FYI -

Jeffrey Hughes sent an email message to all SNR faculty indicating
that he has emphasized certain writing rules during NR 1.  Since
many of you have taken NR 1 with Jeffrey,  you are familiar with the
following which I have excerpted from his message.  I am forwarding 
the excerpts as both a reminder of what he brought to your attention 
and as an FYI for those of you who took NR 1 before Fall 1995.
 
My general stance on writing is that you are all capable of producing 
good written work and that it is simply a matter of attention and 
getting help when and where you need it.  For some of you this means 
asking a friend to proof read your material.  For others this may 
mean using the writing center.

I will discuss my expectations and responses to poorly written and
late work in class on Thurs.


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:25:07 -0500
To:            [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
               [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
               [log in to unmask]
From:          [log in to unmask] (Jeff Hughes)
Subject:       students and writing

....

Here's what all students in NR1 (1995 and 1996) have heard...

General rules:
1. Misspelling is unacceptable.

2. Don't turn in papers that have not been proofed by you and someone else
(I encourage students to have someone else proof papers before turning them
in).

Points of grammar:
Each of the following tidbits was introduced in class, preceded and
followed by comments/exhortations such as the following:  "I am going to
spend 5 minutes showing  you how to use this correctly.  When I finish, I
and other SNR faculty will expect you never to misuse it again.   Don't
even imagine getting it wrong again while at UVM!"   I then remind them
that they can, of course, see me or the writing center if they have
questions about point of grammar.
....

Here are the specific writing tidbits that I introduced, the ones they
never will get wrong again, so help me Jeffrey:

1. agreement of subject and verb.
Some examples: None of us is perfect.  The pail of frogs was heavy.

2. effect vs affect

3. irregardless

4. its vs it's

5. imply vs infer

6. they're vs their vs there

7. principal vs principle

8. a good topic sentence for each paragraph

9. there are four parts to writing: (i) idea generation and synthesis, (ii)
fermentation of ideas  and restructuring of thoughts (outlining), (iii)
getting words on paper (the rough draft), and (iv) fine tuning (proofing
and editing)
....

Other stuff that students better know:
        how to access the WEB
        How to use email
        how to use Excel spreadsheets
        how to use a word processing package
        how to find resources in the library
....

Jeffrey

Clare Ginger, Assistant Professor
School of Natural Resources, 350 Aiken
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT  05405
Phone: 802-656-2684; Fax: 802-656-2623
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