Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well - NYTimes.com

In Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well, my favorites are rules five and nine. Here are a few excerpts from those two rules, and from one of the cross-linked readings.

Rule five, Study Sentences, comprises two related suggestions:

Look for examples of interesting sentence structure and sentence variety in a work you are studying or reading, then write your own "copy-change” versions, in which you borrow another author’s structure and use it to create your own piece. 

You might also consider excerpts from children’s book[-s] to review sound literary devices and explore the music that sentences make.

(Rule 5: Study Sentences, ¶¶4-5, italics added)

A Pomegranate Words page illustrates the "copy-change" process with poetry, if you follow the first link in the passage above. Yet the process of imitating sentence structure–not copying content–applies equally to prose, as does the advice on that page to give credit to your sources:

If there's no trace of the source, you don't need to give anyone else credit. If, on the other hand, evidence of the original structure remains, you should give a nod to the first writer in some way.

(Pomegranate Words, 2008, Poetry: Copy Change (Imitation), ¶2).

Rule nine, Fail, again from the Times, may sound a bit too adventurous–until you read the explanations. Though the subject heading, "Fail," is an attention grabber, the point is to learn from your mistakes by collecting and reflecting on your written work:

Value mistakes, and the successes that grow from them, by keeping a portfolio of your work, including revisions and editing exercises. You might even reflect in writing on how your writing has progressed....

(Rule 9: Fail, ¶2, italics added)

The suggestions that I've highlighted above should seem quite familiar to you by now. If they don't, please ask about them either in class, or in comments on this post.

[312 words]

Incorporating quoted passages

This post presents three versions of a filtering and focusing post that I wrote for another blog (The LTD Project Blog, 2012.06.22). I am posting these three versions here to show how to:

1. Sandwich paragraph-length quotations between personal reflections;
2. Shift the balance of content from quotations to reflections, by:
1. summarizing rather than quoting an interview prompt, and
2. adding further reflections; and
3. Quote short, already quoted passages, using nested quotation marks.

---

Version 1

In an exclusive interview for the Library Thing, for the State of the Thing newsletter (June 2012), investigative television journalist Dan Rather responded to a question about his former teachers.

You write in the book about the important role certain teachers played in your life. Tell us about those teachers and what key lessons they taught you that you've put to use in your life and career.

One common thread for many of my teachers is that they believed in me and took the time to treat me as an individual. They taught me that it is not just about the destination but it is about the journey. However we try to reform our educational system, we must allow for teachers to see their students as individuals.

(Dan Rather: LibraryThing Author Interview)

Among other issues he addressed were tenacious, growing corporate interests in control of conventional media.  At the end of the interview, Rather also mentioned new installments to come out this fall (2012) in a series on education (HDNet: Dan Rather Reports).

[174 words]

---

Version 2

In an exclusive interview for the Library Thing, for the State of the Thing newsletter (June 2012), investigative television journalist Dan Rather responded to a question about important roles his former teachers had played.

One common thread for many of my teachers is that they believed in me and took the time to treat me as an individual. They taught me that it is not just about the destination but it is about the journey. However we try to reform our educational system, we must allow for teachers to see their students as individuals.

(Dan Rather: LibraryThing Author Interview)

Among other issues he addressed were tenacious, growing corporate interests in control of conventional media.  At the end of the interview, Rather also mentioned developing new installments to come out this fall (2012) in a series on education (HDNet: Dan Rather Reports).

[141 words]

---

Version 3

In an exclusive interview for the Library Thing, for the State of the Thing newsletter (June 2012), investigative television journalist Dan Rather responded to a question about important roles his former teachers had played.

One common thread for many of my teachers is that they believed in me and took the time to treat me as an individual. They taught me that it is not just about the destination but it is about the journey. However we try to reform our educational system, we must allow for teachers to see their students as individuals.

(Dan Rather: LibraryThing Author Interview)

Among other issues he also addressed were tenacious, growing corporate interests in control of conventional [news] media. That was in response to a passage the interviewer had quoted from Rather's memoirs, Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News, about "'censorship masquerading as good business'" (2012).

At the end of the interview, Rather mentioned developing new installments to come out this fall (2012) in a TV series on education (HDNet: Dan Rather Reports). I'm looking forward to following those developments.

[180 words]

---

The third version of the post on that other blog is approximately the same length that the first version was. However, in the third version, the proportion of quoted text has decreased from about 56% (98/174) to 36% (65/180). Square brackets around the word "news" in the third version indicate that I added that word after publishing the post.

