Posted in English 1103, Teaching

ENG 1103: Unexpected Finds, Quiz Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas

When I explored the MLA International Bibliography, one of the databases in the HPU Libraries A-Z Database List, my search yielded the listing for the peer-reviewed article “The Everyday Life of Artificial Intelligence: Humanism in Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects” (in the screenshot above). That article will serve as one of my sources, but it also led me to additional sources, ones I did not find in my search of the MLA International Bibliography.

After I accessed the full text of the article, I scrolled down to the works cited list: the list of sources that the author, Sunyoung Ahn, cites in her study. In the screenshot below, you see that four of the first five sources focus on science and philosophy, not on Chiang’s novella specifically. However, the title of the second entry, Tina Attebery’s article, clarifies that her article is a study of The Lifecycle of Software Objects, one that isn’t listed in the MLA database.

Farther down the list of works cited (see the screenshot below), I discovered a source devoted to Ted Chiang’s science fiction, an essay published in The New Yorker, the same magazine that published one of your assigned readings for the course: Dan Rockmore‘s “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” Directly above that essay is another source from The New Yorker. The title doesn’t indicate that it’s devoted to Ted Chiang’s fiction, but a search of the HPU Libraries’ catalog revals that it’s an essay-review of The Lifecycle of Software Objects. New Yorker articles are available through the ProQuest database, but they do not show up in searches of the MLA International Database because The New Yorker is a mainstream magazine, not a scholarly journal.

Takeaways on Unexpected Finds

  • Once you have found a peer-reviewed article for your bibliography, peruse the list of works cited for possible additional sources.
  • You may not be familiar with the magazine, journal, or book publisher, but the source’s presence in a peer-reviewed article tells you that it’s already been vetted. Determining the validity of an article or book chapter’s citations is part of the peer review process.
  • If you question whether you should include the source in your bibliography, ask me, Lauren Ksa, Assistant Director and Head of Research and Instructional Services, or use the Ask an HPU Librarian chat feature on the HPU Libraries site. It will connect you with an HPU librarian, not a chatbot.

Quiz Follow-Up

Rather than listing the answers to the questions on Monday’s quiz, I have followed each question below with a note regarding where to find the answer. By finding the answers yourself, you will learn more than you would from simply reading the answers in a list.

  1. Last Thursday’s class notes, a follow-up to our library instruction, includes my recommendation for your next step for your research project. What is that step? See the October 29 class notes.
  2. Thursday’s class notes include a segment of a research project I wrote as a model for you. What is the segment (what part of the project is it), and what is its subject? See the October 29 class notes and the November 2 class handout.
  3. Last Friday’s class notes include two lists of words. What are the topics of those two lists? Note that Scrabble is the subject, not the topic. The topic is something more specific. See the October 30 class notes.
  4. How have the digients’ circumstances changed since Chapter Two? See Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Chapter Three, 88; Chapter Four, 100-102; Chapter Five, 118-19; and others.
  5. How have Ana Alvarado and Derek Brooks’s personal and professional lives changed since Chapter Two? See Chapter Three, 91; Chapter Four, 94, 95, 98,108; Chapter 5, 121; and others).

Your quiz also included a bonus opportunity. Possible answers for that bonus are found in the October 30 class notes.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Conducting a Peer Interview/Creating a Primary Source . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Today in class, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your annotated bibliography. An overview of the assignment and the directions are included below.

Overview

For practice in conducting an interview as well as providing a peer perspective for your research project, today you will interview a classmate whose conversation with you will serve as one of the five sources in your bibliography.

If you decide that you do not want to use the interview that you conduct today, you are welcome to include another one in your project. Keep in mind, however, that the interview you include in your project must be conducted with a student currently enrolled in section one or eight, and the subject of the interview must be the subject of your project.

Questions to ask your interviewee include the following:

  • What experience, if any, did you have with the subject (the reading or the aspect of the course) before you encountered it in English 1103?
  • Has it changed your perspective on reading and/or writing? If so, how?
  • Will you continue to pursue the subject (read more work by the author, continue the classroom practice or activity) after the conclusion of the semester?

You are welcome to limit your interview to the questions above, or you may add one or two follow-up questions during class. If you would like to continue your interview later and ask additional questions, plan to meet with the interviewee again, face to face or virtually.

Directions

  • Compose an MLA-style bibliographic entry following the format below. See the model on the handout labeled Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry: Peer Interview.

Last Name, First Name. Interview. Conducted by Your First Name Your Last Name. Day + Month + Year.

  • Next, compose a short, one-paragraph summary of the interview that includes a sentence in which you introduce a quotation from the interview with a signal phrase, such as, According to . . . , or [first and last name] notes or observes or points out that . . . .” Your quotation will not be followed by a parenthetical citation because it is a form of oral communication (without page or paragraph numbers).
  • Follow your summary with a short paragraph of commentary or analysis. Keep in mind that at this point you may not know how the interview will figure in your research. You may mention it briefly, or you may link it to one or more of your other sources. For your draft today, you may simply write that the interview provides a peer perspective on the subject, and specify the subject.
  • Follow your commentary with a short paragraph that identifies the student by class and major, and notes that he or she is currently enrolled in English 1103, section one or eight, at High Point University.

Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry: Peer Interview

Brewer, Jesse. Interview. Conducted by Jane Lucas. 20 Oct. 2023.

English 1103 student Jesse Brewer recounts how he has played Scrabble for most of his life. Since he was a young child, he has played the game with his grandparents whenever he visited their home in Pennsylvania. Brewer will continue to play Scrabble after the end of the semester because the game remains a tradition in his family. In his words, “[M]y grandmother is still going to want to play it every summer.” Brewer also notes that the game has expanded his vocabulary, saying it has “introduced me to new words, which allows me to read and write more capably in everyday life.”

Brewer’s remarks on vocabulary building highlight the game’s verbal benefits, and his observations on Scrabble as a family tradition serve as a point of contrast to that of some other students’–such as Ava Salvant’s–who had not played Scrabble before playing it as a weekly exercise in English 1103.

Brewer is a freshman computer science major at High Point University, where he is enrolled in English 1103, section 20.

*Note that the bibliographic entries in your MS Word file or PDF should have hanging indents, and the first line of each paragraph should be indented five spaces or one-half inch.

After Completing the Interview Worksheet

After you have drafted your annotated bibliography entry, proofread and edit as needed. When you have completed your editing, submit your assignment. Once you have given it to me, you may devote the remainder of your class time today to additional work on your research project.

Want More Class Time for Research and Writing?

You will have portions of the class periods on Monday, November 9, Wednesday, November 11, and Monday, November 16 to devote to research and writing. If you would like additional class time, you may request an alternate assignment for Friday, November 6. To request and complete that alternate assignment, follow the steps below.

  1. Email your request to complete the alternate assignment no later than 4 p.m. on Thursday, November 5. You will not be permitted to work on your research project in lieu of participating in Wordplay Day unless you submit your request before the deadline.
  2. Devote the class period to one or more research and/or writing tasks.
  3. In the last few minutes of class, complete the short-answer worksheet (you will receive in class) that asks you to summarize the task, or tasks, that have been the focus of your work.
  4. Submit your worksheet at the end of class.

Your worksheet will serve as your short assignment grade for Friday, November 6, in place of your Scrabble assignment. You may have a similar option for Friday, November 13. If so, instructions will be included in upcoming class notes.

Writing Center

As you continue to research and write, consider visiting the Writing Center. If you do so, you will earn five bonus points for your annotated bibliography and preface assignment.

To schedule an appointment, sign up online or scan the QR code below. To earn bonus points for your assignment, consult a Writing Center tutor no later than Thursday, November 19. The due date for posting the assignment to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog is Wednesday, November 18 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, November 20 (before class).

Writing Center Statistics

Section One

  • Literacy Narrative: 3 of 18 students, 16%
  • Analysis: 3 of 18 students, 16%

Section Eight

  • Literacy Narrative: 3 of 18 students, 16%
  • Analysis: 2 of 18 students, 11%

If you are one of the students who has not taken advantage of the opportunity to earn bonus points for meeting with a Writing Center consultant, please don’t miss your last opportunity to do so.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: “All Hail the King” Follow-Up . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday, you and two or three of your classmates composed a short assessment of the student bibliography and preface “All Hail the King” and used the assignment’s guidelines and rubric to determine a letter grade. Notes on the bibliography and preface’s content and form follow, along with details on bibliography’s three additional print sources.

“All Hail the King”: Notes of Content

  • Instead of beginning the preface with the three-and-a-half-line paragraph that currently serves as the introduction, the writer could start with what is now the second paragraph, which draws readers into the writing by placing them in the classroom with the writer as she reads “Strawberry Spring.”
  • The phrase “my interest in King in the past” (par. 2) offers a place for the writer to introduce the details that are now in the introduction.
  • The next paragraph should omit the first sentence that begins “I have compiled” (par. 3) and begin with a revised version of the second sentence: “The following bibliogrpahy includes . . . . (par. 3).
  • The words “excerpts from a collaborative book critiquing” (par. 3) should be replaced with “chapters in a collection of critical essays on” (par. 3).
  • The words the idea should be added between “supporting” and “that” (par. 3).
  • In the annotation for James Egan’s “Technohorror: The Dystopian Vision of Stephen King,” the writer should omit the phrase “is useful because” (par. 2) and instead show its usefulness.
  • In the annotation for Egan’s essay, the writer notes that he “published articles devoted to horror and other authors,” but horror is not an author; it’s a genre. The word “horror” should be followed by writers.
  • In the annotation for Ben P. Indick’s critical essay “King and the Literary Tradition of Horror and the Supernatural,” the writer doesn’t clarify whether Indick claims that King’s work is derivative of Edgar Allan Poe’s or Shirley Jackson’s or simply inspired by it.
  • Also, the writer notes Indick’s observation that King references other authors in Carrie, Salem’s Lot, and The Dead Zone but doesn’t specify which authors.
  • The writer should omit “in his time” (par. 3) from the annotation for Indick’s essay becuase he could not publish out of his time.
  • In the annotation for Stephen King’s “Strawberry Spring,” the writer states the short story is “a great introduction” (par. 1) to King but doesn’t explain why. Also, since readers know the story wasn’t the first work of King’s the writer read, readers may question why the writer chose to address the story’s value as an introduction to the author.
  • Elsewhere in the annotation for “Strawberry Spring,” the writer notes “similarities can be found between the story and the work of Edgar Allan Poe” (par. 2). That line should be rewritten in active voice, and the writer should include a detail from “Strawberry Spring” and one from a Poe Story to support the claim reagrding their similarities.
  • Since the bibliography raises the question of the relationship of King’s fiction to his influences, the writer might have asked her classmate whether “Strawberry Spring” reminded him of any stories he’d read. Asking that question may have enabled the writer to link her interview annotation to the one for Indick’s critical essay.

