Critique 2 General Guidelines - 1
Fall, 2002 General Guidelines for MS Word Critiques Dr. Finn
(Critique 2)
Every student will submit several critiques this semester - based on certain readings or topics assigned in class.
· Critique 1 has no specific formatting requirements (you should type the answers in MS Word and submit the photos in some sort of “scrapbook” you create).
· Critique 2 (a 3-5 page assignment) must be submitted through electronic mail, as an (MS Word) e-mail attachment. (do not send in MS “Works” format).
· Critiques 3 and 4 must be submitted as web pages (see General Guidelines for Web-Based Critiques).
So there is no confusion about the required length: “3-5 pages” has a very specific meaning. The meaning of “page:” a page is defined here as 23-26 lines of (proportional-spaced, 12-pitch) text, double spaced, with 1 inch margins all around (or 9-12 words per line, 260-300 words per page). The meaning of “3-5:” an adequate job can be done in 3 pages if your writing is clear and concise. Most of us require a longer paper (4 or 5 pages) to provide an adequate treatment of the subject.
So there is no confusion about the quality of your work: While the strength of the ideas will vary from student to student, I expect everyone to demonstrate basic writing skills. This means typos, poor punctuation, or bad grammar are, obviously, unacceptable and will result in points lost. You must use APA Style and, where appropriate, provide appropriate citations in the text, and a list of references at the end. Where appropriate, you should also integrate class readings and other material into each critique.
So there is no confusion about the source of your work:
· all students are required to use APA Style for Critique 2 (see below)
· virtually every critique requires citations of some sort (proper attribution for any ideas not your own)
· you must, of course, abide by the university’s rules prohibiting plagiarism and cheating
APA Style, for our purposes in this course, means you must adhere to APA style for:
· citations in the text (including on-line citations): any time you cite work or ideas that are not your own original thoughts, you must cite their source. While no firm guidelines can be provided regarding how often to cite a source you refer to multiple times, you do not need to cite it at the end of each and every sentence. If a source is cited repeatedly, you only need to reference it every few sentences. The last sentence of a paragraph is a good place to cite the ideas that appear in the preceding paragraph.
· Limit quotations, but cite the exact page number when you actually quote someone
· complete section of “References” for all text citations (including on-line citations)
· use of appropriate primary, secondary, and tertiary headers, as needed, in the paper or critique
· proper spacing,
· use headers/subheaders when possible – this helps provide segues/transitions between ideas without a lot of introductory or summary comments
· use of a running header (in MS Word, click on View, then Headers and Footers to insert a header that will run on each page; remember to insert the page number)
· see the example which follows (several pages from the 10 attributes paper) for the correct use of all these features. Note that the references listed at the end don’t match the citations in the text. This was done intentionally, to show you the proper format for a variety of reference types, including books, edited books, and journal articles. (Yours, however, must match!)
Wide latitude will be given to the content of these critiques, but they must avoid simply summarizing the readings, and should include your personal evaluation of the issue(s) and, where appropriate, related examples from your own experience.
So there is no confusion about late assignments: These assignments must arrive by e-mail by 12:00 noon on the day they are due. Critiques submitted late may still be accepted (up to the next class) but will be penalized one letter grade per day. There are no valid technical excuses for not getting these assignments in on time. Start early enough to avoid technical and logistical problems (such as no computers available in the labs, down time, a digital pet ate my bits, etc.).
(following an introduction, etc, we pick up in the middle of this paper:
Critique 2 General Guidelines - 1
Ten Attributes of Electronic CIS
Communication and information systems (CIS) have gotten more complex in recent years, in part because of the well-documented convergence of technological systems (Baldwin, McVoy, & Steinfield, 1997; Fidler, 1997; Rogers, 1986). In fact, scholars talk of “systems” such as voice mail, answering machines, pagers, and caller ID as though they existed unto themselves when, in fact, they must be used in conjunction with the telephone system. Similarly, the videocassette recorder is often used in conjunction with the television, automatic teller and lottery machines require a computer network, and e-mail is usually accessed with a personal computer. Our telecommunications environment is best described as a complex set of systems interacting with other systems (Finn, 1999).
