Lecture, Week 15

I’m posting this week’s short lecture early to remind everyone about the due dates and the grade distribution in the class.

The deadline for all work in the class is by midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

There is no Weekly Writing Assignment this week. Focus on your team projects and catching up on all individual projects.

Also, the Student Evaluation of Teaching survey deadline has been extended to Dec. 17, so please complete those if you haven’t already done so. For those who have completed it, thank you!

Good luck with finishing up the semester!

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 14

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, add a comment to this post in memo format that describes what you have contributed to your team’s collaborative project. Include any writing drafts and/or research that you have done. This is a way to maintain accountability for each team member’s contributions and to keep Prof. Ellis apprised of the work that your team members are doing to help bring the project together. Watch this week’s lecture for more details.

Announcement, Job and Experience Opportunities

There are some upcoming job seeking opportunities that I wanted to let you all know about. The Civil Service 101 presentation opens the doors about how to seek Civil Service jobs, and the CUNY Service Corp is a great opportunity to learn skills while gaining invaluable experience for your resume.

Civil Service 101 for LGBTQ+ Students and Allies (Click here to register)

Tuesday, December 7th 1:00-2:15 pm  

Are you interested in having a fulfilling career? Are curious about what City jobs are like for members of the LGBTQ+ community? 

The New York City government offers more than 2000+ job titles in 80+ agencies. Come see where your professional journey can take you at Civil Service 101 for LGBTQ+ Students and Allies, a virtual event on December 7th from 1:00-2:15 pm.   

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services will discuss Civil Service career options in NYC and how to apply for them. There will also be a representative from the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene who will discuss the LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, jobs currently available, and services that the department provides for the LGBTQ+ community.   

Not a member of the LGBTQ+ community? No worries, all are welcome!    

Sponsored by the Academic Minor in Gender & Sexuality Studies

CUNY Service Corp

Benefits? Transferable Skills, resume building, career path and connections,and get involved with their community.

We have an alumni cohort of 1,000+ past members. Since August of 2013, CUNY Service Corps members have completed over 1,000,000 hours of service to NYC at over 150 nonprofits, government agencies, and hospitals. In the past, we have worked with Girls Who Code, Federal Reserve, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and research projects at City Tech ( i.g. SOLAR Decathlon). 

Application is open to all City Tech students for Spring 2022 (Dependent on program eligibility):www.citytech.cuny.edu/servicecorps

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 13

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, add a comment to this post in memo format that describes what you have contributed to your team’s collaborative project. Include any writing drafts and/or research that you have done. This is a way to maintain accountability for each team member’s contributions and to keep Prof. Ellis apprised of the work that your team members are doing to help bring the project together. Watch this week’s lecture for more details.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 12

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, I am posting this week’s lecture and weekly writing assignment early.

After watching this week’s lecture and continuing your teamwork on the Analytical Research Report, each student should individually write a memo (TO, FROM, DATE, and SUBJECT: Research Project Update) that describes that individual’s work and responsibilities for researching and writing on the project and copy-and-paste any writing (including quotes that you might discuss) into your memo. Post your memo as a comment to this Weekly Writing Assignment post. Again, this is an individual assignment that demonstrates what each team member is responsible for working on their team’s project.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 11

This is an individual writing assignment based on your team’s collaborative project. Each team member should write a short memo of no more than 250-words addressed to Prof. Ellis that describes what research responsibility he/she has been delegated or volunteered to do this week for the team project and include three IEEE references to articles and/or ebooks found through the City Tech Library that might be useful for your team’s research. Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 10

After watching this week’s lecture and reading Prof. Ellis’ “Reply-All” email with your new team assignments, each team should have one member create a folder on Google Drive and share it with the other team members. Then, create a Google Doc inside your team’s shared folder to write a memo together about your team’s project topic deliberations and the topic that you ultimately chose. Each team member should then copy-and-paste the memo into a comment added to this post. Remember: Each team member will copy-and-paste the same memo that you wrote together.

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Hari Seldon, Mose Ellis, and Moomin Papa
DATE: 11/17/2021
SUBJECT: Team Project Topic

Write one sentence stating the purpose of this memo. Then, write about the topics that you considered and ultimately the topic that your team picked for your research report. This only needs to be 250 words. 

Announcement: PLAN Week = Good Info + Raffle

City Tech PLAN Week, November 1 — 5, 2021

During PLAN week, we offer information to help you plan your next steps—from choosing classes and learning how to register to finding out where to get support and make connections within the college. Don’t miss this opportunity to create a successful and personal PLAN. Also, by completing PLAN Week daily forms, you will be entered in a raffle pool for $50 MasterCard gift cards. If you participate all 5 PLAN Week questionnaires, you will be entered for a grand prize of $300. We recommend that you set aside 20-30 minutes a day this week, and watch one video and follow it by answering the corresponding response form.

