Collective Maps and [Rough] Outlines . . .

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who shared topic suggestions in class today to build into the maps and outlines in this post. I'd also like to point out that the two maps and corresponding outlines in this post cover some divergent, some similar, and some overlapping topics and sub-topics.

Neither the maps below nor the outlines farther below completely cover the topic for your next essays. Since the maps and outlines below cover only a few of the ideas upon which you may wish to focus in your essays about learning with computers, I want to encourage all of you to feel free to draw ideas for your draft essays (2-03a) from both sets of shared ideas (§1A & §1C). You also are welcome to combine those ideas with others from your individual outlines and essay prep. posts, as well as from previous posts on the Writing Studio Blog including outlines or about computers.

For convenience, I arranged the main ideas (in blue) in alphabetical order during and just after class. However, as you compose your draft essays, I hope you will find better ways to organize your main ideas than that. Moreover, some of the topics in green may be just as important as the main ideas in blue. So I expect you to demonstrate flexibility in composing important and related ideas into unified paragraphs that will enable readers to follow your thinking easily from one main point in your essays to the next.

§1A, 2014.12.03

§1C, 2014.12.03 

Outline from §1A

Learning with Computers

• Applications
  • PowerPoint
  • Other
• Challenges
  • keyboarding
• Convenience
  • Google
    • Drive
    • Gmail
  • Search
    • Google
      • Images
    • Yahoo!
    • Other
  • Recording
    • Microphones
      • Built-in
      • Attached
  • Playback
    • CDs
    • DVDs
• Economy
  • Paper-less materials
    • Homepages
    • Other
  • Other?
• Importance
  • School
    • English
      • Keyboarding
        • Numeric keypad
        • Typing
      • Classes
        • Listening
          • Classwork
            • Pronunciation practice
            • Viewing
              • News programs
          • Homework
            • Pronunciation practice
        • Reading
          • Websites
            • News articles
            • Other?
        • Speaking
          • Classwork
          • Homework
            • EnglishCentral
              • speaking points
              • (pronunciation practice)
        • Writing
          • Book reviews
          • Comments
          • Extensive writing
            • Essays
            • Reports
    • Homepages
  • Society
    • Communication
      • Commentary
      • Other
    • Information
      • News
      • Publicity
        • Homepages
        • Other
    • Internationalization

Outline from §1C

Learning with Computers

• Applications
  • Computer-based
    • Search function
    • Typing programs
  • Cloud-based (online)
    • Sharing
    • Typing practice
    • Language learning
      • PowerWords
      • EnglishCentral
• Benefits
  • Ease of correction
    • written work
      • reports
  • Exposure to vocabulary
  • Increase in typing speed
• Coursework
  • Listening Classes
    • Classwork
      • CDs
    • HW
  • Reading Classes
    • Classwork
      • Online texts
        • news articles
    • HW
      • PowerWords
      • Reports
  • Speaking Classes
    • Classwork
    • HW
      • EnglishCentral
        • speaking points
  • Writing Classes
    • HW
      • typing
      • blogging
        • reviewing
    • Classwork
      • Mapping
      • Outlining
      • Peer-reviewing
• Disadvantages
  • Time loss
    • computer set-up
  • Dependencies
    •  
  • Diminished skills
    • calculating in your head
  • Physical strain
    • Eyes
    • Neck
    • Shoulders
• Other activities
  • job-hunting
  • ???

If you have concerns or questions about those maps or outlines, or how to use them, please feel free to spell them out in comments on this post, or voice them in person during the next class meeting.

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Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1A

The graphic in this post is to remind you of topics that you and your classmates shared from your free-writing posts on Wednesday, June 11. If you click on the graphic, you will be able to get a close look at the sub-topics on small branches of the mind-map. I've made two such posts: 

• Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1A; and
• Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1C.

Please feel free to adopt topics, sub-topics, and organisational ideas from either of them to include in your next draft essays. 

