We have two goals for today’s class: doing peer review on rough drafts, and going over the plans for our online class on Friday. Office hours for Friday, March 7 are cancelled.

Online Class Instructions for Friday, March 7

Instead of meeting for class on Friday, March 7, you will review the information about writing definitions and evaluate a glossary of terms that relate to Virginia Tech. You will complete an “in-class” writing that explains your assessment of the glossary and then rewrite the definitions for three of the terms in order to improve them.

By completing the writing, you will get credit for attendance as well as the credit for the in-class writing. The blog post with all the details will go up Wednesday afternoon, by 4 PM on 3/5/2014. You have until 5 PM on Wednesday, 3/12 to submit your work.

Peer Review Instructions for Today

We’re using the same basic set-up that we used for for the first project. You’ll pair up with another student in the classroom, share your Google Docs with each other, and add comments. Please use these instructions to guide the feedback you leave:

• Imagine that you are your partner’s manager, and your job is to review the draft that your partner has given you and make suggestions to improve it.
• Check that your partner has included all the required elements in the draft (e.g., technical description, a glossary, and instructions with five images). If anything is missing, add a comment that lets your partner know.
• Read through the document and comment on at least three things your partner does well and at least three things that your partner could improve. You can comment on more than six things.
• At the end of the document, add an overall comment that sums up what you thought of the paper and gives your partner some encouragement.
• Once you have finished adding comments to your partner’s project, return to your own paper, read the comments that your partner gave you, and add replies as appropriate.

In-Class Writing

After you have read the comments on your project and replied, go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s in-class writing, “03/05 Peer Review.” The post is short and easy, but you need to do it to get credit for your work today. You have until 5 PM tomorrow (3/6) to post your response.

Homework

Come back on Wednesday, 3/5/2014, after 4 PM for all the links and details on the activities to complete in place of attending class on Friday, 3/7.

Be sure to attend class on Monday, 3/17 (the Monday after Spring Break) for important details about Project 2 as well as information on the online work due for Wednesday, 3/19, and Friday, 3/21. Class will not meet in the classroom on the 19th or 21st, as I will be presenting at the Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Indianapolis. Office hours will be cancelled for 3/19 and 3/21 as well.

Note: Remember that today is the last day you can drop classes without grade penalty.

Today, we’re talking about graphics. You’ll find lots of useful information in Chapter 8 of Markel, including specifics on how to use different kinds of graphs. We’ll go over some important tips that are relevant for your second project.

Creating (and Choosing) Graphics

Create or choose images that meet these criteria:

• The graphics need to be free of copyright restrictions (unless they fit the definition of fair use), or you must obtain permission to use them. [More on this topic in the next section.]
• Photos and/or illustrations should accurately depict the information in the document. Avoid images that are simply decorative.
• The images should be crisp and well-lit.
• Garish, clashing, and overly colorful images are a poor choice. Think about the image and the rest of the design on the page as you make a choice.
• Background noise should be eliminated. There should be nothing irrelevant or distracting in the image. Avoid photobombs!
• The text should refer to the pictures, and the graphics should work in harmony with the written text.

Finding Graphics You Can Freely Use

• Read Copyright Fair Use and How it Works for Online Images, from Social Media Examiner, for an explanation of how and when you can use images that you find online.
• Visit these tools to explore whether images you find online are copyright protected and whether your use is fair use:
  • Digital Slider, from the American Library Association.
  • Copyright Genie, from the American Library Association.
  • Fair Use Evaluator, from the American Library Association.
• If you are unsure, you can look for copyright and media use guidelines online. For instance, NASA has posted guidelines on Using NASA Imagery and Linking to NASA Web Sites, and the U.S. government has posted this explanation of Copyright and Other Rights Pertaining to U.S. Government Works.
• If you are looking for images, here are two good starting points:
  • Finding Public Domain Images for Multimedia Projects, from EdTechTeacher. Note that some of the links on this page are out of date.
  • The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix, from Open Culture.
  • Selected Internet Resources — Government Resources for
    Science Images and Video, from the Library of Congress.
  • Creative Commons Search.

Using Graphics

• If necessary, be sure that your crop and resize your images before you add them to your document.
• Use the insert tools in the word processor you prefer to place the images on the page. On your Google Drive, look under the Insert menu.
• Be sure that cite the source for your graphics as well. See pp. 186–187 of the text book for details.

In-Class Writing

We’ll end with the in-class writing. Go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s assignment, “03/03 Choosing Graphics.” As usual, you have until 5 PM tomorrow (3/4) to finish your work.

Homework

• Have your rough draft available on your Google Drive for peer review on Wednesday, 3/5. You’ll use the instructions in Step One of Using Google Drive for Peer Review to upload your work with a classmate that day.
• I will also explain the online class work for Friday, 3/7, so be sure you attend so that you know what you need to do!

The third part you need to include in Project 2 is a set of step-by-step instructions for how to complete a task. Your instructions will include a list of required materials, details on the steps to be completed, and any troubleshooting tips or advice. Today we’ll go over how to write this section of your paper.

• We will go over information about Writing Instructions.
• We will look at several example descriptions and talk about what they do well and how they might be improved:
  1. Virginia Tech – ROLM 751 DIGITAL CBX, Faculty / Staff Telephone Quick Reference
  2. Employer’s Accident Report Instructions
  3. Instructions on how to pay the $3000 deposit
  4. Join Virginia Tech’s McNair Listserv
  5. PlantSimLab Basic Tutorial
• We’ll end with the in-class writing. Go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s assignment, “02/28 Instructions.” As usual, you have until 5 PM tomorrow (3/1) to finish your work.

Homework

Next time we will talk about finding, creating, and using graphics. Please read Markel, Chapter 8 (“Creating Graphics”).

You will use technical description to introduce and provide background information on the topic you have chosen for Project 2. Your goal will be to provide the reader with enough information to tell if the document will help her by including background information, explanation, and visual resources. Today, we’ll go over the strategies for writing the description section of your project.

• We will go over the kinds of descriptions and the questions they typically answer.
• We will look at several example descriptions and talk about what they do well and how they might be improved:
  • Rayovac Workhorse Flashlight
  • Salted Password Hashing – Doing it Right
  • How Do You Make Maple Syrup?
  • About Lumenhaus
• We’ll end with the in-class writing. Go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s assignment, “02/26 Description.” As usual, you have until 5 PM tomorrow (2/27) to finish your work.

Homework

Next time we will talk about writing instructions so be sure that you have read the section in Markel on that topic (pp. 375-386).