Monday, November 1: Start your PLAN with the Introduction to Academic Advising video and respond here.

Tuesday, November 2: PLAN your academic career by watching Understanding Your Degree Requirements and respond here.

Wednesday, November 3: PLAN your academic advising appointment by watching Creating a Semester-by-Semester Plan and respond here.

Thursday, November 4: PLAN to register by watching Introduction to Registration and respond here.

Friday, November 5: PLAN to get involved by watching How to Get Involved (video coming soon!)and respond here.

All of the videos and forms are available from now until Sunday, November 7 at https://www.citytech.cuny.edu/advisement/library.aspx. Any responses filled out by midnight on the seventh will be eligible for the raffle. Good luck, and start planning!

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 8

Write a 250-word memo addressed to Prof. Ellis with the subject, “Other Sections for Instruction Manual,” in which you strategize what other sections to include in your instruction manual document. Below, you will find some suggestions. Also, look at the Instructions chapter and Instruction examples in David McMurrey’s Online Technical Writing Textbook for models that you can look to about how they are organized. Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post.

1.0    Introduction
1.1    Purpose
1.2    Intended Audience
1.3    Scope
1.4    Organization Description
1.5    Conventions (abbreviations, left/right)
1.6    Motivation (answers the “so what” question)
1.7    Safety and Disclaimers
2.0    Description of the Equipment
2.1    Illustration of the Equipment
2.2    Description of the Equipment’s Parts
3.0    List of Materials and Equipment Needed
3.1    Illustration of the Parts Needed to Carry Out the Instructions
3.2    Tools needed
3.3    Table of the parts with description of each
4.0    Directions
4.1    Assemble the Skateboard
4.1.1    Step 1 (don’t write Step 1--write a brief statement on what the first step is)
4.1.2    Step 2
4.1.3    Step 3...Step n (write as many steps--briefly--as you can think of--you can fill this list out later)
5.0    Troubleshooting
6.0    Glossary
7.0    Reference List

Lecture, Week 7

To help with this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment below, study and make notes on the commonalities between the instruction manuals discussed in last week’s class.

Sample Instruction Manuals

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 7

Watch and take notes on this week’s lecture before proceeding.

Write a memo to Prof. Ellis that presents a basic numbered, process list for your Instruction Manual.

Write as much as needed to show the process in your instruction manual.

However, this is a draft–you may add, subtract, and change as needed later.

Include notes about what images to include with each step as appropriate (think of WOVEN).

We will look at the other components of your Instruction Manual next week. 

Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post on our OpenLab Course Site.

Lecture, Week 6

After watching this week’s lecture, watch for Prof. Ellis’ email to your team to begin peer review on your Expanded Definition project. Use the model below for your Expanded Definition memo. Remember to copy-and-paste your completed memo draft into your “Reply-All” email to your team along with your ask-and-offer.

TO:         Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:         Due Date
SUBJECT:     Expanded Definition of Your Term

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two quoted definitions from different sources of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and IEEE in-text citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc. And, as a part of your compare and contrast, discuss the etymology or history of the word (e.g., one definition might be more like what the word meant originally or more recently). Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two sentences that use the term as it appears in different sources. This discussion should focus on how the context of the word shapes its meaning. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry. 

Here’s a quote example from The New York Times: Technology Opinion Writer Kara Swisher wrote about the bombshell allegations made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in a television interview: “Everything the former product manager on Facebook’s dispersed/disbanded (depending on whom you believe) Civic Integrity team said in her interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday rang true, including her allegations that the company’s algorithm is a wildfire that feeds on rancor and that the company always chooses its business over safety” [3]. The use of the term algorithm here refers to how Facebook surfaces certain content and submerges other content on a given Facebook user’s feed. 

Another quote example from a book on optimizing Rust language programming applications: While Swisher uses the term algorithm to refer to a specific decision-making technology at Facebook, Moraza uses it in a more general way where he writes: “You will also understand the difference between the common standard library collections so that you can choose the right one for your algorithm” [4, p. 1]. Algorithm here refers to the programming code that the reader of Moraza’s book is developing using the Rust programming language. Any computer code that is performing a process would qualify as an algorithm in this context while Swisher’s use of the term algorithm referred to a specific algorithm developed and used by a specific company.


Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions and word history that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your IEEE references in the order that they appear in your document. The first would be [1], the second would be [2], etc.

[1]    "Algorithm," in Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, Mar. 2012, def. 2. [Online]. Available: https://www.oed.com
[2]    “Algorithm,” in Science and Technology Encyclopedia, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [Online]. Available: https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00univ/mode/2up 

[3]      K. Swisher, "Brazen is the order of the day at Facebook," The New York Times, Oct. 5, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/opinion/facebook-blackout-2021.html

[4]      I. E. Moraza, Rust High Performance: Learn to Skyrocket the Performance of Your Rust Applications. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing, 2018. [Online]. Available: ProQuest Ebook Central.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 6

After watching this week’s lecture, begin thinking about what tasks and processes would be appropriate and interesting for you to write an instruction manual on for the next individual project. Possible instruction manuals should focus on your degree and career goals so that you create something relevant to your training and illustrative of your communication skills.

