CPR and Blogs

Don't forget to work on your CPR assignment this weeekend. You should enter your paper by this evening and enter your CPR code by tomorrow. On Monday afternoon you will be able to start working on your actual CPR assignments. The calibrations are a step by step process. Grading for this assignment is all or none. In other words, you do all of the pieces (turn in your file to Turnitin.com, enter your code, complete the 6 paper evaluations and your self evaluation), you get a 100. The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with the process of paper evaluations, including turning in your paper and CPR, that we complete this semester.

As you continue to write in the blogs, I wanted to remind you of two things that are possible:

1. You may include pictures! Images are fun things to put in a blog post. Blogger gives you some directions on including pictures. Each of you has space on A&M's server to put images. Those images can then be displayed in your blog. This is optional, of course, but you may decide all of the text in your blog needs some jazzing up.

2. You may link to other web pages from your blog. So, I can reference A&M's Web Page from my blog. This will allow you to show other students items of interest.

Have a super weekend!

Interesting Blog Postings

I hope everyone is reading through the class blogs. We have a very interesting group of students in our class. For example, Amelia is originally from a small town in Indonesia--read her blog for more info. Robert appears to be our resident film critic. Three classmates work at Chick Fil a at the mall.

I'm enjoying seeing what everyone is posting on the blogs. Keep writing!

Final CPR Information

Please let me stress (strongly)--you must read my blog posts carefully. I give lots of information on the blog that you need to keep up with. Notice that my posts archive. That means all information is available to you. Read the old posts if you miss something.

Ok. Now on with the rest...

You should have turned in your assignment as a .pdf file to turnitin.com, logged in to CPR, and taken the pre test. As noted on the WebCT calendar, each of these items are due Feb. 4 by midnight.

Once you have done this, there is one last step to complete before we can work in CPR (this is due Feb 5 by midnight). When you click on our CPR Practice module link (inside CPR--available after you take your pre test), you will see information on the source material and writing prompt. Below the writing prompt there is a blank box called a Text Entry page. You should not put your assignment into that spot. Instead, type the following into the box:

a href="http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/earhart/301/cpr/instructions/x.pdf">Click Here
Replace the x with your paper number. Then put <> around the entire code (at both the beginning and end of the line).

Once the Saturday deadline passes, you will be able to start working in CPR. I'll post more about this Friday.

CPR Assignment

Making a .pdf

Just another bit of information about .pdf creation. You may certainly use another type of pdf converter program (such as adobe Professional), but there is one caution. Some of the free converters won't convert properly. They may look ok, but turnitin.com will not accept them as a file.

MORE CPR Stuff (are you sick of this yet--I want to give you detailed directions so you don't get lost... sorry)

OK. You've written your assignment for CPR. You've turned it into a .pdf file. Now what?

The next step is to label the paper with what I call your paper number for the semester. Your paper number is going to be the same as your site id in the blog ring. If you don't remember what you id is, go to here and look at the number beside your blog name. You should name all papers this semester with your number (for example, 1.pdf). Change your paper name to your number (so maybe something like 15.pdf).

Next you need to upload the file to Turnitin.com. If you already uploaded your file to turnitin.com and forgot or didn't know to change the number don't worry. I will fix it. Just be sure to use your number for our first big assignment.

Now for CPR--a number of you have already used CPR. Great. You have an idea of how it works. For those of you that don't let me give you some information. CPR is located at http://cpr.tamu.edu. Click on the access CPR at TAMU link.

CPR has now uploaded your student information. However, you can't use your neo or university information to log in. You need to click on the new users link and follow directions. You will be given a ID and password to use with CPR--write it down so you don't forget it.

Once you log in you will need to Take the CPR tour and pretest. Please do. NOTE: If you used CPR in another class you will use the login from before and not have to take the tour or pretest.

Please complete the tour.

I will post the final bit of information on CPR tomorrow--just one more step until everything is set up for calibrations and review!

Clarifications

I'm going to do today's information in two posts. This first post will focus on clarification of class requirements and the second post will give you the rest of the information on the CPR assignment.

Ok. Let me clarify a couple of points that seem to be confusing some people. Let me know ASAP if any of this is unclear. Be sure to read all of my blog entries and all materials contained in WebCT, particularly the Syllabus information.

