Documentation Style Checks (20-30 min)

Get into groups according to your chosen documentation style. Let’s see what we got:

• How many are doing MLA?
• How many are doing APA?
• How many are doing CSE?
• How many are doing Chicago?
• Anything else? (e.g., IEEE)

Get into groups of 3 or so.

Step 1

Find 2-3 sentences that have citations in each of your papers and spend some time checking the rules of your documentation style and comparing them with group members.

Something with documentation style (e.g., locate all citations, make corrections; locate reference list, make corrections). You can look at your notes from last class and from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (remember, you can click on the right side of the page for more information on each documentation style).

Things to look for:

• Verb tense for signal words and phrases (present or past tense for your document style?)
• What information in the citation? (author? year? page number? anything else?)
• Where does the citation go? (end of sentence? after mention of source? in footnote or endnote?)
• Do paraphrases or direct quotes have different rules or things you should think about?
• Anything else notable? (e.g., use of “ibid.” in Chicago)

Step 2

Take some time to look over the page of references that go at the end of the paper. Compare your reference pages for your documentation style with your partners. Some things to think about:

• How is the page formatted? (e.g., what is it titled, where does that title go)
• How are the entries formatted? (e.g., how should spacing be? Indentation?)
• What information is entered and how? (e.g., what is entered first? second?
• How are different types of entries entered? (e.g., books? academic journal articles? websites or webpages? news articles? blog posts? podcasts? primary research interviews? observation notes?)

And, you can totally use things like this! Just make sure you doublecheck it and DON’T upload anything if it asks you to. It is often the case that you will have to input information that is missing or revise what it gives to you. So you NEED to doublecheck it. Finally, I wouldn’t give any information to these websites like drafts of your paper. I don’t think the one I have linked here does that but others definitely do. It is a privacy concern and intellectual property concern…these companies are basically using your work for their financial gain; don’t sign up for that!

Step 3

Finally, just make sure all the other things make sense from a formatting perspective:

• Is there a title page? If so, what does it look like? What spacing? Where does title go? Any other information?
• What about the first page? Any information go on there different from other pages?
• What should the spacing be like throughout the paper?
• Are there page number formatting requirements? What are they? Where do page numbers go?
• Anything else on header or footer of page? How do you make that happen?

When finished all 3 steps with your group., be prepared to share 3 things that you didn’t notice that you now know about.

Peer Response (60 min)

Let’s go over the “Peer Response Guidelines” (handout but also on Blackboard in “Syllabus and Other Course Documentation”).

Let’s go over how our Writing Groups will work utilizing the Peer Response Guidelines: each person takes turns reading while following the “Writer” and “Responder” roles on Peer Response Guidelines. Each person should have about 10-15 minutes. I’ll talk to the group of 4 about strategies to get the most out of the time.

Group 1: Tahmid, Gangandeep, Star

Group 2: Jean, Muhaimi, Carlos

Group 3: Alvi, Marcela, Enrique

Group 4: Jasmin, Will, Aisha

Group 5: Brianna, Sehaj, Jeneice, Fernando

Group 6: Brian, Rahim, Lewis

Assessment Letter Due November 29 (5-10 min)

Let’s go over Assessment Letter assignment for November 29. I also have an example of an Assessment Letter from last year to help give you a sense of what it looks like (see Blackboard).

Go to “Major Assignments” to get prompt for Assessment Letter. Go to “Syllabus and Other Course Documentation” for the example Assessment Letter.

Okay, now you have to find a person to write a letter to. They can be in your group or outside of your group. I can also match people if you prefer.

Please email your Assessment Letter to the person who authored the paper you are reviewing AND to Prof. Libertz. Finally, also upload it to Blackboard.

Finally, remember that you can get a grade boost by writing 2 “extra” Assessment Letters. At this point, if you didn’t do extra Assessment Letters for the first paper, you can only do this for the Information Analysis Argument draft and this Research Project draft (2 extra for either or 1 extra for both). So, in total, you need to have 4 Assessment Letters TOTAL to get the grade boost.

Next Time (2-5 min)

• You have lots of feedback! Use it. The Research Project draft is due by tonight at 11:59pm.
• The Assessment Letter is due November 29.
• If you want to do extra Assessment Letters, you need to get them done no later than December 1.
• Read “Organizing Your Ideas” by Lisa Blankenship for class on November 29.
• We will start to talk about grade boost options and the final reflective assignment soon on the other side of the break. If you have some time, you can review grade boost options in the Grading Contract toward the end of the document.