[642 words]

Flash from the Past: Book Reviews for 2nd Semester

This is a snapshot of 2nd semester book review notes from last year (2010-11). Though the due date undoubtedly will change this year (2011-12), the guidelines and no-no's remain the same.

[33 words]

Comment Chops for All [+ A Scavenger Hunt]

This post consolidates comments that I've attached recently to individual blogs, comments which apply, in general, to many more of your posts. I hope you will consider all of the suggestions in these three comments, reflect on them carefully in light of your own writing habits, and take them to heart in all of your blogging endeavors.

You may note that I am quoting liberally from my own writing (with permission;-), and making it clear in context (this explanation) and through layout (ellipses, block indentations, italics, and references; below) that I am using long quotations in this post, yet avoiding self-plagiarism. If you would like to see the passages that I'm quoting in their original contexts, you are welcome to take part in a blogging scavenger hunt (A Scavenger Hunt, below)

Book review content and organization, and word counts

Would you please review Mr. T's Book Review Recipe for advice regarding the content and organization of book reviews? Rather than retelling the stories you read, your writing should reflect your choices of books, your thinking about the books you choose (before and after reading them), whether you recommend them to your classmates and peers, and why. You also need word counts on every post.

(pab, 2008.10.28)

Titles, introductions, keywords, and vocabulary references

When you write several hundred words about any topic, it's really important to be clear about what it is going to be in the title, and in the introduction, too. There [in yours] you suggest, ....

It also is important to incorporate white space in your texts, between the paragraphs, to help readers find your main points quickly and easily. Even with a computerized search, I didn't find ... [a keyword from your title] in your post. Perhaps you can find ... [that keyword] in the Visual Thesaurus... [, which] I've listed on the Writing Studio Wiki (Vocabulary References), and displayed at the foot of the Writing Studio Blog.

(pab, 2008.10.28)

Grammar, spelling, and links

I wonder whether you have grammar and spell-checked this rewrite in a word processing program (OpenOffice, NeoOffice, or Word), and whether you know how to make URLs into active links in blog posts and comments. If something you've written gets flagged during a thorough grammar/spelling check, and you're not sure how to revise it, please ask in class.

(pab, 2008.10.28)

A Scavenger Hunt

If you would like to review the comments that I've quoted (above) in their original contexts on classmates' and peers' blogs, you are welcome to take part in a blogging scavenger hunt to find them. There will be a small prize for the first student in each class who informs me in class precisely whose blogs and which posts (blog handles, titles, dates, and times) display those comments on them.

[459 words, excluding title]

Beating Blogger's Block and Citing Sources

An email newsletter I received recently suggests various ways to overcome writer's block. These may help you achieve or surpass blogging requirements for this semester. One of them is free-writing, which we did in class last Wednesday:

There are a lot of things you can do to get over writer's block: take a walk, freewrite, listen to music, take your laptop to the backyard, or read other people's blogs.

(Vox Talks, How to Beat Blogger's Block, ¶2, 2008.10.10).

That same newsletter also proposes a variety of topics that may provide you with interesting stimuli for quick-and-dirty, or more thoughtful and thorough blog posts:

• Culture,
  
• Entertainment,
  
• Life,
  
• Music,
  
• News,
  
• Politics, and
  
• Technology

(Vox Talks, ... Blogger's Block, ¶3).

Notes:

• In this post, I have included direct quotations from that newsletter to show you how you should make ideas that you borrow from other sources stand out from your own writing, in order to avoid plagiarism, and how you can help your readers find those (or related) sources to get more information.

• The longer quotation (see: "¶2," above) comes from the second paragraph of the October 10, 2008, Vox Talks newsletter. It stands out from the surrounding text because it is in italics (i), [and] formatted as a block quotation (") with the Compose toolbar:
  

• The other ideas that I've borrowed, the list of subject areas suggested in paragraph three of the newsletter (see: "¶3," above), I've reformatted as a list, and emphasized with bullets, again citing the source in parentheses.
  

• For more examples of quotations and source citations, please browse previous posts that I've labeled "quotations" (sidebar: Labels).

[269 words, + 1 (2008.10.28)]

Blogged with the Flock Browser
Revised, annotated, and illustrated in Blogger

Mr. T's Book Review Recipe

This post presents a screenshot of an outline composed of questions to guide you in writing your weekly book reviews (an on-going assignment from Writing III-IV). The outline derives from one Mr. T shared via personal correspondence today (book review template text, 2008.06.11). I've added comments and explanations to the list of questions reiterated below.


