M AUG 26 Introduction to the Course: Discussion of Course Policies and Procedures

• read the Frequently Asked Questions for this course; if you have other questions or concerns, ask Dr. Engles by writing to him at cftde@eiu.edu

• in order to familiarize yourself more fully with what you'll be doing in this course, read Major Steps in the Writing in the Wild Research Project
• bring your copy of the Blair Handbook to class
• bring a one-page explanation of why you will probably find two particular sections or chapters of this book useful this semester for improving your writing

• read the first half of hooks’ article, and bring to class and turn in one written question in response to it
• send the required e-mail message to Tim Engles by the beginning of class today; in your message, 1) describe yourself in whatever way you choose, including your career aspirations, 2) list at least two types of "writers in the wild" whose writing you might like to research during this semester–are these people you already know?  if not, how might you find and contact such professional writers? (for a list of writers other students in this course have worked with, click here), and 3) write a statement to the effect that you have read and agree with these course policies and procedures.

M SEP 2 LABOR DAY: NO CLASSES

W SEP 4 Technology Workshop: Setting up Your 3001 Disc

• bring a new, blank computer disc to class (if you already know how to publish on the Internet, but you do so in a different way, note that in this class, you will still need to learn the method spelled out in these directions by using Netscape Composer--that way, I'll be able to help if you have any problems; finally, if you get through our directions quickly in class today and/or Friday, please try to help out anyone around you who is having problems)

• bring to class your English 3001 disc, your EIU e-mail login, and your password

M SEP 9 bell hooks continued

• read the second half of hooks’ article, and bring to class and turn in a one- or two-paragraph summary of what you see as her main point or points

• Blair Handbook: Chapter 59, "Writing in Business"
• work on Confirmation Letter before class, including proper tone, sufficient content, and acceptable formatting
• the letter should: briefly describe yourself and why you have sought out this particular person; confirm arrangements you've already discussed; very briefly describe the "writing in the wild" project, and mention that you've included a longer, printed description of the project; thank your writer for agreeing to work with you; accurately list the URL for your assignment index, in case this person would like to follow the progress of this project online; and state that you're looking forward to working with this person
• bring a brief, written description of who your “writer in the wild” will be this semester, including name, contact information, and workplace (if you don't come to class today, you must send this information to Dr. Engles via e-mail by 5 p.m.); penalty for not turning in this information by today--20% deduction in Confirmation Letter grade

• bring to class, on disc, a draft of your Confirmation Letter
• plan to include a copy of the Research Project description as an enclosure with your letter when you send it; click here to print out the description
• sign up in class for conference on worksite research and Confirmation Letter

M SEP 16 Technology Workshop: Design Issues in HTML (Part II)

• Confirmation Letter Draft One due (must be published on your website by the end of class and linked to your Assignment Index)

• Confirmation Letter Final Draft due (publish Letter after your conference; must be published by 10 p.m. the day of your conference, unless you make other arrangements with me ahead of time)
• Reading: Blair Handbook, Chapter 14, "Field Research"
• come to conference (today or Wednesday) prepared to describe your general plans for working with your writer in the wild, based in part on your Blair reading (Chapter 14)--identify during the conference which sections of this chapter look useful for your research
• bring TWO printed copies of your Confirmation Letter Draft
• bring any questions you have about publishing items on your web site

Week Five (Discussion Room)

M SEP 23 Course packet: Susan Kleimann, “The Reciprocal Relationship of Workplace Culture and Review”

• read the first half of Kleimann’s article (underline important or confusing passages as you do so), and bring to class and turn in one written question in response to it
• discussion of proposal guidelines

• read the second half of Kleimann’s article, and, by class time today, send to the class listserv one, three-part quote-and-questions item about Kleimann's article, based on the bell hooks handout format (Dr. Engles will use these to put together a chart like the one on hooks' article)
• BE SURE to bring the course packet to class, AND a hard copy of the three part question series you wrote

• work on your proposals! I'll be in my office from 11-1 today to meet with anyone who has questions, either about the proposal or about their web sites
• Proposal Draft One Due by 5 p.m. Friday

M SEP 30 Open Writing Workshop

• go to a classmate's web site and then post on your site a peer critique of his or her research proposal, in accordance with the peer review guidelines
• Proposal Draft Peer Critique (posting and e-mail message) due by 7 p.m. tonight

