Due October 4. Late deadline October 11.
Reading:
Read the Projects in Dozer's Quintessential Guide to Computer Literacy while you are in front of the computer and practice the steps.
In this assignment, you will select an issue to write a paper about. In a later assignment you will write the paper and a PowerPoint presentation. The paper will be argumentative. The description below was taken from http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/Research.html , a site with great resources for writing different kinds of papers:
A research paper may be argumentative in nature. In other words, the student may take a stand on an issue and then research others who agree and disagree with the stand and cite them (quote them in the paper). In this type of paper, it is generally expected that students will learn how to anticipate the objections of others and make concessions.
Part 1: Issue Selection Discussion (5 points)
1. Each of the issues below is a forum in Discussions. Choose one of these that you would like to write a paper taking a side on. If you have an alternative issue you are interested in that is related to technology, post that in the Task 5 Other Topics forum.
Are RFID devices a threat to privacy?
Are genetically engineered foods dangerous?
Will nanotechnology be used to benefit mankind or hurt it?
Are electronic voting machines accurate and secure?
Do video and computer games contribute to violence?
What are the dangers of social networking sites?
Should cloning human organs be allowed?
Should there be a sales tax on Internet purchases?
Is the Internet leading people to commit suicide?
2. Go to the Discussion forum for the issue you chose. Locate a web page with information about the issue that no one has posted about yet.
3. Start a New Topic in the forum for the issue. Put the title of your page in the Subject line. In the body of your message, copy and paste the URL. Below it, give a brief description of the type of information on the page.
4. Create an "MLA style" reference for the page. You can't format it with hanging indent and double spacing in the discussion, but you can include all of the correct information in the right order. The reference should include the items in the following list. If an item is missing (no author, no publication date), just skip that and go on. Each item is separated by a period.
author's last name, author's first name.
title of the page in double quotes.
name of the site in italics.
publication date in day month year format.
date you visited the site in day month year format.
URL pointing directly to the page.
See my examples posted in the Other topics forum.
Part 2: Research Paper Plan and Works Cited Page (15 points)
Start a new document in Word.
1. Type the issue you chose.
2. Type the conclusion of the paper you will write.
3. Write a summary of the reasoning that will be in your paper. It should be at least one paragraph.
4. Create a properly formatted Works Cited page for the reference you posted about in the discussion plus one that another student posted. If no one else posted about your topic, find another page. Click the link for instructions for creating a Works Cited page with Word.
Save as Task5Paper and upload to Task 5 assignment in Tasks, Tests and Surveys.
Part 3: Ambiguity Study Questions (20 points)
Start a new document in Word.
1. Go to the Beatrice Santorini Linguistic Humor page at http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/. Scroll down to the Lexicon section or click the Lexicon link in the frame on the left.
Click the link for Ambiguous Recommendations. Read the page to understand the different types of ambiguity and examples.
Go Back to the Beatrice Santorini Linguistic Humor page. There are lots of ambiguities in the links under the headings; Pragmatics, Lexicon and Morphology. You will also find ambiguities in some of the other categories. Look at the links. Choose an ambiguity that you find humorous or meaningful.
Copy and paste the ambiguity to your document. Explain both meanings for the ambiguity.
2. Click the link and read the article from the Washington Post "'Clean' Coal? Don't try to Shovel That." .
a. (1 point) What is Jeff Bigger's conclusion?
b. (6 points) Give 3 examples from the article showing how clean coal is an ambiguous concept. Give the text from the article along with a short description of why you think it is ambiguous.
c. (2 points) Search the Internet for a site that is in favor of clean coal. Give the URL and a one paragraph summary of the information on the site.
d. What is an insidious oxymoron? Use the web or a dictionary.
e. What does it mean to say that Democrats excoriated President Bush?
f. What is Orwellian language and Orwellian politics?
g. What is "Cap and Trade"?
h. (2 points) There are many other ambiguous words and phrases in this article besides clean coal. Locate one. Give the text from the article along with a short description of why you think it is ambiguous.
i. (2 points) Locate another ambiguous word or phrase. Give the text from the article along with a short description of why you think it is ambiguous.
j. (1 point) Use clipart or Google image search to find a graphic related to the story. Insert the graphic into your document.
3. Go to the top of your document. Use WordArt to put the title Clean Coal at the top of the page. Experiment with style, color, size and effects to make something attractive.
Save as Task5Ambiguity and upload to Task 5 in Tasks, Tests and Surveys.