BR 1-##: [+ title]

To shorten the title of your post, please use the abbreviation BR for book review, followed by a single space, a semester code (1- or 2-), a two-digit book review number (01-99;-), a colon (":"), another space, and the short(-ened) title of the book you're reviewing. No brackets or quotation marks are necessary.

Introduction

It is a good idea to write out your answers to these first two questions before you write a brief summary of the story.

1. Why did you choose this book?
2. What was interesting about it (something on the cover, in the title, or in the first few pages)?

Brief summary of the story

It is a good idea to write your summary from memory. Write about what was meaningful and therefore memorable for you. That way you will avoid copying or plagiarizing passages from the books you read.

1. What do you remember without looking back over the story?
2. What was the most impressive passage that you can recall?

If you cannot remember much without reviewing the text, page through it again quickly to jog your memory, close it, and put it down (front cover face up). Then write about what you do (or don't) remember.

Conclusion

Answers to these last two questions will round out your book reviews, which needn't be much longer than your current typing speed trials. Again, it is a good idea to concentrate on what you can and do remember, and how you feel about your choices of the books you are reviewing.

1. Do you recommend this book? Why (not)?
2. Would you read it again? If so, when and why?
   

[336 words]

Best Reviews 1.0 (2008)

Today you will have an opportunity to nominate five reviews written to fulfill fourth essay requirements this semester. You may nominate one review for each of five categories ( below), and you may nominate your own review for no more than one of them. The categories open for nominations are:

1. Best Title [of post, rather than blog],
2. Easiest to Read [and understand],
3. Most Informative or Opinionated,
4. Most Interesting or Unusual, and
   
5. Most Visually Appealing [best layout].

To find blogs to nominate:

a) browse each of the blogs in the list for your class,
b) locate the fourth essay on each blog, and
c) make sure it is a review that meets all of the following ... [requirements]:

• The review has a short, catchy title;
• It is at least 400 words in length;
• It includes no copied or machine translated content;
• It consists of at least five paragraphs five sentences in length; AND
• It has at least two labels, one of which is "essays" (the plural form, spelled accurately [emphases added]).

To nominate blogs for each category, post comments on the corresponding Writing Studio Blog posts [1.1 - 1.5: see links, below]. In your comments, include:

1. The author's blog handle (typed accurately, or copied and pasted),
2. The title of the essay (copied and pasted from the blog itself, for accuracy), and
   
3. Your own reasons (two or more) for nominating it, for:

If you have questions about the nominating process, please post your questions in comments on this post. Nominations themselves must be on the corresponding post for each category.

• Best Reviews 1.1 (2008): Best Title [of post, rather than blog]
  
• Best Reviews 1.2 (2008): Easiest to Read [& Understand]
  
• Best Reviews 1.3 (2008): Most Informative [or Opinionated]
• Best Reviews 1.4 (2008): Most Interesting [or Unusual]
• Best Reviews 1.5 (2008): Most Visually Appealing [best layout]
  

Comments on the essay posts are optional, but nice. [Please feel free to comment directly on classmates posts after class.]

[337 words
{including additions in
square brackets ("[...]"), above}]

Spotlights on Copying: Warning about Plagiarism

Perusing book reviews and other blog posts this past week, other writing instuctors and I have identified at least eight instances of writing copied from other sources. That is more than one case per day on average.

This is entirely unacceptable, as I have spelled out in Guidelines for book reviews, section 2.3, in particular: By all means avoid copying! Mr. T. is more emphatic in his post about book reviews. He virtually shouts: "No quoting!!" and "Don't copy!!!" (Tomeiter's Garden, Book review examples, items one and three; April 17, 2007).

Copying someone else's work without marking quotations and citing references may seem like an easy way out of, or around, a writing assignment. In fact, it is plagiarism (WinK Wiki, FAQ), an easy way out of a course with an invitation to come back and take the course again next year.

In a nutshell, here is what may happen if you do copy someone else's writing and try to pass it off as your own in Writing III or IV. You will get one warning. This is a warning to everyone in the Writing Studio!

If you keep copied passages in a previous post on your blog for this semester after this warning, or copy in a future post, you will fail the course. To get credit for the course, you will have to come back next year. So keep your writing your own!

[235 words]

WSB 1-02: Points to Remember While Blogging

The purpose of this post is to highlight a number of suggestions that I've made in the course of recent visits to students' blogs. I would like you all to pay attention to each of these points as you write on your own blogs, and as you comment on those of classmates and peers.

