Things that came up:

• Visual learning (will always have something for you to look at, but please let me know if this is not enough!)
• Conversations and interactions with others helps (will try to incoroporate these)
• Slow things down (definitely true)
• Losing focus (hopefully some things in this learning module and others on writing practice and process can help)
• Financial hardship/access to food/housing
  • I recommend seeking out help at the Dean of Students Page. You can find information on the Emergency Fund, Food Access, and other resources that can help folks struggling financially. Some also mentioned looking for jobs. I can’t say I know a ton under these current circumstances, but there is Baruch’s official jobs site for students (it has options for part-time work and other variables). I was also able to find something targeting Baruch students.Please let me know how I can help. I am genuinely interested in your success, whatever that looks like. So let me know how I can help. Also let me know if I missed something here as something you think should be addressed–I mostly keyed in on trends across responses, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth talking about other stuff. So let me know!!
• Having a good environment to work in, as best as you can (e.g., comfortable chair, music)
• No judgment. We are all trying our best, I always assume that. I don’t know what you are going through. Please reach out if you need help, extensions, or anything else.

Task

In a comment below, do one of the following:

• List out any other resources or advice for things mentioned above in the trends (e.g., other sources you know about finding part-time jobs, visual aids you find especially effective)
• List something that has helped as you a student since you have been in college that might help others (e.g., note taking strategy, time management approaches)

When finished, click on the button below to continue:

Lots of logistics this week:

• Setting Blogs@Baruch
• Setting up Microsoft Word, Adobe, and other possible software for reading and writing
• Using Blackboard to submit assignments
• Backing up work

Also some time thinking about writing more specifically:

• “rules” of writing
• goals you might have
• revision
• and thinking about needs you might have as a learner through the survey

Next Time:

• Read “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa, p. 69-79 (textbook)
• Complete a Reading Response as a Reading Annotation by 12pm on Monday, February 8.

Please fill out the Learning Needs Survey. Once you have completed the survey, click the button below to continue.

After filling out the survey, click the button below to continue:

Reading Response (Annotation) Logistics

• If doing Direct Fire Highlights for 2/3, share the link to public highlights with me (email me at [email protected])
• If doing a Double Entry Journal for 2/3, make sure to submit it on Blackboard in Submit Assignments>Process Writing and Reading Responses>Reading Response: Reading Annotation 1

Revising..Friend, Enemy, Frenemy?

I want you to spend a little bit of time writing about the Donald Murray essay.

I want you to take a couple minutes and respond to the following on a piece of paper, your phone, or somewhere else (might be best to do something that could be easy to copy/paste somewhere):

Writing prompt:

Murray claims that writers “must learn to be their best enemy.” Do you ever see yourself as an “enemy” of your writing? How so? Further, what would it mean to be your own “best enemy” as a writer, in Murray’s terms? How might that relate to revision or not? Do you have any issue with thinking about yourself as an “enemy”?

Spend 3-5 minutes writing about this.

Posting on Discord

Go to our Discord server and navigate to the category called “Reading/Writing Discussion” and find the text channel for “murray-response-feb-3.”

Once there, write the following in that text channel:

• share something that stands out to you about what you wrote
• share one additional notable thing that stands out to you by doing your reading annotation for the Murray reading.

Instead of writing your own post, feel free to respond directly to someone else using the @ symbol if they wrote about something similar to you!

After posting to the “murray-response-feb-3”  text channel in the “Reading/Writing Discussion” category in our Discord server, click the below button to continue:

Ways to back up projects:

• You can claim your free Dropbox account through your status as a CUNY student. You get up to 15GB of storage, which should be plenty of storage for this class and other classes (if you work with a lot of video files or other files that take up a lot of space, this might be a little dicey).
• You can get a free Google Account and use Google Drive. This also gives you 15GB in the free version.
• You can purchase an external hard drive or a flash drive. These will give you anywhere from 1GB to much larger. The less space, the cheaper, typically.

I cannot tell you how important it is to back up files. It might not be this semester, but at some point in your college career, something will go wrong. Your computer will crash, you accidentally delete the wrong file permanently, etc. Back up stuff regularly to help avoid losing some or all of your work.

A good practice, too, is to save different versions of files. For instance, using file naming logic like: “Rhetorical Analysis Draft 1” or “Rhetorical Analysis Draft 1 – 17 MAR 2021.” This helps you differentiate between different versions and gives you another chance to recover lost work if you have multiple versions of a file.

Before moving on, complete the following:

In a comment below, write about a time when you digitally “lost” something. For example, if you thought you saved a Microsoft Word document but you actually didn’t, if you accidentally closed out a browser window when you were in the middle of submitting something on it…anything like that.

