Newsweek Education

I just found out about this new education site that recently launched from Newsweek. Thanks for the information, Emer!  The  website is aptly named Newsweek Education. 🙂

It contains top rankings of colleges around the country, in all sorts of categories from the Top 25 Most Desirable Schools to the Top 25 Schools for the Service-minded, which I thought would be of particular interest to all the Xavier boys who enjoy going on the CFX service trips and making a difference in the world.

For those students who are unsure what they want to do for the rest of their lives, the Career Education section is most helpful.

Newsweek Education is a great website with important information for juniors and seniors, but there is also a lightness and humor to the site. I recently watched a video entitled “Top Five Hollywood Lies About Campus Life.” which does a great tribute to some of the comedic movies about the college experience.

MLA: Viewpoint Essay (Reference article) from History Resource Center

The viewpoint essays offered in the Reference section of the History Resource Center are popular among the AP History crowd.  However, citing the article takes a bit more effort than simply copying and pasting the source citation at the bottom of the article.

The way that the viewpoint essays are constructed is: Introduction, Viewpoint 1, Viewpoint 2, and Source Citation (which is only useful for you in gathering information for your own citation).

Looking at the viewpoint essay for Vietnam-Era Antiwar Movement, there are two viewpoints.

Viewpoint1 : Yes. Antiwar protestors changed domestic and foreign policy in a positive manner and forced public officials to be more accountable.

Viewpoint 2: No. The antiwar movement undercut the government position on the Vietnam War and helped the North Vietnamese win the conflict.

If you wanted to cite information from the first viewpoint, how would you do this?

This is what the Source Citation created by History Resource Center, looks like at the bottom of your article:

“Vietnam-Era Antiwar Movement.” History in Dispute, Vol. 6: The Cold War, Second Series. Edited by Dennis E. Showalter and Paul DuQuenoy. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/

From there, we can find out the title of the entry, the book, publication information and the name of the database, History Resource Center.  However, one piece of information that is missing is the author.

**The author of the article is found at the end of Viewpoint 1 is Bryan Rommel-Ruiz. This seems like an obvious location, but it’s easy to forget about since its not in the source citation provided by History Resource Center.

Rommel-Ruiz, Bryan. “Vietnam-Era Antiwar Movement.”  History in Dispute,

Vol. 6: The Cold War, Second Series. St James Press, 2000. History

Resource Center: US.. Web. 27 May 2010.

Notice how your citation looks different to the one provided by History Resource Center.

BookExpo America 2010

Yesterday I attended the James Patterson book signing by Little Brown and Company at the BEA 2010 at the Jacob Javit Center.  I was allowed to bring two students with me, so it seemed natural to ask Jack Raisch’11 and Alex Green’11 (Block X Award winners for Book Club). By some strange luck, we also won free day passes to BEA.

The three of us were BEA newbies. But, I have been to a few library conferences to know that I would be coming back with a lot of free books, pens, bookmarks, so I was pretty psyched. With our free tote bags from the Lonely Planet, Create Space, etc., we filled our bags with free comics, candy, chapstick, pens and lots of books (even a Harlequin romance or two, and a book big on the history of Cancer, we weren’t too picky). It felt like Halloween but without the costumes. Although now that I think about it,  there was one guy dressed up as a Banana (he was part of the Bananagrams group) and Julia Gnuse, woman in the Guinness Book of World records as the most tattooed woman.

The James Patterson BEA Event was pretty interesting, although there was a little bit more of a tween than teen audience, which in retrospect was probably to be expected since Patterson was mainly talking about his new YA Witch and Wizard series. There was a Q&A where students asked him about about his inspiration, his reading and writing habits, etc. Patterson’s decision to write YA novels was really instigated by the fact that he wanted young adults to ENJOY reading, which is something he didn’t enjoy when he was a young kid. As a result, he also created ReadKiddoRead, a reader’s advisory site.

