Week Four (9/30)

In Class
1. Quick review of Body Paragraphs and Using Sources

2. Finishing a body paragraph for an essay using secondary sources and personal commentary HERE.

3. Rounding up: Essay paragraphing in Sarah Madsen Hardy's essay on "Bloodchild." See "Bloodchild." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Tim Akers. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 23-37.  

 4. Writing an encyclopedic body paragraph for Lillvis' argument HERE. See Kristen Lillvis. "Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Slavery?: The Problem and Promise of Mothering in Octavia E. Butler’s “Bloodchild”." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 39.4 (2014): 7-22.

5. Discussion
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night." Responses to form HERE.
"Speech Sounds." Responses to form HERE.

Assignments due October 7
1. In your Wikipedia sandbox, create a new section. In this section, summarize Maria Holmgren Troy's "Loss of Words: Octavia Butler's 'Speech Sounds'." The Power of Words. Ed. Solveig Granath, June Miliander, and Elizabeth Wennö. Karlstad, Sweden: Karlstads Universitet, 2005. 73-80.

After the summary, copy three quotations from the reading using bullet points.

 2. Fill out the form that corresponds to your assigned topic (15 points):
  • "The Evening...": Entrapment and Liberation HERE. yadyfirst, bentley0207, Mboodoo123, MarcusGotIt, amalia.galvis, iwachiw2001, nathjav, wikiuser103, Amartinez47, Ms. Jan3, Taurus-Rules
  • "The Evening...": Segregation and Community HERE.  dmicua94, A.renee, PatrycjaD101, JulietW78, colo201623, Fshariff101, JustinTaylor21, DarkNotos, lovelyjay0308, ynfantecarmen

Week Three (9/23)

In Class
1. Read/Discuss: Effective Academic Essays III.II The Body Paragraphs (packet, pages 8-9)
2. Writing a paragraph to use in an essay: 
a. As a group, put together a topic sentence that supports ONE of the following thesis statements for "Bloodchild" from last week: 
  1. In "Bloodchild," Butler calls into question topics such as loyalty, consent and respect for oneself and your partner. 
  2. In the short story "Bloodchild," Octavia Butler dramatizes the impulsive struggle of the main protagonist - Gian, and the way of passive rebel which his mother choose to protest against the supremacy of Tlic race.
  3. Butler's unsettling portrayal of the symbiotic relationship between the human Terrans and alien Tlic demonstrate how the need for compromise is necessary for coexistence. 
  4. The uneven exchange in Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild" highlights the power struggle between the two species and how much sacrifice is needed for survival.
  5. In "Bloodchild," Butler describes where the Terran live as a Preserve. I am going to prove that the "Preserve" is actually a sexual slavery compound.
       FORM HERE. Responses HERE. 
b. Once I have approved your topic sentence, write the rest of the body paragraph by using evidence from "Bloodchild" and commenting on the evidence HERE (again). Please ONLY summarize evidence--No quoting from the story yet. Responses HERE.  
c. Read/Discuss: Effective Academic Essays IV: Using Sources (packet pages 12-18) and the two sources you examined for homework. Questions HERE. Responses HERE 
d. Now add information from a source to your body paragraph HERE (again).
Responses HERE.  
4. Writing a paragraph to use in Wikipedia: 
For your given topic on "Bloodchild," write a body paragraph with a neutral topic sentence followed by a summary/paraphrase that explains or expands it (try NOT to quote!) HERE

Assignments due Sept. 30 
  1. Read  the short stories "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" and "Speech Sounds" and their Afterwords (pdfs on Blackboard; the book is also on reserve in the Library.)
  2. Log on to Wikipedia. Go to your Sandbox, click on Edit, and create a heading titled ""The Evening and the Morning and the Night." Create a subheading 1 titled "Summary."  In your own words ONLY, write a 150-word summary of what happens in the story. Do NOT quote. Do NOT closely paraphrase summaries from outside sources, as this is against Wikipedia policy, as explained in the handout "Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia."  
  3. Below the summary of "The Evening and the Morning and the Night," create another subheading 1 titled "Quotes." Using bullet points, copy three quotes from the story that you think should be included in the Wikipedia entry on it. 
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for "Speech Sounds."
  5. Help us prepare for next week's class discussion of these two stories by filling out one of these forms (15 points):
6. Complete The Wikipedia Adventure

Week Two (9/16/16)

In Class
1. Quick review of last class
2.  Read/Discuss: Effective Academic Essays I Introduction, II The Thesis Statement (packet, pages 5-6)
3. Read the responses to your topic on "Bloodchild" and discuss the issues it presents in a small group. Report your findings to the large group. 
4. After each group reports on its topic and the class discusses it, post a tentative thesis statement for that particular topic HERE. Responses HERE. 
5. III.II The Body Paragraphs (packet, pages 8-9)
6. As a group, put together a body paragraph supporting a thesis for "Bloodchild" HERE. 
   Please ONLY summarize evidence--No quoting from the story yet. 

