Today’s blog post features my version of the fifth Check, Please! assignment, which you submitted at the beginning of yesterday’s class. Although you have now completed your final Check, Please! worksheet, this model assignment and the previous four will remain useful to you as you continue to hone your information literacy skills.
Check, Please! Lesson Five
In the fifth lesson of the Check, Please!, Starter Course, Mike Caulfield, author of the course and ra esearch scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, covers the final step in the five-step SIFT approach: “Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to Their Original Context.” Caulfield outlines the process of locating the original context as an antidote to the issues of accuracy that occur when information passes through intermediaries.
One of the most instructive portions of lesson five features a passage in which Caulfield cites a study of how stories evolve as gossip through the processes of leveling (stripping details), sharpening (adding or emphasizing details), and assimilating, which combines the two. In the process of assimilation “the details that were omitted and the details that were added or emphasized are chosen because they either fit what the speaker thinks is the main theme of the story, or what the speaker thinks the listener will be most interested in.” Similarly, leveling, sharpening, and assimilating all figure in the altered photographs and memes in lesson four. The abbreviated speech of the NRA’s CEO, Wayne LaPierre, which omits commentary, inaccurately indicates a contradiction in his stance on the presence of guns in schools.
The image of photographer Kawika Singson with flames at his feet serves as an example of leveling. Although the flames are real, they were not caused by the heat of the lava flow where Singson stands with his tripod. Instead, to create the image, a friend of his poured accelerant on the lava before Singson stepped into the frame. The deception wasn’t intentional; Singson simply wanted the image for his Facebook cover photo.
Unlike Singson’s photograph, the altered photograph of the Notorious B.I.G. with Kurt Cobain was created with the intent to deceive. Cropping and merging the two photographs illustrates the assimilation process adopted by photoshop users to appeal to music fans eager to think that such fictional meetings of icons took place. Krist Novoselic, who founded Nirvana with Cobain, replied to the is-it-real question with his own fake photo, making the claim that the hand holding the cigarettes was Shakur’s, that he had been cropped from the right.
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
This morning, after I collect your final Check, Please! worksheets, you will begin work on the first segment of your final essay/annotated bibliography assignment, which is an interview with one of your classmates.
Interview Assignment
Your final essay and annotated bibliography will focus on one of the authors we have studied or one of elements of the course, including (1) blogging in the classroom, (2) limiting screen time, (3) writing longhand, and (4) playing Scrabble. As a starting point, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your project. 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 twenty or twenty-one, 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?
After you conduct your interview, compose on the worksheet provided a sentence in which you introduce a quotation from the interview with a signal phrase or clause, such as, According to . . . , or [insert 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). See the sample on your worksheet.
Follow your quotation with annotated bibliography entry in this format:
Annotated Bibliography*
Last Name, First Name. Interview. Conducted by Your First Name Your Last Name. Day Month Year.
*Note that you will use the header annotated bibliography, not works cited, in your final essay and annotated bibliography.
Below the work cited/bibliography entry, compose a one-paragraph summary of the interview followed by a second shorter paragraph that addresses what role the interview might serve in a larger project. Would it serve as a point of comparison or contrast to another source? Would it support or challenge an idea presented in another source? Follow the second paragraph with a brief third paragraph that notes the student’s major and identifies him or her as a freshman or sophomore at High Point University. See the model below.
Sample Quotation with Signal Clause
English 1103 student Jesse Brewer observes that Scrabble has expanded his vocabulary, saying it has “introduced me to new words, which allows me to read and write more capably in everyday life.”
Sample Annotated Bibliographic Entry
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. Ever 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 have not played Scrabble before playing it as a weekly exercise in English 1103.
Brewer is a sophomore computer science major at High Point University, where was enrolled in English 1103, section 20, in 2023.
Note that the first paragraph of the bibliography entry, the summary, is written in present tense and third person. Also note that after the first mention of the interviewee’s name, he is referred to by last name.
The annotated bibliographic entry for your interview will be shorter than your other entries because (1) you are annotating a brief interview, and (2) your classmate does not have the credentials that you will list in the annotations for your other sources.
The complete final essay/annotated bibliography assignment appears below.
Overview
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 the authors’ credentials. That is the type of bibliography that you will compose along with your final essay for the course.