One of the more meaningful messages that he relayed was the importance of finding a job that you love, something that excites you and gets you out of bed in the morning. Or as he said, do something that will make you sing as you go up that mountain on your way to work.  Patterson writes about 350 days out of the year, writing in the early morning and into the late afternoon. For him, writing is a lifestyle. I am impressed by his dedication to his craft.

After the talk, we received a free copy of his 2nd installment of his Witch and Wizard Series, The Gift.

My right shoulder is killing me from lugging all the books, but well worth the ache. Thanks to Trish Hatch for the free day passes to BEA and the James Patterson BEA event.

MLA: Citing an Article in a Magazine

Yes, the medium is print. Refer to 5.4.6 in the MLA Handbook.

Here are a few  examples of magazines published every week:

Groopman, Jerome. “The Plastic Panic.” The New Yorker. 31 May 2010.

26-31. Print.

Von Drehele, David. “A Pitchfork Primary.” Time. 31 May 2010. 22-25. Print.

Volume and issue numbers are not needed even if given. Easy peasy.

MLA: Citing a DVD

The DVD is the medium. This type of citation is similar to a videocasette, laser disc, filmstrip.

The information needed is simply the title, the director, the year of the release and the medium. You can also put in other information such as screenwriter, performer, and producer if you deem it relevant. The title is italics as per usual.

Example 1:

Grease. Dir. Eric Ostrow. Merelis Productions, 2010. DVD.

Example 2:

Supersize Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Hart Sharp Video, 2004. DVD.

Book Review: The Finder by Colin Harrison

Lately, I’ve been on a thriller kick.  I recently devoured The Finder and Risk by Colin Harrison in less than a week.  But in this post, I will be talking about the former.

In The Finder, two young Mexican cleaning ladies were murdered in Brooklyn by a thug and his septic tank.  As a result, Jin Li, a supervisor for the cleaning company of the murdered women, is now on the run. Someone has found out her true purpose for cleaning out the offices of some of the most important corporations in Manhattan. More questions come to light as the story progresses..Why is Tom Reilly,  VP of Good Pharma, popping beta blockers like candy? Why has Jin Li’s wealthy and cunning brother, Chen come to America to find his sister? And how far will Martz, an old billionaire go to prevent his hedge fund from going down in flames? All the while, there is the sadistic owner of a sewage company, with an underground room that noone knows about. This is for Ray, her ex-boyfriend and his dying father, a retired NYPD detective to find out before it’s too late.

MLA: Citing a Work on the Web with Publication Information (eg Google Book Search)

In today’s example, I am citing Literary Criticism by Edgar Allen Poe.  This is a book that I found digitized on Google Book Search, therefore the medium in the citation would be web instead of print.  In addition, because the book was published before 1900, the name of the publisher does not need to be included.

Poe, Edgar Allen. Literary Criticism. Indiana, 1884. Google Book Search.

Web. 19 May 2010.

MLA: How to Cite a Newspaper Article from History Resource Center

Last Name Author, First Name. “Title of Article.” Newspaper Date of Article:

Page/Section. History Resource Center:U.S.. Web. Date of Access.

Example:

Robson, Douglas. “Last Hurrah for Agassi?” USA Today 29 Aug. 2005: 1C.

History Resource Center: U.S.. Web. 14 May 2010.

Open: An Autobiography of Andre Agassi

I was a Michael Chang fan back in the day, but if I had to choose Agassi or Sampras for my #2, it would have to be Agassi.  This memoir is unabashedly open, which makes for a compelling read. Agassi talks about his tough childhood with a strict father, who pushes him into the career of professional tennis, the guilt he feels about being a better athlete then his older brother and the fact that he’s so good at something he hates.  He also discusses his drug use, his struggle with self destruction, and his toupee that nearly slipped off his head during one of his grand slam matches. Even if you are not a tennis or Agassi fan, you will find this book entertaining and inspirational.

MLA: Format Check List

Do you have  “Works Cited” (no quotes or italics please!) at the top of the page and centered?

Did you double space both within and between entries?

Did you list the entries in alphabetical order?

Did you begin each entry flush with the left margin, and following lines of entry with a five space indent?

Does your page have a header?