I) Intro Paragraph
A) Topic Sentence/Hook: Like other struggling states, Massachusetts is looking anywhere it can for jobs and cash- including the virtual world of video game technology with its mix of fantasy and rabid fans.
1) Subtopic 1: There are many successful video game companies already in Massachusetts that provide many jobs.
2) Subtopic 2: Politicians, such as the Massachusetts governer, want to attract more video game companies to the state to increase jobs for its citizens.
3) Subtopic 3: Schools across the country are offering degree programs in video game design.
II) First Supporting Paragraph
A) Restate Subtopic 1: Many successful video game companies are already located in Massachusetts and provide many jobs.
1) The company, Turbine Inc., has raised $40 million dollars last year with their release of the game “Lord of the Rings Online.” They employ a small army of artists, computer programmers, and support staff for their products.
2) Harmonix Music Systems produced “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” two of the most popular video games of all time.
3) 38 Studios employs 67 people and is building its own online video game franchise.
B) Transition: People want new technologies to be made available to them, such as video games, software, animation, music, etc. Massachusetts politicians want to share in some of the future profits of the development of these technologies.
III) Second Supporting Paragraph
A) Subtopic 2: Politicians, such as the Massachusetts governer, want to attract more video game companies to the state to increase jobs for its citizens.
1) Currently, video game companies employ about 2,000 people in Massachusetts, so it is important to lure more companies to the state.
2) Gov. Patrick travels to video game publishers across the country to encourage them to move to Massachusetts.
B) Transition: Besides talking to publishers, politicians have been looking at local colleges.
IV) Third Supporting Paragraph
A) Subtopic 3: Schools across the country are offering degree programs in video game design.
1) MIT, in conjunction with Singapore and other colleges, has a game lab in which students publish prototypes of video games.
2) Noreastern University is starting video game majors this year.
V) Conclusion
A) Since video games are considered to be recession-proof, it is smart for Massachusetts to work to attract video game publishers to their state to increase jobs for its citizens.
B) Many successful video game publishers already exist in Massachusetts
C) Politicians are working to attract video game publishers.
D) Degree programs in video game design are becoming popular.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The 5 Ws + How
1. Who: Who is involved (who developed the computer program or Website), who is the intended audience of the program, website, etc.
2. What: What issues surround your topic. Controversy? Comparison to another program and/or Website? People's opinions regarding your topic, etc.
3. When: When was your topic developed? When was your Website developed, when was your program released, when did people start using Internet lingo, etc.
4. Where: Where can one find more information? What is the web address? (this can be answered with your reference's page).
5. Why: Why is this program/Website/issue popular?
6. How: How did it become popular? How will your topic develop in the future? For example, do you think your website will still exist 10 years from now? Will they be releasing a new version of your program?
2. What: What issues surround your topic. Controversy? Comparison to another program and/or Website? People's opinions regarding your topic, etc.
3. When: When was your topic developed? When was your Website developed, when was your program released, when did people start using Internet lingo, etc.
4. Where: Where can one find more information? What is the web address? (this can be answered with your reference's page).
5. Why: Why is this program/Website/issue popular?
6. How: How did it become popular? How will your topic develop in the future? For example, do you think your website will still exist 10 years from now? Will they be releasing a new version of your program?
Video Game Article for Reverse Outline Activity
Citation: LeBlanc, Steve. “Video Game Technology Could Fuel Mass. Recovery.” Examiner.com. Feb 9, 2009. http://www.examiner.com/a-1841522~Video_game_technology_could_fuel_Mass__recovery.html
BOSTON (Map, News) - Like other struggling states, Massachusetts is looking anywhere it can for jobs and cash- including the virtual world of video game technology with its mix of fantasy and rabid fans.
While Boston is home to top gaming companies like the developers of the hugely popular "Rock Band," "BioShock" and "The Lord of the Rings Online" it's just fourth or fifth on the list of top video gaming clusters behind locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Austin.
Political leaders like Gov. Deval Patrick are hoping to move the state up in the ranks, by coaxing more companies to Massachusetts.
