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

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 acyonyms 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.

Announcement, Office Hours on Sept. 15

Greetings, all!

I hope that you’re all well and settling into the fall semester.

Also, I hope that you’ve been using your time wisely to catch up on the first two lectures, take good notes, complete the readings, and begin on the first assignments and projects.

The Weekly Writing Assignments and associated homework are due by Wednesday, Sept. 23, which is when I will also post the next lecture (our Week 3 of 15).

In the meantime, send me your questions via email to jellis at citytech.cuny.edu or talk with me during office hours on Wednesdays from 3:00-5:00pm here: https://hangouts.google.com/call/ffqYdoXngPvd-4OB-HTtACEE

Stay tuned to your email for info about teams, which I will send out soon.