Key Features
Your final essay, which is an introductory essay 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 interests you about the subject, and what question/s do you seek to answer about your subject? and (3) What larger project might develop from your final essay and annotated bibliography, and what would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject?
A complete MLA-style bibliography entry for each source.
A one-paragraph summary of each source followed by a shorter second paragraph that presents the writer’s credentials and addresses the purpose that the source might serve in a larger project. 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.
Preliminary Work—What to Complete in Class Today
Personal Interview
Your final essay and annotated bibliography will focus on one of the authors we have studied or one of elements of the course, including (1) blogging in the classroom, (2) limiting screen time, (3) writing longhand, and (4) playing Scrabble. As a starting point, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your project. 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 19, and the subject of the interview must be the subject of your project.
Begin by conducting a short personal interview and composing an annotated bibliographic entry for the interview. For more information, see the paragraphs under the header PRELIMINARY WORK—What to Complete in Class Today.
Compose an annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research. See the list of texts that follows.
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 (articles, essays, and/or books) devoted to the same subject. Compose your summaries and commentaries in complete sentences, introduce any quotations with signal phrases, and include parenthetical citations where needed. Your bibliography must include five sources, four of which must be print. (Your personal interview is a nonprint source.) If you wish to include an additional non-print source, such as a video, you may include that as a sixth source.
After you have composed your annotated bibliography entries, write an introductory essay 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? Address all five of your sources in your essay, and quote at least two of them.
Note: Though your introductory essay will precede your annotated bibliography, you will compose it last because you will need to re-read and summarize your sources before you will know how to address them in your essay.
Directions for Researching, Drafting, Revising, and Submitting
Devote today’s class primarily to conducting a personal interview and composing an annotated bibliography entry for the interview. You will have two additional Wednesdays to work in class on your final essay and annotated bibliography before you post your revision to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog.
Before class on the due date: Post a copy of your revision to Blackboard and to your 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 summary of your source in your journal, today’s worksheet, or a page of your draft. Also add an embedded link to a relevant web site. 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.
An A final essay and annotated bibliography includes these components:
An introductory essay 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? Would it be a project for a course in science, psychology, education, or another discipline?
A complete works cited/bibliographic entry for a minimum of five reliable and relevant sources, four of which are print. Alphabetize the list by the writers’ last names.
A one-paragraph summary of each source followed by a shorter paragraph of commentary that presents the writer’s credentials.
An A final essay and annotated bibliography complies with the requirements above and is also cohesive and relatively free of surface errors.
A B final essay and annotated bibliography effectively meets all of the requirements above but may be flawed by minor issues of organization and/or surface errors.
A C final essay and annotated bibliography meets most but not all of the requirements above and may also be flawed by issues of organization and/or surface errors.
A D final essay and annotated bibliography meets only a few of the requirements above and may also be flawed by issues of organization and/or surface errors.
An F final essay and annotated bibliography fails to meet the requirements above and may also be flawed by substantial issues of organization and/or surface errors.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
Yesterday in class we examined Donald Barthelme’s “The School” as a potential subject for your final essay and annotated bibliography. If you choose to write about his short story, your bibliographic entry for your primary source would follow this model:
Barthelme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley. Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.
Donald Barthelme’s postmodern short story “The School” recounts a series of classroom lessons that end with the deaths of plants and animals–deaths that serve as a prelude to the unexplained death of a Korean orphan, followed by a surge in deaths of classmates and family members. First published in The New Yorker magazine in 1974, “The School” was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 1975.
“The School”‘s unreliable narrator, it’s shift in fictional mode, and its dark humor combine to create an ideal introduction to postmodern fiction. Researchers interested in exploring how literary scholars have interpreted Barthelme’s story may draw on the details of the narrative to examine how their own analyses of Bartheleme’s postmodernism align with or diverge from their own. They may also look to the story’s particulars as hallmarks of the author’s style in particular or postmodernism in general.
Donald Barthelme taught creative writing at Boston University, SUNY Buffalo, and the City College of New York, where he served as distinguished visiting professor from 1974 to 1975. He was the author of four novels and a dozen short story collections, including Sixty Stories, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday, you will receive your final essay and annotated bibliography assignment, you will conduct a short interview with a classmate, and you will compose your first annotation. Details TBA.
This morning, after your Scrabble debriefing, we will examine Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School” as a potential subject for your final essay and annotated bibliography.
