Preparation for Audioboo recordings

listen to ‘Prep. for Audioboo recordings’ on Audioboo

The Audioboo recording above introduces the current, three-step homework assignment. Please listen to the recording carefully and completely. It is less than two minutes long.

Next, please open and read "more details" on the Writing Studio Calendar event for October 9. You also can find details in your invitation to that calendar event, and in a Gmail reminder to follow a couple of days before the assignment is due.

Screenshot of Writing Studio Blog:
Calendar of Events page
(Agenda view)

If you have concerns or questions about this assignment, please spell them out in comments on this post a day or two before the assignment is due, and make sure to select the option to receive follow-up comments via Gmail. Then, if your classmates, peers, or I respond to your comments, you will get Gmail notification messages immediately.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

[158 words]

New Course Link: Letter Writing

There is a new resource listing in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar (Course Links), a new section of the LTD Project Wiki focusing on letter writing, and friendly letters:

[29 words]

Posts in Preparation of Next Essays

To prepare for upcoming essays, thematic movie reviews due next Tuesday (Writing Studio Calendar, 3rd essays due, November 4, 2008), last week I asked you to make two quickposts after you had viewed the movie to review, Mrs. Doubtfire:

1. A quick list of themes that you'd noticed in the movie, with the labels:
   
• essay prep., lists, quickposts
  
2. A quick first impression of the movie, with the labels:
   
• essay prep., free-writing, quickposts
  

In class today, I asked you to share items from those lists of themes found in the movie, and to reflect on themes shared in each class by making two (2) more quickposts, each on a theme shared in class. Please label your two in-class posts with at least these three labels: 1) essay prep., 2) free-writing, and 3) quickposts. If you wish, you may add the themes themselves to labels on these posts. If you click on the graphic (above), a larger format version will appear.

The purpose of free-writing in class today was three-fold, namely to:

• demonstrate your fluency in writing on themes of your choice, and with or without reference to the movie;
• lessen the number of weekly posts that you would need to write outside of class, so you can concentrate on outlining and drafting your essays this coming week; and
  
• collect and publicize your thoughts relating directly or indirectly to themes in the movie.
  

Unfortunately, those of you who hadn't watched Mrs. Doubtfire had little other choice but to free-write without reference to the movie. All together, as of the end of class today, you should have had at least four (4) essay prep. posts on your blog leading up to your next movie reviews.

Between now and the due date for your thematic reviews of Mrs. Doubtfire, I would like you to make at least two more preparatory posts:

1. A topic outline of the theme from the movie, including the main points that you want to make about it, with the labels:
• essay prep., and
• outlines (a new label for most of you, I believe); and
  
2. A complete first draft of your essay, including:
• a paragraph introducing the movie briefly, along with your choice of themes, and outlining the main points that you will make about your choice;
• three or more body paragraphs explaining your interpretations of the theme (hopefully one evident throughout the movie), and supporting your interpretations with concrete, detailed examples from the movie; and
• a concluding paragraph summing up your interpretations of the theme, and how you have supported your interpretations of it.
  

Students in both class meetings today asked how long these essays need to be. However they frowned at my stock answer, which is, "long enough to cover the themes you choose, and [to] support your interpretations of them." So I told all I would expect them to write at least 500 words, a round number that may suffice only if each and every word is on target, that is, on the themes that you choose from the movie.

[491 words]

PS: If you have concerns or questions about this assignment, please spell them out in comments on this post, well in advance of the due date. Though I will be away on business in Tokyo (Friday, Oct. 31 - Monday, Nov. 3), I will make every effort to respond in a timely fashion to comments made soon (before I leave).

[+ 59 words]

Original post revised 2008.11.06 [+ 1 word]

Additional Course Links

This post highlights additional websites that I've added to Course Links in the sidebar. Each new course link links to a Pageflake, which in turn introduces a small collection of computer-mediated communication tools and tutorials used in this or other classes:

• WinKTools03
• Audio-visual media tools for bloggers,
• Including Voki, used in Questions about University... (2008.05.22);
  
• WinKTools02
• Google tools of many varieties;
  
• WinKTools01a
• Mind-mapping programs and online tools; and
  
• WinKTools01
• Other kinds of blogs.