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, write a 250-word memo addressed to Prof. Ellis with the subject line of “Instruction Manual Topic Selection.” In the body of your memo, discuss the pros and cons of three possible instruction manual topics and state which one you choose to work on for the project. Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post.

To aid in your thinking, review the links below for sample instruction manuals, and see a sample instruction manual outline at the bottom of this post.

Sample Instruction Manuals

Sample Instruction Manual Organization

1.0    Introduction
1.1    Purpose
1.2    Intended Audience
1.3    Scope
1.4    Organization Description
1.5    Conventions (abbreviations, left/right)
1.6    Motivation (answers the “so what” question)
1.7    Safety and Disclaimers
2.0    Description of the Equipment
2.1    Illustration of the Equipment
2.2    Description of the Equipment’s Parts
3.0    List of Materials and Equipment Needed
3.1    Illustration of the Parts Needed to Carry Out the Instructions
3.2    Tools needed
3.3    Table of the parts with description of each
4.0    Directions
4.1    Assemble the Skateboard
4.1.1    Step 1 (don’t write Step 1--write a brief statement on what the first step is)
4.1.2    Step 2
4.1.3    Step 3...Step n (write as many steps--briefly--as you can think of--you can fill this list out later)
5.0    Troubleshooting
6.0    Glossary
7.0    Reference List

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 5

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, continue your research and writing for the next two sections of the Expanded Definition Project: Context and Working Definition. As discussed at length in this week’s lecture, which you should watch before proceeding, write drafts of the Context and Working Definition sections and include in-text citations for quotes and corresponding references to those quotes at the end of your document. Copy-and-paste just those sections into a comment made to this post to demonstrate your on-going progress on the project.

Separately, you should aim for having a rough draft of your Expanded Definition project ready for peer review next week.

I am including the sample quotes and citations from today’s lecture below. Also, links to IEEE citation guides are at the bottom of the post.

TO:         Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:         Due Date
SUBJECT:     Expanded Definition of Your Term

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two quoted definitions from different sources of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and IEEE in-text citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc. And, as a part of your compare and contrast, discuss the etymology or history of the word (e.g., one definition might be more like what the word meant originally or more recently). Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two sentences that use the term as it appears in different sources. This discussion should focus on how the context of the word shapes its meaning. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry. 

Here’s a quote example from The New York Times: Technology Opinion Writer Kara Swisher wrote about the bombshell allegations made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in a television interview: “Everything the former product manager on Facebook’s dispersed/disbanded (depending on whom you believe) Civic Integrity team said in her interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday rang true, including her allegations that the company’s algorithm is a wildfire that feeds on rancor and that the company always chooses its business over safety” [3]. The use of the term algorithm here refers to how Facebook surfaces certain content and submerges other content on a given Facebook user’s feed. 

Another quote example from a book on optimizing Rust language programming applications: While Swisher uses the term algorithm to refer to a specific decision-making technology at Facebook, Moraza uses it in a more general way where he writes: “You will also understand the difference between the common standard library collections so that you can choose the right one for your algorithm” [4, p. 1]. Algorithm here refers to the programming code that the reader of Moraza’s book is developing using the Rust programming language. Any computer code that is performing a process would qualify as an algorithm in this context while Swisher’s use of the term algorithm referred to a specific algorithm developed and used by a specific company.


Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions and word history that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your IEEE references in the order that they appear in your document. The first would be [1], the second would be [2], etc.



[1]    "Algorithm," in Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, Mar. 2012, def. 2. [Online]. Available: https://www.oed.com
[2]    “Algorithm,” in Science and Technology Encyclopedia, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [Online]. Available: https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00univ/mode/2up 

[3]      K. Swisher, "Brazen is the order of the day at Facebook," The New York Times, Oct. 5, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/opinion/facebook-blackout-2021.html

[4]      I. E. Moraza, Rust High Performance: Learn to Skyrocket the Performance of Your Rust Applications. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing, 2018. [Online]. Available: ProQuest Ebook Central.

IEEE Citation Guides

Lecture, Week 4

Remember to actively watch and make notes from this week’s lecture before proceeding with the Weekly Writing Assignment and submitting your 500-Word Summary Project.

As discussed in the lecture, the following is a model for the overall structure of your 500-Word Summary project. The lecture includes directions on how to create a post on our OpenLab course site to submit your work. Follow those directions carefully for maximum credit. The 500-Word Summary is due by next Wednesday. For those students who have reached out to me needing more time to complete the project, remember to email me after you have submitted your work so that I can go back and grade it.

