A2 Due Date Changed

Several of you requested an extension on A2, so since I am in a happy spring mood ( and a caring and considerate instructor), you will have until Monday, March 24 at midnight. Please do let me know if you have any questions. I have meetings all day today, so will try to answer questions late this afternoon or tomorrow.

A2 suggestion

As you are completing your assignment, I wanted to remind you of a few issues that you will want to consider.

Be sure that your article meets the criteria of the assignment. You must have a recent article that deals with a tech issues in your field.

Remember that your area or field is the one for which you applied in the first assignment.

The graphic needs to be original, so don't just copy something from the article or the web. Insert the graphic into the text close to where you reference the graphic. So, you might say "As you can see in Table 2, the technology is cost effective." Notice that you should reference the graphic in the text and then put the graphic near the reference. Make sense? You also need to title and label your graphic. So, under or above the graphic you would write "Table 1: Technology Costs" or "Graphic 1: Images of Texas." Be sure you do this--one of the CPR questions checks to see that you have labeled and titled your graphic.

Wiki Grades/ Spring Break

I have posted your wiki and comment grades for weeks 6 and 7. Please let me know if you find an error. I know that blogger was not accepting comments at the end of week 7, so I took that into account when I graded the comments. I will add the blog post grades over the next day or two.

I am very pleased with the wiki writing that you have completed to date. It looks like your handbook is coming along quite nicely. There are a few issues that you might want to consider as you polish and add to the handbook.

1. Document Design. If this is to be a handbook for future Tech Writing students, you want the document design to be exemplary. Consider the pages that have large portions of text. How can you use headings to make the information easier to read? Does this need an index?

2. Editing. Are there portions of the wiki that need editing? Is there text or discussion that should be removed? Do you need the wiki links anymore? Or should they go on an appendix page?

3. Topics. Should you add additional topics to the handbook? What do you need to know as a student? Do you want a separate wiki section? Remember what the original directive was--write a handbook to support students using blogs in Tech Writing. You may certainly want to write two pieces of the handbook--one on blogs and one on wikis.

Spencer asked about my Spring Break. While most of you were drinking margaritas and working on your tans, I was sitting in my office working-for most of the week (boo, hoo--I know--who feels bad for the prof--not the students!).

But we did get to spend two days at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I just adore fairs--in part because I grew up on a farm and showed sheep as a 4-her, in part because my daughter loves the animals. While we loved the animals (especially the horse show and cattle show):



The highlight for my daughter was the roping:



The Aggie Rodeo team was helping kids rope--how fun was that! Anybody on the Rodeo team?

Welcome Back!

Welcome back from spring break. I hope that you had a wonderful, safe, restful spring break.

I will be grading assignments over the next week, so look for updates in your gradebooks.

You should be working on the A2 Chapter Blog postings--due Wed, March 23. The next day (Thursday, March 24) your A2 assignment is due.

A2 requires you to locate a article in your field that follows specific criteria. Be sure that you get started on finding your article well in advance.