“All Hail the King”: Note on Form

  • The preface and bibliography have minimal errors of form, notably the omission of the period at the end of four of the five sources. Only the fifth source, the peer interview, includes the required period at the end.

Three Additional Print Sources (in One)

As I noted in class yesterday, the three additional print sources that the writer of “All Hail the King” included in her bibliography comply with the assignment’s requirements. All three were originally published in peer-reviewed journals. The screenshot above features HPU Libraries‘ catalog listing for the book, Stephen King: Bloom’s Modern Critical Views, where they were later published as part of a collection of analyses devoted to King’s work.

The screenshot below shows the listing for one of the three, James Egan’s “Technohorror: The Dystopian Vision of Stephen King,” in the MLA International Bibliography database on the HPU Libraries site. That listing shows that Egan’s essay was published in the journal Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 1988, ten years before it was included in Stephen King: Bloom’s Modern Critical Views.

Next Up

Wednesday, in the first half of class, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your research project. If you decide that you do not want to use the interview that you conduct on Wednesday, you are welcome to include another one in your project. Keep in mind, however, that the student interview you include must be conducted with a student currently enrolled in section one or eight, and the subject of the interview must be the subject of your bibliography. In the second half a class, you will have time to continue your research and writing.

Posted in Reading, Teaching, English 1103, AI

ENG 1103: Using A.I. Ethically . . .

Posted on by janemlucas
Ulrich Boser’s “Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? Here’s Your Memory Trick?” the Wired magazine article I found through a conversation with ChatGPT.

During last Wednesday’s library session in the 10:40 class, Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Library Instruction, mentioned that she didn’t know what my policy was regarding students’ use of A.I. for online searches. I am grateful to Lauren for mentioning that because it prompted me to provide you with images of my own A.I.-assisted search for an article, followed by my commentary, as a model for using A.I. ethically in research. Turning to A.I. was a step I took only after I had explored other options thoroughly, and that’s when you should turn to A.I., if you use it at all.

For several years, my students have delivered group presentations on articles devoted to aspects of English 1103, but none of those presentations included an article on Scrabble. That’s because I was unable to find one that was comparable to articles on other aspects of the class. Although I knew of scholarly articles on the subject–and have cited some in my own writing–for the purposes of both the group presentations and a starting point for research, I needed an article written for a general audience.

Last summer, as I was planning for the fall semester, it occurred to me that I might see whether a conversation with ChatGPT would yield what I’d been looking for.

In the screenshot above, you can see ChatGPT’s first recommendation, a Washington Post article that could serve as one of the sources in a bibliography devoted to the cognitive benefits of Scrabble play, but it isn’t what I sought for a presentation article that could also be a starting point for research. I omitted the other two recommendations from the screenshot because they were off base. One was a health system site and the other was a general recommendation for the Washington Post ‘s Brain Matter column, written by Richard Sima, rather a particular column on the subject.

Although I had requested magazine articles, ChatGpt’s initial response included none, but a later reply from the A.I. assistant led me to what I’d sought.

ChatGPT’s number-one find (in the screenshot above) seemed to be precisely what I was looking for. I omitted the three suggestions that followed because the second one, Stefan Fatsis‘s Word Freak, while a valuable source and an engaging read, is a book rather than an article. The third recommendation was a Time magazine article on the history of the game, and the fourth was my own study of Scrabble, which ChatGPT located on my blog–and yes, identified as my own writing.

A.I. Recommended It, Now What?

If I had not been familiar with the magazine Wired, my next step would have been determining whether it’s a reliable and reputable source. Searching for Wired on the HPU Libraries site confirms its credibility. The magazine is cited in sources available through the library and the magazine itself is available through the ProQuest Central database and as an open source on the web.

