students' research and journal notes for weeks 4--6

[o]

Students did a fine job with the weeks 2—3 research and journal posts.
We started a bit late in the classroom because of the new computer
installation, but we should be able to continue in the classroom to
make such good use of the computers and class time. On Saturday, 10/4,
the classroom will spend part the class sharing research ideas from
last week and part of the class working ahead in the same fashion for
the following week 10/11 with the research notes for Murphy’s chapter
1 and weeks 4—6. By continuing in this way week by week throughout the
term, students should have plenty of research ideas for essays and
journal notes. Again this time, work alone or with a partner in the
classroom, as preferred. The instructions from last time are recopied
and adjusted below.

Weeks 4—6 research and journal: notes on chapter 1, The capitals, of
Are we Rome? by Murphy, creating annotated APA style references, using
the online message board group for the course, and discussing ideas
with the class

Please work through this activity designed to assist students’
understanding Murphy's text and preparing essay 1.

1) review the instructor’s notes for Murphy’s chapter 1, weeks 4—6
research and journal;

2) select one of the many topics, review the portion of Murphy’s text,
the information/websites provided by the instructor, and consider one
other online site you find and can cite by author, date, title, http
address, and, in fashion similar to the previous research decide the
following:

a) one point you like about the information or opinions considered;

b) one point you don't like about the information or opinions
considered;

c) one point about the book that you don't understand from the brief
view and would like to research for more information;

3) check APA style for in-text citation and references page (of many
sites available, one is http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/ ); see also
the following site on annotated references (http://
www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm). Note that
the examples on the syllabus are organized as in-text citations in APA
style; no References page is required for e1—cite your source in ¶3 in
the same style;

4) open the word processor and prepare an APA style reference for the
review followed by your notes from 3a, b, and c above; here’s an
example based on the very last bit of the notes that were cut off
somehow:

Sun Tzu. 4th century BCE. The art of war. MIT Classics Archive.
http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.1b.txt

a) one thing I like about this text is that the general is very much
the manager of the army, not the person responsible for deciding
whether or not the army is the proper method for dealing with any
given situation, specifically pointing out that the question, “Which
of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?” is primary when
seeking to determine military conditions;

b) there’s little for me to dislike in this text. Again and again, its
fitting applications to so many aspects of daily life seem amazing.
It’s also short and easy to read. I joke with young students that they
might be able to use its lessons against their instructors, so that
could be a potential disadvantage for me, but anyone could use its
lessons;

c) as students have probably noticed already, I like researching new
topics and learning about the world. I’ve been interested in Rome for
several years, but other ancient cultures offer plenty of other
interesting topics for other semesters. It’s very interesting to me
how history and literature hundreds or even thousands of years old so
often seem to offer such apt lessons for our contemporary world;

6) post your ideas to the group;

7) read over the other students’ posts and reply to at least one.