 Assignments due Sept. 23 
Go to the library databases, find and download/print these two secondary sources for "Bloodchild":
  1. "Bloodchild." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Tim Akers. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 23-37.
  2. Kristen Lillvis. "Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Slavery?: The Problem and Promise of Mothering in Octavia E. Butler’s “Bloodchild”." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 39.4 (2014): 7-22.
Read source #1 and read/browse #2, then answer the questions in THIS FORM (15 points).

Week One (9/9/16)

Welcome to ENG103. 0910! In this research class, you will
  • learn the difference between thesis-based and encyclopedic writing
  • become an expert in the proper methods and procedures of contributing to Wikipedia
  • engage in the investigative and evaluative process required to write an outstanding encyclopedic article and see your work published as part of LaGuardia’s ongoing WikiProject on the work of African-American science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler

In Class
1. Overview of the course and how Wikipedia will be used. Read "Online Writing = 21st Century Writing"  (page 4 of class packet).
Example of a past collective entry: Octavia Butler's Wild Seed. (WP Basics slides). Check the LaGuardia Archives GLAM.
2. Use the handout "Welcome to Wikipedia" to complete the "Welcome to Wikipedia" quiz on Blackboard. (15 min)
3. Online privacy; choosing a username; the advantages of using a pseudonym. (Do not know the meaning of the word? See a definition HERE.
Note: To be effective, the pseudonym should be different from your name, nicknames, or your regular usernames. For more information on usernames, see "Guidance for new users" in Wikipedia's Username policy.
4. Create a Wikipedia account. If you are having trouble creating the account, talk to me or to Ann.
5. Submit your username information to THIS FORM.
6. Enroll in our Wikipedia course page by clicking HERE.
7. Create your Userpage ("Welcome to Wikipedia," p. 14) by writing a short introduction of yourself to other Wikipedians. This introduction can be as revealing as you want to make it, but writing "I am currently part of a student group working on Octavia Butler's Bloodchild" will suffice if you want your identity to stay private.

For an example, here is the "About me" section of my Userpage. Remember you can always make your Userpage more elaborate as you learn more about editing Wikipedia. 
8. Create your Sandbox: Go to your Sandbox, click on Edit, and create a heading titled "Citation Practice." Under it, type the following text: Octavia Butler was shy as a child. 

Now add three footnotes for secondary sources supporting what this text argues. 
a) For the first, click on "cite," select "Basic Form" and paste the following information in the reference box:  Butler, Octavia E. "Positive Obsession." Bloodchild and Other Stories. New York : Seven Stories, 2005. 123-136. (Don't forget to italicize the title of the book). Save the page. Write a brief edit summary: Added reference to Bloodchild and Other Stories 
b) For the second, go to The LaGuardia Library Media Resources Center's Find Articles page, then choose the Academic Search Complete/EbscoHost subscription database. Find Butler's essay entitled "Birth of a Writer" and copy the citation information for the essay in MLA format (Don't forget to italicize where necessary). Paste the information as you did for the first footnote.  Save the page. Write a brief edit summary: Added reference to Birth of a Writer
c) For the third, click on "Cite," select "Automatic" and generate a citation for this The New York Times online article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/01butler.html?_r=0
Save the page. Write a brief edit summary: Added reference to NYT 
At the bottom of the page, create a heading titled "References." Under it, select Insert>More>"References List." If you do this correctly, you should have a list of the three sources. 

Assignments due Sept. 16 (Sept. 23 if you missed the first class meeting)
  1. Read the short story "Bloodchild" and Butler's Afterword to it. (Up to page 32 on the pdf on Blackboard; the book is also on reserve in the Library).
  2. Log on to Wikipedia. Go to your Sandbox, click on Edit, and create a heading titled "Bloodchild." Create a subheading 1 titled "Summary."  In your own words ONLY, write a 250-word summary of what happens in the story. Do NOT quote. Do NOT closely paraphrase summaries from outside sources, as this is against Wikipedia policy, as explained in the handout "Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia."  
  3. Below the summary of "Bloodchild," create another subheading 1 titled "Quotes." Using bullet points, copy three quotes from the story that you think should be included in the Wikipedia entry on it. 
  4. Help us prepare for next week's class discussion of "Bloodchild" by filling out one of these forms (15 points):
Ongoing: Complete The Wikipedia Adventure (25 p.)
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