If you have other questions, or would like more explanation to these, let me know and I'll do what I can for you.

Question: Basically, I need to watch to one of the ads and then support it with ch 3 and 4. I also need to base it on voter savvy list, right?.

Answer: Not quite right. You'll take an idea from chapter three or four and use it to kick off the essay, to create a context for discussing the video, to set up a claim about the video. You'll then use the savvy voter criteria to explain how the video does whatever the thesis claims it does. Check the sample essay as it does this fairly well. We were using a different book at the time, but I think you'll be able to see how it works.

Question: I read all the lectures that you posted yesterday several times and I am still trying to sort it out in my head. Basically, the idea is the same, thesis, intro, response and conclusion right? I didn't see anything on response, you mention body, it's the same right?

Answer: No, this one is different, so it's good you asked. the intro and thesis you are right about. You might write something such as campaign season is in full swing and anyone who watches television is about to be bombarded with campaign ads. Then you'll tie in an idea from the book that sets up a claim about a particular video.

Question: It seems so overwhelming, I am not very good in Politics :) and while> reading the chapters I have to reread several times until I understand. Once I understand then it flows easily.

Answer: Lots of people think there is something wrong if they have to re-read something. There's nothing further from the truth. Good readers are re-readers. I do it myself all the time with stuff that matters, even sometimes with stuff that doesn't if I can't make sense of what I'm reading. The danger is that many people think they should get it the first time, and that's the goal, but when encountering new information and new ideas and things you don't normally think about, re-reading is what makes the difference between kinda getting it and really getting it.

Question: basically I need to choose one of two chapters to work with. Then find an appropriate idea from that chapter that will support the video that I will be working on, is that right? Mostly though, I base my essay on Savvy Voter criteria and then blend a whole thing together to get my point across.

Answer: Yes, that's right.

Essays have been returned. If you don't have yours, please email. The number at the end of the comment is the essay's grade, based on the 0.7 to 4.0 scale the college uses. 0.7 = D-, 1.0 = D, 1.3 = D+, 1.5 = C-/D+, 1.7 = C-, 2.0 = C, 2.3 = C+, 2.5 = B-/C+, 2.7 = B-, 3.0 = B, 3.3 = B+, 3.5 = A-/B+, 3.7 = A-, 4.0 = A. These gradations are about as fine as I care to split the grading hairs.

Check your email for them. You should consider the grades preliminary because my expectation is that you will revise based on the feedback and then receive your final grade. However, if you grade is 2.0 or higher, revision is optional. If the grade is below 2.0, revision is mandatory, meaning you can't receive a passing grade for the class if you don't revise. This is the point of the class where you begin juggling multiple assignments, though I'll try to keep them as spaced as possible.

The long and short of things, based on this first essay, is you are a typical bunch of English 101 student writers. The class average for grades on the first essay is pretty much inline with previous class averages on the first essay: 1.7 or C-. Through the revision process this will change, always for the better as a group. Likely the class average will be about 2.5, but all of that remains to be seen. The highest grade given so far was a 3.0 (B) and the lowest a 1.0 (D). What this means is that most of you need to learn about college level writing expectations and I'm here to help make that happen. In some respect, we use a very traditional approach, the Socratic method and question and answer, as I try to lead you to better understand what you need to do to better your writing to meet certain expectations--those of the academic audience. What's not traditional is that we do this online rather than sitting face-to-face. Please read all that follows and let me know what questions you have. Keep reading by clicking on the "read more" link so you can see all of the specifics:

As usual, if you want or need clarification on any of this, please let me know. Be sure to click on the “read more” link to see the whole of this message.

Many of you are already reading chapters three and four. That’s good. Those summaries, in sentence format, are to be submitted by midnight tonight as previously indicated. While reading and summarizing, look for an idea or concept from which to build the analysis of your chosen video. There is a sample essay that should give you an idea about what you should do with your essay, but I’ll offer explanation here, and a sample, but brief, analysis of an video.