Takeaways

  • Turn to A.I. for searches only after you have explored other options thoroughly.
  • If the conversation leads you to a promising source, determine whether its reliable and reputable and double-check the accuracy of A.I.’s details about the source.

With the second takeaway in mind, look back at the first screenshot in this post. There, the A.I. agent recommends a Washington Post article titled “Want to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia? Play a Board Game.” As you can see in the screenshot that follows, the actual title is “Playing Board Games Can Deal You a Better Hand Against Dementia.”

As you continue your own research and writing, remember that using generative AI to write your bibliography, and/or your preface, and presenting an AI agent’s words as your own violates High Point University’s Honor Code and is grounds for an F. However, using AI ethically, as I do in the model above, can be a useful step.

Sample Bibliography and Preface: “All Hail the King”

This morning in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, you and two or three of your classmates will compose a short assessment of the student bibliography and preface “All Hail the King,” and use the assignment’s guidelines and rubric to determine a letter grade.

Congratulations to Gavin Godfrey-Ryan and Layla Rothberg, for winning copies of Stephen King’s On Writing (pictured above) in Friday’s drawings.

Next Up

In the first half of Wednesday’s class, you will interview a classmate, compose an MLA-style bibliographic entry for that interview, and craft a sentence incorporating a quote from that interview, a sentence you may include in your preface or your annotation for the interview. In the second half of class, you will have time for additional research and writing.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: I Haint Afraid of No Ghost . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Since today’s Wordplay Day coincides with the eve of Halloween, this morning’s Scrabble post includes a list of words for ghosts. Two of the words (banshee and eidolon) are seven letters long, enabling a player or team to Scrabble, or bingo, earning an additional fifty points for the play. Another is eight letters long (barguest) and can be formed by adding letters to a word played previously.

  • banshee: a female spirit in Gaelic folklore that wails to warn of a family member’s imminent death.
  • barguest: a goblin (also barghest)
  • bogy: a goblin
  • daimon: a spirit (also daemon and demon)
  • eidolon: a phantom or specter
  • haint: a ghost
  • kelpie: a water sprite in Scottish folklore known for drowning sailors
  • wraith: a ghost of a person, often appearing just before that person’s death
  • zombi: a zombie 

In the second half of today’s class, you will have the opportunity to win one of the copies of Stephen King’s On Writing, pictured above.

Some Sweet Scores

Since Halloween brings trick-or-treat candy, here’s a list of playable sweets. If you have the right letters, don’t be a butterfingers–but play the word if you can.

  • Bonbon: a type of chocolate-coated sweet
  • Butterfingers: a clumsy person (also butterfingered but not butterfinger)
  • Candyfloss: cotton candy
  • Fireball: a ball of fire, a meteor
  • Jawbreaker: a type of hard candy
  • Jujube: a type of edible berry (not to be confused with juju: an object believed to have magical powers)
  • Nestle: to lie close to something or someone
  • Skittle: a form of bowling, or a pin played in that game (but not skittles)
  • Starburst: an image resembling a diffusion of light
  • Tootsie: a foot (also tootsy)

Kudos

Skylar Bowry, Avery Broadbent, Nicole Halucka, Claire Jahnke, Devyn Jones, Vivian Laliberte, Mackenzie Mossa, Mariah Robinson, and Sophia Stewart, and Alexis Zavalishin revised their comments on the group presentations and published their revisions as posts on their blogs. For their efforts, they received bonus-assignment credit.

Next Up

Monday, we will examine the sample annotated bibliography “All Hail the King,” which you should read and annotate before class. If you were absent when I distributed copies or you misplaced yours, print a copy from Blackboard. “All Hail the King” is posted in the Sample Papers folder on Blackboard. We will also study the most recent reading assignments in Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects: Chapter Three (for Wednesday), Chapter Four (for today), and Chapter Five (for Monday).

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Building Your Bibliography

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, you found at least one source for your bibliography, but your work actually began earlier, with your study of the class reading on the subject that serves as your focus: Matt Richtel‘s “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” Charlotte Hu‘s “Why Writing By Hand is Better for Memory and Learning,” Allison Aubrey’s “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood. Here’s How Long You Need,” Ulrich Boser‘s “Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? Here’s Your Memory Trick,” Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround,” Brian Aldiss‘s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” or Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

As I noted in class, you do not need to focus on the subject of your October 21 group presentation. Your presentations were only one of the reasons you read Matt Richtel’s, Charlotte Hu’s, Allison Aubrey’s, and Ulrich Boser’s articles. Another reason you read them is for the starting points they provide for research. The fifth presentation, on the first chapter of The Lifecycle of Software Objects, offers another starting point and Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround,” Brian Aldiss‘s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” offer two more.

If you haven’t already drafted a bibliographic entry for the reading above that serves as your starting point, that should be your next step. The required elements for each bibliographic entry are outlined in your assignment and listed below.

