CPSC 203: Assignment 1

A1: Word processing

Due dates for all assignments can be found on the [main grid] of the course webpage.

Note: The computer lab for CPSC 203 is located in SS018 (the "Tri-Labs"). If you find that your particular version of Word (e.g. Office 365, older versions of Office, MAC users) does not include everything needed for a feature then you should to complete that feature in SS018. Alternatively for the remote learning version of the course you can login to a lab computer from your own. [Information link created by UC-IT with modifications by James Tam, for questions: www.ucalgary.ca/it]

This assignments consists of two parts:

Part I: Steps 1 - 9 involve making edits to a pre-created Word document ('Calgary').
Part II: Steps 10 - 11 use Word's 'Mail merge' feature to create a form letter from the starting template 'Marketing_Letter' to be sent to the people in the contacts list provided (an Excel spreadsheet 'Clients'). The form letter will be personalized with the contact information and provide different text for preferred 'gold' clients.

Data files

To get credit for this assignment you must use the three files. (This requirement exists so the files are consistent and the markers will know exactly what to look for to streamline and speed up the marking process).
- Part I: [Calgary.docx]
- Part II: [Marketing_Letter.docx] [Clients.xlsx]
Because the marker will have access to the Excel spreadsheet you only need to submit the two Word documents although you can submit the spreadsheet if you wish.
Part I: PDF document to give you an idea of how the solution should appear [Calgary.pdf] but this isn't the type of file to submit. What you should submit is the original 'Calgary' Word document with [the additions specified in Part I of the assignment].
Part II: A PDF document that shows the customized letters (Step #6 in the merge "Finish and Merge" had been completed). Again a PDF this is NOT the document you should submit for the assignment. (Submitting something like this will not result in any credit being awarded). As indicated in the course notes what you submit for credit should include the original marketing letter but have the merge completed within it so the marker can "click through" each of the customized letters. This sample letter is only included to show you how each client's letter is customized according to their information in the Excel spreadsheet. [Sample merged letter] What you should submit is the original 'Marketing letter' (renamed as Merged_letter) Word document with the mail merge features specified in [Part II of the assignment]. And this Word document should include a control to allow the viewer to "click through" all of the merged letters. If you are unsure what form that the merged document should take then feel free to contact your course instructor: tam@ucalgary.ca.

Assignment features and grading:

Everyone starts this assignment with a grade point of zero. Your grade for this assignment will increase by the amount specified in the brackets (bolded text) as you implement each feature. To receive credit, features must be invoked using Word's built in functionality and not by manually typing in text yourself. For example if a student typed in a figure caption rather than using Word's figure captioning ability then no marks would be awarded.

