English 101
Dr. Lorrah
VIGNETTE
(ten points)

****READ ENTIRE ASSIGNMENT SHEET BEFORE YOU BEGIN!****

1) Log on according to instructions. Open Word. Put your floppy disk in the A drive.

2) Begin to write your vignette.

3) You should have a clear screen with the Toolbar at the top. On this clear screen write your response to the following:

Should the United States continue to explore outer space? What benefits have come from our space program? Knowing that the annual cost of the program is not enough to pay for a national health plan, feed our nation's poor, or make a noticeable dent in the national debt, should the space program be canceled? If it should continue, what direction do you think it should take? If it should be canceled, what should be done with the money saved?

Get as much down as you can without worrying about grammar, organization, spelling, or typing. Just let your ideas flow. Write as much as you can in 20-25 minutes. This is ungraded credit—you receive credit for doing it, as long as you make an honest attempt to answer the questions.

4) SAVE your work to your floppy disk: File, then Save, putting A: in front of the title you give to your file. If you did not bring a floppy disk today, make a folder with your name on the C drive and save to that for now. This method will not work for the entire semester because A) if many students do this, the C drive will soon overflow and the techs will wipe all student folders off it; B) you cannot access anything left on the computer you are using today from any other computer, not even another one in this room; and C) any folders you put on the C drive of this computer are NOT PRIVATE. Any other student can access them, read, change, or delete what is in them.

5) Continue your vignette. Try to think of specific examples. If you said, “The space program has brought unexpected technical advances,'' you might now change it to, “The space program has brought us everything from Teflon to lightweight components for cell phones and notebook computers.''

6) RESAVE your work EVERY TEN MINUTES with File, Save. What is on disk is what you last saved; say "yes" to replacing it--that puts the new longer file in place of the shorter version you saved earlier.

7) When you are ready to stop, SAVE. Even if you haven't finished, do this when your instructor tells you to—the final part of today's lesson is to learn to upload to Blackboard. Then open Blackboard and look under Assignments for “Vignette Upload.” Click on >> View/Complete Assignment: Vignette Upload at the bottom of “Vignette Upload.” Use the “Browse” function to upload your vignette. First click Save, and then click Submit to upload; Save alone will not upload your file. You can upload it only once. You can not later upload a revised version to “Vignette Upload.” It is very important to make all your revisions before you upload an assignment, as Blackboard is an unforgiving program.

8) Print your document. We need to make certain today that the printer is working and all student computers have been properly connected. TO PRINT, click on the picture of the printer on your toolbar. Be patient! Do not send any more print commands! When the printer stops, pick up your document. As other students are also printing, be sure you pick up your vignette, not someone else's. If the printer stops without printing your document, read the message on the printer's LED screen; tell the instructor if it is out of paper or if an error message shows. Only if the printer says "Ready" and your document isn't there should you resend the print command once. If it still doesn't print, tell the instructor. Show the instructor your printout to get your credit. (Dr. Lorrah won't have time to check whether you upload succeeded until later in the day.) Proceed to Step 9.

9) Clear your screen with File, Close. Your document disappears.

10) Take your Diskette and printout with you, and bring them to class next time. Exit from Word. You may then look at Homework One on the Assignment page in Blackboard, check e-mail, or anything else that applies to the class, until time is called.

11Log out. (Choose Start (!), then choose to log off as your name. Do not turn off the computer!) If you do not log out, the next person to sit down at your console will have access to your private files until someone logs you off.