The lure is understandable. While other sectors of the economy are slashing jobs, video gaming companies are thriving as eager investors pump in millions to help develop the next generation of games.
If you're thinking "Pong" or "Space Invaders," think again.
Today's games, especially the so-called massively multiplayer online games, can take a company years to create with development costs topping $100 million - an endeavor akin to the production of a major Hollywood movie.
One company with expertise in the labyrinthine online games is the 15-year-old Westwood, Mass.-based Turbine Inc.
During the past year the company has added almost 50 employees and raised $40 million in new venture capital after the success of "Lord of the Rings Online," a massively multiplayer online game allowing players around the globe to enter into a fantastical world inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Creating and maintaining the game's online environment requires a small army of artists, computer programmers and support staff, according to company spokesman Adam Mersky, who said video game technology is a growing industry, and a fiercely competitive one.
"We see potential, but it is a tough business," Mersky said.
The business can also be phenomenally lucrative if a company hits on just the right mix of technology, interactivity and playfulness.
In nearby Cambridge, Mass., Harmonix Music Systems struck gold when it invented a game that struck the right note by combining the hyperactivity of old-fashioned arcade games with the age-old pastime of would-be rockers: air guitar. The result - Guitar Hero and Rock Band - are two of the most popular video games of all time.
Building the company in the Boston/Cambridge area, home to MIT, Harvard and other colleges, ensures a deep well of talent, according to Harmonix co-founder and Chief Executive Alex Rigopulos. The Boston area had another big plus - a thriving music scene centered on local clubs and the Berklee College of Music.
"Massachusetts is a natural fit for video game technology," Rigopulos said.
Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, an avid online gamer, is also getting into the game, creating one of the area's newest companies - 38 Studios based in Maynard, Mass. The company has been open two years and employs 67 people, including Todd McFarlane, creator of the popular comic book franchise Spawn.
Brett Close, president and CEO of 38 Studios said the company is building its own massively multiplayer online game, code-named Copernicus.
Close said the rise of video games is due in part to their ability to take advantage of new mobile and Web technologies - technologies that demand expertise in software, design, animation, audio and music. Successful games can also be branched out into ring tones, toys and other forms of merchandising.
"You want to give the audience as many platforms of technology as possible to touch this world and interact in this world and be the hero in their fantasy fiction world," Close said.
States are taking notice.
In Massachusetts, video gaming companies are a bright light in an otherwise gloomy economic landscape. The 60 to 65 companies here employ about 2,000, with up to 100 jobs open at any given time. To lure even more businesses, a bill coming up before lawmakers this session would extend existing moviemaking tax credits to video gaming companies.
All of which explains why Gov. Patrick, who confesses to being not much of a gamer, was on the West Coast last week pitching Massachusetts as an East Coast gaming mecca. The trip included a visit with executives from Redwood City, Calif.-based video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
"Publishers know we have this depth among the developers," Patrick said.
Local colleges are jumping into the game.
Worcester Polytechnic was one of the first to offer an undergraduate major in interactive media and game development, according to Robert Lindeman, an assistant professor of computer science.
While the idea of a college degree in video games may seem odd to some, Lindeman points to the range of skills needed to develop a successful game.
"Any kid who goes to college is going to be sitting around playing video games," Lindeman said. "The hard part is building them."
At MIT, video gaming innovators reached halfway across the globe to form a partnership with the government of Singapore.
Philip Tan, U.S. executive director of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, said his lab is like any other research laboratory, but instead of papers, his students publish prototypes of video games.
The lab started in 2007 and has drawn students from MIT, Singapore and nearby colleges including the Massachusetts College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Terrence Masson, director of game design for Northeastern University, which is starting dual video game majors this year, said technology developed through video games can be applied in other contexts - like creating "medical avatars" to help patients being discharged from hospitals.
Mike Cavaretta, who helps run the MIT Enterprise Forum-Interactive Entertainment Special Interest Group - a kind of trade organization for the gaming community, said gamers can trace their routes in Massachusetts back to a primitive Dungeons & Dragons game developed at MIT in the 1960s.
