TESC Capstone -- I have a couple questions

[Daithi]

I've just signed up for TESC's 495 Liberal Arts Capstone with Ms. Catherine Peck, which starts Jan 6, 2014.

1) Has anyone had Ms. Peck? Was she a good advisor?

2) I'm signed up for the Guided Study option. Can you do this at a faster pace than a regular TESC course? How quickly can you finish?

3) Which books are required? I couldn't find this anywhere on MyEdison, but this is the first course I've taken through them (and probably only course I'll take), so I may not be looking in the right spot.

4) Would anyone be willing to send me any samples of the course work so that I'll know what to expect and how my own work should look?

Thanks for any help.

[hornj]

The required books are in the syllabus. I don't think the style manual is reall necessary. You can get the same information online for free, and the advisor didn't even want me to follow the book 100%.

I posted my capstone paper on this thread.

[Daithi]

Thank you hornj. That helps a lot.

[ironheadjack]

There is a thread on here somewhere and Catherine Peck received mixed reviews, some said she was great...others said avoid her.

I haven't read anywhere that you CANNOT hand in assignment early; you'll have a module due every two weeks, so I assume if you handed each assignment in early you could finish the course quicker. Whether or not your mentor will release the grade is another question.

The two books that are required are:
Joyner, R., Rouse, W. & Glatthorn, A. (2013). Writing the winning thesis or dissertation: A step-by-step guide (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
ISBN: 978-1452258782

Raimes, A. (2014). Keys for writers (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
ISBN: 978-1111841751

syllabus_LIB-495-jul13


Following the breakdown of someone else's paper is key to writing this thing properly.

[ladyofshalott]

1) Has anyone had Ms. Peck? Was she a good advisor?

I am just wrapping up the October term with her and will be officially finished December 22nd. She is an excellent mentor! I was nervous about her mentoring style by what others have said, however, from my first communication with her she has shown herself to really want to help you succeed. Now, I do have to mention that she's a perfectionist. I think that's where others have found their disappointment in her. So make sure you check and double-check your spelling, grammar and punctuation (she really dislikes it when her students use ";" instead of a period). I am very much a perfectionist when it comes to writing, so I haven't had much to complain about and she's actually really helped me understand the right words to use in describing animate or inanimate nouns (use "which" only in describing human/animate and "that" when describing inanimate). I received a 98 on a paper that was perfect except for two miniscule puncuation errors (which I feel are subjective . So yes, she's a tough grader when it comes to those things, but her quick responses and helpful guidance really balance her out well. Also, when it comes to guidance, she's pretty quiet unless you go to her for help. On the first week of class I followed the steps necessary to coming up with three topic options and emailed them to her asking for her advice, whether I was on the right track, etc. She wrote back a detailed explanation of what she thought was on the right track and what she wouldn't do. She has communicated with me this way whenever I sent her an email (which she prefers).

2) I'm signed up for the Guided Study option. Can you do this at a faster pace than a regular TESC course? How quickly can you finish?

I have completed and sent in some of my papers way before the deadline, however, she doesn't grade them until the weekend after. I have been hoping to be done by now, but Ms. Peck hasn't graded Chapter 5 yet for me to send in my final project. She does grade rather quickly, about a week. I emailed her to ask if she can expedite my final grading so I can meet the January 1st deadline in order to graduate in the Spring 2014. She answered that she would be happy to just to remind her when I send in my final project. So, to answer your question: yes, you can send in your papers early but no, you can't really finish early. And yet she's not a slow grader.

3) Which books are required? I couldn't find this anywhere on MyEdison, but this is the first course I've taken through them (and probably only course I'll take), so I may not be looking in the right spot.

For the October 2013 term the textbooks are Joyner, R., Rouse, W. & Glatthorn, A. (2013) Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN: 978‐1452258782 and Raimes, A. (2014) Keys for Writers ( 7th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth. ISBN: 978‐1111841751. hornj said that you don't need Keys for Writers, however I tried the online manual and it didn't seem very helpful (maybe I wasn't looking in the right place?). hornj also said that his advisor "didn't even want me to follow the book 100%" but that's not Ms. Peck's advise (hornj had Tomko for a mentor and from the papers he provided for us I can see that what Tomko was looking for is completely different than Ms. Peck). So you will definitely want to buy both books! Just make sure you wait to get them until you know what edition she wants. She might have updated it. Thomas Edison State College Online Bookstore: Home is where you will see the updated edition for your term.

4) Would anyone be willing to send me any samples of the course work so that I'll know what to expect and how my own work should look?

I will be happy to when I'm entirely done. But Ms. Peck provided 6 excellent sample papers on diverse topics, so you should get a feel for what she's specifically looking for in those papers. I have received a few from fellow forum members here and found that what their mentors were looking for was very different from our mentor so I pretty much stuck to the samples Ms. Peck gave out. These were made available during the first week of the term, so hopefully it will be the same for you!


Hope this helps! I was really nervous when I started, but you'll find that the first module is the most difficult as you try to find what she's looking for and what is a good topic that you can write a whole bunch about. After that each two-week deadlines are a wonderful timeframe to get it all done and I had plenty of time to review my essays before sending them in. God bless!

[Daithi]

I'd like to thank everyone so much for taking the time to respond to my questions and PMs. Your responses really have been a lot of help, which has alleviated some anxiety. It doesn't appear that this course will be a breeze, or that Ms. Peck will be the easiest professor, but I'm sure I can do this.