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Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1C

The graphic in this post is to remind you of topics that you and your classmates shared from your free-writing posts on Wednesday, June 11. If you click on the graphic, you will be able to get a close look at the sub-topics on small branches of the mind-map. I've made two such posts: 

• Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1A; and
• Language Skills: Collective Mind-Map of Topics from Free-Writing, §1C.

Please feel free to adopt topics, sub-topics, and organisational ideas from either of them to include in your next draft essays. 

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Mind-maps for Essays 1-01a: Letters to Host Families

Here are collective mind-maps from two classes today, showing related topics in connected branches of each diagram. Though many of the topics in the two mind-maps are the same or similar, there are topics or sub-topics and examples in each that differ.

Please note that the organization of elements on various branches is flexible. So is the order of presentation in general, though self-introductions came first, and were most detailed, in both maps. You should feel free to borrow and elaborate ideas and organizational schemes from both as you revise your letters to host families for Essays 1-01a.

Mind-map from §1C

Mind-map from §1A

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A few more comments and reflections

The comments I've collected in this post represent three sorts of suggestions that many bloggers other than the immediate recipients of the comments should heed in their own posts:

1. Choosing and using labels (again [Labels..., again?!? {Yes, labels, again!}];-),
2. Creating paragraph divisions to improve readability, and
3. Summarizing for a variety of reasons.

pab さんは書きました... Hi Y..., Better labels for this post (three or more for every post) might be: "animals, birds, chicks, dogs, gardens, ..." (comma-spaced values without quotation marks). Some of those you also could use on your next post. Cheers, PB 2012年6月18日	General recommendations: 1) Use topic labels that you are likely to use again and again. 2) If the labels are countable nouns, use their plural forms. Choice of suitable labels is important for several reasons. First and foremost, if the labels you use are both accurate and appropriate, they can help blog visitors find the kinds of posts they want to read, compare, or comment on (such as essays: drafts and revisions), as well as special topics they want to read about. Next, depending on how many times you use appropriate topic labels, the numbers of times you use particular labels may indicate both to you and to your readers which topics interest you most, as well as which you may want to write more about. Last (today;-), but not least, reflecting on the topics in your posts as you choose labels may help you decide where and when you should divide your posts into paragraphs, and perhaps even see where you might reorganize your paragraphs to make your ideas easy for readers to follow.
pab2012年7月12日 Hi A..., It is interesting to hear of your fondness for mystery stories, especially those written by Jirou Akakawa. However, this post summarizing one of his stories, recently dramatized on TV, probably would be easier to read if you divided it into paragraphs clearly separated by blank lines (no indentation necessary). Cheers, PB	Remember: White-space is golden! Divide large blocks of text into paragraphs to make them easier to read. Single blank lines between paragraphs orient readers' eyes towards topic shifts, if not to topic sentences, at the beginning each subsequent paragraph.
pab2012年7月12日 Y..., Would you please (re-)read the following post on the Writing Studio Blog, paying special attention to the illustration of summarizing, where the yellow part becomes green? FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012: Incorporating quoted passages Then please summarize the message from (a) member(s) of your host family in a similar fashion, using your own words. Cheers, PB	Summarize the writing of others, in this case, for three main reasons, namely to: 1. Avoid copying; 2. Present only key points, and mainly your own ideas; and 3. Avoid publishing personal correspondence without the authors' permission.

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My Language Learning Story: Map[s] & Outline

This is a model essay prep. post.

Mind-map of my language learning history (2012.06.28)

The graphic above, a FreeMind export (PNG), shows a recent version of the mind-map that I started in classes on Wed., June 27. ... [Here is a snapshot taken June 27:]

Mind-map of my language learning history (2012.06.27)

Below is an outline ... from an HTML export from the ... [extended, 2012.06.28] mind-map, copied and pasted into and out of Microsoft® Word to get the bullet points for various levels of the outline.

