http://mccorduck.net/402/feed.xml en-us A feed of items posted to the news area of the ENG 402--Grammar main page. You can subscribe to this feed and automatically receive updates when new items are posted to this area. It's been pointed out to me that Question 4. of Section 4 of Part One of the Final Exam might not have been entirely fair since you may not have been clear about the adverbial status of the word better in that sentence You had better hand over my Franken Berry to me. I used this word as a constituent of the idiom had better which functions very much like a modal auxiliary, i.e., it's very close in meaning and use to must. That's why in the sentence diagram accompanying this question I put it up before the the main verb where modals usually go and therefore the diagram was correct. But because we never mentioned had better/'d better during the semester, I've decided I better be fair and so I've given everybody, regardless of whether or not you got this question on the final wrong, a two-point bump in your overall average which I used to calculate your final grade. . Sorry, I'm still trying to get the final grades done and will post them all as soon I can. . Sorry, there was a little snag making the final available this morning, but you should be able to access it now. You may just have to refresh your browser to be able to view the whole thing. And I'll be giving you a little more than two hours to finish if you need it. . Just a heads-up about the Final Examination tomorrow: as outlined in the entry for tomorrow in the CourseCompass Calendar, remember that the final will be divided into two main parts and each part will have separate sections (corresponding to individual CourseCompass exercises). When you go to do the final under the Assignments tool, first click on the "Final Examination" folder and then click on either folder labeled "Part One" or "Part Two" to get to the individual sections. Also remember that unlike the exercises I've assigned all semester, when you go to do a section of the final you must complete it right then; you won't be able to save it and come back to it later as you could with the regular CourseCompass exercises . Make sure that by the end of Friday the 16th you have completed all the requirements for the course as listed in the section "Evaluation of Student Performance" on pp. 3-4 of the course syllabus (which you can view by clicking on the "syllabus" link above). If any work assigned this semester has not been completed by the end of that day, I will have to give you a final grade of INC for "incomplete" for the course; see here and here for the sections of SUNY Cortland's 2007-2008 Undergraduate Catalog and College Handbook, respectively, for the ramifications of the INC grade. Regarding the requirement for completion of all the CourseCompass exercises with a score of 65 or higher, perhaps the easiest way to be sure which ones you've done and passed and which you haven't yet is to use the My Grades tool in CourseCompass; this tool can found under the Tools button/menu of our CourseCompass room. . Exercise 6-22 is now available for you to do in CourseCompass. Sorry it took so long to get ready. . As previously announced (see the post dated 4/25/08 below), the Final Exam will be next Wednesday the 14th, and in the CourseCompass entry for that date I've now posted an outline of the final. . Note that in the CourseCompass entry for tomorrow (Monday the 5th) I've put up the last summary and response paper assignment, this one from chapter 5. As I also say in that entry, you won't need to submit this paper until Friday the 16th, which is the day before I need to turn in final grades. . I won't be able to keep my office hours today; sorry for any inconvenience. But barring any other crisis or disaster, I should be able to make it to class today. . Sorry, but I've got an emergency situation with my son and I have to take him to the hospital in a little bit, so I don't think I'll be out in time to hold class today. Sorry for the inconvenience. . As per the Registrar's final examination schedule, our Final Exam (which will be on just chapters 5 and 6) will be from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 14. If that late date in finals week and/or that early starting time is an inconvenience, because like both of our other two exams so far the Final Exam will also be all in CourseCompass, I will allow you take the final from home or from wherever you'll be then as long as you have Internet access from there. . Note that in the CourseCompass Calendar entry for Monday the 14th I've put up the next summary/response paper assignment, namely the one for chapter 4. Notice also there that I say you don't have to submit this one until sometime next week or next weekend. In fact, because I'm still behind and haven't gotten everybody's chapter 3 response papers back yet, you can actually wait until you receive your chapter 3 paper before you start working on this latest chapter 4 one. And for your convenience, here are the Calendar entries where I've put all the summary/response paper assignments so far: Part I summary/response paper: February 1 chapter 3 summary/response paper: March 21 . Because not everyone in the class took Exam Two yesterday, I can't release the answers for this exam yet. If you didn't take yesterday's exam, please arrange with me to make it up so that I can release the answers for everybody else. . In response to a request, I've added to the "chapter 4 exercises" folder of the Assignments tool of CourseCompass two