February 3, 2022
Second Unit Feedback covid-19: day 677 | US: GA | info | act
This week, we looked at Reader-Response Criticism and two short stories: r/LitWiki » Hemingway’s “Indian Camp” and r/LitWiki » Joyce’s “Araby”. Generally, I thought the responses and discussions were pretty good; some are getting better, and a couple even tried to incorporate research! Well done. I have some feedback for both sets of responses.
First off, please review my feedback for the previous week. I don’t think all of you have, as many of the mistakes I pointed out are still being made. As this is an online course, you should read all feedback carefully and attempt to improve your work.
Research is integral to your success in this course, and most of you are still not doing it. Remember, the highest grade you will earn on responses is a 7 out of 10 if you do not do research. As I have said many times: secondary texts should be from books or scholarly journals that you find on Galileo—not web sites.[1] When you use a source, it must be cited correctly. I recommend using the approach I outline in Digital Citation. Use the author’s name; use the name of his or her article; use parenthetical citations for page numbers. These details are important, and I explain that a little more in Digital Citation. Please have a look at it.
Also, look at Link Logic. Composing links correctly is a part of literacy today, and you should be doing it correctly. This document outlines the basics.
Before you post, read what has been posted already. You are not writing essays here; in fact, super long posts and big blocks of text will actually cost you points in evaluation. Posts should be focused and precise, as I have already covered before (see Reddit Discussions: A How-To for Literature Classes for a reminder).
You should also be using the up-vote and down-votes; I’m not sure anyone did for these two responses. This is important to make sure strong posts float to the top and weaker ones sink to the bottom. I expect more participation in this regard moving forward, please.
Please reply to questions in the correct place; hit the reply icon under the question or post you are replying to. Many posts are not in the correct place. Soon I will begin just deleting these. I’m sure you do not want that to happen.
- “I believe . . .”
- “I think . . .”
- “I feel . . .”
- “In my opinion . . .”
Correct grammar and mechanics must be used in all of your writing. For example, many are not using possessives correctly. Often responses are wordy and repetitive—especially from late posters; these should be revised before submitting. Remember: this is a writing course, so you should be concentrating on making your writing as good as it can be.
Generally, if you posted at least twice, you earned a 7/10 minimum. If you only posted once, you likely earned a 6/10—as twice per thread is the minimum. I fully expect grades to get better as your writing and research skills are honed. If your grades are lower than you expected, please don’t despair. Try to incorporate my feedback into your next posts. Ask questions if you have them! I still have a bunch of Reddit awards to give out. Again, who will be the first?
Finally, please reply to this post to let me know you have seen it, read it, and understand it. Ask questions. I will give you extra points for engaging here. Click the reply icon below and leave a comment for some extra credit.
This may sound like a lot, but I do see improvements. Keep it up. We have one more unit before our first Report (research essay) is due. How are you feeling? Tell me on the linked thread. I’d love a little back-and-forth with you guys.
note
- ↑ This is not to say there aren’t good resources to be had on web sites, and you may use them. However, research on college must go beyond an easy Google search and into the university library. This is required for this course. I’m not sure how to make myself clearer on this point.