He also said video games are proving largely recession-proof.
"It's a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment and in times like these people tend to spend more time at home," he said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BOSTON (Map, News) - Like other struggling states, Massachusetts is looking anywhere it can for jobs and cash- including the virtual world of video game technology with its mix of fantasy and rabid fans.
While Boston is home to top gaming companies like the developers of the hugely popular "Rock Band," "BioShock" and "The Lord of the Rings Online" it's just fourth or fifth on the list of top video gaming clusters behind locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Austin.
Political leaders like Gov. Deval Patrick are hoping to move the state up in the ranks, by coaxing more companies to Massachusetts.
The lure is understandable. While other sectors of the economy are slashing jobs, video gaming companies are thriving as eager investors pump in millions to help develop the next generation of games.
If you're thinking "Pong" or "Space Invaders," think again.
Today's games, especially the so-called massively multiplayer online games, can take a company years to create with development costs topping $100 million - an endeavor akin to the production of a major Hollywood movie.
One company with expertise in the labyrinthine online games is the 15-year-old Westwood, Mass.-based Turbine Inc.
During the past year the company has added almost 50 employees and raised $40 million in new venture capital after the success of "Lord of the Rings Online," a massively multiplayer online game allowing players around the globe to enter into a fantastical world inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Creating and maintaining the game's online environment requires a small army of artists, computer programmers and support staff, according to company spokesman Adam Mersky, who said video game technology is a growing industry, and a fiercely competitive one.
"We see potential, but it is a tough business," Mersky said.
The business can also be phenomenally lucrative if a company hits on just the right mix of technology, interactivity and playfulness.
In nearby Cambridge, Mass., Harmonix Music Systems struck gold when it invented a game that struck the right note by combining the hyperactivity of old-fashioned arcade games with the age-old pastime of would-be rockers: air guitar. The result - Guitar Hero and Rock Band - are two of the most popular video games of all time.
Building the company in the Boston/Cambridge area, home to MIT, Harvard and other colleges, ensures a deep well of talent, according to Harmonix co-founder and Chief Executive Alex Rigopulos. The Boston area had another big plus - a thriving music scene centered on local clubs and the Berklee College of Music.
"Massachusetts is a natural fit for video game technology," Rigopulos said.
Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, an avid online gamer, is also getting into the game, creating one of the area's newest companies - 38 Studios based in Maynard, Mass. The company has been open two years and employs 67 people, including Todd McFarlane, creator of the popular comic book franchise Spawn.
Brett Close, president and CEO of 38 Studios said the company is building its own massively multiplayer online game, code-named Copernicus.
Close said the rise of video games is due in part to their ability to take advantage of new mobile and Web technologies - technologies that demand expertise in software, design, animation, audio and music. Successful games can also be branched out into ring tones, toys and other forms of merchandising.
"You want to give the audience as many platforms of technology as possible to touch this world and interact in this world and be the hero in their fantasy fiction world," Close said.
States are taking notice.
In Massachusetts, video gaming companies are a bright light in an otherwise gloomy economic landscape. The 60 to 65 companies here employ about 2,000, with up to 100 jobs open at any given time. To lure even more businesses, a bill coming up before lawmakers this session would extend existing moviemaking tax credits to video gaming companies.
All of which explains why Gov. Patrick, who confesses to being not much of a gamer, was on the West Coast last week pitching Massachusetts as an East Coast gaming mecca. The trip included a visit with executives from Redwood City, Calif.-based video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
"Publishers know we have this depth among the developers," Patrick said.
Local colleges are jumping into the game.
Worcester Polytechnic was one of the first to offer an undergraduate major in interactive media and game development, according to Robert Lindeman, an assistant professor of computer science.
While the idea of a college degree in video games may seem odd to some, Lindeman points to the range of skills needed to develop a successful game.
"Any kid who goes to college is going to be sitting around playing video games," Lindeman said. "The hard part is building them."
At MIT, video gaming innovators reached halfway across the globe to form a partnership with the government of Singapore.