Sample 500-Word Summary
(with IEEE in-text citation and Reference, and Lorem ipsum filler text)

TO:       Prof. Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:     10/6/2021
SUBJECT:  500-Word Summary of Article About Virtual Reality

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about tracking human bodies in virtual reality. The authors discuss the body tracking software that they developed called Pfinder by showing how the software was developed, tested, and improved. According to the authors, “To  address  this  need  we  have  developed  a  real-time  system called   Pfinder   (“person   finder”)   that   substantially   solves   the problem  for  arbitrarily  complex  but  single-person,  fixed-camera situations” [1, p. 780]. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum at porttitor neque. Nullam dapibus pulvinar hendrerit. Etiam elementum ipsum quis elit aliquet tincidunt. Aliquam dui augue, tempor quis pretium et, fermentum et dolor. Praesent sit amet velit et ligula iaculis vulputate. Nulla facilisi. Aliquam lobortis pulvinar rhoncus. Aliquam neque sem, tincidunt sollicitudin ante gravida, congue pretium odio. Nullam in vestibulum tellus, accumsan dignissim dolor. Sed convallis nisl vel venenatis sagittis. In eu turpis risus. Phasellus ac rhoncus est.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis felis arcu, luctus sit amet mauris non, vestibulum lobortis massa. Nullam dapibus arcu ac sem dignissim, sed sodales lorem pulvinar. Proin convallis arcu et varius rutrum. Aenean ante dolor, maximus gravida tristique eget, fermentum nec diam. Maecenas accumsan faucibus tortor. Vivamus blandit, massa at pretium mattis, odio neque lobortis turpis, at placerat lorem nulla vitae sem. Sed in enim nec magna consequat malesuada. Suspendisse a lacinia quam, eget mollis lectus. Nam sed rutrum nisl. Vestibulum molestie justo sed pulvinar ultrices. Nam consequat dolor risus, hendrerit hendrerit magna consequat a.

In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Donec tempor metus eros, at accumsan nunc eleifend et. Vivamus velit ligula, commodo at justo non, interdum egestas elit. Nulla tristique facilisis massa quis volutpat. Quisque sollicitudin eu eros commodo mattis. Aliquam vel nisl ut enim rhoncus tristique. Integer placerat sapien et augue placerat interdum. Mauris semper augue eget sapien gravida hendrerit. Integer quis bibendum sem, vel tempus ligula. Nullam ante lorem, laoreet sit amet gravida semper, maximus non magna. Quisque dolor elit, semper a consequat eu, dignissim sed mi. Duis ac nibh efficitur orci gravida lacinia vel a tortor. Aenean quis nisi sit amet turpis molestie interdum.

Vestibulum viverra nulla semper risus placerat, at auctor massa ornare. Nullam quis gravida arcu. Mauris et lorem sed ante pharetra laoreet sed vel odio. Suspendisse eget nibh ex. Nulla a placerat lacus, blandit sodales nulla. Sed dapibus et velit sed pulvinar. Sed tincidunt nulla vel nunc interdum lacinia. Sed at tempus orci. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Aenean in ultricies nisi. Phasellus rhoncus elit nunc, sit amet sollicitudin metus bibendum vitae. Maecenas feugiat est ut arcu malesuada aliquam.

References

[1]     C. R. Wren, A. Azarbayejani, T. Darrell, and A. P. Pentland, “Pfinder: Real-time tracking of the human body,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 780-785, July 1997, https://doi.org/10.1109/34.598236.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 4

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, you will begin writing your Expanded Definition project. To start, focus on the first two sections as detailed below, which are the Introduction and Definitions sections. For all the definitions and etymological (word history) information that you quote, remember to use IEEE in-text citation numbers and create a corresponding References section at the end of your document in which the numerated IEEE bibliographic references match the numbered quotes in your Definitions section. Format your writing as a memo with the subject, “Expanded Definition of Your Term, First Half, Rough Draft.” There is no word count on this assignment. Its purpose is to demonstrate your best effort on the first half of your Expanded Definition project. Save your work in a safe place and copy-and-paste it into a comment made to this post (remember to click the title “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 4,” scroll to the comment box, copy-and-paste, and click “Post Comment.”

Overview of the Expanded Definition Project Deliverable

TO:         Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:         Due Date
SUBJECT:     Expanded Definition of Your Term

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two quoted definitions from different sources of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and IEEE in-text citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc. And, as a part of your compare and contrast, discuss the etymology or history of the word (e.g., one definition might be more like what the word meant originally or more recently). Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two sentences that use the term as it appears in different sources. This discussion should focus on how the context of the word shapes its meaning. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry.

Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions and word history that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your IEEE references in the order that they appear in your document. The first would be [1], the second would be [2], etc.