If you have questions about what you find on any of those Pageflakes, or the websites and tutorials to which they cross-link; please ask either in class, or in comments on this post.

[114 words]

Essays that Weren't, and How to Make Them So

This is a follow-on to comments on a post that the blog author entitled "university life," but which was not even close to becoming an essay on university life. To provide a bit more background for the general advice about writing that follows, first let me share a comment I made confirming what one of the author's classmates had been quick to notice during peer reviews this morning. I wrote: "S... K. was ... right. What you wrote was too short to call an essay (only thirty-some words)" (pab, May 21, 2008).

I'd call the post on which S.K. and I left comments a quick post, rather than an essay. I recommend labeling it, and all other posts on your blogs like it (anything shorter than a five-minute typing test), "quickposts". Quick posts are fine for day-to-day fluency practice, and for logging ideas that you plan to write more about later (brainstorming). Book reviews, however, must be longer than typing tests; and essays, longer yet.

The minimum length for essays in Writing III is growing steadily:

1. 250+ words for self-introductions,
2. 300+ words for personal reviews of the movie Shrek, and
3. 350+ words for essays on university life (due Sunday, May 18, to be precise).

Other basic requirements are that essays be carefully composed and organized:

• composed in original sentences (neither copied nor machine-translated), and

• organized into five or more well-developed paragraphs (five or more sentences in length), including introductory and concluding paragraphs.

(... University Life - A reminder, May 14, 2008)

The author of the quick post on which we left those comments this morning expressed a desire to develop skills while he/she is studying at the university. Well, brainstorming, outlining, composing, (re-)organizing, and summarizing in writing ARE skills that you must demonstrate in essays, book reviews, and other posts on your blogs, if you want credit for this course.

[315 words]

MR 1-1: First Semester - First Movie Review

This post amplifies movie review assignment details sent via gmail (2008.04.30), and encourages you to ask questions, if you have any, in comments on this post at least 48 hours before your first movie review for first semester is due. For the due date and time, please see the for Writing III-IV, §§ 1a & 1c.

As you draft and revise your movie review essays, please make certain that:

0. Your essays are original work. Please note that this prohibits both copying and machine translation. However, using ideas that you and your classmates shared during collective free-writing sessions today is okay.

1. You cover all of the main points in the working outline [displayed below], including: characters, story, themes, and lasting impressions. Please note that you need not follow the working outline exactly.
2. You express your ideas in complete sentences, composed into paragraphs, arranged in an organized fashion that suits your own ideas about the movie. This requires at least one paragraph for each main point. Please note that, depending upon your primary focus:
• Paragraphs about characters may include bits of the story (in order of occurrence);
• Paragraphs about the story may introduce the characters (in order of appearance); and
• Paragraphs about themes may include either notes about characters or summaries of episodes and events in the story (in order of importance to development of themes).
3. You include a paragraph (two or more sentences) at the beginning of the review explaining the purpose and introducing the main points that you will cover in your movie review. You may also include as similar paragraph at the end, if you feel a summary of the main points that you have covered will help readers get a clear idea of what you think about the movie.
4. You check your final draft movie review essay in Word for spelling, punctuation, and grammar faults, and correct those faults BEFORE you post your essay on your blog.
5. You have a classmate, friend, or peer read your essay on your blog AFTER you post it, to make sure your essay is clearly written, and easy to read and understand. Please note and follow all suggestions that they make for improving your essay, or the presentation of it on your blog.

(pab..., personal correspondence, 2008.04. 30)

When you post this essay on your blog, please include the abbreviation MR (for movie review) and the number 1-1 (for first semester, first review) at the beginning of the title on your blog post. The title of the post should read, "MR 1-1: ...," in which "..." represents a short, catchy phrase describing your review.

You also must include at least these three labels on your movie review post: 1) essays, 2) movies, and 3) reviews. Please note that all three of those labels are plural forms. Another you may wish to include is a genre label, such as animation.


If you have questions about the working outline displayed above (sent via gmail), or this movie review essay assignment, please ask them right away in comments on this post. If you post questions less than 48 hours before an assignment is due, you may not get answers until they are too late to inform the final posting of your essay on your blog.