The list below covers seven plus items. These are examples, explanations, and illustrations that you ought to take on board as lessons for yourselves.

0. Language Setting

To learn English yourself, and to accommodate blog visitors who want to learn and to use English, too; I urge you to switch your blog settings to English. If you are in the A class, you should consider this a requirement for an A.

The remaining points are organized very loosely from fundamental to fine-tuning, or general to specific if you prefer.

1. Pointers regarding blog designs,
2. Suggestions for creating more posts,
   
3. Notes about word counts put on every post,
4. Suggestions, nay requirements for titles and labels,
5. Ways to respond to multiple comments on posts,
   
6. Inquiries leading to citation of sources, and
   
7. Strategies for correcting comments.

• Blog designs and readability issues

As I dropped by to see how you're coming on your book reviews, I noticed that the text color you chose for your review of Another World is almost impossible to make out against the dark background from the blog template that you've chosen. If you are keen on using dark colors for text, you should choose a template with a light background to make what you write easier to see and read.

While most ready-made blog templates respect these general design principles with automatic text colors, some of you obviously like to play with the colors yourselves. If you do, please remember that the opposite is also true. That is, if you have chosen a blog design with a light or white background, you should choose black or dark text colors if you are going to change them.

• Creating more posts

If you are shy of posts (Isn't everyone?), or you desire to push your skills, extend your writing, catch the interest and satify the curiosity of blog visitors, below is an example of a few steps you can take to do so. In this case, I'm talking about spring-boarding from a list of ideas in one quick post or typing speed trial post, to get a handful (or more) separate posts started.

... Which places did you enjoy visiting the most?

Why don't you write separate blog post[s] about at least one place in each prefecture. That would get you started towards the 60+ posts you need for Writing III this semester.

While you're at it, why don't you add a few pictures to give all of your readers a sense of what they're missing when they sit in front of a computer instead of heading out on the road again?

• Word counts on every post for Writing III and IV!

This point, in particular, gets the good news, bad news treatment - first the good news scenario:

Thanks for excluding the lyrics from your word count.

If you include in any post more than a few words of which you are not the author, please exclude them from your blog post word counts. Do remember that we require word counts (in square brackets, at the lower corner next to the sidebar) on every post for Writing III and IV.

Now for a not-so-good news scenario:

I hope you enjoy the holidays, too, and even get some blogging done during them. One thing you really need to do is add word counts to all of your posts for Writing III. Please don't wait any longer to start counting! [emphases added]

• Requirements for titles and labels on all book reviews
• (and sharing the wealth!)

Hi ...,

I'd like to ask you to do me three favors:

1) Would you please use the key string + number prefix that I've explained in class, and spelled out in WSB 1-01 in the title of all of your book reviews: past, present, and future? That will make them easy to find in your archive.

2) Would you please label all of your book reviews with at least these two labels: "books" and "reviews"? Then they will show up in various searches.

3) Last, but not least important, would you please ask [cajole/remind/tell] all of your classmates and peers in courses that I teach to do the same?

Cheers.

• Ways to respond to similar comments on different posts

Here I suggest creating a new post to respond to comments on two different posts, by three different people.

I've been wondering the same thing, as has Rick, who commented on your April 16, 2008, reading habits post.

Why don't you make a new blog post that explains to everyone how to do it, and then point out the new post in responses to comments here and there?

I'll be waiting to read your follow-ups.

Easy follow-up comments such as, "Please see my new post (Short Title..., date [+ link])," will inform return visitors, as well as those who have chosen to get mail notification, where to look for answers to questions or responses to ideas that they've posted in comments on your blogs.

• Queries about sources leading to citations

Where did you get the definitions of the words [that] you listed at the end of BR 1-07: Snow Games?

If you are using any content at all from other sources, you must mark it clearly, and spell out where you got it. For example, I've formatted all of the comment clippings in this post as block quotations, and italicized them so they stand out from the original text of this post. Now I'll spell out, in general, where they're from.

All of the comment citations in this post are from the same type of source, namely comments that I've posted on individual students' blogs recently. I wrote them myself, and I grant myself permission to collect and reuse them here for teaching purposes (:-).


Correcting comments after you've posted them

If you notice glaring errors after you hit the orange publish button, either on purpose or by mistake, it is possible to correct them. However, in Blogger, the only way you can do it yourselves makes a mess of the blog spaces in which you have left comments, at least until blog owners tidy up behind you.

