English 320, web-based Class

Lesson for Week 3: Day 2

Your assignment for today was to . . .

• Put comments in your letter of application using the Word comment function and send it to me.
• Finish composing the informal investigative report for your job search packet.
• Read chapters 4 & 5 in Lambrecht and look at examples of letters of application and resumes

Our focus for today is taking notes for later writing tasks

This lesson focuses on chapter 5 of Lambrecht's Dinner at the New Gene Cafe and on collecting notes for later writing tasks.

You were to have read chapters 4 and 5 in Lambrecht for today's lesson. You are reading this book in preparation for writing a persuasive manuscript speech or paper, which is due week 15.1 (see the syllabus). You should think of this project as having already begun, so you should be taking notes on your reading and looking for other sources relevant to the topic of genetically modified organisms. It is important to keep track of information so that you can use it later. In fact, you will turn in an annotated bibliography week 10, day 2, on this topic, so the material you save now will be useful then.

How do you collect notes for later writing?

The persuasive paper assignment is one that relies on research that you conduct by reading, by listening to authorities on the subject (if you have a chance), and by conducting interviews. Keeping a set of notes is important to the process. Some people keep notes on note cards; others in computer files; others in notebooks. Regardless, you need to keep track of the following information:

1. if you are interviewing or listening, what is the person's name, title, and experience (basis for authority)?
2. if you are interviewing or listening, when and where does the experience happen? Here is an example of notes taken when a special speaker came to an English 320 class to talk about BT corn and Monarch butterflies.
3. if you are reading a book, what are the author's full name, the title of the book (underlined or in italics), the place of publication, the publisher, the date of publication, and the specific page numbers of each note, whether it is a "quotation," a paraphrase, or a summary?.
4. if you are reading an article, what are the author's name, the "title of the article" (in quotation marks), the title of the magazine or journal (underlined or italics), the volume and issue of the journal or magazine, the date, the inclusive page numbers of the article, and the specific page numbers of each note, whether it is a "quotation," a paraphrase, or a summary?.
5. if you are reading a website, what is the author's name, the URL for the specific file, the URL for the site's homepage, the date of publication (if available), the date downloaded or viewed, the sponsor of the website (if available), page numbers or anchor tag markers (if available).

Appropriating the virtual interview of two experts

In chapter 5 of Dinner at the New Gene Cafe, Lambrecht reports the arguments of Martina McGloughlin (pages 80-84) and of Margaret Mellon (84-90). Notice that most of these pages is set off in quotation marks; that means that these are words are direct statements by the two women, whom Lambrecht evidently interviewed and taped. He probably cleaned up the prose a little, but basically, I think we can look at these pages as a transcription of these women's views. Lambrecht has done you a service, collecting research notes for you and publishing them here. In your persuasive paper, you can quote these women by quoting Lambrecht, using a phrase something like, According to Martina McGloughlin, "put the quote here," (quoted in Lambrecht, 83). You can summarize or paraphrase their views doing the same thing, but not using quotation marks.

Assignments

1. For this lesson, I want you to read chapter 5 in Lambrecht very carefully and take notes, but I want you to take specific kinds of notes. Take them in a Word document.

• First, making sure that you have recorded all the bibliographic information about Lambrecht's book (see bullet 3 above), take notes on the each woman's name, title, and basis for authority.
• Next, summarize each woman's argument. A summary reduces the original and puts it into your own words, but it reflects the structure of the original. So, for instance, to summarize Martina McGloughlin's argument, you need to read the whole thing, listing the topics she covers and noting her primary assertions about these topics. From this list of topics and assertions, you should be able to create and informal outline, which you can then shift into paragraph form with full sentences.
• Finally, go through each woman's quotations, and pull 2 or 3 notable quotes from each, recording them word for word, putting quotation marks around them, and noting the page number on which they fall.
• Save this document and send a copy to me as an email attachment.

2. Make an entry in blogger.com on a topic of your choice as long as it is relevant to the class and your projects. Send me a quick post indicating that you have done so and specifying the day and time of the post. Do this in the future whenever you do a blog assignment so that I look for it. I won't remind you in future assignments.

3. Read (skim for the general concepts) pages 11-86, 117-120, and 121-173 in Robin Williams The Non-Designer's Design Book. Read “Resumes” in HTW.

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