New MLA Rules... (Sigh)

A few weeks ago the UVU Writing Center sent a little note to me (via one of my students) alerting me that there have been some changes to the MLA documentation system and that I had been instructing my students incorrectly. I'm using the 6th edition of the MLA Handbook (which I bought last summer) but it's apparently already obsolete. (To be read in a snooty voice: "You're using the 6th edition? Oh, that was just sooooo 2008.")

The Writing Center gave me a print-out of a link from the Owl at Purdue regarding the MLA Update for 2009. I'll let you read it for yourselves, but the basic gist is that there will be no more underlining (italics only, please), there will be no more full URLs, continuous pagination no longer matters, all publications must indicate what publication medium is used (e.g. print, web or DVD), and there are new guidelines for indicating missing information.

I can't help but roll my eyes a little at this. I understand the need to revise the style guide for increased clarity (especially in the ever-changing digital age), but it's frustrating to try and stay on top of all the little updates in order to remain consistent in my grading. Since we are all at the mercy of the Modern Language Association's whims, I wanted to find out if anyone has any good suggestions for making sure that you always stay up to date with the latest changes in MLA or other documentation systems. I would personally prefer not to have to buy a new style guide every year, but if that's what it takes--so be it. Any suggestions?

As a side note, this is probably a better question for John, but why do we ask students to buy a writer's handbook (such as the one that comes with the Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing) as opposed to requiring them to get the original handbooks, such as the ones published by MLA? It would seem to me that the MLA Handbook would be more authoritative. But I do see how it would be nice to have an all-in-one handbook, I suppose.

tentative fall schedules ready & other news

The first draft of the fall schedule is ready, and tentative assignments are now in your mailboxes. Please review your schedule and sign it to indicate your approval (ideal), or let me know if you would like to be considered for particular adjustments (not so ideal). Once we get a sense of everyone's needs, we'll take another crack at the schedule, taking into account individual preferences and department availability.

Grant, Gae Lyn, and I are still reviewing textbooks to better support our 2010/2020 assignments and outcomes. We'll keep you notified of opportunities to pilot a short list of texts in anticipation of making a program wide shift in fall 2010. In other program news, we'll be working more on assessment plans, which will center around end of term portfolios, which were recommended in earlier iterations of our assignment sequences but will now be required. We'll have more details for you in the coming weeks, but we'll be guided by the handout that was distributed at the April meetings.

We've gotten some good suggestions for our annual orientation meeting in August. We'll get a draft of activities and topics to be covered in the coming weeks, so if you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to reply. Don't forget that the default reply is "reply all" so ensure that you've selected "reply to sender" when you want to write only to the person who sent the email (i.e. me, in this case).

I will be updating this email list in the next few weeks to reflect changes in our instructor group. If you no longer wish to teach for us let me know and I'll remove your name.

Write back with questions and/or suggestions. Talk to you later.

How to Teach a Child to Argue

I stumbled upon a great article that I'm considering sharing with my students. It's called How to Teach a Child to Argue. It was nominated for a 2007 National Magazine Award. I hope you enjoy it!

spring evaluations/fall schedule update

You can see your student evaluations from Spring 09 by following the (overly complicated) instructions below:

1. Open UV link
2. click Faculty/advisor services
3. click Select term (S 09)
4. click Faculty detail schedule
5. click Course Evaluation report

Grant, Gae Lyn, and I will take a second crack at the fall 09 class offerings later this week, so we should be able to offer you a tentative schedule shortly. Keep your eyes on your campus mailbox.

Talk to you soon.

Out with the old/in with the new listserv

Although Mark Crane warned me about this possibility last week, somehow the engladj list got deleted. Since I can't reactivate it, I've simply started another list: engadj@lists.uvu.edu and updated each of your email addresses following your fall 2009 schedule preferences.
Sorry about any inconvenience this change may cause. You should have all received subscription notices today.

Don't forget that if you're ever unsure about receiving messages, they're copied here on the UV Writing blog. This may turn out to be our most stable site, but I'll also stick with the listserv.

Thanks for your work, and I'll see you soon.

April Meetings/Adjunct Social

Our monthly meetings will be held Tuesday and Wednesday next week (the 7th and 8th), at 5pm in the usual place.

Following program business announcements and addressing questions and concerns from the group, we'll return to portfolios for the bulk of our time. I'll outline the purpose of adding a portfolio component to the assignment sequence for program assessment purposes, a basic plan for compiling documents, and some ways to use portfolios in your own classes. Gae Lyn will present some of the recent scholarship on assessment and how portfolios fit into larger assessment questions. We should have ample time for questions and discussion to follow.

And, here's an invitation from the faculty center with attachments to two upcoming events:

*******
Deans and Chairs,
The Faculty Center is holding their 3rd Annual Adjunct Social on April 10,
from 6:00-8:00 p.m. We would like to ask you to encourage your adjuncts to
attend, and we also would like to personally invite you and a guest to this
event. Registration is open until Monday, April 6, at the following url:
http://www.uvu.edu/facultycenter/events/adjunctfacultysocial/registration.php

In addition, we would like to request you encourage your faculty to attend
and you to attend the First Annual Scholarship of Teaching and Engagement
Conference on April 13-14. I am attaching an agenda detailing the sessions
that will be presented on these days.
Registration is open until Monday, April 6 at the following url:
http://www.uvu.edu/facultycenter/events/scholarteachingconference/registration.php
Thank you for your support,
Ursula
*********

See you next week.

March meetings coming up

Our March meetings are coming up next week, 3 and 4 March, and we'll be in the usual SC 206 g/h location.

We'd like to use the March meetings to start the process of thinking about how to incorporate portfolios into our first year comp courses. Doug alerted us to this likelihood last year, and it seems time to follow up on it for a couple of reasons, but mainly because portfolios will give us the means to assess our writing courses more effectively than in some past attempts. Since we'd like to involve our instructors as much as possible in the planning stages, please consider sharing your experiences with portfolios at our meetings next week. Think, for instance, about:

1. How many assignments you ask students to include: how many (or which particular papers) are required, and which are open to student choice?
2. How heavily do (or perhaps should) portfolios weigh in final course grades?
3. How do you incorporate students' reflective writing (i.e. self-assessment) into the portfolio?
4. How much weight do you give to revision?

Certainly too, share both positive and negative experiences you've had with portfolios, so that we can not only consider the directions we should pursue, but also anticipate challenges that may arise from particular approaches.

I'll bring some hard copies to the meeting, but in case you'd like to get ahead of it, or if the electronic version works best, I'm attaching the schedule preference form for fall 2009 on the listserv. The deadline to turn them in is 13 March.

A few people have asked about summer classes, so let me update everyone now. I hope to see a summer schedule by the end of the week. If you're interested in summer classes, please drop me an email by Monday.

See you soon.