Fine Tuning Your Blog

This Week - Editing Workshop

This week we're going to look at your first posts about your research process. I'm going to assign ten of you to copy and paste your week one process post to Google docs and print out five copies.

1. Sign in to Blogger
   
2. Open Microsoft Word
   
3. Find your 2nd blog about your research.
4. Copy the text from your blog and paste it into Microsoft Word
   
5. Print five copies to the library: the printer with WCP55 in the title. If you can fit multiple copies of your post on one page, do so to save paper.
   

Infotrac

The BPS pays for student access to Infotrac. It is advisable that you familiarize yourself with using a database as you will do much college research in this medium. Here are some advantages to using this database:

1. hundreds of thousands of articles from magazines, reputable journals, newspapers, and other sources.
2. search terms are not limited or blocked
3. articles have been reviewed to ensure accuracy
   

When you use Infotrac, you have to choose a different citation form on the Citation Machine. Choose "Work from a Subscription Service Accessed through a Library - one or more authors
Author." It is under "Non-print" but you must choose to view more sources.

Citation Machine Instructional Video

Hey folks. If you're checking this from school today (Monday), then right on! Take today to work on the blog post that is due today. I'll see you tomorrow.

Hey, if you are having trouble adding an annotation, then check out this video! I made it last night.

MLA Citation Practice

Barack Obama article from Rolling Stone

Directions:
1. Go to Room 305.
2. Open up a new tab. Sign in to blogger, and create a new post.
3. Put the following information:

• The names of both people in your pair.
• Use the Son of citation machine to create MLA style citations for the following articles (open each in a new tab)
  
• Flash mob article from CNN
• Global Warming wiki
• Publish that post.

(You should have a total of five tabs open: Rm305, a new blog post, the citation generator, and the two articles.)

Senior Inquiry Project - The Body Section

Next Monday, your 1st blog report on your research is due. Here are two samples of the type of writing that goes into the body section.

From Jessica's paper on self mutilation:

Our English 4 teacher Mr. Malley introduced InfoTrac Novel Database to my class and that is where my research began. I found out that this site was very easy to use and filled with information I needed to answer my question. In an article I found by Pamela Daniel, she explains that the body releases body chemicals called endorphins that give the self-mutilator a feeling of well-being. This good feeling the person experiences does not last long, and this is why I think that people may hurt themselves more. Daniel answered my question in more than one way. She stated that someone might self-harm to stop feeling rage, loneliness, being numb inside, or emotionless. Some may feel that they need to release all the tension they keep bottled up deep down inside. Many people that self-harm like the sight of their blood or like picking at their scabs and having it leave a mark on their body. An alternative method mentioned in this article is to draw on yourself with a red marker or tempera paint. If you are one of those people who likes to pick at scabs and never let them heal, then you should purchase a henna tattoo kit. As many people know, a henna tattoo kit allows to make a temporary tattoo that stays on longer than a .50-cent tattoo. When you place the henna provided on your body and pick at it, it will leave a red-orange mark on your body like a scab would (Daniel).

From my paper on Mark Twain:

So, I began my search at my computer. It was a simple method. I went to Yahoo and typed in “Mark Twain humor.” I clicked on the second result, which led me to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 1998 The Kennedy Center established the “Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.” The center, which proclaims itself “the nation’s busiest arts facility,” celebrates, in the words of John F. Kennedy, Americans’ “contribution(s) to the human spirit” (“Welcome”). Their prize is given annually “to honor the brilliant minds that elbow American culture to see if it's still alive—and make us laugh about it” (“Mark Twain Prize”). The site celebrates Twain’s humor:

For a man who gleefully named characters Spinal Meningitis Snodgrass or Huckleberry, Mark Twain was always painfully aware of what he called "the baseness and hypocrisy and cruelties" of the human race. Twain's humor was always a thin veil, if any, of his social criticisms. His fearless observations outraged many while delighting many more.

Although not a prerequisite for winning the award, the description, on three different occasions, reference not simple humor, but a socially conscious humor. Past winners of the award seem to reflect this. The first winner was Richard Pryor, a comic known for both his profanity laced tirades and social criticism. A few weeks ago, I caught one of performances at around 2 a. m. on Comedy Central. Even though the show was taped over twenty years ago, Pryor’s humor was still relevant to today’s society. When accepting the Twain award, he stated "I feel great about accepting this prize. It is nice to be regarded on par with a great white man…Seriously, though, two things people throughout history have had in common are hatred and humor. I am proud that, like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people’s hatred!"
The other winners have similar comedic styles. Past winners include Whoopi Goldberg and Lorne Michaels, two artists who also use humor to draw attention to hypocrisy and the ills of society. Goldberg recently annoyed Republicans everywhere while unleashing a profanity-laced diatribe against George W. Bush. Michaels, 2004 winner and creator/executive producer of Saturday Night Live, has established the careers of dozens of comic superstars. People such as Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Dennis Miller have built careers on the social and political humor employed by that show. It seems that this award focuses on a certain part of Twain’s comic repertoire, political and social satire. When I originally conceived of this I-search topic, the main humorous sources that reminded me of Twain were Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show, Dave Barry’s columns, and The Onion. All three share this socially critical style.

Introductory Post

Today, we have two goals:

Task One: I would each of you to write down your essential question, name, and period number and staple it to my bulletin board. Feel free to make it look nice. Doodle if you want. It's for a display.



Task Two: Today you are working on your introductory blog post. Follow the format:

• How did you become interested in the topic?
  
• What did you know before?
  
• What is your essential question? Foundation questions.
• This is due by Monday. But, class time Monday will be spent talking about the middle section of the project.
• Carefully consider your blog post title. Use a title and a subtitle. The title should be related to your topic and the subtitle should be something like "Before the Search."
• My initial post might (will) read "Developing My Personal Learning Network: Before The Search"
  
• Here are the links to the introductory sections we read yesterday.
  

Introductory Section Brainstorming

(Thanks Gerry B.)

Developing Your Essential Question and Foundation Question

Hmmmm....

Getting to Know Inquiry

Today we're going to listen to an episode of Radiolab, a podcast published by WNYC. Radiolab is a show that inquires into different themes and topics, much like I'm asking you to do. Today I want you to listen to get a sense of what inquiry is.

But first, these three questions




This is a free podcast offered through iTunes. If you like what you've heard, check 'em out.

Senior Inquiry Project Materials

Further Brainstorming Assignment