[550 words]

Orange books and book reviews

What we call the orange book is a required text for Writing III and IV (all sections). It is a log book for extensive reading practice. Please start using it to log your readings for these courses right away.

You can find lots of easy books to read in the English Reading Garden (ERG), in the KGU Library. Please check out Mr. T's comic introduction to the ERG by command clicking on the link above, and then clicking on the image in the center of the comic site. After class, head over to the library to grab yourself a handful of books to read.

In order to promote fluency in your writing, I recommend that you read at least three graded readers a week. Starting this week, you must post a brief written review, in your own words (not copied or machine-translated) of at least one book per week. You should post 12 or more book reviews on your blog this semester.

For more info. about the orange book, please review the post entitled Extensive Reading Logs (2007.05.12). The PUK Library Collection is another place you can look for books to read, and for word counts for books that may not be listed in the orange book.

[207 words]

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Movie Reviews: Concept Map & [Working] Outline

Though the following concept map (graphic organizer) is nothing fancy, it captures--more or less-- ideas for movie reviews combined from both Writing Studio groups. As you are examining this map, and the outline that follows, please remember that for the first movie review this fall semester both groups have chosen the movie, Toy Story.


The outline below, derived from the concept map above, is quite rough as well, but may be somewhat easier to follow if you prefer linear/textual perspectives to spatial/graphic ones on movie review content.

movie review

| select genre

| | select movie

[watch it (with English subtitles on)]

| | | 1. predict (introduce) main points

| | | 2. elaborate (explain) main points

| | | | a. provide movie info.; include:

| | | | | date

| | | | | director

| | | | | genre

| | | | | producer

| | | | | stars, including main characters

| | | | | other info.

[Note: Section a. (above) is the only section of this working outline that suggests details; the others require details, too, when you write your essays.]

| | | | b. identify main characters

| | | | c. explore themes

| | | | d. give impressions

| | | | e. make recommendations

| | | 3. summarize (conclude) main points

[approximately 239 words, after revisions]

A Model from Class: My Favorite Place...

... to sit and think

My back yard is my favorite place to sit and think. I’d like to explain what it looks like and why I like sitting there. My backyard has a garden, a composter and a small patch of grass. It is surrounded by a hedge. It is a quiet place to sit and think.

There is a hedge around the back yard. The hedge is getting quite thick and very tall, because I didn’t trim it this summer. I’m going to wait till winter to trim it, because I enjoy sitting and thinking in the yard more than working on the hedge. The hedge keeps the yard quiet and peaceful.

The garden in the back yard has three parts. First there is a narrow flower bed along the veranda. It is about 45 centimeter wide, and runs the whole length of the veranda. At one end is a large aloe plant. The nearest bed also holds annual flowers.

Then there is a larger flower bed on the side. In it, there is a cherry tree growing on one side, a climbing rose bush in the middle, and a hydrangea at the other side. In between are various plants and flowers. That is the biggest part of the garden

Along the back of the back yard, but along one side only, is another small patch of garden. There were strawberry plants growing in it earlier this year, but most of them died! Maybe the compost that I used to feed them was too strong.

There is a composter in the back yard, which decomposes lawn and garden refuse. It also decomposes kitchen waste. The composter is large and black. It sits in the far corner of the back yard next to the hedge. There the smell, if any, won't reach the house. The composter works very quietly.

The lawn is my favorite part of the back yard. I've planted grass, and reseeded almost every year since starting to work on the back yard. The lawn is thick and green, but still thin around the edges which don't get much sunlight. I need to reseed again right away.

What I like most about thebackyard is sitting on the veranda and listening to the grass grow. At least, that is what I tell people who interrupt my meditation there. At night, I also enjoy listening to the worms in the lawn, and the stars, planets, and comets in the sky. If my mind is quiet, and my eyes remain open, I can see and hear many of them.

[432 words]

Quality comments welcome

This is a cross-post from the Writing Studio Wiki to remind you not only that you are more than welcome to post quality comments on one anothers' blogs, but also that you should respond in kind to comments on your blogs:

Post quality comments on neighbors’ ... essays.