[1]    "Algorithm," in Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, Mar. 2012, def. 2. [Online]. Available: https://www.oed.com
[2]    “Algorithm,” in Science and Technology Encyclopedia, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [Online]. Available: https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00univ/mode/2up 

[3]      Author,Title, volume, edition. City, State, Country: Publisher, year.

[4]      Author, “Title,” Journal, volume, number, page range, month year, DOI.

Helpful Resources with IEEE Style

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 3

This week’s Weekly Writing Assignment has two parts. The first part should be submitted as a comment made to this post. The second part should be conducted over email with your team. Watch this week’s lecture from start to finish before proceeding.

The first component of this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment is the beginning research that you need to accomplish for the second major project: 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition. Think of several possible technical or scientific terms, phrases, or acronyms that would be interesting to research the definition, etymology, and context of. Then, using the resources described in the Week 3 lecture, see which term might have the most useful material for you to use on the project. Once you see which term might yield the most research material, write a 250-word memo describing the terms that you considered, which library and approved sources yielded the most useful material (give accurate and specific titles), and what term you decided to choose for your expanded definition based on what you found in your initial research. Your memo should look like this:

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: [Your Name]
DATE: 9/29/2021
SUBJECT: Expanded Definition Term: [Term you selected]
First sentence should state the purpose of the memo in your own words. Follow with the possible terms you choose from, discuss the resources that you looked in, and state which term you chose for your expanded definition based on your initial research.

After you have written your memo, copy-and-paste it into a comment made to this post and click “Post Comment.” As I showed in a previous lecture, you click on the title of “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 3” and scroll to the bottom to find the comment box where you copy-and-paste your memo.

The second component of this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment is to use email to connect with your teammates by clicking “Reply All” to the email that Prof. Ellis will send to each team. Follow the directions in Prof. Ellis’ email to initiate introductions and to share the draft of your 500-Word Summary rough draft with your teammates for peer review. We will talk about revising and posting the final draft of your 500-Word Summary during next week’s lecture.

Lecture, Week 2

Remember to take notes while watching the lecture. And, watch the lecture before proceeding with the Weekly Writing Assignment and other homework.

If you have any questions, email Prof. Ellis, visit the weekly office hours on Wednesday 3-5pm (link to the left), or email Prof. Ellis to make an office hour appointment.

Follow the Syllabus schedule to keep up with the class. Due to the college’s academic calendar, there will not be a lecture posted for the next two weeks. Lecture 3 will be posted on Sept. 22. In the meantime, Prof. Ellis will be holding weekly office hours and will respond to emails ASAP.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 2

This week’s writing assignment will help you develop the scaffolding for your 500-word summary project by creating a reverse outline of the article that you find in your research on a topic related to your field of study and eventual career field. This is due by our next week of lecture on Wednesday, Sept. 22.

Watch this week’s lecture and make notes before proceeding!

For this Weekly Writing Assignment, do the following (detailed in this week’s lecture):

  • Find an article in the library’s databases on an appropriate topic and of sufficient length (Remember: go to library.citytech.cuny.edu > Find Articles > click on “A” for Academic Search Complete and Academic OneFile or click on “I” for IEEE Explore)
  • Create a new document in your word process of choice (Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, LibreOffice, etc.).
  • Write a memo addressed to Prof. Ellis with the subject “Reverse Outline.”
  • Under the memo header, type “1.” followed by one sentence in your own words summarizing the first paragraph of the article that you chose. Then, type “2.” on the next line followed by one sentence in your own words summarizing the second paragraph. Write an enumerated sentence for each paragraph until you reach the end of your selected article. Do not make the mistake of using the author’s words in your one sentence summary–put away the article when you write each summary sentence so that you express the main idea of each paragraph using only your own words.
  • Conclude with a section titled “Reference” followed by an IEEE formatted reference entry for the article. See my example in the lecture, and use this, this, and this for additional help.
  • Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this Weekly Writing Assignment post.

Also, you have some homework to accomplish before Wednesday, Sept. 22.

First, “reply-all” to the “Team Assignment” email that I will send you during the next two weeks. Follow the directions contained in the email to meet your fellow teammates and to show Prof. Ellis that you are actively taking part in establishing rapport with your teammates.

