Basic Format for Motion Picture References: Have a Go!

Here is a basic APA-style formatting guide for motion picture references:

Producer, P. P. (Producer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (... [Year] of publication). Title of motion picture [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio or distributor.

(Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide: ... 

Other Non-Print Resources: Motion Picture) 

If you'd like to have a go at using that guide to compose and format a draft, APA-style reference for the movie that your classmates and peers are reviewing (Mrs. Doubtfire), feel free to post one in comments on this post. Likewise, if you have questions about the composition, formatting, or purposes of APA-style references, in general, please feel free to spell them out in comments on this post.

Last but not least, whenever you're composing references, please remember that: 

• As with authors' names for book references, you should list producers' and directors' family names before their given names (and middle names or initials, if available) for movies; 
• Commas and single spaces separate family names from other names or initials, and
• For practice in the writing course you are taking, you should spell out given names, followed by middle names or initials (if available). That will facilitate comparison and cross-checking of your draft references.

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Rough Class Outlines for Draft Essays: §1C

This post represents rough outlines developed in class from proposals of themes and foci for your next essays, thematic reviews of the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. Once you choose a major theme or two from the outline from your section (§1C), you are welcome to draw related ideas from the outline for the other section doing thematic reviews of the same movie (§1A).

You can get closer looks at the snapshots showing expansions of various sections of the class outline by clicking on the graphics in this post. Again, please feel free to mix and match themes and foci from the outline for the other section (in a separate post), with those from your class (above). 

Assignment details for your draft essays are in course calendar event descriptions. You'll be getting automated reminders by mail a few days before your essays are due. Please read those messages carefully and completely. Then, if you have concerns or questions about the current assignment, please spell them out right away in comments on this post, where everyone can see them – at least two days before the assignment is due.

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replicates previous post}]

Rough Class Outlines for Draft Essays: §1A

This post represents rough outlines developed in class from proposals of themes and foci for your next essays, thematic reviews of the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. Once you choose a major theme or two from the outline from your class (§1A), you are welcome to draw related ideas from the outline for the other section doing thematic reviews of the same movie (§1C).

You can get closer looks at the snapshots showing expansions of various sections of the class outline by clicking on the graphics in this post. Again, please feel free to mix and match themes and foci from the outline for the other section (in a separate post), with those from your class (above).

Assignment details for your draft essays are in course calendar event descriptions. You'll be getting automated reminders by mail a few days before your essays are due. Please read those messages carefully and completely. Then, if you have concerns or questions about the current assignment, please spell them out right away in comments on this post, where everyone can see them – at least two days before the assignment is due.

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Computer Viruses and Threats Explained by Common Craft

In voice-over on this video animation, Lee LeFever explains what computer viruses, worms, and trojans are, and how they work. He also makes general recommendations for preventing problems that viruses, worms, and trojans may cause. If catching it all while just listening and viewing seems too challenging, you can preview, read along, or review the complete transcript.

• Video:
• http://commoncraft.com/virus-video

• Transcript: 
• http://www.commoncraft.com/transcript-computer-viruses-and-threats

If you like LeFever's presentation style, and want to watch more Common Craft videos, please check out the "in Plain English" series (search: Common Craft).

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Exhibit A: a Slideshow from Flickr

The slideshow below shows pictures from Exhibit A, an online, public picture collection of copyright-protected images that I have on Flickr. Flickr is an easy to use photo-sharing site.

Do you recognize anything in the pictures? Have you been where they were taken?

If you do, great! Please post a comment letting us know how and when. If not, can you guess what the pictures show, or where they were taken? Which do you think are the best?

If you have questions about any of the pictures in Exhibit A after checking out the details, please shout out in comments on this post. If you're interested in Flickr, here is "what you [can] get with a free account:

• 300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)
• Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
• Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible [to the public] (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)[.]

(Free Accounts..., 2011.06.10)

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Course Links: Update, June 8, 2011

Students have begun adding another link to the lists of Links (gagdets) in their sidebars. I've followed suit. The green oval in the graphic above highlights a new link in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar. That link is also on the Writing Studio Wiki homepage, in §6.1.

