Comments for everyone to read and heed!

This post consists of a collection of comments that I've posted in one section (1A), many of which are awaiting approval for publication on your blogs. I'd like to ask you to [publish those on your own blogs,] read them all through, and follow the advice, reminders, and suggestions that they contain – in all posts and commentary. 

The labels ... [at the foot of] this post will be a good place to start, because they can give you a general idea about the various foci in the comments [that] I'm listing here for everyone's benefit. [Comments on older posts are closer to the end of the list.]

Thanks in advance for your continuing cooperation.

Hello, Kazu. Would you please shorten the name of the university to KGU, and add blank lines between paragraphs to make it easy to see where they begin and end? Cheers, PB [2011.05.20: Spell-check, too!]

haramicky, would you please shorten Misaki's name in your post to simply Misaki, or Misaki K., and then avoid revealing that much personal information in all future posts and comments? Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

matsuyuki, would you please shorten the first line in your second paragraph to "I live in K... [, a] city ... [that] is far from this univercity," and then correct the spelling of the word university, throughout your post? Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi Miyuki, Thanks for keeping your blog display in English! Now would you please shorten the name of the university to KGU, and add blank lines between paragraphs to make it easy to see where they begin and end? Cheers, PB May 20, 2011

Ayayah, Would you please shorten the professor's name in your essay to something like "Prof. H. H.," and then _avoid_ using students' and teachers' full names in either comments or posts? I'd also like you to _delete_ the first two comments that you got (May 16 and 18, above) for the sake of preserving privacy, too. I'll replicate those comments below, with names shortened for you, so the gist of them will still appear after you delete the original comments that included full names. matsuyuki さんのコメント... H.... H.... is nice~ ^^ 2011年5月16日23:20 ca☆pi さんのコメント... I like H... H... ♡haha 2011年5月18日9:37 Last but not least, please share what you learn from this comment with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi Momo, Thanks for marking this with the "typing" label. You could also use a few other labels such as "home, holidays, [and] quickposts." However, it would be better to shorten the second sentence in this quickpost to, "My hometown is ... in Nagasaki," so as not to reveal to much personal info. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi poker face, I appreciate your labeling this post "typing." Other suitable labels for this post may include "food" and "habits." However, don't you think something like "Food and Eating Habits" would be a more attractive and informative title than "Typing homework 5"? The same goes for your other typing trial posts. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Chihiro, Would you please shorten the _all_ instances of the name of the university to "K...[GU]"? Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi Eimi, Thanks for responding to your classmates comments so quickly. Now would you please enter blank lines between the paragraphs of your essay, to make it easy to see where they begin and end? You also should make clear in the introductory paragraph who your intended or target audience is, rather than in a supplementary remark after the end of your essay. Cheers, PB 11/05/20

Maki, this is neither one of your "essays," nor one of your "drafts." If anything, you should label it "essay prep., [and] quickposts." Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Mina, if you post your typing trials separately, you'll get a higher number of posts, if not words, for your Proto-Portfolios! Cheers, PB 20/5/11

"ページが見つかりません ブログ Kazumi blog 内のお探しのページは存在しません。" [Thanks for removing this post with no content. PB, 2011.05.20]

Hi Matsuyuki, Belated congratulations on your birthday! Now would you please shorten the first line of this post to, "[In] April ..., I became 20 years old!"? If you're not certain why, please ask in class. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hey, haramicky! The quotation at the head of this post isn't from Burnett (2005), is it? If it isn't, it should be. The BR number probably ought to be 1-01, too. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hey, kazu! That's a pretty long BR! Did you remember all those details after you closed the book, and write it up ln your own words? There is no need for you to re-tell stories. In fact, you shouldn't; we just want to hear what you think about them. I'd also like to see page numbers in parentheses ... right after the juicy quotations at the head of your BRs, which you must type exactly as in the books. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日 [http://kazuminnie-18.blogspot.com/2011/04/br-1-01-princess-and-pea.html#comment-form]

Aya, Would you please shorten your name to "Aya T...," and mine to "Mr. B..." in this post, then avoid spelling out any family names in posts or comments – except those of authors in your book reviews? Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi Momo, I have a favor to ask. Actually it's more of a reminder of what Mr. T. wrote when he sent you your placement essay to post on your blog, and what I've told you in class. In the introductory paragraph of this essay, would you please shorten your name to "Maki T...," and the university's name to "... [KGU]"? Then please remember not to use any family names in either comments or posts. That is, except authors' family names in reference citations for book reviews. Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hi Mina, This is just a quick note to remind you not to use family names in posts or comments – except for authors' names in book reviews. Please shorten yours to "Mina T..." here. Cheers, PB 20/5/11

