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Dr. Gilpin’s Expectation Sheet 2016-2017

Room 4School Phone: 217-763-2711 ext. 128

Emails: [fastest response outside of school]

My cell is 855-5080; please text with questions. I am available to help students before school. If I am not in my room, I will be on the stage in rehearsal. I usually arrive around 5am, so feel free to come in between 5:30-7:45am for help or to use the computer lab. I can meet students occasionally after school if pre-arranged.

Students will

1.bring supplies, take notes, retain handouts, read handouts, and do assignments

2.ask questions early

3.turn in assignments on time (no late work)-----long-term assignments and tests are still due even if you were gone the day before

4.turn in work that is due if they are on campus even if they miss my particular course that day

5.not plagiarize: they will receive 2 detentions and phone call home, as well as a zero on the assignment

6.have a positive attitude and be open to new ideas

7.treat every person, including themselves, with respect-----bullying and self-deprecation are not tolerated

8.treat other people’s belongings, including mine, with respect

9.limit whining; whining is just time-wasting and will be treated in the same way as other attempts to derail lessons, such as cursing, bullying, or aggressive/apathetic insubordination.

10.understand that doing individual assignments with others is cheating

11.realize that actions (positive/negative) have consequences

12.understand that “lost” work is not graded; homework is due as one enters the classroom---print out BEFORE class

13.ask me, not other students, questions in class

14.write down verbal instructions

15.understand that they will receive detentions or other disciplinary actions for insubordination or other issues

16.arrange to make up tests when they miss the class period; if they have not taken it after a week has passed, the grade becomes a zero.

17.be responsible for taking notes on homework assignments, as not all assignments will be passed out in paper format.

18.look on STI for homework and grading information.

19.behave like students: no throwing items, cheating, talking during instruction, texting, using electronics without permission, etc.

Dr. Gilpin will

1.be available for student concerns via face-to-face, email, and phone

2.understand each student is an individual with internal and external challenges to learning

3.continue to be a lifelong learner and constantly strive to make the classroom environment a safe place to learn

4.challenge her students

5.provide opportunities for her students to be competitive with students from any other school, region, or socio-economic bracket

6.enforce high standards that align with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Core Curriculum Standards, and NCATE

7.encourage students to go beyond their boundaries

8.not accept less than that which a student is capable

9.not accept half-hearted efforts

10.provide study skills information and opportunities for practice in time management

Tests: 20 points Projects: 40 points Quizzes: 10 points

A Papers have mastered not only the conventions but also style. They provide a thesis that is easy for them to follow and easy for me to read. They have followed the rules of the assignment in an interesting way. They have few typos, spelling mistakes, or clarity issues. They use APA format correctly for research projects.

B Papers are well above average, doing not only what the assignment asks and connecting with the audience, but doing so with an extra measure of expression or control. It is better than typical in most respects: language, grammar, ambition, research, or effect. It embodies achievement and excellence. They adhere to APA style for research papers.

C Papers may fulfill all aspects of the assignment, but they need work. They may be overly generalized or generic. Though they may be adequate in presenting the author’s thoughts, these papers need to focus on organization, grammar, syntax, or structure. They may need help with APA.

D Papers reflect an incomplete understanding of the assignment or inaccuracies in writing. The work is too messy to read or typos distract from the concept. These may contain recurrent stylistic flaws, misreadings of the works discussed, spelling errors, and citation errors. It may present a trivial thesis, a thesis in multiple parts, and thus have no flow. They have issues with APA.

F Papers are still better than zero papers. F papers are mechanically unsound, difficult to read, have citation issues, or are just not high school level work, but they still represent some understanding of the assignment’s goals. They do not use or attempt APA.

A student receives a zero for not turning in a paper or for plagiarism; a student may also receive a zero for an assignment that does not even attempt to meet requirements (turning in a personal narrative, creative essay, or flimsy paragraphs instead of a research paper).

Writing in Dr. Gilpin’s Class/ALL OF THE APA NOTES:

DO NOT LOSE THIS, AS IT WILL ANSWER MOST QUESTIONS

Expectations for Formal Papers

Most of the papers in the Composition/Literature classes are formal papers. They have specific requirements informal papers do not. Even when writing a rough draft for peer or teacher editing and revision, I expect you to adhere to these concepts:

  1. Do not use contractions. This means you must use cannot instead of “can’t” and do not instead of “don’t.”
  2. Do not use instant messenger or any other kinds of abbreviations.
  3. Do not use “there are” or “there is.”
  4. Proper nouns are capitalized.
  5. Formal papers are only in third person, so they do not use “I, me, we, our, us, you, or your.” Instead, formal papers use “he, she, they, them, their, people, one, someone, students” to get the point across.
  6. The papers should be typed in Times New Roman or Geneva 12 point font and double spaced. Usually, you will have at least a week between receiving the assignment and the date it is due. This is enough time to use the computer lab to type the assignment if you do not own a computer.
  7. The thesis (last sentence of the introduction paragraph) is one sentence, not three sentences with a point for each.
THE VERY BASIC WAY TO DO AN ESSAY

INTRO PARAGRAPH

1st SentenceHook: This is where you might ask a question, put in a statistic, or quote someone. You

DO NOT put the main idea of your paper here.