Second, take your reverse outline that you prepared for this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment and paste it into a new document on your computer or in the cloud. Remove the numbers before each summary sentence. Consolidate the sentences into paragraphs or one large paragraph. Read the sentences and edit as needed to create flow from one sentence to the next. Then, add a memo header as shown below (edit the subject according to my directions in the lecture or as you see below–meaning the main topic of your selected article), add an introductory sentence explaining what the document is (see the example first sentence below), and add a significant quote from your selected article with an in-text citation in IEEE Style as shown in the first paragraph below. This will yield a rough draft of your 500-word summary for the first project, which we will conduct peer review on during the week beginning on Sept. 22. Save this document until Sept. 22. We will use it for that week’s Weekly Writing Assignment

TO:       Prof. Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:     Oct. 6, 2021
SUBJECT:  500-Word Summary of Article About Virtual Reality

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about tracking human bodies in virtual reality. The authors discuss the body tracking software that they developed called Pfinder by showing how the software was developed, tested, and improved. According to Wren et al., “To  address  this  need  we  have  developed  a  real-time  system called   Pfinder   (“person   finder”)   that   substantially   solves   the problem  for  arbitrarily  complex  but  single-person,  fixed-camera situations” [1, p. 780]. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin iaculis pharetra diam, eget condimentum nulla aliquam at. Duis interdum commodo est nec faucibus. Pellentesque porttitor ipsum in urna tempor rhoncus. Donec at nisl sagittis, tincidunt arcu sed, porta ex. Aliquam vehicula eget nisl quis egestas. Phasellus condimentum, dui nec blandit pretium, mauris est venenatis sapien, sed dictum dolor felis non eros. Morbi in sodales ex.

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Ut aliquam sem eget diam vulputate, in ultrices neque iaculis. Integer urna est, suscipit quis nulla vel, posuere molestie lorem. Nunc porttitor luctus odio, quis porttitor est. Maecenas ultricies nisi a nisi consequat consectetur pellentesque eget ipsum. Nulla congue ipsum at ante molestie, sit amet aliquam ex tempus. Curabitur tristique, felis vel volutpat commodo, risus justo convallis elit, ut pellentesque augue purus eget leo. Vivamus et hendrerit enim, eu placerat nunc. Curabitur purus augue, dictum a imperdiet tincidunt, dictum ornare erat. Pellentesque ac justo accumsan, sodales ligula ultricies, lobortis tellus. Fusce velit mi, gravida non ante non, sollicitudin finibus odio. Phasellus fermentum ante felis, sed varius enim vehicula sed.

Praesent ultricies sem at mi varius fermentum. In tempus eleifend est nec ultrices. Aenean nisi metus, suscipit quis massa nec, viverra tempor dui. Donec vel ultrices urna, ac fermentum elit. Donec a maximus sapien. Donec nibh magna, eleifend at laoreet sit amet, sagittis eu ex. Praesent efficitur, nisl vitae maximus ullamcorper, lorem nulla malesuada nibh, id aliquet nisl est sit amet turpis. Aliquam a tellus vel lacus tempor blandit sed non nulla. Mauris ut erat ligula. Ut nec dignissim mi. Sed suscipit mi in dui fringilla placerat. Duis sed sem consequat, sagittis ex eget, egestas tortor. Vestibulum vitae magna ipsum. 

Cras ligula tortor, consequat vel urna vel, dignissim finibus lectus. Donec accumsan nibh lectus, vitae molestie ex dapibus vitae. Mauris eu fermentum sapien. Vestibulum laoreet consectetur diam ut volutpat. Morbi rhoncus aliquam posuere. Cras consectetur, odio at feugiat euismod, augue diam rhoncus ligula, at sollicitudin nunc turpis vitae diam. Proin ut tortor velit.

Reference

[1]     C. R. Wren, A. Azarbayejani, T. Darrell, and A. P. Pentland, (1997). “Pfinder: Real-time tracking of the human body,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 780-785, July 1997, doi: 10.1109/34.598236.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 1

After watching this week’s lecture (embedded in the post above) and reading this article on best practices for emailing professors, complete your first Weekly Writing Assignment by sending an email of introduction from your official City Tech email account to Prof. Ellis at jellis@citytech.cuny.edu according to the following parameters:

  • Send an email to Prof. Ellis at jellis@citytech.cuny.edu from your City Tech email account.
  • Subject line: ENG2575 [Your Section] Student Introduction
  • Salutation
  • Body: Tell me about yourself, your major, career goals, hobbies, what you want to get out of our class, and your availability for teamwork.
  • Closing: Sign with your name or how
    you would like me to refer to you.
  • If you need to reset your City Tech email password, go to forgot.citytech.cuny.edu.

Welcome to Technical Writing, ENG2575, OL68!

Dear all,

I would like to welcome you to our Fall 2021 Technical Writing class! To make sure you’re in the right place, this is ENG2575 OL68. I am Prof. Ellis and I will be leading our class this semester.

It’s important that you read through this message carefully and follow my directions below to join our class on OpenLab.

Even though classes don’t begin until Wednesday, Aug. 25, the school asked faculty to reach out to students early to help everyone be ready to begin when classes begin. At any point, feel free to reach out to me by email with any questions that you might have.

Our class is completely online and we will not be meeting synchronously (meaning at the same time). Instead, our class is designated asynchronous, which means each student can watch lectures and do the work at times of their choosing as long as deadlines and due dates are met.

