Email Journal Prompt 11 – Due Friday, May 1 by 2:00 p.m.

 

 

English IV (2^nd and 3^rd Periods)

 

Seniors, graduation is rapidly approaching and I know you all are counting it down. This week I want you to think about what needs to be said at the commencement ceremony to wrap up your thirteen years of elementary and high school education. Traditionally, the valedictorian, salutatorian, and class president make speeches at graduation, but let’s pretend that you are making the final commencement address. What would you say? How would you put all you’ve learned and all you want your peers to know into a five minute commencement address? Write your speech (the whole thing) and send it to me for this week’s journal response.

 

English III (1^st, 4^th, 5^th, and 7^th Periods)

 

This week you need to write the introductory paragraph to your Culminating Project Proposal. Your introduction should give me a clear idea of what your project is and what the rest of your proposal will say. Check this introduction carefully for spelling and grammar errors. Refer to your project manual for additional information.

 

This paragraph MUST answer the following questions:

 

• What exactly do you plan to do? (Remember this is the introduction to your proposal. It should be a brief description of your project. Remember, introductions should catch the reader’s attention.
• Estimate the length of time to complete your product, service, or design.
• By what date will this project be completed?
• Why are you doing this project? (What motivated you to choose this particular project? List all your reasons.)
• What skills, knowledge, experience, and personal qualities do you have that will help you complete this project? (What do you know and what can you do already that will help you complete this project?)
• What do you expect to learn from this project? (Include both what you will learn in technical knowledge about a topic or area your project covers, and what general skills you will acquire by planning and completing a major undertaking on your own. List everything you will learn.)
• How will you fund or find resources for your project? (Explain in detail how you will pay for the costs of your project. Include a budget if necessary. Remember, you are not required to choose a project that will be costly.)

 (For this week’s prompt, you may attach your response as a Microsoft Word document – use the .doc extension, NOT .docx – as you will want to save this paragraph for use with your full proposal.)

 

Remember your responses need to be at least 200 words. Send your responses to classjournal@gmail.com. All responses must be received by 2:00 p.m. on Friday, May 1^st, REGARDLESS OF ABSENCES!

 

The subject of the email must contain the number of the prompt you are responding to and your name as follows: Prompt 11 – Jane Smith

 

As was the case last quarter, I will not accept “But I don’t have a computer at home” as an excuse for not participating in this assignment. There are computers all over school, including my classroom, and at the local public libraries that are available for your use. It is your responsibility to make time to get this done once a week. A 25% penalty will be imposed on assignments received other than by email

 

Extra Credit – If you would like to earn some extra points on each of these journal assignments, you may do so by setting up a blog in lieu of emailing each entry. (For more information on blogs, see the Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog) For this assignment, you may set up your own blog and post your responses to the journal prompts on the blog in lieu of simply sending me an email. I will simply subscribe to the blog’s feed to make sure you have posted your entries on time.

 

Refer to your original instructions (on https://ourclassjournal.wordpress.com) for all of the other assignment details.

Today I spent several hours reading and grading responses to your journal prompts. This should have been an enjoyable exercise that gave me a bit more insight into your writing and thinking abilities than our short time together in class allows. What I found, however, is that the majority of you are not taking these assignments seriously.

The responses I have received are littered with typos, spelling errors, lack of punctuation, and poor grammar. You are supposed to be treating these assignments as any other formal writing assignment, which means proofreading and attention to detail are necessities. Most of you are not even bothering to make sure your have put the correct subject line on your emails. For those who have forgotten, I deduct 3 points (15%) from your grade for an incorrect subject line. (There is a reason I include it with the instructions every time.)

Additionally, several of you have not taken my warnings about plagiarism to heart. Today I entered failing marks for 12 students who plagiarized their responses. This is distressing for several reasons, not the least of which is that once you have been caught cheating once in a nine weeks, you risk failing the entire quarter over something as simple as sharing homework (a practice you all know I DO NOT condone).

These assignments are designed to allow you to express YOUR opinions and YOUR creativity. As there is no right or wrong answer, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON that any of you should be using other people’s words rather than your own.

I have attached a document on plagiarism that I am requiring ALL OF YOU to read and be familiar with. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, ANY STUDENT CAUGHT PLAGIARIZING, OR OTHERWISE CHEATING, IN MY CLASS WILL NOT ONLY BE SUBJECT TO THE CLASS POLICY BELOW, BUT WILL BE WRITTEN A DISCIPLINE REFERRAL FOR OPEN DEFIANCE AND CHEATING!

The following is our class policy on cheating and plagiarism as found in your syllabus:

CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM:  Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you are caught cheating on ANY assignment, you will receive a zero. In addition, you will be barred from earning any extra credit points for that entire semester and any extra credit points you had previously earned will be removed from your grade. Any student caught cheating a second time will automatically receive an “F” for that quarter.
 
My definition of cheating includes the following:
•    copying homework or classwork
•    looking on another student's test or quiz
•    letting another student look on a test or quiz
•    using other secretive methods of giving answers on a test or quiz
•    taking information from another source that is not properly attributed
•    working with others on an assignment that was meant to be done by individuals
•    taking papers from the Internet, other publications, or other students
•    taking any part of a test to use or to give to others
•    using someone else’s words, ideas, or work in an assignment without proper attribution

Please do not allow these gross mistakes in judgment to continue.

Sincerely,

Professor McElroy