will send out more confirmations as the day goes on. Expect grading to take about a week or so.

Some Sound Advice…

…from Dr. Kinsella, my undergraduate mentor, on the weblog for his grammar course. Information about formatting titles correctly, how to refer to authors and a few other smaller, but important, concerns.

Process Analysis Paper Handout

Folks-

For my 8am section of 101, the process analysis handout is now available as a PDF on here (or for 12pm students who missed class). I apologize, again, for the mix up this morning. There was a mix up with the print shop, who also send their apologizes along.

Paper Revisions/Grammar Exam

Folks-

Thank you for your paper revisions. I have had a chance to look at a handful of them and so far I am pleased with what I see. Please expect about a week before I send your papers back to you. When you receive them, I will give you your grade, your current point total, and your midterm grade.

If I required a revision from you and you did not do one your grade is now a zero.

Problems With Your Papers

Folks-

Overall, I enjoyed your first paper a lot. The average for the two classes combined was approximately an 11.5, which I am sure will improve with revisions. That said, I noticed a pattern of problems that kept reoccurring. I have detailed some of them below:

• Redundant phrases: Be cautious of phrases like “in order to” that are extremely wordy. A simple “to” will suffice.
• Paraphrasing and plagiarism: As we’ve discussed in class, I have very merciful this time about plagiarism but in the future failing to cite your sources will result in a zero for the paper. Please consult the citation handout from Wednesday or see me if you still need help. Later in the semester we will spend an entire class on citation.
• Correct font: Your papers should be Times New Roman and size 12. Other fonts are prettier but that is the standard for MLA writing.
• Block quotes: If you are citing more than three lines of poetry or four lines from another source you must put it in a block quote. See the citation handout for more information.
• Space between paragraphs: There is no need for space between paragraphs.
• Ending paragraphs on a quote: Do not end paragraphs on a quote; elaborate on the quote and then transition to the next idea.
• Transitions: We discussed transitions over multiple classes and, still, some students did not use them in their papers. In academic writing, you will need to transition from idea to idea. See your notes from the lectures on transition for more information.
• You only need to write out the full author’s name once. Use their last name afterwards. Do not use refer to them by their first name.
• Avoid the following phrases or words: Unique, in my opinion, basically, main focus, “till,” etc