Annotated Bibliographic Entry: Required Elements

  • A complete MLA-style bibliographic entry for each source. Sample entries for the starting-point sources (listed above) are included on your assignment handout, in the assignment file on Blackboard, and in yesterday’s class notes. As a guide for formatting the entries for your other sources, see Citations by Format and Works Cited: A Quick Guide on the MLA Style Center site. You are welcome to use citation generators, but be aware of their limitations. Some generators will yield entries that lack required elements; others will be flawed by errors of punctuation and/or mechanics. If you use a generator, compare the results with the samples on MLA’s site and edit as needed. Also, if you use a citation generator, be sure to select MLA, not APA, Chicago, or another style.
  • A one-paragraph summary of the source.
  • A second paragraph of commentary that elucidates the usefulness of the source to you and others researching your subject. Would it serve as a point of comparison or contrast to another source? Would it support or challenge an idea presented in another source? Is it a secondary source that sheds light on the meaning of a primary source? The last question pertains primarily to bibliographies that focus on one of the writers studied in the course.
  • A third short paragraph that names the author, his or her profession or job title, and additional publications. Look back at the first paragraph of this post. If the author of your starting-point article has an embedded link in his or her name, the link is for the writer’s official website. On that site, there’s an about page where you can find information to include in your third paragraph. If the author does not maintain his or her own site, you can find the necessary information elsewhere. NPR’s staff pages include one devoted to Allison Aubrey, the Penguin/Random House site’s authors pages include one for Isaac Asimov, and Time magazine’s feature “The 100 Most Influential People in AI” includes a page on Ted Chiang.

As a model for you, I have composed the sample entry included below. If your own starting-point source is Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software objects, you will draft summary and commentary paragraphs that you will revise after you finish reading the novella. That said, you should avoid including any details that are spoilers. The summary and commentary paragraphs of mine that follow provide specifics, but they do not give away the ending.

Sample Annotated Bibliographic Entry

Chiang, Ted. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects.” Exhalation and Other Stories. 2019. Vintage, 2020. pp. 62-172.

Ted Chiang’s novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects chronicles twenty years in the lives of its protagonists, Ana Alvarado and Derek Brooks, two software firm employees who—because of shifting economic and environmental landscapes—devote their days to jobs that differ markedly from the careers they imagined for themselves. Ana, a zoologist by training, finds herself training digients, short for digital entities, at the start-up company Blue Gamma. Her coworker, animation artist Derek Brooks, designs avatars for the digients that comply with the company’s specifications rather than his own aesthetic preferences. Though initially Ana and Derek’s interactions with the digients are limited to the workplace, as the novella progresses and Blue Gamma folds, the digients enter their personal lives, with Ana and Derek taking on the roles of caregivers.

As a primary source for studies of Chiang’s writing, The Lifecycle of Software Objects presents a possible microcosm of his wider fictional world. In the opening pages of the novella, readers do not meet the one-dimensional characters typical of genre fiction but rather two true-to-life twentysomethings forced to pivot from their life plans. Juxtaposing The Lifecycle of Software Objects with other novellas and stories of Chiang’s enables readers to identify patterns in his fiction and determine whether the verisimilitude of Ana and Derek’s narrative is the exception or the rule.

Ted Chiang is the author of two short story collections: The Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation: Stories. He is the recipient of four Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and the Pen/Malamud Award for Short Story Writing. His story “The Story of Your Life” is the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Arrival. In 2023, Time magazine named him to its list of One Hundred Most Influential People in A.I.

My sample annotated bibliographic entry above is 305 words long. If the draft of your first entry is of comparable length, you will have reached one-sixth of the 1,800 minimum word count for your research project.

If you determine you want to use the source you located in the library on Wednesday, compose the bibliographic entry for that source as soon as you can. Building your bibliography piecemeal, one source at a time, will make your project far more manageable.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Beginning Your Annotated Bibliography and Preface

Posted on by janemlucas
https://www.highpoint.edu/library/research-services/

As a starting point for your bibliography work, today’s class will focus on locating sources. We will meet on the lower level of Smith Library, where Lauren Ksa, Assistant Director and Head of Research and Instruction, will lead us through the steps of finding articles and books available through the HPU Libraries’ databases.

At the beginning of class, I will distribute copies of your annotated bibliography and preface assignment. An additional copy of the assignment follows.

Research Project: Annotated Bibliography and Preface

Overview

Your third and final major writing assignment is an annotated bibliography and a preface that introduces it. Your bibliography may focus on (1) one of the aspects of the course: blogging, limiting screen time, writing longhand, playing Scrabble, or (2) the writing of one of the science fiction authors we have studied.

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a subject that includes a summary of each source. Some bibliographies include additional information, such as commentary on the source and the authors’ credentials, which is the type of bibliography that you will compose.

A preface introduces a piece of writing and explains how it came to be. The preface for your annotated bibliography will offer a first-person account of your research process.

