English 203: Introduction to Professional Writing Research

In his blogpost, blogger and educator Andy Carvin relates a number of responses to the question of whether Wikipedia is good for education. The responses stem from an encounter Carvin had with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, in which Wales suggested that educators were more open to Wikipedia than Carvin thought they might be. While Carvin presents a number of responses, he doesn’t do as much as he could to integrate these responses:

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/07/wikipedia_in_the_classr...

Two selections from The Craft of Research: pages 75-107 and 185 to 207.

The next major date is March 25th. On the 25th you will present your progress thus far. Here's what I am looking for for the presentation:

As I might have mentioned, one of my goals for this project is to familiarize you with a broad variety of research tools and experiences. To help with this, I've devised the following conditions for your preliminary research list.

Requirements

Your research list must contain:

Here's your list of starter sources:

• May, James A. Trials of Character: The Eloquence of Ciceronian Ethos. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1988.
• Dugan, John. Making a New Man: Ciceronian Self-Fashioning in the Rhetorical Works. New York: Oxford UP, 2005.
• Enos, Richard Leo. Speaking of Cicero ...and his Mother: A Research Note on an Ancient Greek Inscription and the Study of Classical Rhetoric. Rhetoric Review 24.4: 457-465.

I've expanded our project 2 description, detailing the expectations for the paper. The expectations come straight from Purdue's IRB requirements. Click on the project tab to see the update (look for "research narrative").

When?:
To clear up confusion: Project One is due this coming Saturday, February 2nd. If you need the time, you may turn it in on Tuesday, February 5th.

What?:
A Microsoft Word .doc. Please do not email me a .docx. Save the file with the following file name:

[lastname]_project1.doc

So, an example would be: santos_project1.doc.

How?:
Please email the file to my gmail account: insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I just created a course email list and posted what's below to the list. I repeat it here in hopes that everyone gets the message. Please spread the word in your other classes.

I have cancelled my trip to Connecticut this week and thus would like to hold class this Tuesday. I figure we could dedicate an entire day of class to discussing the Craft readings.

I would also like to cover some of the various definitions of rhetoric, since Purdue's professional writing major is intimately connected to classical and contemporary rhetorical theory.

Please read through all the material below, it should serve as a substitute for Tuesday's class. Again, all, sorry that I'm missing these two classes. Some people have sent me private messages, but I imagine many of you have similar questions, so...

Just a quick welcome message. I would like our first night's homework to be creating a blog post describing yourself, your interest in professional writing, and the last good movie you saw. Make sure you read the quick guide for HTML if you are unfamiliar with writing on the web.