Weekly Assignments
For Wednesday, Apr 18Please read the introductions, and note how the author's are using the first, second, and third paragraphs. You will see that they look somewhat different than what we have been doing--or, rather, the authors have expanded our traditional set-up. Please also note the layout of the Works Cited list. Try to identify if a source is a book, journal, governemt document, or web site. Notive that it is in alphabetical order down the page. Be prepared to talk about the documents in class.
For class on Wednesday, please compose a Works Cited list in MLA format comprised of the texts that you used in your second rough draft.
Prior to completing your list, it will be important to identify what type of source each one is. On page 142-43 of Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age (that small ring-bound text you were to bring today), you will see an index of 56 different types of sources. The page numbers next to the sources indicate the page where the citation format is explained. So, if you have a book with a single author, you go to page 144 to learn how to format the citation.
Creating a Works Cited list is an exact science. Unlike talking about ideas, there is a right and wrong way to create citations. We are doing a rough draft so we can get any errors out of the way. Every period, quotation mark, pathentesis, and comma has an exact place depending on the type of source.
Please note that the journal articles you get via the library databases are the equivalent of print journals, not online journals. And, it is also important to note that there are two types of journals--paginated by volume or paginated by issue. Journals paginated by volume start with page 1 in the first volume of that year and continue pages until the year is over. Journals paginated by issue start with page 1 in every single issue. You will need to know which type of journal you have. This may require you to go back to where you found the article and figure it out.
There is an online tool called NoodleBib that you can use to help compose your works cited list. To access the full service, there is a small subscription (for example, $4.00 for 3 months) , but you can also NoodleBib Express, which will allow you to do one entry at a time. This tool is very helpful in identifying the type of source you have, but it can also take longer to do.
So, to review, for Wednesday:
- read the document I included, print it, and be prepared to discuss in class
- compose your own works cited list in MLA format based on the sources you used in rough draft 2
- YOU MUST BRING 2 PRINTED COPIES TO CLASS For Monday, Apr 16
Please bring print versions of all sources used in research paper rough draft #2. We will be working on buiding Works Cited lists and you will need them to complete the activities. Please also bring your copy of Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age by Diana Hacker.
For Wednesday, Feb 14Please read the remaining sections of the Afghanistan Packet: Mainstream Media Reporting, Aletrnate Media Reporting, and War Crimes Opinions. This is, unfortunately, quite a bit of reading, but it all requires careful attention. When complete, please respond to the following prompt in the WebCT discussion forum, "Jus in Bello in Afghanistan":
Considering at least one article from all three sections (Mainstream Media Reporting, Aletrnate Media Reporting, and War Crimes Opinions), and using Regan's discussions of discrimination and proportionality, consider this question: Over the course of the war, did the US transform from a just warrior to an unjust warrior?" Be sure to cite Regan and paraphrase the three articles.
Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it in the response field. Your response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your response is due by 10:00am on Wednesday, Feb 14.
For Monday, Feb 12Please complete your final draft of essay 1. If you can, place your final draft in the "essay-1-fd" folder in the openarea. Please also bring 2 printed versions to class; they will be collected.
Please read/view the following sections of the Afghanistan Packet: Maps, Transcripts, and Images. The images may take a few mintes to loud, so if your connection is slow please be patient. Though there is no posting assignment relating to these readings, please come to class prepared to discuss the Transcripts and the images.
For Wednesday, Feb 7Please print out and read Regan, "Just War Conduct," which is available from the course WebCT site. Be sure to annotate the text. After reading the text, respond to the following on the "Regan and Numbers" discussion forum, no later than 10:00am Wednesday, Feb 7:
In the January 1988 edition of Harper's Magazine, Annie Dillard, a celebrated writer, in an essay called "The Wreck of Time: Taking Our Century's Measure," observes:
HEAD-SPINNING NUMBERS CAUSE MIND TO GO SLACK, the Hartford Courant says. But our minds must not go slack. How can we think straight if our minds go slack? We agree we want to think straight.
Anyone's close world of family and friends composes a group smaller than almost all sampling errors, a group invisible, at whose loss the world would not blink. Two million children die a year from diarrhea, and 800,000 from measles. Do we blink? Stalin starved 7 million Ukrainians in one year, Pol Pot killed 1 million Cambodians, the flu epidemic of 1918 killed 21 or 22 million people… shall this go on? Or do you suffer, as Teilhard de Chardin did, the sense of being "an atom lost in the universe"? Or do you not suffer from this sense? How about what journalists call "compassion fatigue"? Reality fatigue? At what limit for you do other individuals blur? Vanish?