new exercises, "extra 4-14a" and "extra 4-14b." Note that these are only additional practice based on exercise 14 in Understanding English Grammar and as such they are not among the CourseCompass exercises you are required to complete and pass. . I've decided to move Exam Two, which as you see from my post of yesterday below I had originally scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, now to Friday, April 4. I've indicated this change in the CourseCompass Calendar also. . As indicated on the CourseCompass Calendar, on Wednesday, April 2, in class we'll have Exam Two, which will cover chapter 3 and chapter 4 of Understanding English Grammar. The exam will be similar to all of the chapter 3 and chapter 4 CourseCompass exercises I've given you in the Assignments area, and you will do the entire exam in CourseCompass. For a detailed breakdown of the organization of Exam Two, see the entry for the April 2 in the CourseCompass Calendar. And as I've said in class, if you haven't yet completed all the chapter 3 and 4 CourseCompass exercises please do so so that I can release the correct answers in order for everybody to study from these for the exam. . I've corrected the CourseCompass Calendar to show the appropriate assignments for the rest of this week. As I speculated at the end of class today, what I've currently got on the Calendar for this Wednesday is what I had planned to put up for last Wednesday the 19th but screwed it up. Sorry for the inconvenience. . In the CourseCompass Calendar entry for today, I've put up the assignment for the chapter 3 summary and response paper, and note as I say there that you have pretty much all week next week--and even a little bit beyond that if you need it--to submit this paper to Turnitin. I hear you asking, "What about the chapter 2 paper?" Well, because I was so delayed in getting your first papers back to you I've decided to give everybody a freebie, i.e., a grade of A+, on your chapter 2 summary/response as fair compensation. I'll try very hard to get your remaining papers back to you more promptly. . I've had to give a few of you "Unsatisfactory" grades for your Mid-Semester Estimates. I did this ONLY if you have failed to do any or most of the exercises in CourseCompass. As I've said before, these are an important requirement for the course since I don't release the correct answers for each exercise until everybody's taken and gotten a passing score on it, so if you don't keep up with the exercises you're holding everybody else up. But for all of you who got "U"s I also indicated you still had a chance for a final grade of "C," so just make sure you start getting caught up with the CourseCompass exercises (remember as I say on the syllabus that you have to do and pass all of them in order to be able to complete the course). . As indicated on the CourseCompass Calendar, on Monday (the 25th) in class we'll have Exam One, which will cover chapter 2 of Understanding English Grammar. The exam will be similar to all of the CourseCompass exercises I've given you in the Assignments area, and you will do the entire exam in CourseCompass. For a detailed breakdown of the organization of Exam One, see the entry for the 25th in the CourseCompass Calendar. And as I've said in class, if you haven't yet completed all the chapter 2 CourseCompass exercises please do so so that I can release the correct answers in order for everybody to study from these for the exam. . Especially for those of you who weren't here on Friday, I've made a video that shows you how to do the CourseCompass exercises which you can view at one of the places linked to on this page (in our iTunes U room, you can find the video under the "how-to" tab). . I had put the assignment for Monday on the CourseCompass Calendar before classes were canceled for today, so we'll just pick up on Monday with the stuff originally scheduled for today and push Monday's assignment ahead to Wednesday. . I've just finished sending out to everybody the latest CourseCompass access codes I got from the publisher. They assure me these should work this time as long as you follow the directions in that sheet I had sent you last week, especially the part about going to www.mycomplab.com first and doing the initial registration there. If you didn't get my latest e-mail (from this morning) with your newest code, please let me know. . In case you're still having trouble getting into CourseCompass, here's the assignment for Wednesday's class from the CourseCompass Calendar: - the introduction to Part II of Understanding English Grammar - pp. 17-19 (up to "Noun Phrases") of chapter 2 of Understanding English Grammar . Well, it looks as though they sent us another bunch of bum CourseCompass codes. I've put a call in to try to get you ones that work, and I hope we'll know soon. Really sorry for this inconvenience. . I've just sent, by e-mail, new CourseCompass access codes to all active students in the class. If for some reason you didn't get yours, please let me know. Just a reminder also: our CourseCompass Course ID is mccorduck00125. . If you haven't yet completed the ENG 402-001 Student Information Form, click here to do so. . In case you have difficulty getting into CourseCompass, here's the assignment for Monday's class from the CourseCompass Calendar: - read pp. 1-13 (up to "For Further Reading on Topics in This Chapter") of Part I of Understanding English Grammar . Click here to complete the ENG 402-001 Student Information Form. . Click here if you're having any trouble with your Net-ID or password. .