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I have a few beginning announcements.

1. The syllabus is located at this URL:
   http://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/475-575_epics/eng475_ epics.htm. 
   The assignments should stay as they are now, but I'm still adding page numbers and note links, so refresh the page from time to time.
2. The syllabus is a web page. It has links. CLICK THE LINKS!!!!!
   
3. I'm trying to make everything iPhone friendly. That means my syllabus and notes should fit well on your smart phones. Also, I'm posting recordings of my lectures on the notes pages. The links are surrounded by boxes — The first downloads the mp3 to your device. The second is an iTunes link; the third a Stitcher link. The last streams the recording to your device. My goal is for you to be able to listen to the lecture while you follow along in the notes page. iTunes and Stitcher both work on my iPhone; Stitcher is available for Android devices as well. All of it is free. Let me know if you hit any snags with the downloads.
4. I number the lectures by week and period for a normal quarter Tuesday-Thursday class. So Thursday of the second week would be 2B. Mostly you just need make sure the number of the lecture you're listening to matches the number in the notes.
5. I'll give you a quiz every week (or 2). It'll be available on Moodle Friday through the weekend. 
6. We'll have one essay exam.
7. Everybody will write a research paper. The criterion sheet is posted here: http:// www2. latech.edu/ ~bmagee/ 406/ crit406.htm. Undergraduate papers should be 10 pages; graduate students should write papers that are 14-15 pages long. Use MLA form with at least 10 sources, with a mixture of primary and secondary sources.
8. We will have discussions on Moodle each week. For each discussion question, write at least one response and reply to two others.
9. Graduate students. In addition to the longer paper, graduate students will need to give a presentation and lead a discussion. I'd like you to present your research paper findings to the class and lead a discussion on the topic — that way all your work ties together. For your presentation, you can use MS PowerPoint, Emaze, Haiku Deck (has an iPad app version), Prezi, or Sliderocket, Slides, etc. It's important to select one you are comfortable with.  They all have learning curves. I tried to learn Prezi last year without much luck but went back to PowerPoint. I like the way Prezi presentations look but couldn't get it to do what I wanted.
10. Group project. Instead of the presentations, I want to try something different with this class.
    
• We have several teachers in the class who know how to write lesson plans. I'd like each teacher who knows how to write lesson plans to lead a group.
  
• Each group will pick a work from the Louisiana Anthology and create a unit of lesson plans somewhat like my unit on Sam Clemens "Mardi Gras Letter." I'm not committed to that exact model — Tech's model is idiosyncratic. Just follow a basic lesson plan for the unit.
• These will be due at the end of the quarter.
11. The Louisiana Studies Conference takes place at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches every September on a Friday afternoon and Saturday. It's an excellent conference for students to give their first presentations, as well as good place to network. Plus, it's close by and reasonably priced. I'd like to encourage each of you who can attend to apply to give a presentation on your research paper topic. I hope we can get some funding from the school for the trip.
    
• Abstracts (300 words max.) for scholarly proposals, creative writing, films, and short performances (dance, music, or theatric) should be sent as e-mail attachments to Dr. Shane Rasmussen, rasmussens@nsula.edu. Presentations should run no longer than 15 minutes. Briefly detail the audio / visual tools (laptop, projection screen, data projector, DVD player, etc.) or space (the stage in the Magale Recital Hall will be provided for short performances) your presentation will require, if any.
  

Let me know if you have any questions. bmagee@latech.edu.