DO YOU FEEL LIKE THROWING IN THE TOWEL?

If you feel like quitting on your critical response paper, DON'T. Remember, pain is weakness leaving the body (in this case, weakness is leaving your mind). YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!

Now, if that pep talk did not help, know that I am only a phone call away. If hearing my lovely voice (barf) is going to be the only thing to keep you from quitting, please call me.

SMILE OODLES ~ AND KEEP WORKING. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

ROUGH DRAFT TIME ~ WOOHOO!

Your rough draft due date has changed SLIGHTLY, so pay close attention:

You can turn in your rough draft the day you return from Spring Break (Monday, April 13 for periods 1 & 3; Tuesday, April 14 for period 6). However, if you turn it in by THIS Wednesday (period 6), or Thursday (periods 1 & 3), you will get extra points added to your rough draft score. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO IT BEFORE BREAK, AS IT WILL BE A MONKEY ON YOUR BACK THE WHOLE WEEK! Below is a sample, as well as some helpful websites to assist you with your in-text citations. Rest assured, we will review this in class on Monday and Tuesday. If you want to start your rough draft this weekend, you can do so...and add your citations in later.

The page requirements for your papers are 4-5 for sophomores, and 3-4 for freshmen.

SMILE!

To see a sample of a rough draft, CLICK HERE!

Click HERE to learn how to use "in-text" citations.

Click here to see another source to cite your work... A GOOD ONE, TOO!

GRADES

Grades are completed for the following periods: 1, 3, 4, 6. I will finish period 2 tonight or first thing in the morning.

Be advised that if you made a B or C, you likely received a 2 in effort. With a little more umph, you would have had a higher grade. The few D's and F's I had received a 3 in effort. In addition, conduct grades dropped slightly. If you were caught cheating, you received a "B" in conduct, no matter how quiet you were.

Congratulations to many of you for your improvement! I am proud of you. Those of you who backslid a little, use it as a motivation to be your best you. It is crunch time, and it is only going to get harder this last quarter. One thing I know is...YOU CAN DO IT! You just need to give your full effort.

SMILE!

Looking Ahead to Next Week!

OK - 6th Period, I will not see you on Monday to prepare you for the title and reference pages. I am adding a sample of each, along with comments on those pages. Remember, one inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman for EVERYTHING!

Periods 1 & 3, if you want to do yours this weekend, feel free to take a gander at this post, too!

Remember, this is due on Wednesday for 6th, and Thursday for 1st & 3rd.

ANY QUOTE, EXAMPLE, OR LYRICS YOU PLAN TO USE IN YOUR PAPER THAT IS NOT YOUR IDEA OR YOUR WORDS, MUST BE REFERENCED.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY SAMPLE REFERENCE PAGE
CLICK HERE TO SEE MY SAMPLE TITLE PAGE

CLICK HERE TO SEE PURDUE UNIVERSITY'S SITE FOR APA STYLE - GOOD STUFF!
CLICK HERE FOR ABOUT.COM'S INFO ON APA STYLE - ANOTHER GOODIE!

For your "Running head," it can be aligned at the left margin, or the center. Thanks to David (per. 3) for pointing it out and correcting me. Every "great" teacher needs humbling at some point. In this case, a mediocre teacher! haha!

Notes Page

For those of you unclear about the notes page, allow me to elucidate. You can arrange your notes any way you want. I made suggestions about what to include to help you later on. All I ask is you type them. If you look to the left, to the left, everything you own in the box to the left. haha! No, really, look to the left, there is a sample there. If you want to use mine, go ahead. If not, do what is best for you.

The outline, however, has to be done correctly. See the post below for more info on outlines.

SMILE!

Outlines

Would an architect construct a building without developing a blueprint? Why should research paper writing be any different? An outline functions as a blueprint by providing definition to your research paper. It is a glimpse of your final copy. An outline reveals weakness in how your thoughts have been organized, lack of a presentation style, deviance from the subject at hand that needs to be corrected before you start writing.