Data on books you review (authors' names, publication dates, cities of publication, and the like) that you glean from the Material Search site work well in conjunction with the Citation Maker, an online tool to help you compose accurate and complete APA-style citations (see: Course Links: Highlights – May 2011). That is, as long as you remember that Citation Maker automatically reduces authors' given names to their initials. For practical purposes, please spell them out (again) completely in reference listings on your book review posts.

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Best Essays: Self-Assessments

This post recap's a message sent to viewers of the Best Essays: Self-Assessments workbook. In square brackets toward the end of the message are a couple of minor revisions (a clarification and a correction).

Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 11:59

Best Essays: Self-Assessments

Hello everyone (§§1A & 1C + assistants):

Thank you for your cooperation yesterday in submitting self-assessments of your best essays to date, especially those of you who submitted the Best Essays: Self-Assessments form only once. I closed the form for additional markup and sorting this morning.

On the left most spreadsheet in this Google workbook (sheet 1: 2011-12_1st-20110601), I've marked redundant entires with dark blue backgrounds across rows. Red backgrounds in individual cells flag failures to follow instructions when entering data, for example:

- more than the last five digits of student numbers, 

- blog titles or URLs instead of blog handles, and

- line returns within paragraph text entries.

Please note that most of those undesirable and unnecessary line returns within paragraphs are residuals of copy and paste clippings _from paragraphs on your blogs_, many of which still contain large numbers of undesirable and unnecessary line returns within paragraphs. So please revise previous posts, and remove unnecessary line returns within paragraphs. Then remember to enter line returns only between paragraphs, and then to enter two, to create white spaces between paragraphs.

Most important, however, are the entries that I've flagged with green backgrounds, which reflect growing awareness of distinct qualities of your own writing. In a nutshell, among the qualities you've mentioned are:

+ audience appeal,

+ ease of understanding,

+ grammatical accuracy

+ grammatical complexity,

+ informativeness, and

+ self-expression.

Please review items 8 and 9 (important qualities, columns J-K [at present]), and tell us in class next week (June 8, 2011) of any other qualities of your or your classmates' [and] peers' writing that you are able to distinguish from this data collection, or through links in it. Please also prepare to identify the topics of the weakest paragraphs in your best essays, and explain what their weaknesses are.

Thank you again for your cooperation. PB

If you have concerns or questions about this message, please spell them out in comments on this post, or voice them in class next week. Thanks.

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Comment collection continues, guidelines included!

Here are two tables full of comments: The first includes comments especially for students in section 1A; the second, especially for students in section 1C. Comments on recent posts are toward the top of each table; those on older posts are toward the bottom. Timestamps on comments are from previews, so they may differ somewhat from those in comments on actual posts. Guidelines in the right hand column are for everyone.

Section 1A	Guidelines
pab said... Hi Sayaka, In your May 27 post about the first class (in early April), you wrote that you didn't know how to do typing homework. That's quite puzzling. How and when did you find out how to do it? Where were the information and instructions you needed to get started, and when did you get them? Please let us know. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 9:29 PM	Using meta-cognitive strategies: know how and reflection
pab said... Hi Yuka [S.], It is interesting to read about your other classes. However, it might be better if you'd shorten the name of the teacher you're writing about to Ms. S. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 7:40 PM	Masking personal info.
pab said... Same here, Yuka. Please shorten the name of the teacher you're writing about to Mr. B. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 7:43 PM	Masking personal info.
pab さんは書きました... Sorry, Ayayah, but how can you recommend a book without telling us what it is? Please put a short title in the title of your post, and add an APA-style reference citation to the end of your post. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日19:51	Including APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello Kazu, Is this review entirely original? Did you close the book when your wrote this review? You should tell readers, in your own words: + why you chose this book, + whether you found it interesting, and why, and + to whom you recommend it, and why. The only part of your review that should come directly from the story is a short, juicy, quotation, a teaser at the very beginning of your post. The quotation needs to be absolutely accurate, enclosed in quotation marks, and followed by a page number in parentheses. You shouldn't retell the story, or spoil the ending for other students who might read it. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日20:06	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point
pab さんは書きました... PS: Will you please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日20:08	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point; and Including APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello again, haramicky, Will you please also shorten the name of the high school and univ. you mention to "H... high school" and "K... G... U..."? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日21:18	Masking institutional names