My language learning story

• childhood
• pre-natal
• ?
• early years
• mother tongue (English)
• parents
• older brother
• pre-school years
• family
• parents
• siblings
• relatives
• grandparents
• aunts & uncles
• neighbors
• friends
• elementary school
• English
• secondary schooling
• JHS
• NA
• SHS
• French
• skills
• listening
• speaking
• pronunciation
• intonation
• reading
• writing
• sub-skills
• grammar
• vocabulary
• college
• French
• upper division courses
• post graduate
• overseas experience
• France
• cultural exchange
• homestay
• travel
• with friends
• alone
• work
• (graduate studies)
• Japan
• work
• travel
• France
• intensive course
• travel
• revitalization workshop
• French
• graduate studies
• French
• intensive course
• Japanese
• online courses
• library services
• English
• Canada
• Spanish
• Mexico
• life-long learning
• English
• French
• Japanese
• Spanish
• What's next?

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Comments and Advice: September 2011

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the Writing Studio Blog.

In the left column of the table below is a collection of comments that I'd posted on individual blogs during or just after the summer recess, including a number of suggestions for revising and improving posts. Those without dates and links were pending moderator approvals when I collected them (from previews). They are all in chronological order (earliest to latest). In the right column are generalizations from those comments to advice for all of you to continue to follow. So please read this entire post carefully.

Then, if you have any concerns or questions about those comments, either on your own posts or on those of your classmates or peers, please voice them in class or spell them out in comments on this post. The same goes for the advice and suggestions for everyone. Last but not least, please keep checking your blog dashboards for comments awaiting moderation, and show and tell me in class if you get any that you think are comment spam.

Thank you for your continuing cooperation.

Comments for Individuals	Advice for All
Hi Sakurako, If what you have in this post is a quotation (possibly a preface for a book review), you need to mark the quotation as such (and shorten it), for example, "...[O]ne day, a dazzling new songbird arrives..., and the Emperor has eyes for nothing else" (p. n). Book reviews also need APA-style references. Cheers, PB 2011年8月5日16:13	Start book reviews with brief quotations that are likely to attract readers attention. Mark them clearly as a quotations; Follow them with short citations in parentheses; and Provide a complete APA-style reference, with the authors' given names spelled out, at the end of the review. See the Writing Studio Blog, BR 2-01: Robin Hood (Swan, 1989) (September 22, 2011) for an illustration.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The "n" in parentheses in my previous comment is a placeholder for the number of the page where you got the quotation. I'd also like to    remind you that book reviews you do now (Aug. – Sep.) will count for fall semester, and, last but not least, ask you [to] share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年8月5日16:21	For an explanation of factors scores for book reviews you post early this semester, please review the Writing Studio Blog, Book Reviews: Factors to Consider (August    1, 2011).
pab さんのコメント... Hi, Yudai! It is a pleasure to see you tackling serious topics here on your blog. Your remark at the end about discussing such things with your friends lead me to wonder whether there is any place special that you like to go to do that. Cheers, PB. 2011年9月20日火曜日10:21:00 JST ...2011/09/big-earthquake-in-japan	Include information you expect readers to need or want to know. Provide details and give examples.
pab さんのコメント... Takahiro, Is this some sort of machine translation? Please let me know in a follow-up comment ASAP. Cheers, PB [Sep 22, 2011]	Open your blog at least every other day. Please approve comments waiting for moderation within 48 hours, and respond in follow-up comments. [Note: Takahiro has  responded to my question in a follow-up comment.]
pab さんのコメント... Shiori's right! You should use three or more labels on every post. Other possible labels for this post would be composition and free-writing. You also need to include word counts on every post. Counting words when you post will make it easy to tally them up for your Proto-Portfolio entries each month. Please put them in square brackets, aligned flush right, on the last line of every post. Cheers, PB 2011年9月22日13:42 ...2011/09/reflections-on-writing-iii.html	Include word counts and labels on every post. See the Writing Studio Blog for model posts showing where to put word counts (last line, aligned right). Choose labels suited to each post. If you're not sure about which labels to use, please ask for suggestions in class.
pab さんのコメント... Hi Natsumi, It sounds like you took some sort of nation-wide certification or qualification exam. I gathered it was challenging, but I couldn't figure out who or what the exam was for. So please let us know more. For example, what subjects where on the exam, and how long did (each part of) it last? Cheers, PB 2011年9月27日火曜日13:38:00 JST	Include information readers will need or want to know. Organize that information in a way that makes it easy to understand how one topic relates to the next. For example: General to specific, for example: Kind of test, Parts of test, Length of parts, & Difficulty of parts. Other organizational schemes you can use are: Time sequence Starting with earliest, or Starting with latest; and Order of importance Starting with the most important, & Repeating the most important at the end.