Part I: Editing Word documents.
('Calgary' document): Insert page numbering at top of each page in the 'header' (0.2 GPA): Format "Page x of y" (in Word the numbering is referred to as "Bold Numbers 3") You can keep the default font (Calibri) and size (11). The text should already be right aligned (this is how Bold Numbers 3 is already formatted so you shouldn't have to change anything).
('Calgary' document): Insert a table of contents on its own page at the very start of the document. (0.4 GPA) Use Word's ability to automatically insert a table of contents at the very start of the document. (In Word the table to use is called: "Automatic Table 2"). (0.2 GPA) Insert a 'page break'¹ after the table of contents ("Spruce Meadows" should be now only Page 2): (0.2 GPA)
('Calgary' document): Insert a Word generated footnote (0.2 GPA): Footnote location: under the heading "Spruce Meadows" immediately after the period in the text "The festival of lights". The footnote contains the web address of the Spruce Meadows website (www.sprucemeadows.com) and should appear at the bottom of the page. You don't have to change the font style and size that is used for the footnote.
('Calgary' document): Insert a Word generated citation. (0.5 GPA) Move the cursor so it immediately follows the text "One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero." One way to create the citation in Word: References->Insert citation->Add a new source "Film". Citation information Title: Cool Runnings (0.1 GPA) Director: Turteltaub, Jon (0.1 GPA) Year: 1993 (0.1 GPA) If the citation that you just created isn't inserted in the correct location then you can manually insert it: References->Insert citation: then select the newly created "Cool Runnings" reference. (0.2 GPA)
('Calgary' document): Using the citation from #4 (you must complete that feature to get credit for this one), create a bibliography at the very end of the document on its own page. (0.4 GPA) The bibliography (0.2 GPA) is at the very end of the document so again use the insert page break¹ feature to make sure that the bibliography sits on its own page. (0.2 GPA)
('Calgary' document): Change the style of the text from #4 (you must complete that feature to get credit for this one) above (0.5 GPA) Create a new 'style' of text in Word called "Movie taglines" Movie taglines is based on the existing style 'Normal'. (0.1 GPA) The new style be formatted as follows. Font type: 'Arial Black', Font size 14 (0.2 GPA: 0.1 for font type, 0.1 for font size). Apply this style to the citation and the text "One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero. (Turteltaub, 1993)" (0.2 GPA)
('Calgary' document): Use the 'insert captioning' of Word to label all the images in the document. You can use the default text for the caption "Figure X" (X = the figure number). (2 images x 0.1 GPA each = 0.2 GPA)
('Calgary' document): Insert a new image into the middle of the document and make sure existing captions are updated/correct. (0.3 GPA) Insert an image of your choice between the 1st and 2nd image ("Spruce Meadows" and "Cool Runnings") on its own page use the insert "Page break" feature¹ (0.1 GPA). Use the image captioning feature of Word to caption the new image, again you can just use the default text for the caption. (0.1 GPA) Make sure that all your other image captions and any applicable references to the images are correctly updated. With Word 2016+ the update should be automatic and correct but check it! (0.1 GPA) You don't need to create a new heading for the image but make sure that the image is not specified as a 'heading' text style. If the style of the image is accidentally set as one of the heading style types (e.g. "Heading 1") when you update the table of contents (next step) the image will show up in the table of contents!
('Calgary' document): Update the table of contents so the page numbers and the headings (there should be three of them: two for the original images, one for the bibliography) are correct. (0.2 GPA) (Unlike figure captioning the table of contents won't automatically update unless manually do this). Again if you weren't careful in Step #8 the image that you inserted may now show up in the table. [See image inserted in table of contents because it is formatted as "Heading 1"]
Part II: Using Mail Merge on the starting Word document Marketing_Letter.docx and using as the recipient list the people listed in the Clients spreadsheet. Based on this recipient list you create a mail merged letter. You will get few (if any) marks if the client data is manually typed into Word and does not utilize the Word Mail merge function.
('Marketing_Letter' document): Use the mail merge feature in Word (Mailings->Start mail merge->Step-by-step Mail Merge Wizard) to generate customized 'letters' to the clients in the Clients spreadsheet. Go through the first 5 steps of the wizard. (Normally there's 6 steps in real life but don't complete the last step for the assignment). To keep things consistent and easier for the marker don't sort the data source just keep the letters in the same order that they appear in the spreadsheet. Save your document as 'Merged_letter.docx'. If you have completed the mail merge correctly then your 'Merged_letter' document will contain all of customized letters. When you select 'Mailings' in the Word ribbon then you will be able to "click through" all of the letters. When you submit this document via D2L then your marker can check your results as well. Because your marker can see all the merged letters you don't need to select the option to 'Finish and Merge' the process. (Submitted only the finished document (created via 'Finish and Merge') will only show the end results of the merge process which may be needed in "real life" but in the case of the assignment will not merit any credit because the finished document could have been manually typed in without using a mail merge). Here are the required parts in order of appearance in the merged letter. Recipient information (first & last name, job and address which is customized according to the individual client information in the spreadsheet. The recipient information should be inserted neatly below the sender's name and address (for James Tam) and before the text "When we met..." (0.4 GPA, 0.1 GPA for each of the four fields). Format (italicized text is customized based on the client information from the spreadsheet): <First name> <Last name>² <Job> <Address> Example (first client): Bud Fox Account executive 777 Wall Street 2 There is a space between the first and the last name. Greeting line (e.g. "Dear Mr. Fox,") in the format: Dear <Title> <Last name>, (0.2 GPA): The greeting is located after the recipient information (Feature 10a) but is before the body of the email ("When we met I was amused by what you said: "). You can (but are not required to) use the the default greeting ("Dear Sir or Madam") when there is missing information in the title or last name field. There is a space between each of the fields ('dear', 'title' and 'last name') and all this is followed by a comma. However, all this should be automatically be taken care of if you used the 'greeting' feature correctly. The 'quote' field for the client ". In the case of Bud Fox it's: "As your broker, I advise you to take it." Logically this text will immediately follow the text of the body (When we met I was amused by what you said: ) because the existing text refers to quote you add in Feature (c). (0.2 GPA) When you complete the insertion of the above information make sure that each individual letter does not exceed a page (i.e. you may need to delete some lines if it does).
('Marketing_Letter' document): Conditional phrase, offer of membership. In Word use the feature under Mailings->Rules->If-Then-Else to add an offer of membership to the client that is based on the person's gross income. If the income is at or exceeds $50,000 the message will say "I am able to offer you a Gold membership in our exclusive club." Otherwise the message will say "I can offer you a membership in our club." The conditional phrase should follow the quote field (c) in the body of the email but appear before the 'Sincerely' signoff. (0.3 GPA, 0.2 for the correctly specified condition, 0.05 for each of the two text messages appearing under the correct condition)

^{1 Page break: When you are told to insert a page break do not
just hit the 'enter' key multiple times. If you do so then you won't be awarded
credit.}