Directions for Researching

  1. Time permitting, devote the remainder of today’s class to locating a potential source for your bibliography.
  2. After class, continue your work on your own. One of the early steps in your process should be composing an annotated bibliographic entry for the course reading that serves as your starting point, the short story or article that led to your choice of study.
  3. Use the HPU Libraries site, https://www.highpoint.edu/library/, and Google Scholar to locate a minimum of three additional reliable and relevant print sources. (One of the class readings and your peer interview are two of your five required sources.) At least one of the three must be a peer-reviewed article or a chapter in a book published by a university press.
  4. In class next week: Conduct a personal interview with a classmate and compose an annotated bibliographic entry for the interview. Details TBA.

Note: Additional class periods over the course of the next two weeks will be devoted to writing and research, along with our study of The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

Directions for Drafting, Revising, and Submitting

  1. Write a preface that (1) presents the subject of your bibliography, and (2) addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What question do you seek to answer about your subject? Also, (3) what larger project might develop from your bibliography? Would it be a project for a course in psychology, science, education, or another discipline? What would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject? Address all five of your sources in your preface and quote at least two of them.
  2. After you draft your preface, turn back to your bibliography. Review your commentaries and consider where you might mention one source as a point of comparison (or contrast) with another.
  3. Revise your preface and your bibliography, using the checklist provided (to be distributed in class) as a guide.
  4. Before class on the due date: Post a copy of your revision to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog. In your blog post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, professor’s name, course and section, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as the draft of an annotation in your journal, your handwritten notes on a research worksheet, or a longhand draft of your preface. Also, add an embedded link to a relevant website.

Note: Even though your work for this assignment will take place primarily in front of the screen, your writing process still involves putting pen to paper, and photographic documentation of that on your blog is a requirement of the assignment.

Sample MLA-Style Bibliographic Entries

Every student’s bibliography will include one of the following articles or stories.MLA

Aldiss. Brian. “Supertoys in Other Seasons.” Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001, pp. 23-35.

—. “Supertoys Last All Summer Long.” Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001, pp. 1-11.

—. “Supertoys When Winter Comes.” Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001, pp. 12-22.

Asimov, Isaac. “Runaround.” I, Robot. 1950. Doubleday, 1963, pp. 40-58.

Aubrey, Allison. “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood: Here’s How Long You Need.” NPR, 24 Feb. 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5304417/smartphone-break-digital-detox-screen-addiction#:~:text= Researchers%20studied%20what%20happened%20when,felt%20better%20after%20the%20break.

Boser, Ulrich. “Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? Here’s Your Memory Trick.” Wired, 1 April 2017, https://www.wired.com/2017/04/want-play-scrabble-like-pro-heres-memory-trick/.

Chiang, Ted. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects.” Exhalation and Other Stories. 2019. Vintage, 2020. pp. 62-172.

Hu, Charlotte. “Why Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning.” Ed. Lauren J. Young. Scientific American, 21 Feb. 2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/ article /why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/.

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/blogs-vs-term-papers/docview/2216251885/se-2.

Note that the bibliographic entries in the Microsoft Word file or PDF that you submit to Blackboard will have hanging indents, unlike the block-style samples above. The first line of each entry will be flush left, and any subsequent lines will be indented five spaces or one-half inch.

Grade Criteria

An A research project includes all the following elements:

  • A preface of three or more paragraphs that (1) presents the subject of your bibliography, and (2) addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What question do you seek to answer about one of the subjects that you’ve studied in the course or about one aspect of the course? Also, (3) what larger project might develop from your bibliography, and what would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject?Complete bibliographic entries for a minimum of five reliable and relevant sources, four of which are print, alphabetized by the writers’ last names.
  • A one-paragraph summary of each source followed by a paragraph of commentary and a third paragraph that presents the writer’s credentials. 
  • A minimum of 1,800 words, total (preface and annotated bibliography combined).

An A research project complies with the requirements above and is also cohesive and relatively free of surface errors and contains no factual errors.

A B research project effectively meets all the requirements above but may be flawed by minor issues of organization and/or surface errors but contains no factual errors.

A C research project meets most but not all the requirements above and may also be flawed by issues of organization, surface errors, and/or factual errors.

A D research project meets only a few of the requirements above and may also be flawed by issues of organization, surface errors, and/or factual errors.

An F research project fails to meet the requirements above and may also be flawed by substantial issues of organization, surface errors, and/or factual errors.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in AI, English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Chapters One and Two Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, you and two or three of your classmates wrote about the conflicts and sources of potential conflicts in chapters one and two of Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Those tensions you addressed and lines you quoted are included in the notes that follow.

As our study of Chiang’s novella progresses, return to these notes and consider how and where the moments detailed here seem to anticipate later complications in the narrative.

