The trick is to move your indentation markers all the way to the left (make sure your margins are set to 1″!), then, with the cursor on the citation you want to change, move the bottom marker (looks like a little house) over 1/2″.

Note: This assignment called for an annotated bibliography, so there is a sentence or two between the citations explaining how the source was used. Check your assignment instructions (or ask your teacher) if this is necessary for your assignment.

You have until tomorrow to get in those long-overdue assignments and such.

The Research Video:

I worked on a screencast of my research process last night (about 2 hours worth). It showed the choices I make, my workflow, organization, reliable sources, etc. I hit Save…and nothing happened. I’m stuck with a 4GB avi that doesn’t play. Live and learn. I spent the rest of the night working on the following video, which shows a segment of my research on “nerds” for the Twilight paper (which will be awesome, btw).

Some of you wished to have a copy available at home, so I’m posting it here. I’m going to add notes to the video later to make it more self-explanatory, but I think it is fairly clear now. Also, if you have any suggestions (video speed, information, clarification, etc) for this video or anything else you’d like me to record, let me know. This is a learning process for me.

My Fans! My Glorious Fans!

In addition to the screencasts, I thought I’d dive deeper into the social mediasphere. Since you all seem to be anti-RSS feeds, I’ve set up a Facebook page that will send you updates via your account. Just go here, inflate my ego by becoming a fan, and receive updates when I post to the blog. (I’ve connected my Twitter page to the feed as well, so if you are somehow on Twitter but not Facebook, follow me here.) This should be an efficient way of getting information to you guys outside of class, but we’ll see. It’s just a test. As always, if you have an idea about how to make this better, let me know.

I’ll present the essay in steps, then lay out the rules. Remember to record all information (essay titles, author names, URLs of interesting essays, and search queries) in your journal. Bring this journal tomorrow.

1. Think about a few novels you’ve really enjoyed.
2. Look up the titles or authors in the EBSCO Databases here. (Click the link, then click “EBSCO Databases, then “Select All,” continue, then “Continue,” check “Full text,” then enter your terms.)
3. If you don’t find several articles about your book or author, start over from #1 –or– search for similar titles and authors, the period in which it was written, or the genre. Root around, you may come up with an idea just by searching similar works.
4. Once you have a number of articles, check the bibliography, the source, the subject matter of each. If one looks solid, continue. If not, move on to the next one.
5. Skim the article. If it’s interesting, print it (or email a copy to yourself and print at school tomorrow) and repeat #4 with another article. If it isn’t interesting, discard it and repeat #4.
6. Once you have a number of interesting articles, grab your copy of the book and begin re-reading it if you’d like.
7. Reflect and feel content about your full night’s work.

We’ll discuss all of the specific guidelines in class tomorrow, but here are some to set you in the right direction:

This is going to be a research paper over the historical, philosophical, or cultural context of the novel. As you go, you’ll record all steps, information gathered, and ideas in a journal. I will meet with each of you daily until you have a solid footing with this project. Come to class every day with an explanation of your night’s work along with your research, the work and your journal.

Historical: You will be explaining what circumstances may have enabled the novel to come about (the impact of previous works or the historical context). For example, if you wrote over Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, you might write about the “perfect storm” of Victorian Gothic literature and scientific exploration during the Edwardian eras.

Philosophical: You will be writing over the philosophy presented in the novel. A Freudian interpretation of Lord of the Flies (which we touched on during our discussions) would be appropriate here.

Cultural: Some novels seem to be timeless and continue to have impacts today. With the cultural essay, you will research the impact a novel had on a time period other than the one in which it was written. Of course, tracing the repercussions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein would be great, or the resurgence of Lord of the Flies during the sixties (thanks, Ellen!) or recently, with the production of the movies.

Post any and all questions below or write them in your journals for class tomorrow. We’ll be looking at all of these approaches in more detail then.