12/17/13

Today, all late work has been graded. If there is something WRONG with your grade in Gradespeed, write me a post-it note. If you turn something in late, don’t worry – I’ll get a note in BB when you turned it in. If you turn in a LOT of things late, make sure you are keeping track of your grades so that mistakes aren’t made.

On Thursday and Friday, I will be playing What Dreams May Come and you will have the opportunity to do some extra credit. If you have turned assignments in late, this would be a good chance for you to earn back those points you lost because it was late.

Some helpful links:

  • A link that has been really helpful for me is TV Tropes. This is a webpage that takes devices, conventions, themes, or ideas that are used in pop culture.

First, go to the webpage and enter your search term in the top left hand corner. You will need to use BROAD terms, not specific.

tropes search

Then, you’ll get a few search result. Look at them and find the most general and broad one that fits your topic.

tropes results

When you get to the webpage, the examples will be further down the list. You’ll have options to choose from: television shows, real life, musicals, movies, comic books, manga/anime. MAKE SURE YOU DON’T PLAGIARIZE FROM THIS RESOURCE.

  • If you need to look up a character’s name (from a movie or tv show), look up the show in Wikipedia since you are blocked from IMDB.
  • Some search terms that might help you:
    • example of…
    • modern day…
    • cartoon character who are…
    • list of…
    • celebrities who are…
    • Choosing good search terms is essential when researching online. If you choose something that is too specific or too broad, you won’t find what you are looking for. If you are stuck, try changing your search terms. For example, you won’t find examples of “virtuous pagan” (It’ll just send you to summaries of Limbo), but if you good “good pre-Christian”, list of pre-Christians”, or even “cartoon characters who are cavement.”
  • 2013 Films, 2012 Films, 2011 Films, 2010 films, 2009 films, (you can search for any year by replacing the year you WANT in the link), list of Disney movies, or a list of cartoons.

I am going to repeat these helpful hints each day for the rest of this week. I hope that at least one person finds them useful.