[26 + 2 words]
Monday, November 29, 2010
Rick's KGU Writing 2010: English Games
In a quick post, English Games (2010.11.29), Rick points out three [fun] pre-intermediate grammar games from Oxford University Press. There are [plenty] more games where those come from.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Peer-to-peer comments survey
Thank you again for your responses to my questionnaire about peer-to-peer comments on essays. By the time you read this, I will have invited you to view the underlying spreadsheet and data collection, but as of this morning (Tuesday, November 16, 2010), I stopped accepting responses.
Now I would like to encourage everyone to browse all of the responses, especially those to free response items 8-10 (currently in columns I-K). There you should look, in particular, for common qualities and types of comments that you, your classmates, and your peers appreciate, and ways that you all like to respond to eachanother.
While you are browsing the entire data collection, there are a number of points of interest and concern to which I would like to direct your attention. I have flagged a few of those points with colors that I've explained in the Color key (currently column M). I'll also explain some of them here.
First of all, you need not be concerned about responses in column B or F that look like dates (B2-B10, F2-F10). Those early responses came in before I realized the spreadsheet automatically changed responses like 1-5 and 6-10 into to a date format that displays 1/5/2010 and 6/10/2010, respectively. Anyone who plans to create surveys with Google Forms should remember to reset formatting on columns for responses like that from "Normal" to "Plain text."
Second, URLs are critical for internet research and formal written references. Even for less formal computer-mediated communication, it is essential to provide URLs pointing exactly where readers of your writing expect to go when they follow links that you give them.
However, in columns C and H there are a few URLs that reflect searches within blogs (for labels) rather than pointing directly to essay posts, for example:
Next you may notice a number of text clippings in columns D and G that include Japanese characters. I believe that the owners of blogs they use for an English writing course are doing themselves, their classmates, and their peers a disservice by leaving their blogs set to display Japanese. So I urge you all to set your blogs to display English most if not all of the time (except perhaps when you are tweaking blog settings), in order to provide yourselves and each other with ample opportunities for English reading as well as writing in this course.
As with URLs, research and written references depend upon accurate and complete data collection from various resources. Yet also in columns D and G are a number of clippings that omit the comment authors' names (blog handles), date stamps for those comments, or both.
Although those omissions are not a major problem for a simple survey such as this one about peer-to-peer comments on essays, the data collection and referencing habits that you start or develop in the Writing Studio will make a difference for future writing assignments and business tasks. It is quicker and easier to get the information readers need or want, and to record and share it accurately once and for all, than it is for you or anyone else to retrieve that information over and over again.
Last but not least is the matter of communicating your ideas in free response items not only clearly and completely yet economically, but also accurately. Machine translations, by and large, fail to produce accurate reflections of anything longer than words or phrases, or other than short simple sentences. So by all means, avoid dependence on machine translations; write short simple sentences that you can check yourselves.
Anything else that you are planning to post (that is, other than brainstorms, quick comments, or quickposts), you should check for grammar and spelling faults in a word-processing program – before you post it. Examples without explanations, or before brief explanations, also may fall flat. For a counter-example, please see: "Second, …" (above). If you approach surveys like this one for coursework as you might approach an online job application for a full-time position in a prestigious company or an important organization, I think you'll have the right mindset for online writing.
Now I would like to encourage everyone to browse all of the responses, especially those to free response items 8-10 (currently in columns I-K). There you should look, in particular, for common qualities and types of comments that you, your classmates, and your peers appreciate, and ways that you all like to respond to each
While you are browsing the entire data collection, there are a number of points of interest and concern to which I would like to direct your attention. I have flagged a few of those points with colors that I've explained in the Color key (currently column M). I'll also explain some of them here.
First of all, you need not be concerned about responses in column B or F that look like dates (B2-B10, F2-F10). Those early responses came in before I realized the spreadsheet automatically changed responses like 1-5 and 6-10 into to a date format that displays 1/5/2010 and 6/10/2010, respectively. Anyone who plans to create surveys with Google Forms should remember to reset formatting on columns for responses like that from "Normal" to "Plain text."
Second, URLs are critical for internet research and formal written references. Even for less formal computer-mediated communication, it is essential to provide URLs pointing exactly where readers of your writing expect to go when they follow links that you give them.
However, in columns C and H there are a few URLs that reflect searches within blogs (for labels) rather than pointing directly to essay posts, for example:
- ....blogspot.com/search/label/essays
- .....blogspot.com/2010/10/my-language-learning-experience_24.html#comments
- ...blogspot.com/2010/10/essay-2-02a.html?showComment=1289352477130#c7270187716401701175
Next you may notice a number of text clippings in columns D and G that include Japanese characters. I believe that the owners of blogs they use for an English writing course are doing themselves, their classmates, and their peers a disservice by leaving their blogs set to display Japanese. So I urge you all to set your blogs to display English most if not all of the time (except perhaps when you are tweaking blog settings), in order to provide yourselves and each other with ample opportunities for English reading as well as writing in this course.
As with URLs, research and written references depend upon accurate and complete data collection from various resources. Yet also in columns D and G are a number of clippings that omit the comment authors' names (blog handles), date stamps for those comments, or both.
Although those omissions are not a major problem for a simple survey such as this one about peer-to-peer comments on essays, the data collection and referencing habits that you start or develop in the Writing Studio will make a difference for future writing assignments and business tasks. It is quicker and easier to get the information readers need or want, and to record and share it accurately once and for all, than it is for you or anyone else to retrieve that information over and over again.