If you missed or had problems with the following assignments (blog or wiki) the first week, you can do double assignments this week and I will give you credit (please complete this by Sunday). I'm still grading these posts/comments, so your grades in the gradebook won't be complete for another day or two.

Each Week

A week is from Monday through Sunday, with 14 weeks in total

Here is what you must complete each week:
1. Post 1 free post to your blog
2. Post 2 comments to fellow Student's blogs
3. Work in the class Wiki

These assignments make up what would normally occur in a physical classroom--these are the things that make us a writing community.
In addition you should post any required blog responses that I designate on my blog and any posts for book chapters. These will be added to the WebCT Calendar. Your WebCT calendar will also have assignment deadlines. SO, you should be able to keep up with the course by doing the above each week and looking at your WebCT calendar regularly. Make sense?

Wiki

There are a few folks who indicated that they are still confused by the wiki. In all 301 Tech Writing classes students are to complete a group writing assignment. This is very difficult to do in a web delivered course--your individual schedules make any kind of face to face meeting nearly impossible. So, we are using a wiki to do our group work.

Ultimately the wiki is about the experience of group writing, not a finished project. I believe that writing often will help you communicate and write better. So, working in a wiki will help you with collaborative projects when you get out in the "real world."

Your wiki assignment is to write a handbook for blogger in our Technical Writing class. Your audience is future students who will take this web delivered course. I would like you to think about all aspects of using blogger: How to set up an account, trouble shooting, What sorts of posts are required, what are potential topics, what is the purpose of a blog in Tech Writing, Etc. It is up to you, as a group, to shape the topics. THink about each topic as a separate section of a handbook.

Notice that potential sections are already started on the wiki: Setting up Blogs and Using Blogger These are links created at the bottom of the Homepage. You may want to add a few more--to find out how to create a link, look at either Tips for Editing or Documentation Index on the left hand sidebar of the Homepage.

To receive credit for the assignment you need to work in the wiki one time a week. You might write additional text, add a page link, or change what someone else has written. Be sure to include your name at the bottom of the page (in the name blank) so that I may give you credit. If you forgot to do so, please let me know.

The nifty thing to notice about wikis is that they keep track of everything that you do. Look at page history or recent changes on the right side bar to see what your classmates have done. Don't be afraid to rewrite, add or change the text and structure.

You are making progress!

Look at you go! You all are making progress in your class. Here's what you should have finished by tomorrow:

1. Blog set up
2. Blog ring added and working properly
3. Post your Blog Introduction
4. Post Responses to Chapters 1 and 3
5. Posted 2 comments to fellow students' blog
6. Posted 1 free post blog
7. Worked at least one time in the class Wiki
8. Created a Turnitin.com account


If you have completed all of this, then you are on track. If not, you need to complete these pieces ASAP. Remember that I am grading these assignments. If you have any questions at all, please ask!

I will be contacting those of you who are having ring problems today. We need to get all the ring codes working correctly so that you can move around the ring easily.

Now let's get back to our CPR Practice Module assignment:

I hope that you completed the very short writing assignment that I discussed Friday. You should save this in a word processing program (word is easiest).

Next, you will need to make your file a .pdf. A pdf is a type of file that is basically a snapshot picture of your page. It can't be altered and the text/graphics won't move around no matter on what type of computer you open it. This is important to our tech writing class, since a good portion of your grade is based on document design--spacing, bold, italics etc. If you document doesn't open properly you might be marked down for something that is actually a computer glitch, not your mistake. By saving our files as .pdfs we avoid this.

So there's the rationale for the .pdf. Here's how to save the file:

There are two easy ways to save files as .pdf.

1. Many computers (including all Apples and all TAMU lab computers) have the .pdf converter installed within word.

a. Open your file in word
b. Click on File, Print
c. Click on "save as pdf" and follow the steps
d. You are finished!

2. If you don't have this setting/ program on your computer your other option is to use a free web based trial program available at Create Adove PDF online (Http://createpdf.adobe.com. Setting up a free account will give you 5 free conversions, exactly the number needed for our class.

Once you have converted your file, you will upload or submit it to turnitin.com. Remember that this is like handing the paper to your instructor in class.

To submit the file:

1. Login to turnitin.com
2. Click on the link for "ENGL 301: 584"
3. Look for "CPR Instructions" and the submit icon to the right of it
4. Click on submit and follow directions

You are finished! More tomorrow on this process.