Welcome

This is the course blog for BIS 490-001; the one for the 490-002 section of the course that meets on Tuesdays is here. I will mainly use the blog it to make announcements and adjustments to our schedule; you will use it to post your answers to any homework exercises I may give, and to extend our classroom discussion.

You can preview the course syllabus here. I would appreciate it if you email me any errors you find. 

Orientation Session Lowdown: If you did not take my BIS 390 course... hello! It's nice to meet you. Because you will be joining a class in which I have already brainwashed 80% of the students to my twisted ideology, and because I need you to learn some cloud software tricks (mainly posting to this blog and using Google Docs), your first class of the semester will meet on Tuesday 1/17 at 19:20 in Enterprise 300. I look forward to meeting you! 

What If I Did Take Your 390 Course?: Look carefully at the image to the right... let's see if the brainwashing worked. Hmm, I guess not. Well even so, you do not need to attend the 1/17 session. Your first class will be Monday 1/23. 

Testing 1, 2, 3: Please write a test post in the reply below so I can make sure the blog is working for everyone. It would be best if your test post was some kind of question or comment about the syllabus. Read it carefully! If you can't figure out how to do this, it will be explained at the 1/17 session.  

Registration Lowdown: As you probably know, BIS 490 is meant to be co-requisite with BIS 491. This course is for developing your main investigative or creative research project, and that one is for developing a live presentation of your research (usually accompanied by a Powerpoint) that you will give at the end of the semester. BIS is currently resolving a registration crunch that has left only 30 spots in 491 for the 40 students officially signed up for 490. Additionally, both of the instructors have very busy schedules because we have full-time non-academic jobs, so we've had to make some adjustments accordingly. 

What Does This Mean For Me?: Since you are registered for the BIS 490-001 class that meets on (some) Monday nights, you should also be registered for the BIS 491-001 class that meets on (some) Tuesday nights or the BIS 491-003 class that meets at an earlier time on (most) Monday nights. Do not register for BIS 491-002, and if you already did so, please drop it immediately.

Textbook Lowdown: You will notice on the syllabus that there are no new books to buy for students who took my 390 course, unless you never got around to buying your primary-discipline citation handbook (probably MLA, APA, or Chicago). You will be thrilled to know that we are returning to Booth et al.'s The Craft of Research. New-to-me students should buy Graff and Birkenstein's They Say / I Say... I think the GMU bookstore lists it as a recommended text, but if you want to understand what I'm all about and what this course is all about, it's a must read. Even if the Strunk and White style guide is still on the required reading list, please don't buy it. You will also notice that the syllabus lists an article by Boix-Mansilla & Duraisingh. Use the citation info to find it on the library website, or, you know, whatever else works. We will be discussing this article during the 1/23 class meeting!