During today’s class, we held peer review on your 750-word expanded definition drafts. If you did not receive feedback, you will want to reach out to your contacts in class or enlist friends to help you. Focus on the strategic issues (1. correct memo format, 2. discussion of etymology and history of the term, 3. example definitions and contextual sentences, 4. discussion of those in the appropriate section, 5. use and citation of sources–appropriate sources, and 6. addressing the appropriate, professional audience), and tactical issues (diction, syntax, grammar). Reverse reading is a good technique to help with the tactical issues (reading one sentence at a time from the end of the document to the beginning).

After you are satisfied with the writing, then you may turn to the final polishing touches on your document. Make sure your font (since these documents will be printed, use a serif font like Times New Roman) and heading use is consistent (For heading information in APA format, refer to the Purdue OWL website). You may include photos that are of your own creation or that are available from a source that is either public domain or Creative-Commons Licensed (search for some here). Any image that you did not make/take/create must be cited in your list of references.

One more thing…

After reading your 500-word article summary assignments, I want to give everyone another shot at perfection. Each student should review his or her 500-word document and the previous OpenLab entry for the assignment that discusses layout of the document. Make sure everything about your assignment passes muster. Are you using a single font and size throughout? Are you using the APA format correctly? Are you actually discussing the article in your summary, or are you discussing around the topic of the article without demonstrating that you have actually read it? Finally, read it aloud to yourself and correct the diction, spelling, syntax, and grammar of your writing, too.

Your revised 500-word summary and final 750-word expanded definition are due on Wednesday, October 10.

Visual examples of the two documents are included here: example-750 500-example.

During today’s class, we discussed the overall format of your expanded definition memo. The above images show the overall layout of your memo document using the research that you found (definitions and context-specific sentences). Everything that you quote must be cited using APA formatting and you must include a list of REFERENCES for all sources quoted.

NB: The introduction does not require a heading. It should include a reference to the term being defined, a formal definition of the term in your own words, the etymology of your term, a reference to the audience this document is intended for, and finally, an overview or roadmap of the contents in the document.

For our next class, bring three printed drafts of your memo to class for peer review. During our next class, we will perform peer review and discuss ways of making your memo visually impressive and informationally rich.

The next project that we will be developing in class is the 750-1000 word expanded definition. This document should define a term that is important to your studies and future career. It should be something that you are interested in and passionate about. From the syllabus, the assignment is:

Individually, you will write a 750-1000 word expanded definition of a technical or scientific term, with cover memo, which demonstrates: 1. correct memorandum format. 2. knowledge of the etymology and historical development of the term. 3. examples of the term’s use in various written contexts. 4. ability to compare and contrast various uses of the term. 5. use and citation of sources with proper attribution. 6. awareness of audience. At least three library-sourced citations are required and should be cited following APA format.

During today’s class, let’s focus more on what you already know about the term that you’ve selected, researching the term as defined by others, and the use of the term in various publications. Create a new document for your expanded definition. In your own words, define the term that you are writing about. Then, read about your term on Wikipedia–paying attention to the kinds of information/structure of the Wikipedia article devoted to your term, and focus on the references section of the Wikipedia article for possible sources in your further research. Remember, Wikipedia is a good research for beginning research, but it is not a resource for the purposes of our project that should be quoted or cited. Finally, locate sources that define your selected term–copy quotations and document all bibliographic information into the document that you created earlier. The more quotations of definitions and uses of the term that you can find, the more material that you will access to in writing the content of your expanded definition document.

A final note: think about what kinds of images of the term that you can incorporate into your document. For example, if you are writing about cloud computing, you could take a photo of a line of servers. Be creative and experimental. Again, it’s better to try out a lot of ideas and discard the ones that don’t work instead of trying only one thing.

During today’s class, you will work on your first draft of your 500-word summary–using the memo format for your document’s header, followed by an APA formatted bibliographic entry, and finally, the body of your document, which includes an abstract of the article (100-200 words) and lengthier summary (300-400 words). The body of your document should be as close to 500 words without going over as possible. Remember, the word count is an important requirement for this document for the reasons given in class.

Before leaving class, you will have the opportunity to print a draft of your summary document. Share this with a neighbor in class and leave comments for one another about the quality of the writing and the successful completion of this document’s requirements (style, layout, purposes, etc.). Take this feedback home and revise your 500-word summary document.

Before our next class, print one copy of your 500-word summary document and print your bibliography of 5 potential articles that you generated in Stage 1 of this assignment. Staple these pages together with your 5 potential article bibliography being the last page and your summary being the first pages of the bundle. Turn this packet of papers in at the beginning of our next class on September 15. Good luck!

Before our next class, you should perform these tasks:

• Using the library’s databases and journal holdings, find five articles that are related to your major/career interests. They should be recent and rigorous.
• Using those five articles, create a memo that lists the bibliographic information of those articles in APA format (follow this guide for periodical sources, “Articles in Journals,” https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/07/). Format your memo using the “heading element,” “opening element,” and “task elements” found on this guide: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/590/02/. List each bibliographic entry under the “task elements” section (e.g., “You asked me to find five articles, which I list below in APA format:” and then you list each article’s bibliographic information. Save this document and print one copy to bring to class.
• Finally, choose one of your articles that you would like to use for your 500-word summary assignment. Create a reverse outline of this article. The easiest way to do this is to read the first paragraph, and then in your notebook, write a one-sentence summary of that paragraph in your own words. Then, read the next paragraph, and skip a line in your notebook and write a one-sentence summary of that paragraph in your own words. Do this for each paragraph. As you write this reverse outline, identify the article’s argument/main point and identify the supporting evidence for the article’s argument/main point. Bring this work that you write in your notebook to our next class, and bring the article that you are summarizing. You will use these for writing your summary during our next class.

Here are two updates to our OpenLab site.

The syllabus changes that we discussed in our first class are now reflected on our OpenLab site on the Syllabus page.

Links to resources that will be helpful to you in our class have been added to the Resources page.