Furthermore, there are, required team-based projects in which students will have to collaborate with others and coordinate times to work together throughout the semester. Please bear in mind that this is required for all ENG2575 classes and is therefore non-negotiable.

We will be using City Tech’s OpenLab to coordinate our class and the work that you will be doing this semester. To get you setup with the OpenLab, you will need to create an account using your City Tech email address (if you haven’t already done so), which you can do here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/register/

After you login to OpenLab with your account, you need to visit the Profile Page of our class and click on “Join Now” on the left side under the avatar image of a bank of post office boxes: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/eng2575-ol68-technical-writing-fall-2021/

Then, to access our class site where I will post lectures and assignments, and you will turn in many of your projects in the class, click on “Visit Course Site” (on the right) after you joined the course, or you can go there directly by following this link: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng2575ol68fa2021/

On our Course Site, you will see this Welcome message from me at the top of the page. On Wednesday, Aug. 25, I will post the first lecture video and weekly writing assignment. I explain a lot about how the class works and what we will be doing in that video. Watching each week’s lecture, taking notes, and completing assignments are required for success in the class.

Also, look at the menu on the left side of our Course Site to find the link to the class Syllabus: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng2575ol68fa2021/syllabus/. All of our class’ policies, major assignments and grades, and schedule can be found there. I go over the syllabus in detail in the first lecture video.

Finally, I will hold weekly virtual office hours on Wednesday from 3:00pm-5:00pm on Google Hangouts here: https://hangouts.google.com/call/ffqYdoXngPvd-4OB-HTtACEE. There is also a link to the weekly office hours on the left side of our Course Site. If you would like to meet with me at a different day and time, please send me an email with your availability for the coming week so that I can arrange a time that accommodates both of our schedules.

I’m looking forward to working with you all over the coming semester. Remember to contact me with questions or if anything comes up that affects your performance in the class at jellis@citytech.cuny.edu. I want us all to complete the semester successfully!

Be well and stay safe!

Best, Professor Ellis

750-1000 Word Expanded Defenition

To: Professor Ellis

From: Ducquon Hinds 

Date: Nov. 28.2021

Subject: Expanded Definition  

Introduction 

The Purpose of this Document is to give the Expanded Definition, background context, and History of The Term Internet. Sometimes referred to as the “World Wide Web” The internet is used for various reasons in our world today One being our main source of human communications Via Social Media, Email, and Audio and video transmissions as well as giving us access to digital information.  

 Definitions 

According to the Merriam- Websters Dictionary  “ Internet is An Electronic Communications network that connects computer Networks and Organizational computer facilities around the world – used with the except when being used attributively” also Known as the “World Wide Web”[1] this is the generic definition for this term while on the other hand According to Britannica Academic “ Internet is a System Architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect”[2] while this definition gives a more vivid description of the term they both capture the concept of the term. The internet is so powerful and general that it can be used for almost any information-dependent purpose, and anyone connected to any of its configured networks can access the internet. 

Context 

“The Internet that we use today, the network of computer networks based on the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) suite of protocols (Postel 1981) – is now relatively old technology.” This quote can be found in John Naughton’sArticle on the Evolution of the Internet: from the military experiment to general-purpose technology. In the context of this quote research on its design began in 1973, and the network went live in January 1983. The first 20 years of its existence were reserved for the technical, academic, and research elite. Beginning to invade mainstream societies in the early 1990s, today is widely regarded as general-purpose technology (GPT) without which modern societies would not work. Therefore, in a relatively short period of time, the technology exotic to a seemingly mediocre utility like the power grid.

The first computer networks were dedicated specialized systems such as SABER (Flight Reservation System) and AUTODIN I (Defense Command and Control System), both developed and implemented in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the early 1960s, computer makers began using semiconductor technology in their commercial products, and both traditional batch processing and time-sharing systems were introduced to many large and technologically advanced companies. A timeshare system allows you to quickly and continuously share computer resources with multiple users, quickly navigating a user’s queue, even if many other users are accessing the system “at the same time”. The computer appeared to be dedicated to each user’s task. .. Which gave rise to the idea of ​​sharing computer resources (called host computers or simply hosts) throughout the network. “The Internet resulted from the effort to connect various research networks in the United States and Europe”. This information was cited from Britannica Academic and it elaborates on the Origin and use of the Internet and why it was created. It is well known that the Internet owes its existence to the Cold War. But, as always, retroactive generalization obscures more complex stories.

 Working Definition 

The Working Definition of the Term Internet is a globally connected network system that provides access to communications and data resources around the world through a vast collection of private, public, business, academic, and government networks. It is managed by institutions such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority which sets the Universal Protocol. 

References 

[1]“Internet definition & meaning,” Merriam-Webster. [Online]. Available: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Internet. [Accessed: 21-Dec-2021]. 