A few paragraphs later, she continues:
Was it wisdom Mao Tse-tung attained when . . . he awakened to the long view? "The atom bomb is nothing to be afraid of," Mao told Nehru. "China has many people. . . The deaths of ten or twenty million people is nothing to be afraid of." A witness said Nehru showed shock. Later, speaking in Moscow, Mao displayed yet more generosity: he boasted that he was willing to lose 300 million people, half of China's population.
Does Mao's reckoning shock me really? If sanctioning the death of strangers could save my daughter's life, would I do it? Probably. How many others' lives would I be willing to sacrifice? Three? Three hundred million?
For this posting, I would like you to consider the question, "How many other lives would you be willing to sacrifice?" if, according to Regan's discussion of disciminiation, a target is militarily justified. In other words, if you were to bomb a military target, how many civilian deaths would be justified? How did you come up with that number?
Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it in the response field. Your response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins.
For Monday, Jan 29Please complete Parts A1 and A2, 2 Observations, and bring elecronic versions of them with you to class on Monday, Jan 29. Instructions for Parts A1 and A2 are in the Learning Record document you were to have already downloaded and modified. Please also have an electronic version of the best essay that you wrote in CCI (or its equivalent if you took CCI at another institution of higher education). We will be adding the text to the Learning Record document in class.
Please read in Tuchman, Chapters 6, 7, and 8 and respond to the following posting on "Tuchman and War Theory" discussion forum on the course WebCT site:
In Chapters 6, 7, and 8, of The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman describes in great detail the actions and thoughts behind the actions of Germany, Belgium, France, and England as they moved toward what would become WWI. In this response, I would like you to choose one of the four countries and come to your own conclusion about its war theory. Is the country you choose a just warrior, a realist, a militarist, or a pacifist. Support your claim by refering to either Coates or Miller.
Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins.
Please compete this by 11:00pm on Sunday, Jan 28.
For Wednesday, Jan 24Please download a copy of the learning record template (Word doc) to your computer, flash drive, or other location where you know you can find it again in the near future. Save the file as "cc2-s07-yourlastname-lr.doc" by right clicking (or on a Mac, CTRL+click) on the above link, and selecting "Save Link As." When directed to, find the location where you wish to save it. After saving the file, open it, complete the Student Profile section, and save it again. Please make sure you have created a file name exactly as written above.
Please read in Coates' "The Just War" and in Tuchman Chapters 1 and 2. This is a great deal of reading, so please start early and use the Annotating techniques from "Stretegies for Reading Critically." Please also respond to the following post on the "Coates and Tuchman: An Introduction" discussion forum on the course WebCT site.
Coates' "The Just War" and Tuchman's first two chapters are complex, elusive, and intricate texts--texts which contain a great amount of information all at once. When confronting such texts as a critical reader, it is important to be able to identify those places within the text that intrigue and confuse us. For this posting, I would like you to select a passage from either "The Just War" or Tuchman's chapters that you found particularly insightful and thought-provoking, particularly confusing, or that you are skeptical of.
Type the passage into your response--include page numbers--and discuss your response or responses to the passage in terms of how, as a reader, why you thought it though-provoking, or how you tried to work through your confusion. At the end of your discussion, pose a question to your classmates (avoid questions like, "So, what do you think?"). Please post your response by noon on Wednesday, Jan 24.
By the end of the day on Wednesday, Jan 24 (so the essays and class discussion are still fresh in your mind), please post a response to one of your peer's questions. Please try to respond to a posting in which the author discusses a text you did not use in your posting (for example, if you posted about Coates, respond to a posting that discussed Tuchman). In your response to your peer, please address the question they raised.
Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your initial response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your second response can be half that size.
For Monday, Jan 22Please make sure you have all the required materials listed on the syllabus. If you do not know your Rowan email address or how to access it, please see go to Rowan Network Account Activation and follow the instructions. I will be sending email to your Rowan address, so if you do not consider it your primary email address please make a habit of checking it on a regular basis.
Read through the Learning Record information web site, especially the pages for students and other left links (you can ignore the right column links). Then come up with 5 written questions you have about the Learning Record process. Post your questions to the course WebCT Learning Record Discussion Topic (there is a forum on the Learning Record site; please do not use that one). We will be using your questions to frame our discussion of the Learning Record on Tuesday. Your questions are due by noon on Sunday, Jan 22.
Download and print from the course WebCT front page Strategies for Critical Reading, Coates, "Introduction" and "The Just War", Miller, "Terms for Interpretations of Conflict". Read the texts in the order listed above--with Coates, only read the "Introduction." When reading Coates and Miller, use the Annotating techniques discussed in "Strategies for Critical Reading." Bring the printed texts with you to class. I will check to see if you annotated the texts. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the files. All computers on campus have it; but you can download a free copy at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Do not wait until the last minute to start reading.
You may also want to get a head start on the reading for Wednesday: Coates, "The Just War" and Tuchman, Chapters 1 and 2; use the annotating strategies with these readings as well.