Last but not least is the matter of communicating your ideas in free response items not only clearly and completely yet economically, but also accurately. Machine translations, by and large, fail to produce accurate reflections of anything longer than words or phrases, or other than short simple sentences. So by all means, avoid dependence on machine translations; write short simple sentences that you can check yourselves.
Anything else that you are planning to post (that is, other than brainstorms, quick comments, or quickposts), you should check for grammar and spelling faults in a word-processing program – before you post it. Examples without explanations, or before brief explanations, also may fall flat. For a counter-example, please see: "Second, …" (above). If you approach surveys like this one for coursework as you might approach an online job application for a full-time position in a prestigious company or an important organization, I think you'll have the right mindset for online writing.
[722 words]
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Where had all my comments gone?
As I was updating my Proto-Portfolios the other day, I got a strange feeling that the numbers of comments I'd sent out were much lower than they should be (row five). Indeed they were. Although I expected to have missed counting a few odd comments here and there, the total displayed in cell 5K turned out to be off by over a hundred!
What was the problem? I'd been doing my best to remember to toggle the follow-up comment option ON, whenever I started to write a comment on someone else's blog. When that option is ON, before you preview or post, it looks like this if the page display is in Japanese.
 |
| Comment window: "Follow-up comments ..." ON |
Not only do I get a copy of my out-going comments sent to me by mail, to collect and count monthly for entries on row five [of] Proto-Portfolios spreadsheets, I also receive mail notification of answers to questions or responses to suggestions that I post in comments on other people's blogs. Mail notifications include links that make it easy to follow-up on follow-ups. Forgetting to select that option a few times a semester wasn't the problem.
The problem was searches that I'd used to retrieve mail messages to remind me of comments on other people's blogs were missing a large proportion, more than 80%, of previous comments from first semester. A typical monthly search started like this:
Today it finally dawned on me why that kind of search had missed so many recent comments. Such searches failed to retrieve mail reminding me of comments that I'd left on blogs whose owners set them to display in Japanese. Sifting through All Mail archives by hand, I discovered numerous automated mail messages with Japanese lead-ins that had been slipping through my searches.
The following search, using the Japanese message lead-in, turned up over a hundred more comments to add to Proto-Portfolio tallies for first semester.
Granted, it may be possible to refine each of those two searches with additional words or characters, for example, "... new comment [on]" (blogs set to display in English). Nevertheless, I'm satisfied that combined search results reflect the bulk of comments of which I've elected to get follow-up mail notifications.
The key to gathering info. automatically for entries on row five of Proto-Portfolios is still the same: Remember to switch follow-up comment notification ON before posting comments on classmates' and peers' blogs. The same is true for following up easily on written exchanges started or continuing in comments on blog posts: Switch follow-up comment notification ON before posting!
The problem was searches that I'd used to retrieve mail messages to remind me of comments on other people's blogs were missing a large proportion, more than 80%, of previous comments from first semester. A typical monthly search started like this:
 |
| Search terms from English notification message |
The following search, using the Japanese message lead-in, turned up over a hundred more comments to add to Proto-Portfolio tallies for first semester.
 |
| Search terms from Japanese notification message |
Granted, it may be possible to refine each of those two searches with additional words or characters, for example, "... new comment [on]" (blogs set to display in English). Nevertheless, I'm satisfied that combined search results reflect the bulk of comments of which I've elected to get follow-up mail notifications.
The key to gathering info. automatically for entries on row five of Proto-Portfolios is still the same: Remember to switch follow-up comment notification ON before posting comments on classmates' and peers' blogs. The same is true for following up easily on written exchanges started or continuing in comments on blog posts: Switch follow-up comment notification ON before posting!
[442 words]
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
PocketCultures: Poll of the Month (September 2010)
Thanks to a link from Carla Arena, who explores "the wonders of the Online World" from Brazilia (Google Profile), I discovered the PocketCultures website today. On it, prominently displayed near the top of the home page, was a Poll of the Month asking, "How many languages do you speak?"
Though people responding to that poll hardly represent a random sample of world populations, or even blogger populations for that matter, it is interesting to note two points in particular:
(2010.09.28, c. 11:00 JST)
- Less than a quarter of current responses represent speakers of only one language, and
- More than a quarter of the responses represent speakers of more than three languages!
(2010.09.28, c. 11:00 JST)How about you: How many languages do you speak now, and how many do you want to be able to speak in the future?
If you're interested in finding out about various cultures around the world, PocketCultures offers three categories of posts to explore, focusing on topics, people, and blogs. Check 'em out, and let us know what you discover in a comment on this post when you get back!
[183 words]
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
YouTube - podEnglish's Channel
If [you] enjoy watching short, sometimes humorous video clips to practice listening and review English expressions and grammar that you know – or to learn more, you might like to try these micro-lessons:
- YouTube - podEnglish's Channel: "Bite[-]sized video English lessons to help you learn English.... This is the complete collection of English lessons from beginner to advanced" (channel info.).
There are 80 clips on that channel now, both topic-focused and situational. In addition to that collection, you also can find six other playlists of videos at various levels of instruction (beginner, elementary, intermediate, and advanced) to choose from here.
Please let your classmates, peers, and me know which ones you try, and what you think of them, by sharing your thoughts in comments on this post. If you wish, you can use the "same window" link recipe from the LTD Project Wiki (HTML Tips & Tutorials) to add reader-friendly links from your comments to selected videos you recommend.
[160 words]
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