Section 1C	Guidelines
pab さんは書きました... Hi Sakurako, Have you read the details for either of these two essays on the Writing Studio Blog Calendar? Essay 1-02a: University Life Mon, May 16, 4pm – 5pm Essay 1-02b: University Life – major revisions Tue, May 31, 4pm – 5pm Please (re-)read them. The first called for an essay five+ paragraphs and 350+ words in length (due May 16); the second calls for six+ paragraphs and 400+ words (due May 31). Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日11:43	Referring to course resources (blog, calendar, wiki, and online workbooks[Google spreadsheets])
pab さんは書きました... Hello Saori, Will you please shorten the proper names in this essay to: KGU, HGHS, and Ms. M., ASAP? Then please avoid spelling out proper names in posts and comments. That is, except for names of famous people, for ex., Tom Cruise, and authors' names in book reviews. Last but not least, please share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日11:51	Minimizing institutional names, and Minimizing personal information
pab さんは書きました... Mitsuki, Please bring all three of these books to class on Wed., June 1: ///// BR 1-06: The New House from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki ... Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// BR 1-05: By the Stream from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki … Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// BR 1-04: The Dream from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki … Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日11:58:41 JST	Including accurate, APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello Arisa, Will you please replace the proper names in this essay with: "... [KGU]" (intro.) "... [an academic high school in Kumamoto City]" (intro.), and "... [KGU]" (concl.), ASAP? Then please avoid spelling out proper names in posts and comments. That is, except for names of famous people, for ex., Tom Cruise, and authors' names in book reviews. Last but not least, please share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日12:08:24 JST	Minimizing institutional names, and Minimizing personal information
pab さんは書きました... Hi Yuka, When you use the label "typing" on posts like this, there is no need to include the word "Typing" in the titles. "How [to] study English" will work fine for this post, which also needs a couple more labels such as: memorizing, studying, vocabulary, ... (your choices). Please share what you learn from this comment with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:19	Creating accurate, attractive, descriptive post titles, and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
pab さんは書きました... [Mitsuki:] Please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1, too. 2011年5月29日日曜日12:24:53 JST	Keeping BRs original, and Including accurate, APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Yuka, Would you please mask or remove personally identifying info. from this post. "Shoko" is fine, but her date of birth and the name of the high school she attended are too much info. Instead, how about: "She was born in ... [the early 90's. Her birthday is in November {like mine!}].... She ... [went to an academic] high school [in the city]." Next, please replace the label "essays" (reserved for formal writing assignments) with three others more suitable to this post, such as: exercise, friends, interests, ... (your choices). Then please do likewise for other posts and comments you make (or have made), and share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:40	Minimizing personal information, and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
Hi Gaki, What's this post about? It's missing spaces between numbers and words, both in the title and in the body of the post. Though one suitable label would be "quickposts," there's not enough content to tell [what other labels might be suitable], or even [to] count it as a post, is there? Please let me know. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:49	Creating accurate, attractive, descriptive post titles; Creating enough content to merit a post; and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
pab さんのコメント... Hi Emi, It is a pleasure to see you've gotten a start on your book reviews. However, I'm wondering: Is the content of this book review entirely original? That is, is it all your own ideas, in your own words? Rather than to retell stories, and spoil the endings for other readers, you should focus on what you thought and felt before, during, and after reading the books you review. That is, except for the juicy quotation at the beginning, you should write no more than you can remember with the book closed. Cheers, PB 2011年5月23日月曜日8:41:00 JST  ///// Eri さんのコメント... Thank you for your comment. I'll rewrite it. 2011年5月23日月曜日12:34:00 JST ///// pab さんは書きました... Eri, Will you please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日13:07:27 JST ///// pab さんは書きました... Emi, Thanks for rewriting this book review! Please make certain to reflect the new word count in your Proto-Porfolio entries for May [due June 1]. Cheers, PB 2011年5月31日火曜日11:03:53 JST	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point; Following up on comments in a timely fashion; Including word counts (but not running totals) in posts

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