The differences between Ana Alvarado’s and Derek Brooks’s perceptions of the digients (69-70): You cited Ana’s observation that “it feels like we’re dressing them in circus costumes when we try to make them look like monkeys or pandas” (69) and how Derek, though initially hurt by Ana’s remark “appreciate[s] hearing a different perspective” (70). Though Ana and Derek’s contrasting visions of the digits may not be a source of tension between the two of them–since they seem to respectfully disagree–that lack of consensus could be an issue among other employees at Blue Gamma. It also raises a larger question about the digits: How will the digients’ relationships with their designers, trainers, and owners proceed when those humans are uncertain of the digients’ nature?

Lolly, the lion cub digient, learning an obscenity from Stefan, the Blue Gamma trainer in the Australian office (73-74): You referred to Stefan, “one of the trainers from Blue Gamma’s Australian office” (73), as the person from whom Lolly learned the curse word and mentioned one of Blue Gamma’s cofounders, Mahesh, saying they “can’t sell a digient that says” an obscenity (73). Stefan’s misstep and its consequences–namely Mahesh’s decision to roll back the digients’ memories demonstrate the considerable costs of raising the digients, both the learning loss they suffer and the productivity cost for Blue Gamma. It also highlights the vulnerability of the childlike digients.

Blue Gamma customer Andrew Nguyen’s interactions with his digient (76-77, 79): You noted Derek’s suspicion that “the user hadn’t read Blue Gamma’s recommendations on raising digients” (77) and Andrew’s response to Derek’s recommendations: “The Hell with that. I paid good money for this avatar, and I bought it specifically to wear when I’m on the social continents. I’m not going to stop wearing it for a digient” (79). Andrew’s resistance to Derek’s suggestions illustrates how some owners’ approaches to their digients disregard the company’s guidelines, which can lead to neglect. That negligence on the part of owners may in turn give rise to larger problems.

Jax, the digient with the neo-Victorian robot avatar, “inhabiting” the SaruMech robot body, and SaruMech’s plans to rent the robot bodies, rather than sell them (81-83): You addressed Ana’s comment on Jax’s progress, that “it’s cool to see him that way” (83) and her hope that “[f]or SaruMech’s sake, the experience translates well onto video” (83). You also noted that “[t]here were many reasons Blue Gamma targeted the virtual realm instead of the real one–lower cost, ease of social networking–but one was the risk of property damage” (83). Ana’s comments juxtaposed with SaruMech’s corporate decision to limit the robot bodies to rentals demonstrates the competing interests of Blue Gamma and Sarumech and prompts questions about the effects of Sarumech’s choice. How might Saumech’s rental-only hardware policy affect digient’s who may grow to prefer the experience of virtually inhabiting a body?

Blue Gamma’s design of an alien species, Xenotherians, commissioned by a group of artificial-life hobbyists (87): You cited the hobbyists’ haste, noting the narrator’s observation that “rather than wait for real intelligence to evolve on its own in the biomes, [they] commissioned Blue Gamma to design an intelligent alien life species for them” (87). You also mentioned that the hobbyists “intend to create a new culture from scratch” (87). The hobbyists’ desire to develop an alien digital world in isolation, using a custom dialect of an artificial language, Lojban, that only insiders can comprehend runs counter to what the professionals at Blue Gamma have identified as necessary practices for knowledge building, both for individual digients and their community. If creating a private continent for the Xenotherians is simply an intellectual exercise, will the hobbyists lose interest? If so, what might the Xenotherians do if left to their own devices?

Ted Chiang, author of The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Illustration by Time; photo credit: Jason LaVeris, FilmMagic/Getty Images.

Next Up

Tomorrow we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library in a glass-front room near the tables where we met on September 16, and I will distribute copies of your annotated bibliography and preface assignment. Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Instructional Services, will lead us through the process of using library databases to locate sources for your bibliography.

Posted in AI, English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Turning to Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”

Posted on by janemlucas
Ted Chiang, author of The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Illustration by Time; photo credit: Jason LaVeris, FilmMagic/Getty Images.

Today marks the beginning of our study of the novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, whose author, Ted Chiang, was named to Time magazine’s list One Hundred Most Infuential People in AI (2023).

This morning, after your Scrabble debriefing, you and two or three of your classmates will compose a short piece of writing that addresses one of the conflicts or sources of potential conflict in the first two chapters of Chiang’s novella. The guidelines for your assignment follow.

Directions

Compose a statement of at least one complete sentence that begins with a signal phrase for a quotation that addresses one of the bulleted items below, follows the quote with a parenthetical citation, and concludes with words that convey the situation’s conflict or indicate its potential for conflict. Do not include the word conflict. Instead, describe the conflict or explain its possibility.

Example

Ana Alvarado, who studied primate communication and “dreamed of following Fossey and Goodall to Africa” (66), and the animator Derek Brooks, whose design work is limited to such tasks as fashioning “a body that manifests the digients’ gestures” (67), both find themselves pursuing careers that differ considerably from the ones they had envisioned for themselves. The discrepancies between their plans and their current circumstances prompt questions about their futures. Will their days at Blue Gamma be marked by satisfaction or resignation, and how will their attitudes affect their relationships with the digients?