So it is always better to preview your comments, editing them repeatedly if necessary, before you publish them. Here, unfortunately, are two examples of what I did after I failed to follow my own advice.

Example One

Oops, I made a mistake in my previous comment, but there was no way to edit it. So I've copied, pasted, and corrected it here:...

Do you know how to make word counts align with the... [right] margin, to make them easy to spot at a glance? If not, please ask in class, and I'll show you.

Please note that the two italicized and indented passages in Example One show that I'm making a quotation of a previous quotation. The series of periods (...) show where I've trimmed away unnecessary or incorrect wordings, and the square brackets ([...]) show where I've added or corrected wording. I suggest that you try to avoid this at home, folks, unless you really have to, to make a point.

I'm a paid professional, but I still make mistakes! Below is another example, with more of my self-corrections.


Example Two

I guess I am too anxious to get out; I typed two mistakes [three, actually (I've just found one more)] in the first paragraph of my previous comment, and then hit the publish button instead of the preview button....

Anyway, here is what I posted earlier, cut, pasted, and corrected in this new comment (I hope I get it right this time):

Hey ...,

It sound[-s] like you had a nice road-trip this spring. How many friend[-s] went with you[?]...

Although I went back to my original comments on each of those posts and trashed them, only the blog owners can trash them completely. So what I've left in my tracks on a couple of students' blogs looks like this:

Comment deleted

This post has been removed by the author.

May 3, 2008 2:00 PM

and this:

コメントが削除されました

この投稿は投稿者によって削除されました。

2008/05/03 15:28

Sadly, those left-overs break the flow, and take up space on lists of comments attached to blog posts. If the blog owners themselves wish, they can remove those left-overs completely and finally from their blogs. If you find comments removed by their authors on your own blog, please do all future visitors a favor and trash the comments completely. Cheers.

[1489 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]

WSB 2-07: Plagiarism - FINAL Warning for ALL

Plagiarism is stealing the writing, work, or ideas of other people, and presenting that writing, work or ideas as your own. Much to my dismay, this kind of stealing has occurred again and again in Writing III and Writing IV.

Until today, I have given students who plagiarized in posts on their blogs a single, individual warning. If they had plagiarized any part of a book review or essay, they got no credit for that particular assignment. When I found that one of the students whom I already had warned plagiarized again, I decided that he or she would get no credit for the course.

In a post on this blog that I pointed out and read aloud in each class on November 7, 2007, I wrote that plagiarism is "completely unacceptable", and "forewarned of a zero-tolerance policy" with regard to plagiarism (WSB 2-03: Problems and Suggestions, §3. Plagiarism, and §5. Wrap up; Nov. 6, 2007). Yet I found another plagiarized essay today.

So I have given the student who plagiarized part of her or his fifth essay the final individual warning. Moreover, he or she will get no credit for the essay itself. Here is the core of that warning:

I am sending both you and Mr. T... [the course supervisor] a snapshot of your blog ..., along with this clipping of the passage that I have highlighted in it, which is plagiarized. As I write below, I expect you to contact Mr. T... immediately to find out what to do about this problem.

• Since it first became commercially available.... HDTV costs more than normal TV but is becoming more available.

(..., ¶¶ 1-2 [text details removed, pab])

That passage is not original; it appears on numerous other websites. For that reason, you will get no credit for your fifth essay.

However, that's not all. Part of the next paragraph in your essay (..., ¶1) is plagiarized, too, as indicated in bold in this clipping from Google:... [clipping removed, pab].

This is your last warning about plagiarism. If Mr. T... or I find any other plagiarized passages on your blog, you will get no credit for Writing IV this semester.

Please contact Mr. T... immediately for a more detailed explanation. If you cannot reach him right away at his office, please call his cell phone (090 ... [number removed, pab]).

(pab, personal correspondence, 2007.12.11, at 17:32)

I will give no more individual warnings. This post is a FINAL warning for ALL students in Writing IVc.

This zero-tolerance policy with regard to plagiarism in Writing IVc takes effect at 00:00 JST, Wednesday, December 12, 2007. There will be a 12-hour grace period in order to allow any student not already disqualified for repeated plagiarism to remove all plagiarized work from her or his blog.

As of 12:00 noon on Wednesday, December 12, 2007; if I find plagiarized work in any post, for any assignment, on any blog a student uses for Writing IVc (Sept. 26, 2007, to end of term); that student will get no credit for this course this fall semester. Moreover, if the course supervisor or any other Writing IV teacher finds plagiarism on any of your blogs for Writing IVc, this zero-tolerance policy will apply equally.