[851 words]

Topic outlines from comments and questions

This post shows screenshots of outlines that we compiled during class meetings today. The outlines represent topics of interest gleaned from peer-to-peer comments and questions on posts of previous draft essays.

The first four screenshots below represent topics that came up in section 1A (§1A, below). I've moved a few of the topics up, down, or side to side, to put similar topics together, and sub-topics at similar levels in the organizational hierarchy. The next three screenshots below represent topics that students in section 1C shared in class, some of which I've rearranged or re-combined as well.

As you review your own essays, and plan your next revisions, please feel free to select, (re-)mix, and match topics from either or both of the extended outlines below, to amplify and extend in Essay 1-02b what you've already written in Essay 1-02a.

§1A

RoughOutlines1A-1

RoughOutlines1A-2

RoughOutlines1A-3

RoughOutlines1A-4

§1C

RoughOutlines1C-1

RoughOutlines1C-2

RoughOutlines1C-3

[149 words]

Follow-on to questions on "Can you use chopsticks?"

This post comprises a screencast showing initial stages of building a mindmap from questions included in comments on the post, "Can you use chopsticks?" (pab, Speechable) (2010.03.13). If you use headphones or speakers, you can listen to the soundtrack, as I explain the steps involved (5 minutes).


I've used the map to group the questions into clouds relating to one aspect or another of the graphic representation in that post. When I answer those questions, at the end of this post, I'll answer them together, and each group of answers will become a separate paragraph (or more) at the end of this post.

For a full-blown viewing of those early stages in mindmap development, click here:  2010-04-20_1149

The next graphic shows the mindmap in a more or less finished form. If you click on the graphic, you will get a full-size view of what's in each cloud.

Below is a response to comments on a previous post ("Can you use chopsticks?"..., 2010.03.13) composed of answers to the questions in the mindmap clouds above. The composition process involves moving from lists to maps, and from simple answers to paragraphs. Here goes....


The picture I posted in the "Can you use chopsticks?" post showed an omelette that I'd filled with fermented soybeans instead of cheese. Though when I first encountered fermented soybeans, I found their texture rather off-putting, and even now if I'm not careful eating them, the stringy contrails they leave can get stuck in my beard, I find them not only healthy, but tasty, too. If I may say so myself, of course my omelettes are delicious. If not, why would I make them? They're quick and quite easy to make.

My favorite way of eating omelettes used to be smothered in ketchup. Now, however, I prefer something spicier, so I use a southwestern North American style hot sauce, salsa, and I season the egg and milk mixture that goes into the omelettes themselves with dried red peppers! After Nami had asked about spicy Korean style pickled cabbages, I decided to try that instead of soybeans, and that was delicious, too.

Friends and I used to joke about using chopsticks being a good way to lose weight. However, the better I get at using them the faster I can eat. Nevertheless, I usually eat omelettes with a fork, as you may see in a series of pictures to follow from my cell-phone cam.

The other bit of tableware that was visible in the snapshot and graphic in that "Can you use chopsticks?" post was a medium-sized plate decorated with a character from Beatrix Potter stories, namely Tigger, who has long been one of my favorites. I've enjoyed his self-description, "The wonderful thing about Tiggers...," for almost as long as I can remember. The only such storybook character of which I have a longer memory is Owl, but I'll save that for another story.

As far as the characters that Aya, Yuka and Ryota mentioned in their comments go, I know two out of three,  Anpanman and Snoopy. Snoopy has been around since I was a child, long, long, ago, in newspapers before animated feature shows. I used to like drawing him dancing and perched on top of his doghouse. Anpanman might be easier to draw, but I never was too keen the animated series in which he starred.

