About the Electronic Dropbox

Each week, students will be asked to hand in poems to an electronic "dropbox," from which class members can retrieve and comment on their work. To facilitate this process, students should follow the below protocol for electronic files.

Poems are due by classtime on Mondays.

Remember, NEVER WORK OFF OF A DISK! They are for transport ONLY.
And make sure you have at least one BACKUP of any given file you produce.

Naming Your Files:
To keep our shared files (our weekly poems) in order, please name your weekly poem:
yourfirstname-keywordfrompoem.doc
For example, if I were to dropoff a poem entitled "My Mother's Hands", I would title it susan-hands.doc.

Dropping Off Poems:
You must "dropoff" your poem through a CWRL classroom or lab computer. You cannot upload or "dropoff" materials from your home computer, or any other computer lab such as the SMF or dorm labs. I will usually designate a few minutes of classtime on Mondays for you to do this.

To dropoff your weekly poem in .doc format:

1. Insert your disk and copy your .doc file onto the desktop and then EJECT your disk. On Macs, you will do this by dragging-and-dropping while holding down the OPTION key. On PCs, you merely drag-and drop onto the desktop. DO NOT open your .doc file. DO NOT copy your .doc file directly from your disk to the Teacher server. (This is to prevent the spread of some viruses as well as to make sure your file does not corrupt.)
2. Once you have successfully copied your file to the desktop, open the shortcut for the "Teacher Folders " server on the desktop of your computer. The icon will look like a grey disk drive, and on some computers the server will appear with the name "Gibson".
3. Find and open the folder "willett".
4. Find and open the folder "Poems" (it will appear as a red folder on Macs).
5. Find and open the folder corresponding to that week's theme. They have been numbered for your convenience.
6. When you have the appropriate folder open, drag-and-drop your .doc file icon into the folder's "box." An icon for your .doc document should now appear in the folder. If not, try dragging-and-dropping again.

You have successfully put your file on the server!

Picking Up Poems:
You must "pickup" your poem at a CWRL classroom or lab computer. You cannot upload or "dropoff" materials from your home computer, or any other computer lab such as the SMF or dorm labs. Instead, you must visit the CWRL computer lab in Parlin 6 (open M-Th 9-9 and F 9-5).

1. Access the Teacher server, "willett", "Poems", and folder with that week's poems via the method above.
2. You will have to open each individual file separately to get everyone's poems.
3. From there, you can print out everyone's poems and comment on them.

DO NOT try to re-save any of these documents on the Teacher server after you have opened it and printed it out. Leave the server in the condition in which you accessed it.

If others have trouble opening your poems, you may be using an older version of Word than the CWRL system supports. To remedy this, you will have to save your document as a Rich Text (RTF) File. This format type is compatible with virtually every word-processing program on any PC or Mac, and saving as an .rtf will ensure everyone can read your poem.

To save a Word document as a Rich Text file, first, save your poem as you would regularly on your hard drive AND disk.

1. In your word processing program, go to the "File" menu and select the "Save As". This will bring you to a Save As dialogue box.
2. Make sure you are saving to your disk in the "Save In" box.
3. Under "File Name", type your file name as outlined above.
4. Under "Save As Type" click the arrow on the box and scroll to select "Rich Text Format (*.rtf)".
5. Click the "Save" button.

The .rtf file will not replace your existing Word or WordPerfect document, it will merely "mirror" the text of your document into a new file which most people can read. For this reason, make sure that you do all your "work" in your word processing program and merely copy the finished product into an .rtf file on disk. Similarly, make sure you are doing all of your "work" on the CWRL desktop or on your computer at home, then save to your transport disk.

About E-Journals

Your E-journal is comprised of several writing exercises you complete throughout the semester. They will not be evaluated or workshopped (although part of your course grade will be determined by whether or not you complete them on time), and only you and I will view them. These exercises are mainly to get you "warmed up" for writing your weekly poems and to get you practicing some common poetic forms and devices.

When saving an E-Journal exercise, please name it:
[ejournal#]-keywordfromexercise.doc
For example, if I were to dropoff E-Journal exercise 1, an exercise about beginning and ending in opposites, I would title it 1-opposites.doc.

You must "dropoff" each E-journal exercise through a CWRL classroom or lab computer, just as you dropoff your weekly poems.

To dropoff your weekly poem in .doc format:

1. Insert your disk and copy your .doc file onto the desktop and then EJECT your disk. On Macs, you will do this by dragging-and-dropping while holding down the OPTION key. On PCs, you merely drag-and drop onto the desktop. DO NOT open your .doc file. DO NOT copy your .doc file directly from your disk to the Teacher server. (This is to prevent the spread of some viruses as well as to make sure your file does not corrupt.)
2. Once you have successfully copied your file to the desktop, open the shortcut for the "Teacher Folders " server on the desktop of your computer. The icon will look like a grey disk drive, and on some computers the server will appear with the name "Gibson".
3. Find and open the folder "willett".
4. Open the folder with your name on it.
5. When you have the appropriate folder open, drag-and-drop your .doc file icon into your folder's "box." An icon for your .doc document should now appear in the folder. If not, try dragging-and-dropping again.