[541 words]

PS: If you have questions about this plagiarism policy, or how to make sure that you don't plagiarize, please post your questions in comments on this post.

pab, 2007.12.13
[+ 29 words]

WSB 2-03: Problems and Suggestions

I've completed a sweeping review of all of your blogs. This post is a compilation of comments and gmail extracts that I'm cross-posting here to highlight recurring problems that I hope will never occur again, especially plagiarism. The problem areas I cover with this bulletin are:

1. Essays (not to mention late and missing essays)
2. Mega-essays: incomplete or unconsolidated
   
3. Plagiarism: "completely unacceptable"!
4. Proto-Portfolio 2-01
   

Even if I haven't commented directly on your blog, or sent you gmail about it, you should review your own blog to make sure it shares none of the problems that I've pointed out. It is up to you to make sure that you've followed all of the suggestions below.

1. Essays: titles, labels, and word counts

Can you think of a catchy, yet comprehensive title... for this essay? "My draft essay" is pretty dull.

November 6, 2007 12:01:11 JST

Can you think of a catchy, yet comprehensive title that will attract readers to your essay, and give them a taste of the kind(-s) of places it's about before they start reading?

November 6, 2007 12:13:25 JST

For starters, a catchy yet comprehensive title would be nice! I'd also like you to include a total word count for the whole essay.

November 6, 2007 12:05:01 JST

This essay is about more than one place, isn't it? It is also hard to find, because you've forgotten to attach the label "essays" to it.

November 6, 2007 12:09:40 JST

2. Mega-essays: incomplete or unconsolidated

I haven't found a complete mega-essay about Kumamoto (with an introductory paragraph, three or more main points, and a concluding paragraph - plus links, photos & other media) anywhere on your blog.

... [details removed]

It seems that you [may] have confused individual bits and pieces of a mega-essay, and links to group mates blogs, with a complete essay composed of all of the required parts and posted on each of your blogs.

You must compile your group essay and post it in its entirety on your blog. (So must your group mates.) Then I suggest that you label it "essays" just like all of the other essays that you have completed.

Please share this information with your group mates, classmates, and peers.

November 6, 2007 16:51:23 JST

3. Plagiarism: "completely unacceptable"!

I regret to inform you that because part of your essay on ... [title & date] is plagiarized, I am giving you no credit at all for this assignment.

A large portion of your essay comes directly from ... [external source]. Copying the work of others like that is completely unacceptable. For a brief explanation of plagiarism, see the WinK Homepage (help:faq, What is plagiarism?), which I've included as a reference in the sidebar of the Writing Studio Wiki. For details, please contact Mr. Tomei as soon as possible.

If you plagiarize any part of any future assignment, I will give you no credit for Writing IV. I may also seek further punishments that KGU might impose on student[s] who plagiarize the work of others.

November 6, 2007 17:17:12 JST

4. Proto-Portfolio 2-01: Titles, labels, & data

Would you please accurately entitle this post, "Proto-Portfolio 2-01", change your label... to "portfolios" ([plural, with] no capital "P"), and fill in the data for August through October right away?

November 6, 2007 12:27:47 JST

Where's your data for August - October? Please fill it in right away.

2007年11月6日 16時44分00秒 JST

I came here looking for the beginning of your proto-portfolio for fall semester, following your label "proto-portfolio", but found a virtually complete portfolio from spring semester instead.

To prevent such confusion in the future, please relabel this and all other portfolio pieces with the simple, plural label "portfolios", instead of "proto-portfolio[-s]", and get and bring a Proto-Portfolio 2-01 up to date for October immediately!

2007/11/06 17:49

5. Wrap-up

Though I started collecting these comments and suggestions as I was about halfway through my sweep, they still apply to many other essays, mega-essays, and proto-portfolio posts on other blogs. In fact, you may find similar comments on your own blogs, or similar messages in your gmail queues. I hope you will continue to share any advice or suggestions that you get with all of your group mates, classmates and peers.

The advice above regarding essay titles applies to every post that you make. Moreover, I expect you to review all of the suggestions that I've made about labels, both here and in other posts, and apply them to every post on your own blogs as well. If you find new or similar problems on peers' blogs, please make suggestions for improvement in comments directly on their blogs as soon as possible.

Last, but most important - regarding plagiarism: Please consider yourselves forewarned of a zero-tolerance policy. Plagiarism in any post may have severe academic consequences.

[813 words]