An outline is basically your writing plan. There are different kinds of outlines, but the sentence outline is most often used when organizing a long essay or research paper. Because it requires sentences to express each idea or detail, this outline forces you to think each point through carefully before including it in your paper.

The above information was taken from:
http://essaywritingblog.com/handbook-for-essay-writers/apa-research-paper-outline/83

Below are some samples. You can do either, though the sentence format is more APAish, while the topic format is more MLAish.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13349639/Outline-Samples

Here are some other sites you can use to get some ideas:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/02/
http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/

Remember to use one inch margins for your outline, and it must be in 12 pt Times New Roman. You must also include your revised thesis statement. We will discuss this in class.

YOU ARE READY, and I BELIEVE IN YOU!

To my beautiful, brilliant and fabulous students ~

I just wanted to apologize if I have seemed cranky lately. Some of it stems from watching some of you not live up to your academic potential. You all have no idea the immense ability you have, and when you squander your ability, I get a little nuts.

Some of it also results from the FCAT. I so badly want you all to pass! EVERY student of mine has the skills to pass. With all my heart, I believe this. I just worry you will fall asleep, leave questions blank, and not give it the effort it deserves. You all not putting forth your maximum effort this week, and leaving questions blank in your packets, just got me down. The fear in me takes over and then I worry that you will do the same thing on the FCAT (even though I have WAY more faith in you than that). Even still, worry leads to crankiness. :o)

Not to mention, all the boo-hooing about the research paper. Listen, you CAN do it! I know it seems a little foreign right now, but YOU WILL GET IT! All I am asking is that you look at this challenge as an opportunity for growth. If you can look at life's obstacles this way, you will be just fine.

The course selection situation got to me, too. For this, I am most apologetic. Much of my frustration came from that, which you had no control over. I also apologize for the missed class time. You deserved my FULL attention, and I could not deliver it.

Basically, I could have handled all of these situations better. You deserve the best of me, and I could not give it to you this week. I promise, promise, promise to be better next time . . . all because you mean so much to me!

SMILE, REST THIS WEEKEND, SPEND TIME DOING SOMETHING FUN, AND KNOW THAT I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU WILL DO GREAT THIS TUESDAY!

YOUR THESIS STATEMENT

Your thesis statements are due this week. I will help you in class on Wednesday if you need it. I cannot help you if your topic has not been posted AND approved. Rest assured, I will explain this in class, but this is for my students who want to come to class with something in hand.

First, you need to find the major points of your topic that relate to the themes, events or characters in the novel. AS YOU ARE DOING THIS, START A NOTES PAGE with each source you use, the name of the book, author, year it was written, and/or the URL of site you may use, as well as the page numbers you select quotes from, and the quotes you plan to use. Just save a document with this info on your desktop because you will need to refer to it as you write your paper; and when you have to write your reference page (bibliography), you will already have much of the info.

You may be asking, what kind of paper will you be writing? Well, it's an argumentative paper. An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that your claim is true based on the evidence provided.

Some tips on writing your thesis statement:

• for most student work, it's a one- or two- sentence statement that explicitly outlines the purpose or point of your paper. A thesis is to a paper what a topic sentence is to a paragraph

• it should point toward the development or course of argument the reader can expect your argument to take, but does not have to specifically include 'three supporting points' as you may have once learned

• because the rest of the paper will support or back up your thesis, a thesis is normally placed at or near the end of the introductory paragraph.

• it is an assertion that a reasonable person could disagree with if you only gave the thesis and no other evidence. It is not a fact or casual observation; it must beg to be proved. And someone should be able to theoretically argue against it (how successfully will depend of course on how persuasive you are)

• it takes a side on a topic rather than simply announcing that the paper is about a topic (the title should have already told your reader your topic). Don't tell a reader aboutwhat about something. Answer the questions "how?" or "why?" something; tell them

• it is sufficiently narrow and specific that your supporting points are necessary and sufficient, not arbitrary; paper length and number of supporting points are good guides here

• it argues one main point and doesn't squeeze three different theses for three different papers into one sentence.

Here is an example of a thesis statement (I will demonstrate one for you in class that relates to our novel):

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain's Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave "civilized" society and go back to nature.