Writing Studio Bulletin 1-01 (2008)

This is the first Writing Studio Bulletin for this year. The number in the title indicates that it is the first one for this spring semester (2008). From now on I'll use the abbreviation WSB plus numbers and a subtitle. This bulletin includes two items:

1. Writing Studio Wiki: News and Updates
2. Book Reviews: Numbers, Titles, and Labels
   

Writing Studio Wiki: News and Updates

• The Writing Studio Wiki is the first place to go for every class. I list significant changes on a yellow notepad in the upper right corner of the home page. Today it looks like this:

Book Reviews: Numbers, Titles, and Labels

For your book reviews this semester, I'd like you to use a uniform title consisting of abbreviations, numbers, and short book titles, like these examples, but without bullets in your actual blog post titles:

• BR 1-01: Mountains Beyond Mountains
• BR 1-02: Tuesdays with Morrie
• BR 1-03: ...
  

That's "BR" for Book Review, "1-..." for first semester, "...-01" for your first review this semester, then "...-02" and "...-03" for your next couple of reviews. Please note these typographic details:

• Single digits for semester numbers,
  
• Double-digits (with leading zeros now) for review numbers,
• Single spaces between the abbreviations and the numbers, and
• Single spaces between the colons (":") and the short book titles.
  

Last but not least, please remember to label all of your book reviews with at least two labels:

• books, reviews, ... (and more specific ones, if you like).

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WinK Wiki Resource: Model Book Reviews

This post announces a new WinK Wiki resource listing, describing, and linking to student book reviews that you can use a guides and models for your own blog posts:

• Model Book Reviews (2008.04.16)
  

This is also a reminder that the on-going (semester-long) book review writing assignment calls for you to write one or more book reviews each week (12 or more during spring semester). There is a growing range of easy-to-read genres and titles in the English Reading Garden at the KGU library.

As I noted in Orange Books and Book Reviews (2008.04.15), book reviews must neither be copied nor machine-translated, and, as I suggested in class today, book reviews generally should be as long as or longer than your longest five-minute typing speed trials. Moreover, your book reviews should be more accurate than typing speed trials, thanks to Blogger and Word spelling and grammer checks, and well-organized, too!

Please don't forget to label your book reviews with at least two labels: books and reviews. You can add genre labels (such as romance or SciFi), if you wish.

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Sample Reading Log Page

The scanned image below represents a reading log page from a student's orange book. The student who produced that log reviewed 20 books on her blog last fall semester. Her first page shows that she started by trying books from a variety of graded reader collections: non-fiction, "NF;" science, "SC;"... ; see: series abbreviations, below), and at a variety of levels (Young Learners' equivalents: YL 0.1-2.8). During fall semester she read 20 books and over 48,000 words.

Another student, whose photocopied pages were not so sharp and clear, logged 31 books for the year, and read over 170,000 words!

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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.

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Office Hours: Gmail for Appointments

This post announces my weekly office hour+ (Tuesday, 09:30-11:00), and shows where my physical office space is.


View pab's office in a larger map

If you'd like to meet either face-to-face (f2f) or online during my office hour+, please send a gmail message asking for an appointment at least 48 or, better yet, 72 hours in advance. Please use ... one of these subjects headings [with underscores, class, and section in the key string]:

• Writing_III-IV_1A: F2F, yyyy.mm.dd, please!
  
• Writing_III-IV_1A: Online, yyyy.mm.dd, please!

• Writing_III-IV_1C: F2F, yyyy.mm.dd, please!
  
• Writing_III-IV_1C: Online, yyyy.mm.dd, please!

Copy and paste one of the subject headings from here, if necessary, to make certain it is accurate (without the bullet point), carefully replacing "yyyy" with the calendar year, "mm" with a two-digit number for the month, and "dd" with a two-digit number for the date.

Then, in the body of all such [gmail] messages, please:

1. Explain why you would like to meet;
   
2. Suggest a time frame within my office hour+;
3. Include the last five digits of your student number; and
   
4. Spell out your full name (in a signature is fine).

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