As Johnson and Davis (1996) point out, when a communication and information system is married to another system to yield a usable system, technologically that is a hybrid system. For example, voice mail is a hybrid system, combining a voice mail computer with the telephone network. In fact, today many business voice mail users have a visual voice mail interface through their personal computer at the office, making this hybrid a combination of three distinct technologies. Technology convergence means that hybrid systems will continue to become more complex. There are also asymmetrical systems, such as interactive cable television, that provide different capabilities for the sender than they do for the receiver (Duthler, Picherit, & Finn, 1997; Rogers, 1986). The number of combinations of these various technologies, and the number of new systems that are introduced each year, makes it clear that the future will present additional CIS with a variety of new capabilities.
This discussion of 10 primary attributes of telecommunications technology provides a roadmap for navigating this complex and ever-changing landscape of CIS. In addition, each attribute will be discussed in relation to the example of “voice mail.” Voice mail is in quotes here because, for illustrative purposes, three very different applications for voice mail will be compared. These include business voice mail, residential voice mail, and voice mail personals (for example, a singles line). Through this discussion it will be demonstrated that: (a) the intended purpose and use differs across these applications, (b) the technology is designed differently across these applications, and (c) the socially constructed system that results is a combination of how the system is designed and how it is used.
Directionality
CIS can be one-way or two-way. A two-way system allows content to travel in both directions, while a one-way system allows no direct feedback from receiver to sender, although indirect feedback may be possible through another CIS (for example, talk radio uses the telephone). While this basic attribute of communication has traditionally distinguished mass (one-way) from interpersonal (two-way) communication, today distinctions between one-way and two-way communication are more difficult to make, as time is factored in with directionality. For example, while any individual e-mail message only provides one-way communication, an e-mail system is a two-way system; messages can travel in both directions. The non-simultaneous nature of e-mail confuses many users, who then describe e-mail as one-way. What they are doing is confusing directionality with simultaneity (discussed below).
A further blurring of the one-way/two-way distinction is the delay present in half-duplex connections. A half-duplex connection allows two-way transmission, but only one direction at a time, as in CB radio or half-duplex speakerphones. In addition, hybrid and asymmetrical systems may provide combinations of one way and two way functionality, such as a one way video system with two way audio.
Voice mail example. Directionality is the attribute that most clearly separates the residential voice mail system from the other two in our example. Residential voice mail is designed to provide telephone call answering capabilities only. Subscribers cannot send voice messages within the system to other residential voice mail subscribers. In contrast, business voice mail is designed to provide two applications simultaneously: call answering (to answer the telephone when one is unable, analogous to an answering machines) and internal voice messaging (sending messages to others with IDs on the system, analogous to e-mail). Note that it is not the users that construct the systems in this way--the design of the system facilitates particular types of communication and constrains others. It is only within this framework that the community of users socially constructs the system (i.e., determines how the system will typically be used).
(new page for References)
References
Baldwin, T. F., McVoy, D. S., & C. Steinfield. (1997). Convergence: Integrating media, information, and communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Finn, T. A. (1999). The Role of Temporality in Mediated Communication and Technology Convergence. Available on line at: http://www.infosoc.co.uk/00106/ab4.htm.
Rafaeli, S. (1988). Interactivity: From new media to communication. In R. P. Hawkins, J. M. Wiemann, & S. Pingree (Eds.), Sage annual review of communication research: Advancing communication science, Vol. 16, pp. 110-134. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Rice, R. E. (1993). Media appropriateness: Using social presence theory to compare traditional and new organizational media. Human Communication Research, 19(4), 451-484.
Rogers, E. M. (1986). Communication technology: The new media in society. New York: Free Press.