If you have nothing, simply write, post a link to a music video that relates to theme of being really good at something or perfect…because I guess if you are lucky enough to not have a story like that you are just the Boss at not losing stuff!

After commenting below, click the button to continue:

Go to our Discord server and navigate to the category called “Reading/Writing Discussion” and find the text channel for “rules-and-goals-response-feb-3.”

Once there, write the following in the chat:

• one rule about writing that you remember hearing a lot (or one that just stood out to you) from your years in school or just as a writer in general
• one goal you have for working on your writing this term
• respond to one other person about what they wrote (if you are the first one to post, instead write “Behold, I am a Force of Homework Completion that cannot be Contained!”)

We will talk more about rules and goals in class on 2/8.

After posting to the “rules-and-goals-response-feb-3”  text channel in the “Reading/Writing Discussion” category in our Discord server, click the below button to continue:

We will not do much on Blackboard, so this should be quick. Here are the things you need to know about Blackboard:

• You can access our Blackboard site at this link: https://bctc.baruch.cuny.edu/blackboard/. Click on “Log in to Blackboard” on the right. You will use your same username and password for CUNYFirst to get into Blackboard.
• In Course Documents, you can find all texts we will read that are NOT in the textbook in the folder “Additional Readings.” Also in Course Documents will be any other important documents (e.g., “Reading Annotation Instructions”) related to the course.
• In Submit Assignments, you will be submitting all assignments that are not written on the course website, Learning Module activities, and various informal work related to participation. Other important information about submitting:
  • There are two folders for assignments. The first is for Process Writing assignments and other informal writing. The second is for Major Writing Projects (i.e., Literacy Narrative, Rhetorical Analysis, Research-Driven Writing, some reflective writing). Go to the correct folder for the kind of assignment you are submitting.
  • The instructions for the assignment should ALWAYS be an attachment you can click on when you go to the submission for the assignment. If you are having trouble with that, let me know.
  • To submit, DO NOT click “Write Submission.” Instead, go to “Browse My Computer” and upload the file where you completed the assignment.
  • I will only accept .doc or .pdf files.
  • There is no relevant point system on Blackboard. I just give “1” point because Blackboard forces me to put a point value. See the syllabus and communication with me about how grades work and what grade you get.
• “Syllabus” is the home page and is simply another place to access our syllabus. It has my Google Voice phone number, unlike the syllabus on our course website.
• I will only put announcements by email or on our Discord server, so the only announcement you should see is the one about whether you got an email from me or not.

Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 prompt

As some practice for navigating Blackboard, but also to introduce the first major writing assignment, let’s find the prompt for the Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 assignment.

Go to Blackboard now. Click on “Submit Assignments.” Click on the the right folder that would have the Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 submission link. Click the Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 link to see what it looks like to submit.

Finally, click the attachment, “Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 prompt” that is attached to the Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 submission link.

Before moving on, do the following:

In a comment below, write one of the following:

• Any questions you have about the Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 assignment.
• Describe a time when you had an issue submitting an assignment when using Blackboard. How did you resolve it?
• If you have not used Blackboard before or have never had issues with it previously, what questions do you have about it?

After commenting below, click the following button to continue:

Microsoft Word

We will primarily use Microsoft Word to complete most of our major writing projects. If you prefer using other word processing software, you are welcome to do so under one condition: either convert the file into a .doc file or .pdf file when you submit it.

If you do not have Microsoft Word on your device or if you have a really old version, you should get your free access to the latest version through Baruch. To do so, go to the Baruch Computing and Technology Center’s (BCTC) page for free downloads for students.

Microsoft has several great resources for tutorials on how to learn how to use Word if you are unfamiliar. This tutorial is the first one on creating a document, but you can find several others on all sorts of ways to use Word (e.g., changing fonts, adding page numbers, formatting spacing). I am ALWAYS available to help you with any questions about Word (or any software or platform we use in the course.

NOTE: You may be using a device that has trouble running Microsoft Office (I know Chromebook, for instance might have issues since it runs from the browser). If this is the case, you can use https://onlinelabs.baruch.cuny.edu/#/ to run Office among other programs that you would be able to use at the physical computer lab. If this is too complicated, let me know, and we can just work through Google Docs for you during the semester.

Adobe Reader

I don’t think you have free access to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which would include a more advanced version of Adobe Reader. But, for this course, you don’t really need all the bells and whistles of the more advanced version.