After reading the two chapters, it’s essential that you also read the savvy voter criteria as well as the rest of the material linked to the assignment. The assignment calls for applying the savvy voter criteria to the video of your choice. There are many videos you can work with other than those that are provided as part of the assignment. You can use serious videos, campaign videos, funny videos, spoofs of candidates or anything you like, as long as you address the assignment expectations of making it clear how the video can be read and that you can read it in that way.

If you haven't yet done so, submit your first essay via an email attachment ASAP.

Because I'm still grading the "lecture" may be delayed until Tuesday. I'm still also waiting on an essay or two that has not been emailed. Let me know if you have any questions.

Step one in the second essay is reading chapters three and four of UnSpun and posting a summary of the major details in sentence form by midnight Monday. From there, responses are due by Wednesday night and a draft by midnight Friday. I'll post a "lecture" by Monday that should give you some direction on the assignment.

I believe I've read and responded to each essay draft at this point. If you don't have comments from me, please let me know. Your essay is due for grading by midnight, Friday, the 11th. I hope to have them returned by Monday, not too late. Here's what you need to know:

• Essays should be submitted via email as an attached file. Please use MS Word (saved as a .doc and not .docx), an Open Office Word processing document (you can get this at openoffice.org if you want the only real competitor to MS Word), or any word processing document saved as a .rtf, which is rich text format. You will need to do a "save as" to make these changes if necessary.
• Email your essay to me at bradbATspokanefallsDOTedu
• The top of your page should look like this:
  

  Your name

  Instructor's last name

  Class Title/Name

  Due Date

  Title That Predicts Essay Development

  Notice that the material is all double spaced, as should be the whole of your essay, and that the title is centered, with the first, last, and important words in between capitalized. DO NOT underline or use quote marks in your title.

• Either underline or italicize the title of the book: UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of [Disinformation]. Use the same capitalization guidelines that you used with your title. This is Modern Language Association (MLA) format.
• When you provide a quote or paraphrase from the book, this is how you make note of it: Jackson and Jamieson write that "Such puffery is so common that much of the time we aren't even fooled" (45). Notice the quote marks are before the citation, there is no 'p' or anything of that sort in the citation, and the period is at the end, because the citation is part of the sentence.
• Be sure, because many have missed this, that one of the chapters, the chapter to which you respond, is included as part of the assignment. There must be a full summary of one chapter as part of the assignment. It's also a good idea to signal this to your reader so they know what you are doing.

I'll leave it there for now. If you have any questions regarding your essay and my comments, feel free to contact me.

First, some directions. Once drafts have been posted, each should receive three responses. That means each person should search out three drafts and respond to them. There are particular expectations attached to these responses. Those expectations are spelled out in the Response Rubric. Address each of the points. For instance, the first point, about the introduction, is as follows:

The introduction should do the following: provide authors name (full name on first mention), the title of the text being summarized, and the point the summary is seeking to make. Additionally, there should be some general background information the text about the point that will be raised by the thesis. Let the writer know if any of these aforementioned elements are missing, what they might do to strengthen any of the elements, and what you think they have done well. Don't just tell them "good thesis" but explain why you think it is good. Same goes for the other points.

If something is missing, it's your job as a reader to point this out to the writer. If something is unclear, it's your job to point this out. If something is done nicely, it's important to point that out as well. It's better for the writer, and for you and your writing, if you explain why something is not so good, great or what have you. Once an essay has received two responses that have responded to the Response Rubric, then I'll read and respond to the essays as well.

Question: I am working on the middle part right now. In the Lecture notes you say that we need to use about three major points in our essays. Do you mean we need to talk about three points in details and just mention the rest major points, right? It's seems to me that if we are convey the author's ideas in our words we should not miss any important information, right? How long do you think the essay should be?