Middle This is where you put additional information about the general topic. You merely

provide reasons that this is an important topic to the world or to particular groups. You

DO NOT put the main idea or reasons here.

Last sentenceTHESIS: This is where you put the point of your paper. The easy way to do it is just to list your

three concepts of the paper (the ones that become your body paragraphs): “Cerro Gordo

schools should have a pool because it will increase attention, increase after PE showers,

and make our school look good.” Another way to do it is to not say all of your points, but

the main point. Do not do this if you do not know where to go next without the three-

part thesis. An example: “In order to discuss the benefits of cafeteria food, it is necessary

to examine three main aspects of good nutrition.” Also, we want to work on sophistication to go beyond the listing thing.

Body Paragraphs

1st sentenceThis is your topic sentence. This cannot get “cutesy.” It is not a story. This tells what the

paragraph will be about. All sentences within the paragraph relate to this sentence. You can start

it with a transition, but try to be more creative than “first, second, or third.” An example would

be “The most important factor for the student uniform concept involves expense.” Then the rest

of the paragraph would deal with expense.

ConclusionRestate the thesis and few of the main points. Do not add new points. Leave the audience with

the main point.

How to write a paper in Dr. Gilpin’s class:

  1. Get the assignment out. If you tend to lose things, make several copies and put them at home, in your locker, in your purse/wallet, and in your jacket.
  2. Choose a topic or topic sub-section from the provided sections or choose your own (if it is allowed in the assignment).
  3. Do research (try to do this a day or two early---at the very least).
  4. Find books, articles, and sites about your topic. Get more resources than the paper requires.
  5. Write the resource down (print it out if at all possible) as a reference entry:

(THESE ENTRIES GO ALL OF THE WAY ACROSS THE PAGE; THIS IS JUST TO SHOW HANGING INDENT.)

Books:

Last name, First Initial. (most recent date of publication). Title. City of publication:

Publisher.

King, S. (1999). Carrie. Castle Rock: Harper & Rowe.

Magazines/Journal articles:

Last name, First Initial. (date). Article title. Title of the journal/magazine,

Issue#/Volume#, page span of the entire article.

Sevenson, V. (2001, August). How to get an A+ every time in school. Education

Weekly, 27(10), 75-82.

Internet:

Last name, First initial. (year edited/created). Section or page title. Site title.

Electronically retrieved month day, year, from exact website address.

Watts, K., & Greene, V. (2002). Building American schools through hard work and

hard study habits. Phi Delta Kappa Online. Electronically retrieved March 24,

2006, from

If there is no author, the article/page title goes before the year. Everything else is the same, but the reference page is alphabetized by the first letter of the entry (the page or the last name).