Philip Tan, U.S. executive director of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, said his lab is like any other research laboratory, but instead of papers, his students publish prototypes of video games.
The lab started in 2007 and has drawn students from MIT, Singapore and nearby colleges including the Massachusetts College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Terrence Masson, director of game design for Northeastern University, which is starting dual video game majors this year, said technology developed through video games can be applied in other contexts - like creating "medical avatars" to help patients being discharged from hospitals.
Mike Cavaretta, who helps run the MIT Enterprise Forum-Interactive Entertainment Special Interest Group - a kind of trade organization for the gaming community, said gamers can trace their routes in Massachusetts back to a primitive Dungeons & Dragons game developed at MIT in the 1960s.
He also said video games are proving largely recession-proof.
"It's a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment and in times like these people tend to spend more time at home," he said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
MLA Citation Format
Source:
http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/mla.html
For In-text citations:
Example A
"There are two basic types of sociodramatic play training: outside intervention and inside intervention" (Christie 29).
By putting the author's last name, Christie, and the page number, 29, in parentheses after your quotation about play training, you are telling the reader where you found this information.
Example B
Christie states that "there are two basic types of sociodramatic play training: outside intervention and inside intervention" (29).
Because you have mentioned the author's name in your sentence, you do not have to repeat it in the parentheses.
Example C
Margaret Sanger was thought to be primarily responsible for the introduction of birth control in this country (Kennedy 251).
or
David Kennedy says that Margaret Sanger was primarily responsible for the introduction of birth control in this country (251).
Sentences in your own words about the idea(s) of an author are treated in much the same way. Here there are no quotation marks because you are describing an author's idea, not quoting word-for-word. This is called "paraphrasing" and is as important to cite correctly as if it were a direct quote.
For a Works Cited Page:
Citations should be arranged in alphabetical order by the first element of the citation, usually the author's last name.
Printed book with one author
Kennedy, David. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970.
Printed book with two or more authors (Cite authors as they appear on title page, not necessarily in alphabetical order.)
Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt, 1962.
Online book
(When citing an online resource, follow the basic format for a print source, and then add online retrieval information. If the URL, or Web address, is more than one line, don’t break at a hyphen; only break after a slash.)
Pinson, Linda, and Jerry Jinnett. Steps to Small Business Start-up: Everything You Need to Know to Turn Your Idea Into a Successful Business. Chicago: Dearborn, A Kaplan Professional Company, 2000. NetLibrary, Lesley University Libraries, Cambridge, MA. March 31, 2003.
Chapter, short story, or poem from a book or a work in a collection (an anthology, a casebook, or a group of essays)
O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” Mirrors: An Introduction to Literature. Ed. John R. Knott, Jr. and Christopher R. Reaske. San Francisco: Canfield, 1975. 58-67.
Print or PDF article in a scholarly journal
Christie, James F. “Sociodramatic Play Training.” Young Children 37 (1982): 25-32.
Scholarly journal article on the Web
MacLean, A. Peter, and Peters, Ray Dev. “Graduate Student Couples: Dyadic Satisfaction in Relation to Type of Partnership and Demographic Characteristics.” Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science 17.1 (1995): 13 pars. 22 April 2004
.
Online encyclopedia article with no author
“Western Painting.” Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 2004. Encyclopedia Brittanica
Online. Lesley University Libraries, Cambridge, MA. 7 April 2004.
Web page
Vandergrift, Kay E. “Social History of Children’s Literature.” Kay E. Vandergrift’s Special Interest Page. September 1995. SCILS, Rutgers U. 1 April, 2004
< http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/HistoryofChildLit/index.html>.
Personal E-mail
Kennedy, Edward. “Budget Preparation Meeting.” E-mail to John Kerry. 10 March 1996.
http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/mla.html
For In-text citations:
Example A
"There are two basic types of sociodramatic play training: outside intervention and inside intervention" (Christie 29).
By putting the author's last name, Christie, and the page number, 29, in parentheses after your quotation about play training, you are telling the reader where you found this information.