Answer: In the response portion of the essay, I suggest no more than three points. When you do the summary, you want to hit on all the major points, because you still want to use that part to give your reader a clear sense of what you are writing about and responding to. When you respond, you pull out and respond to the points you decide upon, for whatever reason. Since you are working on chapter two, maybe you'll respond to glittering generalities. There are plenty of examples of that sort for thing. You might begin with one of the examples from the book and then follow with some examples you've seen yourself. I mentioned the "satellite speed" in my lecture. Yesterday I saw an ad for a car that moves at "the speed of technology," showing how the driver got to a meeting quicker than his text message as it bounced from cell tower to cell tower. Still, what the heck is "the speed of technology"? A pencil is a technology. Is that the speed we're talking about? Horse and buggy? Clearly not, but the phrase is absurd on its face (and the ad stupid in my mind for many other reasons). The point is that you might write about just glittering generalities but flesh it out with an example from the book and one or two or three examples from life.

Question: Now, to the next step and I have some questions. I am choosing to write on ch 2. Do I build my essay just on chapter 2 and should I include anything from ch 1? I am thinking to use both chapters for intro and main idea but then support it with the facts from Ch 2. Do you think that's a good plan?

Answer: In both the summary and response for the essay portion of the assignment, you can ignore chapter one. You've already shown, through the major details summary, you've done that reading. I wouldn't include chapter one in the intro because that may create an expectation that is unfulfilled by the essay itself, which is never a good thing in an essay, or life really, creating expectations that can't be fulfilled.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Now that most of you have provided a list of major details for the first assignment, it's time for the next step, which is drafting the essay. There is, however, more to it than just drafting the essay.

First, decide which chapter you want to more fully summarize and respond to. The summary will go beyond the listing of the major details to include examples that illustrate those details. You can see in the table below that most of the major details, such as "deception can be bad for your health," often contains more than a single example. With above major detail, we get secondary details such as the Listerine halitosis scam and the Seville Marketing HIV home test kit that didn't work. You don't need to include both of these secondary examples to illustrate the major detail, but you can if you can be succinct about it. The summary section of the essay should be broken into several paragraphs, with the division points among paragraphs being movement to a new major detail. Each summary paragraph can contain two or three of the major details, depending upon how long they get. In general, shorter paragraphs are easier to read than longer paragraphs, but if the paragraphs are too short, the reading/writing becomes choppy.

The response portion of the assignment calls for you to tell your readers what you think about one or two, but certainly no more than three of the ideas touched on in your summary section. Generally speaking, the fewer points you cover, and the greater detail you cover them in, the better the response can be. Too many points given too little development leaves readers unsure about what is going on. If you were to write about something, such as the use of glittering generalities, you can open with a brief description of what these generalities are and why it matters that we are aware of them. I suggest you then follow with an example of a glittering generality taken from the text (but provide a different one than you used in the summary section so as to give your reader greater coverage). Then provide an example of glittering generalities you've seen in the world around you. Two come right to mind for me. The first is Barak Obama's call for change, for the "audacity of hope." One of the biggest concerns Obama is facing is that this is empty rhetoric. What does it mean to hope? To change? These are glittering generalities because they can mean everything but nothing simultaneously. Similarly, while riding my bike out in the Valley Ford area, I've seen advertisements for internet service offering "satellite speed." Every time I see this, I wonder just what the heck it means and how it works. What is "satellite speed"? How exactly do users connect to the internet? The company name is something like "Wild Blue" which makes it seem that the service is happening through the sky, wireless, but who knows. So, I could write about one political and one commercial example based on "glittering generalities" were I so inclined.

The essay's introduction should set up the response, whatever it is you think about what you respond to. If I were to write about the problem with glittering generalities in commercial and political advertising and communication, I'd probably write about how people who use those words don't expect us to think too deeply on the topic, that they expect us to buy into what amounts to side bites of information that really contains no information. I might be charitable and suggest that these slogans and sound bites are merely meant to get our attention and then we should look more deeply into things, but I also have to suspect most people may not agree with that. The introduction should make it clear why you think this, or whatever it is you think about what you respond to, matters, why your reader should care or find it of interest.

