Walmart Essays and scores: Epilogue

FOR YOUR INTEREST - Assuming it exists...

Forbes Magazine has listed Walmart CEO, Mike Duke, as the third worst CEO of a large corporation.  Walmart stock value has plateaued since he took over for Lee Scott, and Walmart hasn't kept up with on-line retailers who are innovating the home shopping experience.  Read more IF you are interested:

Mike Duke is not a good CEO.

Moving on...

With midterms and AP, we really haven't had a "real" opportunity to move forward and get some writing done.  But I think the time was valuable and used for various drafts of your Walmart essays.  Initially, I gave more than half of the class a B, and many of you worked hard to move to an A by focusing more on MLA.  However, there still hasn't been one student to master it perfectly.  We will have one more try at this, which brings me to a main problem:

BIG WEAKNESS:  The majority of students in this class do not read the fine print.  Following directions (posted permanently here on the blog so nothing gets lost) as closely  as possible will easily add valuable points to your scores, especially when you get to university.  Yes, you guys are very very very busy, and always multitasking. BUT do not rush to get things done without meditating on the task fully.  Read ALL of the directions. Think of it as reading a map before you get in the car.  Get things right the first time.  Analyze the prompt.  Know what MLA is. Read about Walmart. This also applies to the photo essay, which only a couple of students seem to have understood.

As you know, I expected an online version of the Walmart essay, as well as the MLA formatted hard copy.  If you didn't get the results you wanted it may be due to following oversights:

• Not MLA.  MLA can't be taught.  You have to learn it yourself by looking at it through the Purdue website, which I've posted a few times:                                                          http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
• Online version not updated with links, pictures, grammatical errors cleaned up.

Walmart is gone with the wind, so here are the final grades for that AND the rest of your other grades, so you know where you are at.  Right now, we have fulfilled 52% of our total, not counting 25% for the exam (which will be very difficult).  So we have another 23% to play with.  This will include one more synthesis essay, with the rest contributed to a class participation score.  Class Participation includes overall blog content, comments left, and in-class participation (i.e. do you stare at your laptop too much).