If you choose to research Barthelme’s story, questions to consider include these:
What is postmodern fiction, and what characteristics of it does “The School” exhibit?
How have literary scholars interpreted “The School”?
After we study “The School,” you will read one of your classmate’s analyses, and compose a blog response to it.
Directions
Go to the class blog page,and click on the link for the blog of the of classmate whose name precedes yours on the roster. If you are first on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is last on the list.
If the student’s blog is not accessible, email the student and ask him or her to email you a copy of the analysis, or choose another student’s analysis for your response.
Read the classmate’s analysis and compose a response (75 words, minimum) that addresses one or more of these elements: the title, the thesis, the support for the writer’s claims, the conclusion, the image documenting part of the writing process away from the screen, the embedded link to a relevant website.
Does the blog post include an image that documents part of the blogger’s writing process away from the screen? ___ (yes or no)
Does the post include a relevant embedded link? ___ (yes or no)
After you have composed your response, type it as a comment for the blogger. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click on the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.If you do not think that you will have time to type and post your handwritten comment before the end of class, take a picture of your handwritten response. That will enable you to submit your worksheet at the end of class and post your comment afterward.
Submit your handwritten response at the end of class today. You will submit your paper copy of your comment because the blogger may not choose to make your comment visible. You will receive credit for the assignment only if you submit your worksheet at the end of class today.
If you complete the assignment before the end of class, devote the remainder of the period to one of the following: (1) reading and commenting on other classmates’ analyses, (2) reviewing your reading handouts and determining which one might serve as the starting point for your final essay and annotated bibliography.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday, you will receive your final essay and annotated bibliography assignment, you will conduct a short interview with a classmate, and you will compose your first annotation. Details TBA.
This morning after you deliver your Check, Please! group presentation, you will compose a short essay (three paragraphs, minimum) that reflects on the processes of planning, rehearsing and presenting. Elements of your presentation to address include the following:
the introduction of your group members and opening remarks
the examination of one or more points in the lesson
the conclusion
optional element: observations about the relevance of the lessons to your other work in English 1103 and/or your other courses
poise, eye contact, and avoidance of filler words
After you have addressed the elements of your presentation, turn to one or more of the following points in your conclusion.
the differences you noted between (1) the process of composing for the page, and (2) the process of beginning with written words and transforming those words into an oral presentation
how a previous oral presentation of yours influenced your presentation today, or how the experience of delivering today’s presentation may benefit your future presentations.
Time permitting, after you compose your refelection, you will complete a journal exercise on another potential source for your final essay and annotated bibliography. Details TBA.
Next Up
In class on Monday, we will examine Donald Bartheleme’s short story “The School,” and you will read and respond to one or more of your classmates’ analyses.
Tomorrow, time permitting, after you complete your reflective essay on your Check, Please! group presentation, you will read “The Case for Writing Longhand” by Sarah Bahr, which I will distribute copies of in class. After you read Bahr’s article, you will write a one-paragraph summary, followed by a paragraph of commentary. Next, as an exercise in integrating indirect quotations into your writing, you will compose a sentence that introduces an indirect quotation with a signal phrase and follows it with a parenthetical citation.
Examples
One staff writer for The New Times observes that “[t]he quality of thinking and writing feels higher to me when revising by hand” (Anderson qtd. in Bahr, par. 13).
Sam Anderson, a staff writer for The New Times, observes that “[t]he quality of thinking and writing feels higher to me when revising by hand” (qtd. in Bahr, par. 13).
The parenthetical citation in the first example includes Sam Anderson’s last name because he is not named in the sentence. The parenthetical citation in the second example does not include his last name because he is mentioned by name in the sentence.
If you decide to devote your final essay and annotated bibliography to the subject of writing longhand, the summary and commentary you compose for this journal exercise can serve as a draft for the annotation that you will include in your bibliography. The revised version would add a couple of features: a note about the article’s usefulness as a source, and a third paragraph including the author’s credentials.
If you do not have time to complete this journal exercise in class tomorrow, finish it on your own.
Next Up
In class on Friday, you will deliver your Check, Please! group presentation and compose a short reflective essay on the processes of planning, rehearsing, presenting it. Afterward, time permitting, you will complete the journal exercise outlined above.
Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the group Check, Please! presentation scheduled for this morning has been postponed until Friday. Subsequently, Friday’s Wordplay Day will take place instead.