Example B
Christie states that "there are two basic types of sociodramatic play training: outside intervention and inside intervention" (29).
Because you have mentioned the author's name in your sentence, you do not have to repeat it in the parentheses.
Example C
Margaret Sanger was thought to be primarily responsible for the introduction of birth control in this country (Kennedy 251).
or
David Kennedy says that Margaret Sanger was primarily responsible for the introduction of birth control in this country (251).
Sentences in your own words about the idea(s) of an author are treated in much the same way. Here there are no quotation marks because you are describing an author's idea, not quoting word-for-word. This is called "paraphrasing" and is as important to cite correctly as if it were a direct quote.
For a Works Cited Page:
Citations should be arranged in alphabetical order by the first element of the citation, usually the author's last name.
Printed book with one author
Kennedy, David. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970.
Printed book with two or more authors (Cite authors as they appear on title page, not necessarily in alphabetical order.)
Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt, 1962.
Online book
(When citing an online resource, follow the basic format for a print source, and then add online retrieval information. If the URL, or Web address, is more than one line, don’t break at a hyphen; only break after a slash.)
Pinson, Linda, and Jerry Jinnett. Steps to Small Business Start-up: Everything You Need to Know to Turn Your Idea Into a Successful Business. Chicago: Dearborn, A Kaplan Professional Company, 2000. NetLibrary, Lesley University Libraries, Cambridge, MA. March 31, 2003
Chapter, short story, or poem from a book or a work in a collection (an anthology, a casebook, or a group of essays)
O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” Mirrors: An Introduction to Literature. Ed. John R. Knott, Jr. and Christopher R. Reaske. San Francisco: Canfield, 1975. 58-67.
Print or PDF article in a scholarly journal
Christie, James F. “Sociodramatic Play Training.” Young Children 37 (1982): 25-32.
Scholarly journal article on the Web
MacLean, A. Peter, and Peters, Ray Dev. “Graduate Student Couples: Dyadic Satisfaction in Relation to Type of Partnership and Demographic Characteristics.” Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science 17.1 (1995): 13 pars. 22 April 2004
Online encyclopedia article with no author
“Western Painting.” Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 2004. Encyclopedia Brittanica
Online. Lesley University Libraries, Cambridge, MA. 7 April 2004
Web page
Vandergrift, Kay E. “Social History of Children’s Literature.” Kay E. Vandergrift’s Special Interest Page. September 1995. SCILS, Rutgers U. 1 April, 2004
< http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/HistoryofChildLit/index.html>.
Personal E-mail
Kennedy, Edward. “Budget Preparation Meeting.” E-mail to John Kerry. 10 March 1996.
Outline Peer Feedback Form
1. Does this outline give you a clear idea of the topic of this term paper?
if yes: what is the topic of this paper and how it is it organized?
if no: what can the author do to improve the organization of their paper?
2. Give 1 or 2 suggestions for improvement or things you'd like to see in this term paper.
Write these answers right below your peer's outline.
if yes: what is the topic of this paper and how it is it organized?
if no: what can the author do to improve the organization of their paper?
2. Give 1 or 2 suggestions for improvement or things you'd like to see in this term paper.
Write these answers right below your peer's outline.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Peer Feedback Form: Introduction Paragraph
Peer Feedback Form: Introduction
Answer these questions about your peer’s introduction paragraph.
1. What is the topic of the essay?
2. What is the thesis statement?
3. Give 1 suggestion on how this thesis statement could be stronger.
4. What is this essay’s hook, if there is one? How did it grab your attention and make you want to read more? If there was no hook, what would make this paper more interesting to read?
5. State 1 thing concerning this topic that you would like to learn more about.
Answer these questions about your peer’s introduction paragraph.
1. What is the topic of the essay?
2. What is the thesis statement?
3. Give 1 suggestion on how this thesis statement could be stronger.
4. What is this essay’s hook, if there is one? How did it grab your attention and make you want to read more? If there was no hook, what would make this paper more interesting to read?
5. State 1 thing concerning this topic that you would like to learn more about.
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