[2]R. Kahn, “Internet – Computer Network,” Encyclopædia Britannica. [Online]. Available: https://www.britannica.com/technology/Internet. [Accessed: 21-Dec-2021]. 

[3]John Naughton (2016) The evolution of the Internet: from military experiment to General Purpose Technology, Journal of Cyber Policy,1:1, 5-28, DOI: 10.1080/23738871.2016.1157619

500 Word Summary of new COVID-19 Drug

To: Professor Ellis

From: Ducquon Hinds 

Date: December 21, 2021

Subject: 500 Word Summary of new COVID-19 Drug 

This is a 500-word summary of an article that Explains the vivid research of a prominent virologist who believes the Newly accepted oral COVID-19 drug may create Dangerous Mutations that can produce deadlier variants of the coronavirus. 

[1] The UK’s approval of the first Oral COVID-19 drug Molnupiravir (An antiviral Medication that inhibits the replication of certain RNA viruses and is used to treat COVID-19) comes as a virologist warned that the drug could inadvertently cause new versions of COVID-19 to emerge more prominent in patients who are already at high risk with underlying severe diseases and can potentially be doing more harm than any good. While on the other hand, other virologists believe it wouldn’t be plausible to withhold a drug that can save lives to investigate research that may not be a cause for concern.

[2] developed from an early antiviral drug by Merck and ridgeback Biotherapeutics, Molnupiravir works by disrupting the viral replication cycle by introducing many mutations to the virus’s DNA. Last month, officials from Merck and Ridgeback published clinical trial results showing that administering the drug to patients with early-stage COVID-19 reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by 50%. The drug’s ability to mutate RNA has raised persistent concerns that it could cause cancer or birth defects by causing mutations in patients’ own genetic material. Studies have not yet confirmed these concerns. 

[3] William Haseltine, a virologist previously known for his research on the HIV and human DNA project at Harvard University, warned that the use of molnupiravir, which is known to induce viral mutations, could lead to the development of new harmful variants that could be more dangerous than the ones present today. 

[4] Since many people who take antibiotics fail to complete their treatment, if a COVID-19 patient feels better after a few days Haseltine fears that the Mutant virus may survive and spread if they stop taking molnupiravir.

[5] Although infectious disease experts agree that the possibility of generating variants is there, they do not believe that this will have a negative effect on the virus.

[6] Haseltine’s Studies that show that coronaviruses can survive the effects of molnupiravir-induced mutations are important because they suggest that the viruses can still evolve and become drug-resistant. for example, two years ago Vanderbuilt University virologist Mark Denison and colleagues repeatedly exposed coronaviruses to a sublethal dose of a drug called EIDD1931 to test the drug-resistant viruses (murine hepatitis virus and a virus that causes respiratory syndrome in the Middle East) 30 rounds of such drug treatment caused up to 162 different mutations that the virus did not kill. However, Denison states that his study does not catalog mutations in individual viruses, instead up to 162 Mutations occurred in a population of cells infected with one of the two coronaviruses.  

[7] Most Mutations damaged the virus and slowed its growth. Most mutations damaged the virus and slowed its growth. “When I take something away from my job, the virus continues to develop harmful mutations when it tries to adapt, for example by resistance to [Molnupiravir],” Denison says. However, Ravindra Gupta, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, warns that the mutant virus is more likely to propagate in people who are most likely to take Molnupiravir, that is, those with a weakened immune system. “These are exactly the people most likely to receive [Molnupiravir],” he says because vaccines are less effective in protecting these patients.

[8] Daria Hazda, director of infectious disease detection at Merck, said “there is no evidence that people taking Molnupiravir were creating a virus with a new and dangerous Mutation. “No infectious virus was found,” says Hazda. She also states that patients who have been treated with the drug for 5 days. Mutations that occurred along the way were Random and did not focus on specific genes that increase the survival of the Virus.

[9] “There is no shortage of virus Mutations,” says Katzourakis. A more important question is whether molnupiravir exerts selective pressure to drive the virus towards infectivity or pathogenicity. A more important question is whether molnupiravir exerts selective pressure to drive the virus towards infectivity or pathogenicity.

[10] According to Denison and other virologists, Molnupiravir is likely to promote the emergence of drug-resistant viruses that are no longer fatal or contagious, a common consequence of anti-infective drugs. However, in the news, November on 5th News that another Pfizer antiviral drug was very effective against COVID-19 suggests ways to prevent resistance. 

Reference:R. F. Service, “A prominent virologist warns COVID-19 pill could unleash dangerous mutants. Others see little cause for alarm,” Goldtent TA Paradise ” A Prominent Virologist Warns COVID Pill Could Unleash Dangerous Mutants. Others See Little Cause for Alarm, 07-Nov-2021. [Online]. Available: https://goldtadise.com/?p=516074. [Accessed: 21-Dec-2021].Â