[555 words]

"100 Little Ways You Can Dramatically Improve Your Writing" (Online Colleges, 2010)

The "100 Little Ways ..." post (Online Colleges, 2010) features a collection of short writing tips with pointers to resources of various sorts. If any of those areas sound interesting, by all means, check them out!

• General
• Grammar and Spelling
• Creative Writing
• Business and Technical Writing
• Journalism
• Writer's Block and Inspiration
• Style
• Composition and Organization
• Revising and Editing
• Computer and Web ...

Thanks to Carla Arena for pointing out that Online Colleges post by sharing it via Google Reader (2010.01.21). She calls it, "Great ... for writers, students, [and] educators," and I totally agree! I can hardly wait to add it to the Course Links in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar.

Reference

Online Colleges. (2010.01.17). 100 little ways you can dramatically improve your writing. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://ow.ly/YUos

[140 words]

Writing Studio Calendar: Past and current assignments

In this post, I am displaying two event descriptions from the Writing Studio Calendar. You should have received invitations to both event[s] via gmail, the latest, today (2009.05.27):

• Essay_1.02a: Univ. Life essays due on blogs (2009.06.01), and
  
• Essay_1-01b: Revised letters of intro. due (2009.04.20).

The content of these representations (with permission of their owner, me;-) is essentially the same as that in the descriptions on the calendar. The main reason that I am posting them here is only one of over forty invitees accepted the first event invitation from Google Calendar. I hope [a] few more of you pick up on the latest one. Though I've spiffed them up a bit with formatting and hyperlinks, I'm counting only the words in this preface for this blog post.

[130 words, + 1 {2009.06.05}]

Essay_1.02a: Univ. Life essays due on blogs (2009.06.01)

Completed essays, approximately 300 words in length:

• Published on individual blogs;
• Reflecting on university life from personal, inter-personal, and extra-personal perspectives:
• Consisting of five (5) or more paragraphs (¶¶), each five (5) or more sentences in length;
• Including an overview of main points in the first ¶ (introduction), and a summary of main points in the final ¶ (conclusion);
• Developing main points separately in three (3) or more body ¶¶ reflecting main topics we brainstormed individually, and mapped together in class: MindMaps: Main Branches, §§1a and 1c (Writing Studio Blog, 2009.05.27).

If you have concerns or questions about this assignment [University Life essays], please share them via comments on the MindMaps post....

Essay_1-01b: Revised letters of intro. due (2009.04.20)

Revised and extended versions of draft letters of introduction to host families are due in new posts on your blogs. They should include extra information that you've already posted in response to comments and questions from your classmates on your blogs. These revised versions should consist of at least five separate paragraphs, and be approximately 300 words in length.

Your revised essay posts should have catchy and descriptive titles, and appear with:

• accurate word counts in their lower left corners ("[n words]"), and
• at least these two labels (also shown in sidebar widgets):
  

1. essays
2. revisions

Earlier versions of those letters, typed up from hand-written placement essays (March 25, 2009), were due on your blogs April 8, 2009, and _must_ also include the first label, "essays," in order for you to get credit for this assignment.

If you have concerns or questions about this assignment, please spell them out in comments on the following post: Reminders of classwork and homework (Writing Studio Blog, April 15, 2009).

Additional Course Link: Sentence Structure Cmap

Wordle image created 2009.01.30

While listening to a Green Room interview about graphic organizers (Episode 54, 2008.12.01), and following up on a related Learning Times discussion thread, I discovered an online resource that may interest those of you who have expressed concerns about your own grammatical accuracy. It's a concept map created with a powerful yet free computer application called IHMC CmapTools.

Tammy Moore, a registered Learning Times community member, listed the Sentence Structure Cmap, an example of students' work which I've already added to the Course Links in the sidbar, as "middle school level - English/Grammar/Sentence Structure" (Using Graphic Organizers?, 2008.12.04 [registration required]). If you're interested either in the grammar it represents, or in visual, hypertextual representation possible with CmapTools, please check it out.

[122 words]

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