The first Scrabble post of the semester featured first names that are also common nouns, making them playable in Scrabble. Today’s post includes place names, 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 heavy fabric
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
Next Up (Later This Morning)
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.
Coming Soon
In class on Friday, you will finalize your preparations, deliver your Check, Please! presentation, and write your reflection.
As part of your final preparations for your Check, Please! presentation on Wednesday, practice your posture and polish your remarks. If you can meet with your group members before Wednesday’s class, devote some time to creating smooth transitions between speakers. If you cannot meet with your group members before Wednesday’s class, focus on your individual segment and leave your transition work for Wednesday.
You may also find it helpful to review these preparation tips from Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen. Some of his tips aren’t applicable to your presentation; for example, you shouldn’t aim for ten minutes (your presentation should be roughly five) and you do not need to prepare a handout to distribute to the audience. But his advice regarding structure, simplicity, and audience awareness will serve you well.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday you will deliver your Check, Please! group presentation, and afterward you will compose a short reflective essay focusing on the processes of planning, rehearsing, and delivering it.
Following your Scrabble debriefing this morning, we will examine Allison Aubrey’s “A Break from Your Smartphone . . .” and Jonathan Kay‘s “Scrabble is a Lousy Game.” After that you, you will have the remainder of the class period to plan the Check, Please! group presentation that you will deliver in class on Wednesday.
Overview
As an exercise in reviewing the first four lessons of Check, Please! and as an exercise in collaboration and oral communication, you and your classmates will deliver a concise and engaging presentation that addresses two or three of the most significant points covered in the first four lessons of Mike Caulfield’s course.
Directions for Planning
Plan a presentation of approximately five minutes that addresses the most significant points covered in the first four lessons of the Check, Please! course.
Include in your presentation (a) an opening in which you state each member’s first and last name, (b) an examination of two or three significant components of the lessons, and (c) a conclusion that provides closure and invites questions.
You are encouraged but not required to address how the lessons have been relevant to your other work in English 1103 and/or your other courses.
Directions for Rehearsing
In preparation for rehearsing, write your notes on an index card. If your initial notes are written in complete sentences, rewrite them to include only words and short phrases for your key points. If your notes are too detailed, you will risk relying too heavily on them and making minimal eye contact with the audience. Plan to make as much eye contact as possible and be sure to make eye contact with people throughout the room rather than fixing your eyes on one or two people.
Familiarize yourself with the presentation station. Your group is required to project the Check, Please! site on the screen and refer to it during the presentation. If you have not used the presentation station, I encourage you to devote part of today’s class period to familiarizing yourself with its setup.
Practice good posture. As you deliver your presentation, your ears should be directly above your shoulders. If you tend to shift your weight from one foot to the other—a distracting habit that’s sometimes called rocking the boat—stand with your feet perpendicular to each other. If you do so, you will not be able to shift your weight.
Avoid filler words, such as uh, um, like, and you know. If you tend to use filler words, practice pausing at the points where you are likely to use them.
Take turns delivering your portions of the presentation, and offer feedback to your group members. Offer both suggestions for improvement and words of encouragement.
Today in class you will receive the assignment handout, which includes the directions listed above and the grade criteria. An additional copy of the assignment is posted in the Presentations folder on Blackboard.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday you will deliver your Check, Please! group presentation, and afterward you will compose a short reflective essay focusing on the processes of planning, rehearsing, and delivering it.
Before spring break, I published a blog post that listed playable four-letter words with three vowels that begin with letters in the first half of the alphabet. Knowing those words, and others with multiple vowels, proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the remaining playable four-letter words with three vowels, beginning with the letters in the second half of the alphabet:
naoi: ancient temples (pl. of naos)
obia: form of sorcery practiced in the Caribbean (also obeah)
odea: concert halls (pl. of odeum)
ogee: an S-shaped molding
ohia: a Polynesian tree with bright flowers (also lehua)
olea: corrosive solutions (pl. of oleum)
olio: a miscellaneous collection
ouzo: a Turkish anise-flavored liquor
raia: a non-Muslim Turk (also rayah)
roue: a lecherous old man
toea: a currency in Papua, New Guinea
unai: a two-toed sloth (pl. unai; an ai is a three-toed sloth)
zoea: the larvae of some crustaceans
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
Jane Lucas 