  • The differences between Ana Alvarado’s and Derek Brooks’s perceptions of the digients (69-70).
  • Lolly, the lion cub digient, learning an obscenity from Stefan, the Blue Gamma trainer in the Australian office (73-74).
  • Blue Gamma customer Andrew Nguyen’s interactions with his digient (76-77, 79).
  • Jax, the digient with the neo-Victorian robot avatar, “inhabiting” the SaruMech robot body, and SaruMech’s plans to rent the robot bodies, rather than sell them (81-83).
  • Blue Gamma’s design of an alien species, Xenotherians, commissioned by a group of artificial-life hobbyists (87).

In the second half of class, we will discuss what you’ve written about the conflicts and potential sources of conflict in chapters one and two. Afterward, I will introduce the annotated bibliography and preface assignment, your third and final major paper assignment for the course.

Scrabble Debriefing, Part II: Viruses You’d Like to Catch

Although viruses are infections to avoid, playing viruses in Scrabble by using all seven of your tiles will earn you fifty bonus points. That was the case in last Friday’s game pictured above. Using a blank for the e, a team played viruses vertically by adding the s to leap for a total of seventy-five points.

Next Up

Wednesday we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library in a glass-front room near the tables where we met on September 16. Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Instructional Services will lead us through the process of using library databases to locate sources for your bibliography.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Toponyms, Part I . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

The second Scrabble post of the semester featured first names that are also common nouns, making them playable in Scrabble. Today’s post includes place names and words derived from places, or toponyms–more proper nouns that are playable in Scrabble because they’re also common nouns. Studying these words offers you additional opportunities to broaden your vocabulary and up your game.

  • afghan: a wool blanket
  • alamo: a cottonwood poplar tree
  • alaska: a heavy fabric
  • berlin: a type of carriage
  • bermudas: a variety of knee-length, wide-legged shorts
  • bohemia: a community of unconventional, usually artistic, people
  • bolivia: a soft fabric
  • bordeaux: a wine from the Bordeaux region
  • boston: a card game similar to whist
  • brazil: a type of tree found in Brazil used to make instrument bows (also brasil)
  • brit: a non-adult herring
  • cayman: a type of crocodile, also known as a spectacled crocodile (also caiman)
  • celt: a type of axe used during the New Stone Age
  • chile: a spicy pepper (also chili)
  • colorado: used to describe cigars of medium strength and color
  • congo: an eellike amphibian
  • cyprus: a thin fabric
  • dutch: referring to each person paying for him or herself
  • egyptian: a sans serif typeface
  • english: to cause a ball to spin
  • french: to slice food thinly
  • gambia: a flowering plant known as cat’s claw (also gambier, which is a small town in Ohio)
  • geneva: gin, or a liquor like gin
  • genoa: a type of jib (a triangular sail), also known as a jenny, first used by a Swedish sailor in Genoa
  • german: also known as the german cotillon, an elaborate nineteenth-century dance
  • greek: something not understood
  • guinea: a type of British coin minted from 1663 to 1813
  • holland: a linen fabric
  • japan: to gloss with black lacquer
  • java: coffee
  • jordan: a chamber pot
  • kashmir: cashmere
  • mecca: a destination for many people

“Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? . . .”

In Monday’s 7:50 class (section one), when we discussed the readings as a follow-up to the presentations, I omitted Ulrch Boser’s Wired article, “Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? Here’s Your Memory Trick.” I intended to address the passage pictured above, which I also mentioned in Tuesday’s class notes. In that post, I referred to Bennett Schwartz’s retrieval process as a strategy for you to try as you rehearsed your presentation:

Try turning away from the written page–and away from the sound of your voice if you record it–and simply ask yourself what words and phrases you recall. The more often you ask yourself, the more you will remember. As Boser notes, “Indeed, it appears that at a very basic neurological level, grappling with material in a dedicated way promotes a type of shifting in our neural circuits–and a richer form of expertise” (par. 21). In the words of Schwartz, himself, “If we process things too easily, they do not form in our memories” (qtd. in Boser, par. 21). Memorizing lines is a tedious process, but embracing the process will help you develop into a stronger public speaker.

Next Up

After Monday’s Scrabble debriefing, we will examine chapter two of “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” (74-87), which you should read and annotate before class. Remember that each reading assignment listed on the calendar denotes what you should read before the class where it’s listed.

If you do not want to mark up your copy of Ted Chiang’s Exhalation, rather than annotating “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” take notes on each chapter in your journal.

In the second half of class, I will introduce your third and final major paper asignment: the annotated bibliography and preface.

Coming Soon

Wednesday we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library. Near the tables where we met on September 16, there’s a glass-front room with desktop computers. That’s where we’ll meet with Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Instructional Services, who will lead you through the process using library databases to locate sources for your bibliography.