  1. After you’ve printed out your resources and have them listed out in correct style, put them into a reference page right away. Then you have that part of the paper done and can understand how to do your internal citations.
  1. Set your computer to the FORMAL setting: go to Tools, click Options, click Spelling and Grammar or the Grammar tab at the top, then go to the bottom right to drag the choice from standard to FORMAL. This will highlight many of the problems many students have and remind you to change specific things.
  1. Next, figure out your thesis (you might have figured that out as you were researching in order to get the information that would best help you.) Put your thesis into a sentence----either a standard three pointer (remember, your thesis is ONE SENTENCE---not three sentences) or a more general thesis.
  1. Examples of a thesis include, but are not limited to (and these are fairly lame---try to use them as starter points, not carbon copies):
  1. In order to understand ______, it is necessary for ______to analyze/describe/investigate/elaborate upon the subject’s ______, ______, and ______.
  2. Although the subject of ______can be complicated, understanding ______, ______, and ______can clarify the discussion.
  3. One must analyze the cause and effects of ______to make an informed decision.
  4. Various aspects of ______should be weighed before ______.
  5. People should support ______for multiple reasons.
  1. After you have a thesis, you may write your introduction or you may save your introduction to write at the end with the conclusion.
  1. Your topic sentences of your body paragraphs must occur at the beginning of each body paragraph. If you have a three-part (or more) thesis sentence, the topics must come in the order presented in the thesis. If you do not have a three-part thesis, put your topics in the order in which they make the most sense (large to narrow, cause and effect, compare and contrast, etc).
  1. More sophisticated writing relies less on direct quotes (which are the author’s exact words in quotations with internal citation at the end) and more on summarizations and paraphrases (putting the author’s words into your words without quotation marks but STILL WITH INTERNAL CITATION!).
  1. Internal citation: This is at the end of things taken from another author. This is area-specific information. You use internal citation to “point” the reader to the correct reference entry on the reference page (that you did earlier). Internal citations for direct quotes look like this: (last name, year, page/para. #). Page numbers are used for books and magazines, and paragraph numbers are used for the internet. Internal citation for summaries look like this: (last name, year). If the source does not have a last name, a few words from the start of the article/page title will act as the “pointer.” (Smith, 2006). (Jones, 2005, para. 2). (Where were you…., 2004).
  1. After you have chosen the information to use for your paper, use it! The next part is the part where people get weird: your paper is NOT just to be cobbled together jumps from summaries to direct quotes and back to summaries. You must think of yourself as the artist or researcher who is carefully examining or analyzing the information in order to bring it together in a certain way to make certain conclusions for the reader.
  1. This is how a paragraph might be styled:
  1. Topic sentence
  2. Elaboration upon the topic sentence or description of the concept.
  3. A summary or direct quotation (with internal citation) relating to or showing an example of the topic.
  4. Your own words giving anecdotes or further examples (for instance….) of the citation.
  5. A transition to another example by another author (you want various authors on each topic----you do not want big chunks by only one author or from only one site).
  6. Another author’s information (internally cited).
  7. Another “for instance” of your own devising used to further elaborate on the idea or the citation.
  8. A concluding sentence of your own to wrap up the topic.
  9. A transition sentence to prepare the reader for the next paragraph’s topic or to connect the topic of this paragraph to that of the next paragraph.
  1. Remember-----adequate and elaborate paragraphs that truly delve into the topic should be at least a half a page long (obviously depending on the topic and the assignment).
  1. After you have a rough paper (intro, body paragraphs---and don’t feel stuck at three, and conclusion), run the spelling/grammar check. DO THIS!
  1. Remember---you do not have to merely have three body paragraphs. It is better to get into the idea of “sections” with at least two paragraphs apiece within each section----this will allow you to transition more effectively to more sophisticated writing (and each “section” can have a centered title for ease of understanding).
  1. Have someone else read your paper. Do not have them wander away with the paper or start clattering away on your keyboard. Instead, have them read it with fresh eyes in order to see how everything looks and sounds.
  1. Read your paper out loud. I know it sounds stupid, but it will be helpful to help you understand what fragments are and how words sound.
  1. Check required elements:
  1. Title page with title, class, name, teacher’s name, and date.
  2. Reference page alphabetized by first letter of author.
  3. Correct APA reference page with all of the information
  4. Correct internal citation for everything you used from someone else.

----incorrect citation is plagiarism

  1. no contractions, there is, there are, thing, very, or stuff
  2. no first or second person
  3. no runons, fragments, or comma splices.
  4. Did you do whatever the assignment asked you to do?
  1. If you have followed all of these steps (and are even able to get Dr. Gilpin to look at your paper before it is due), saved the paper to multiple places, and made MULTIPLE hard copies of your paper, you are ready to turn it in!

USE SCHOLARLY SEARCH ENGINES---NOT WIKIPEDIA or Google

Look up “free” and “full text” and “scholarly” and “search engine” and you will be guided to multiple search engines.

APA is a format of writing/citation. The purpose is to GIVE CREDIT even when you put others’ ideas in your own words. Not using correct citation when using others’ ideas (even in your own words) is PLAGIARISM, which gets you a zero.

APA citation is made of two items:

  1. The reference entry.
  2. The internal citation(s) inside the paper.

Your papers MUST have both of these. The reference entry has all of the publication information---author, title, source, URL, etc.

The internal citation has (author’s last name, year, page number or paragraph number) in the paper every time you use the person’s information.

Direct quote: the EXACT words of the article/book/etc inside quotation marks (the quotation marks say “these are the exact words”). You cannot change anything in a direct quote. You are the one who adds the quotation marks.

Paraphrase: when you put a few sentences or paragraphs into your own words----NO QUOTATION MARKS. You MUST use internal citation, so the paraphrases are credited. For a paraphrase, the information must TOTALLY be in your own words (the gist) and have internal citation to not be plagiarized.