W OCT 2 Technology Workshop: Online Research, Selecting Reliable Sources

• Reading: review and generally familiarize yourself with the Blair Handbook, Chapter 57, "Social Sciences" (this chapter explains APA documentation style; this is the style most commonly used for business documents, and you'll be using it for your final report)
• by the end of class today (or by 5 p.m. Thursday at the latest), link to your assignment index an annotated bibliography of five sources (formatted in APA style) that will be useful in supporting and further shaping your research (use the criteria described in Blair, Chapter 15, to evaluate the apparent reliability of these sources); title this document "Working bibliography and research links," and link it to that section of your assignment index; throughout the rest of the semester, add links to any web sites that also become useful in your work for this class so that you can use this list of links as a handy gathering of online research sources; don't worry about setting things up in nice tables and boxes and so on--a straightforward list of annotated links is fine. Also, the items need to be in APA style, as described in The Blair Handbook, section 57d.3--list more than the name of the web site.

• bring and turn in a written analysis of one of the Internet sites linked to your "Working bibliography and research links" that answers the "reporter's questions" about it, as described in the Blair Handbook, 225-32
• in class: locate and download an appropriate image from the internet, then publish it on your Assignment Index (we'll talk about how to do this during class--for directions, click here)
• in class (if you have time after the "image" tasks--if not, do it by 5 p.m. on Monday): post a message to our class listserv describing your research: describe your writer, and how your research is going so far; in particular, describe in detail what sort of work you have done with this writer so far

M OCT 7 Course Packet: Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege and Male Privilege: Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”

• read the first half of McIntosh's article, and bring to class and turn in one written question in response to it
• in-class discussion will also include introduction to Self-commentaries

• read the second half of McIntosh's article, and, by class time on Wednesday, send to the class listserv one, three-part question series about McIntosh's article, based on the bell hooks and Susan Kleimann handouts format

• normal deadline rules begin with this assignment: fifteen points off for each day late; also, all previous assignments must be posted by this time--any previous assignments not posted by 10 p.m. today will receive a zero

• read before class in The Blair Handbook, Section 15b, "Electronic Resources," and Chapter 16, "Sources"
• bring your Blair Handbook to class

M OCT 14 Using Online Research Sources

• Special Guest: Karen Whisler, EIU Librarian

F OCT 18 FALL BREAK: NO CLASSES

Week Nine (Discussion Room)

M OCT 21 Discussion of Preliminary Report Guidelines and other plans for the future

W OCT 23 Grammar Workshop: How to Use Commas

• conference sign-up sheet passed around in class today

• preliminary report draft one must be published by 5 p.m. today; Dr. Engles will discuss your preliminary draft with you during your conference next week; the final draft, revised in response to this discussion, must be posted by 10 p.m. on Monday, November 4

M OCT 28 Discussion: Delivering Effective Oral Presentations

• Homework: write and bring to class a one-page description of an especially good OR an especially bad oral presentation that you have given--what in particular went well, or didn't go well?  What would you do differently?
• In-class video: "Time to Stand and Deliver"
• Discussion of Oral Presentation Guidelines
• Oral presentation schedule and peer review pairings handed out

• bring two printed copies of your Preliminary Report Draft to your conference (in CH 3831)
• look closely at the writing style of your Preliminary Report Draft; find two or three areas of your writing that you still need to work on, and bring to your conference two or three labels for these problems (passive voice, commas, choppy sentence style, awkward sentence structure, wordiness, etc.); also, bring your Blair Handbook; be able to identify the sections in this book that offer advice on these particular problems; and tell Dr. Engles how you found this advice from the book helpful, or perhaps, unhelpful
• also be prepared to discuss your general plans for your Oral Presentation, and to ask any questions that you have about it

Week Eleven (Don't go to Coleman Hall--Go to Booth Library, Room 4440, on the 4000-level)

M NOV 4 through F NOV 8: Oral Presentations

• preliminary report final draft must be published by 10:00 p.m. today
• "Oral presentation peer critique” deadline: one week after the second of the two presentations you critique
• “Self commentary on oral presentation” deadline: one week after your own presentation (both must be posted on your website, and you must also notify Dr. Engles via an e-mail message that you have posted each item); write and publish as a link to your assignment index a one-paragraph self-commentary on your oral presentation, answering these questions: How well do you think your presentation went? What would you do differently if you could do it again?  What did any of your classmates do that you think you could have done to improved your own presentation?