The conclusion is your last chance to get readers to see things your way. One thing that can be done is to restate the claim of the thesis, and even restate the major reasons the thesis is one a reader should care about, but don't stop there. It's a good idea to plug the discussion into a broader but related context. For instance, if you were to focus on the political aspect, you could suggest that we endanger our democracy and nation and freedoms and rights if we are lazy and buy into these slogans and glittering generalities. You might even conclude with a call to action by challenging your readers to look more deeply into the issue, to avoid companies or politicians who engage in this sort of strategy.

The due date for the reading draft is Monday at midnight. See below for the "map" of the two chapters. You'll want to be sure each of the major details, the outer-most bullet points, are included in your summary. If you have any questions, post them here or send me an email. I will be responding to late major detail summaries once each receives two responses.

At this point, there are several students who have yet to receive at least two responses, while several have received three. Please do your best to be sure everyone gets covered by reading and responding to those students who have not yet been taken care of. At this point, those students include jelena, mar69_05, samanthathompson, crystal, manuel, mbaker and danelle. If I missed anyone, please let me know. You won't be receiving a response from me until at least two responses have been provided by students (you should receive three from students if everyone pulls their weight, never a given, plus one from me). If you have yet to post your summaries, please do so and make it a single post, both chapters in one entry. This makes it easier for folks to respond. This is a bit of time to get caught up over the holiday weekend, but after that, the flexibility all but disappears.

Some of the early summaries are being overlooked. One way to get to them readily is to click on the "recent posts" link just below your name in the upper-left after you log in. Then look down the page for some of the early posts.

As I indicated in an earlier post, once each summary has received two responses, I'll be chiming in on the work, both the summary itself and possibly the responses. In the meanwhile, you are welcome to read my comments to those who have already received two responses. I have responded to both summaries and responses. Feel free to consider how my comments might apply to your summary or your responses. Keep in mind that we are not looking for perfection here. Summary is not easy and most of you will have had little practice with them (which is why we do them). Also keep in mind you get credit for doing the work, not for how "well" done the work is at this point. Better to do it not so well than to not do it at all, but that doesn't mean you should make a halfhearted effort.

A student asked me these questions and I figured the answers would be good for everyone to read. My answers are italicized:

1. In the summary are there thesis and conclusion? Or is it just merely stating the major facts?

For now, it's just the facts. Each major detail should be covered in a sentence. When it comes to the summary and response to a point, there will be an intro with a thesis and a conclusion. The thesis will provide the direction for the response. It's okay that the summary may not seem to follow the thesis itself in the essay portion of the assignment.

2. Do I create paragraphs? Or do I just write sentences that consist of main points?

In the major details summary, no need. In the essay portion, yes.

3. Do I just start from the begging and write down all the major points. Or do I take into a consideration this text as a whole and write main points?

Yes, think of the major details and the summary itself as a map of the original.

4. How long should it be?

That depends, the major details will be no more than a dozen (give or take a little bit) sentences. For the essay, it will be roughly twice as long because of providing specific examples to illustrate each of the major details. At this point, it's better to be too long so you can cut the extra than to be too short and needing to add in the necessary information.

5. The first part that we are working on now is called the Descriptive summary, right?

No, right now we are working on the precis, think precis. Just a list of the major details in sentence form.

I read to all the summaries that other students have posted and it seems like they all use different format.

That will happen and it's not a big deal. The thing to look at is are they consistent in their choices of major details. That's what I'm concerned with, whether they are getting the big ideas from the reading, whether they understand. If various students do do things a bit different, I'm not concerned.

According to the guidelines I have concluded that I need to first read, which I did and then as I am ready to write I will read each section again and summarize it in my own words, basically stating the facts, not including
the examples. Am I right?

That sounds good. As I noted at some point, good readers are re-readers. I'm trying to push people in that directions.

Thank you for helping me to understand. I might have some difficulties in the beginning but I am sure next essays will be much easier!

Probably not. :-0, but at least this part of things should go more smoothly.