Adobe Reader is free, and you can download it through this link. You DO NOT need Adobe Reader for this course, as whatever device you have should have some ability to work with pdfs (e.g., Microsoft Edge for PCs). That said, as noted in the annotation discussion we recently had, I was working from Adobe Reader’s functionality for making annotations and highlighting. Other pdf readers should have some way to annotate and highlight, and if you prefer to use them and you are having trouble figuring that out, I am more than happy to help you out, so let me know.

Before moving on, complete the following task:

In a comment below, do one of the two:

• Tell me about any questions you have or something you are really confused about when using Microsoft Word, Adobe Reader, or any other writing processing or reading software that you have used or want to use this semester.
• Tell me something you find helpful or interesting about writing across different modalities: a word processor on a computer like Microsoft Word, pen/pencil and paper, writing on a smartphone, writing on a tablet, writing with chalk, writing with various art supplies (e.g., marker, paintbrush), or anything else.

After commenting, click the below button to continue:

Modules in this class will be mostly made up of pages like this one. Inside those pages might be interactive elements or other areas of the internet to visit, but this site is the course and module home.

You need to be signed in to Blogs @ Baruch in order to leave a Comment. If you have trouble signing into Blogs @ Baruch, let me know.

On most pages in a week’s module, you’ll often be asked to Comment at the bottom of the page before moving on. This is how I will mark you as having completed the module for your grade.

• In order to get counted for completing a Learning Module, you must have responded to all Comment prompts in the module.
• To count, Comments must be:
  • (1) on topic, and
  • (2) at least three coherent sentences long (unless the prompt specifically asks you to do something else).
• Please write your Comments in complete sentences (don’t spit out short comments like “yep”).
• Comments should offer meaningful participation—an attempt to engage with what’s being asked and/or what’s been said so far in the Comments.
• Comments that offer no meaningful participation (i.e. are not on topic, are not complete or readable ideas) will not count, and will negatively impact your grade.

Let’s try it out

Go to Introductions and make a comment on one of your classmates’ introduction posts following the above criteria. Try to spread the love, if you can, if you notice anyone with a post that doesn’t have any comments.

If you are the first one making a comment and doing this module, write: “First! I am a force of homework completion that cannot be contained!!!” …and then later on read through some of your classmates’ posts to get to know them a little better.

After commenting on someone’s “Introductions” post, click the below button to continue on:

*Adapted from Prof. Seth Graves

Blogs@Baruch is where you are right now. This course site is hosted on Blogs@Baruch, a locally hosted webspace that uses the WordPress website building platform. Our course page will house the course schedule, each Wednesday Learning Module, the Lesson Plans for each class, the syllabus, a place to post and comment, and a space to provide various resources.

Getting Set Up

1. Login to blogs.baruch.cuny.edu with your email username and password (email me if you can’t get in).
2. Click on “My Profile” and then “Edit.”
3. Double check that the Display Name is the name you want to be called in the course.
4. Add some writing to your “Academic Interests” section, if you’d like.
5. Save the changes.
6. If you want, you can add a Profile Photo (click “Change Profile Photo” and follow the instructions). You do not have to add a photo if you do not want to do so.

Log in and Create an Introduction Post

1. Click on My Sites and double check that our class (“ENG 2100: Writing I”) is listed. If it isn’t, email me to add you to it.
2. Click on the site title (“ENG 2100: Writing I”) to enter the site.
3. Hover your cursor over the “+ New” and select Post.
4. Write your Post and title it with your name.
5. Write an introduction of yourself by quickly explaining an image and how it represents you in some way.
6. Use the Block Editor (what you use to build your post) to incorporate that image into your post. To add the image, click “Add Media” and then “Upload Files” and then select a saved image from your computer (you might first search for an image and then save to your device). I would use pexels.com since these are images in public domain or under creative common license. Just search in the search bar. If nothing helpful there, you can just do images.google.com and something should turn up.
7. Give your post a “Category” along the right side. Check the category Introductions and the Posts category. Uncheck any other categories.
8. Give your post any “Tags” you’d like. They can be funny or topical.
9. Publish your Post.

We can also see everyone’s introductions, starting with mine at the below link:
Introductions

For more information about building a WordPress post with the Block Editor, check out this video introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQlTuJ4BH8

Important Notes:

1. As long as you are logged in, the dashboard option to add material with “+ New” will always appear from wherever you are on the course site.
2. Please make sure to always include a Category in your posts.

Commenting Below Before Moving On

1. Place the URL to your Post here in the Comments section of this instructions page. If you were unable to publish a post and copy and paste a URL for it, please tell me why in the comments. This is how I will give you credit for having completed this page.

After commenting below, click the below button that reads “Click here to Continue”:

*This page is adapted from Prof. Seth Graves