• Simple remarks like, “I agree,” Me, too,” “Thank you,” or “Very interesting,” are not enough;
• Note points of interest and give reasons, for example:

“What you say about… is interesting because…;”

• Ask for or suggest additional information or examples; &
• Praise strengths of peers’ essays and posts.

Respond thoughtfully to comments on your blog.

• You may respond to neighbors’ comments one by one or to several at once;
• Explain any changes that you make (or plan to make) in your essay; &
• Express your feelings about your neighbors comments, questions and suggestions.

(Writing Studio Blog, Getting Started...)

Learning to blog - blogging to learn

Hello and welcome! I'm your instructor and the author of the Writing Studio Blog. You can find out a bit about me from the profile in the blog's sidebar, and then ask for more info. in class.

Learning to blog in English and blogging to learn English: Basically, that's what this blog and writing studio are about. Your writing course starts about here, with reading. Writing will start as soon as you have a blog. The quicker you start a blog, the better.

Both inside and outside of class, we will use the Internet to communicate: For instance, a) this Writing Studio Blog, b) the Writing Studio Wiki, c) the WinK Homepage, and d) you own blog will be our bases of communication about your language learning and progress through this writing course.

The Gmail Signup and Blogger startup guide (there's a link in the sidebar, to the right) shows you how to create a Gmail account and get a blog of your own started. As always, please read and follow all of the instructions carefully.

If you've got both a Gmail account and a Blogger blog started already, great! You can use your blog to introduce yourself to your classmates and me (please add the label "introductions" when you do). However, please read on; there's more.

Within a few days of our first class meeting (before is fine), I suggest that you explore all of the other Links in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar, including:

1. the Weblogging in Kumamoto (WinK) Homepage,
   
2. the Writing Studio Wiki, and
3. the bit "About Me" in the sidebar (right).
   

Next, before our second class meeting, I hope that you will return to this introduction of the Writing Studio Blog and write a brief comment in reply (click on Comments at the end of this entry).

If there are more than zero (0) comments from your classmates already; please read theirs first, and then write something new and different. Here are a few topic tips for you to choose from:

• Trouble you have had, if any, getting a Gmail account or Blogger blog started;
• Impression of what you find on the Wink Homepage or Writing Studio Wiki;
  
• Pertinent (not too personal) question about me and this writing course; or
• Suggestion of a blog topic that is of interest to you and your peers.
  

I look forward to seeing signs of your blogging activities very soon!

Cheers, PB

Kumamoto-i: links, mailing list & wiki

Kumamoto-jo [castle] in the spring
Originally uploaded April 8, 2006,
by overoften (some rights reserved).

In this post, I'd like to introduce three Kumamoto-related websites, namely the:

1. Kumamoto Links,
   
2. Kumamoto-i mailing list, &
   
3. Kumamoto-i Wiki.
   

I've added these links to my sidebar already (see: Local Favorites).

The first site is "a gateway to regional information and Kumamoto's vibrant Internet community," Kumamoto Links. The links are "a by-product of the Kumamoto International mailing list" (Yahoo! Groups: Kumamoto-i), the second site, which Kirk Masden started in 1999.

Kumamoto Links is an organized collection of information about Kumamoto, much of which mailing list members have found and shared. Either the Introduction (top left) or the Favorites list (top right) is a good place to start browsing to find out what's in Kumamoto Links already.

Among favorite Kumamoto Links you can find the Kumamoto-i mailing list subscription page. If you are looking for something else, like restaurants, I suggest that you use your browser search function (command/control F - that is what I did when I was trying to find the Star of India).

The third website that I'd like to introduce is the Kumamoto International Wiki. This site also is a collection of information about Kumamoto. Yet it differs from Kumamoto Links in that it is a "wiki, a collaboratively edited website, for people living in and around Kumamoto" - in fact, anywhere in the world!

As with Kumamoto Links, you are welcome to browse the Kumamoto-i wiki, but you also may make contributions directly to the wiki. "If you'd like to start, check out the Getting Started page for help." I've been over and found a niche for info. about the Star of India on the wiki just now.