Marking and grading

Operating system specific issues: submissions must work on the machines a Windows computers. (For the remote learning semester since access to the lab computers is more challenging: the requirement is that your document works on any Windows computer). It's up to you to test and check this is the case. Non-functional submissions will receive only partial credit (if any at all). Although operating system issues are rare (non-existent?) if you implement your solution on another operating system it's a good idea to check your submission on a Windows computer. (See the administrative video lecture loaded into D2L for the week of Jan. 9 - 15 for suggestions as to how you can do this). Caution for Windows users: take care that you don't accidentally submit a shortcut to a file instead of the actual file. (Check the file name and compare the file size to your original file. Simply downloading the shortcut file as a test won't work because that shortcut will work on your computer but not on anyone else's machine).
Late assignments or components of assignments: Extensions may be granted for reasonable cases by the course instructor with the receipt of the appropriate documentation (e.g., a statutory declaration with a commissioner of oaths). Location of the online form: [PDF file]. Alternate submission mechanisms (non exhaustive list of examples: email, uploads to cloud-based systems such as Google drive, time-stamps, TA memories) cannot be used as alternatives if you have forgotten to submit work or otherwise have not properly submitted into D2L. Only files submitted into D2L by the due date is what will be marked, everything else will be awarded no credit. The final cut off date after which full assignments will not be accepted is after the maximum progressive penalty (listed below) can be applied.
Assignment extensions (must be requested before the assignment is due): may be granted for reasonable cases by the course instructor with the receipt of the appropriate documentation (e.g., a sworn declaration signed by a commissioner of oaths). Typical examples of reasonable cases for an extension include: illness or a death in the family. Example cases where extensions will not be granted include situations that are typical of student life: having multiple due dates, work commitments, forgetting or mixing up due date etc. Tutorial instructors (TAs) will not be able to provide extension on their own and must receive permission from the course instructor first. If you request an extension from me let me know the name of your tutorial instructor and the tutorial number [link to : tutorial and TA information) because the markers won't accept late submissions without directly getting an email from me and I need to know who to contact. Also extensions need to be requested before the due date and not afterward.
How you will be graded for assignments. Feedback will be provided by the Teaching assistant in a [marking checklist]. Besides seeing your grade point in D2L you can also see the detailed feedback in this spreadsheet that your TA will enter for each student because it will uploaded for each assignment into the D2L Dropbox. You can access the grading sheet in D2L under Assessments->Dropbox and then clicking on the appropriate assignment link. If you still cannot find the grading sheet then here is a [help link]
Questions or concerns about grades have been released: Assignments will be marked by your tutorial instructor (the "Teaching Assistant" or "TA") for your tutorial section (instructor information listed here as well). When you have questions about marking this is the first person that you should be directing your questions towards. If you still have question after you have talked to your TA, then you can talk to your course (lecture) instructor but please indicate in your email that you first contacted your TA before going into your concerns.

Collaboration:

Assignments must reflect individual work; group work is not allowed in this class nor can you copy the work of others. Some "do nots" for your solution: don't publically post it, don't email it out, don't show it to other students, don't get help with your assignment from a tutor (if you have hired one). For more detailed information as to what constitutes academic misconduct (i.e., cheating) for this course please read the following [link].

Submitting your work:

The document must be electronically submitted using D2L.
If you complete all the features then you need to submit two documents: 'Calgary.docx', 'Merged_letter.docx'. (You may end up submitting more files if you submit multiple times). It's up to you if you wish to submit the 'clients' spreadsheet. (The starting spreadsheet doesn't change and the marker already has access to it). Make sure that you do not change the filenames or this will affect your grade.
Make sure that you [check the contents of your submitted files] (e.g., is the file okay or was it corrupted, is it the correct version etc.). It's your responsibility to do this! (Make sure that you submit your assignment with enough time before it comes due for you to do a check). If don't check and there were problems with the submission then you should not expect that you can "learn your lesson" and simply resubmit.

D2L configuration for this course

Do not use compression utilities (such as zip) or archiving utilities (such as tar) otherwise your submission may not be marked. The space savings in D2L is not worth the extra time required by the marker to process each submission.
How often can you submit: Multiple submissions are allowed for this assignment: You can (and really should) submit work as many times as you wish before the due date. Due dates are strict, only what is in D2L by the deadline is what will be marked. Other methods of verifying that your work was completed on time (e.g. checking timestamps, emailed files etc.) will NOT be accepted. However only the latest versions of each individual document are the ones that will be marked, everything else will be ignored (because it is not fair to your marker to sort through multiple versions of your files). In the case of A1 the marker will just look at the latest version of: Calgary and the merged letter that the marker can 'click through'.

Late submissions for assignments when there is no extension granted: Make sure you give yourself enough time to complete the submission process so you don't get cut off by D2L's deadline (or your submission will be automatically flagged as late by D2L and it will be graded appropriately)..

Submission received:	On time	Hours late : >0 and <=24	Hours late: >24 and <=48	Hours late: >48 and <=72	Hours late: >72 and <=96	Hours late: >96
Penalty:	None	-1 GPA	-2 GPA	-3 GPA	-4 GPA	No credit (not accepted)