M NOV 11 through F NOV 15: Oral Presentations

Week Thirteen (Discussion Room)

M NOV 18 Writing Workshop: Regarding the Final Report

• in-class: discussion of Final Report Guidelines
• Keep working all week on your report, including additional outside readings, interviews, observations, writing the report itself, and so on

• read before class: Blair Handbook, 432-36 (BE SURE to bring your book to class)
• sign up for conferences on final report
• pairings for passive vs. active voice exercise: Megan Buckley/Marie Carey; Kathy Smith/Jessica Licary; Nicole Hanna/Rosa Salto; Natalie Olson/Andrea Luna; Sharis Sork/Natalie Kuchar; Chrisi Sandravelis/Jennifer Stoltz; Kris Ledbetter/Jill Hart;

Danielle Steinkamp will do Ryan Higgins’ paragraph; Kelly Krull will do Danielle’s; Ryan will do Kelly’s
• after-class exercise: (1)cut and paste a paragraph TWICE from a classmate's final preliminary report into a blank Word page (find your partner's page here); (2) in the second version of the paragraph, identify in bold letters any "passive" verbs, and then in the second paragraph change them to "active" verbs (whether the sentences work better in passive or active voice; (3) save the two paragraphs as a Word document on your disc; (4) open your e-mail account in web e-mail, and send the revised version to your classmate AS AN ATTACHMENT (not in the body of the message); (5) when you receive your partner's attached copy of two versions of your paragraph, open it in Word; (6) look over the changes, then write below the second paragraph a response to EACH changed sentence--do you think it works better in the context of your paragraph, or not?  also, write a couple of sentences in response to this question: do you think excessive use of passive voice is a problem in your writing?  (7) Then send this entire document (which is probably 1.5 or so pages) to Dr. Engles as an attachment (cftde@eiu.edu) by Friday at noon

NOVEMBER 25-29  THANKSGIVING RECESS

Week Fourteen

WORK HARD ALL WEEK ON YOUR FINAL REPORT, EVEN AFTER YOU GET THE ROUGH DRAFT PUBLISHED!!  Also, bring two hard copies of your rough draft to your conference.

M DEC 2 NO CLASS—Conferences on final report

• a rough draft of your final report must be published by noon today
• pairings for final draft peer critique: Kathy Smith/Marie Carey; Megan Buckley/Jessica Licary; Natalie Olson/Rosa Salto; Nicole Hanna/Kelly Krull ; Chrisi Sandravelis/Natalie Kuchar; Sharis Sork/Jennifer Stoltz; Danielle Steinkamp/Jill Hart; Kris Ledbetter will do Ryan Higgins’ rough draft; Andrea Luna will do Kris Ledbetter's; Ryan Higgins will do Andrea Luna’s

F DEC 6 NO CLASS—Conferences on final report

• peer review of a classmate's report draft must be published by noon today; also due at this time: an e-mail message to the person whose draft you critiqued, telling that person that your critique is published, and where it is (include the URL in your e-mail message)

M DEC 9 Technology Workshop: Creating Internal Links, Fine-tuning Your Web Site

• Remember, don't go to Coleman Hall for our class today and Wednesday! (Go to Booth Library 4450, right next to the room where you delivered your presentations.)
• For instructions on creating links within a page to another section in that page, click here.

• Reading and Writing Assignment: Go to the Plain English Network and familiarize yourself with the site by clicking around and finding out what's there; then find their "major guidance document--WRITING USER-FRIENDLY DOCUMENTS," and peruse the online version (you can also print out a printable version).  Find two sections of this guidance document containing advice that you think will be helpful toward editing your report; write down the titles of these two areas, and be able to tell the class why you found the advice they offer useful.

• due date for the Final Draft of your Final Report (must be published by 5:00 p.m.)
• Final Self-commentary must be published by Monday, Dec 20, at 5 p.m.; final fine-tuning of web site also due at this time
• Also by Monday at 5:00, write your final Formal Letter, make a hard copy and send it to your writer in the wild, AND send a copy of the letter in the body of an e-mail message to Dr. Engles (cftde@eiu.edu)