Hi Chihiro, I appreciate all of the details you've included in this post. Yet it would be nice if you gave it a catchy, informative title. It would also be better, in general, not to mention employers or schools by name. So would you please replace what you have in the second paragraph with the following? My father works at ... [a very large] company, and he loves his work, so he goes to work even on holidays. My mother works at an insurance company, and she distributes handbills everyday. My brother is a ... high school student [at a large public high school], ... Cheers, PB 2011年5月20日

Hello again, Thanks for shortening your name in this post. It also would be a good idea to change your hometown to "Y... [C]ity," and to leave the date off your birthday. Cheers, Paul 2011年5月20日

[1224 words]

Embedding Proto-Portfolios in Pages: A Critical Detail

If you try to embed a Google spreadsheet in a blog page, without switching to Edit HTML mode, a preview will look something like this:

[angle bracket]...iframe frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AgnNbaBa_zgpdFZJRGhWNWoyazJ6N0dDN3lIdXp3OWc&output=html&widget=true" width="500"...[angle brackets]/iframe[angle bracket]

If you paste the iframe code for a spreadsheet into your page in Edit HTML mode, as you should, the spreadsheet will appear in the preview.



Please note, however, that links and scrolling controls aren't functional in previews.

If you have concerns or questions about embedding spreadsheets in pages or posts, please voice them in class, or spell them out in comments on this post.

[103 words]

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2' Trailer (VIDEO)

Huffington Post Entertainment announced the release of the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and said, "Breathtaking CGI, deep and rich colors and a feeling of something larger than life pervade the trailer" (2011.04.27). What do you think of it?



The movie is scheduled for release on July 15. I imagine that's for the U.S. I wonder when it will open in Japan.

[68 words]

Course Links: Highlights – May 2011

The three websites listed in the screenshot above are about halfway down the Course Links list in the sidebar of the Writing Studio Blog. There are links to lead you directly to those websites in the sidebar (not in the screenshot in this post).

Citation Maker

The first link, Citation Maker, has been in the link list for a year or more. It points to a tool for generating reference citations that you can use to produce APA-style references for your book review (BR) posts. Please note that rough reference citations that you produce with Citation Maker are fine for now.

However, when you transfer those citations to your BR posts, I urge you to modify the APA-style. Please type out authors' full names: Family, Given. Then readers of your book reviews can see that you've got the right names, in the right order for reference citations.

Purdue OWL

The Purdue OWL [Online Writing Lab] Search page, I added to the Course Links list today. That search page covers the site I browse when I need detailed information about how to write APA-style references. For example, yesterday I wanted to check the style for a periodical, rather than a book. My search took me here:

• Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

• Reference List: Articles in Periodicals

There is a similarly detailed explanation there for references to books:

• Reference List: Books

Please note, once again, that for practical purposes in BRs you should spell out authors' full names: Family, Given. Use a modified APA-style, so we all can see that your citations of authors' names are accurate.

Phras.in BETA

Phras.in BETA is an easy tool to use when you're wondering about the wording of something you're writing or revising, after you've checked the spelling. Just paste or type in a phrase, and Phras.in displays the number of Google hits it gets. "Low figures mean ... that very few people ever phrased ... [it] that way, thus it was probably incorrect" (Phras.in, Why, 2011.05.10). 

Phras.in BETA will also list numerous contexts in which the phrases you're checking appear. This function is especially useful when you get high figures for two or more different wordings. To find out how it works, please use the "Contextualize 'em" button to you try it out with these example phrases:

• speak at
• speak of
• speak to
• speak with

[400 words]

Comments Awaiting Moderation

Two people left comments on the Writing Studio Blog towards the end of last month (April), comments that Blogger caught and flagged for moderation. They were on a post on which I had called for comments in February, March, and early April (post and comments).I found their comments Awaiting Moderation under the Comments tab in the Writing Studio Blog dashboard, shown in the picture below.

As you can see in the list above, each comment included no more than one word, "Hello." Yet I wonder why the authors of those comments wrote nothing more, such as "questions about any part of the Writing Studio Blog" (Welcome from Voki), or "what ... [they'd] found [most surprising] as [they'd] looked around the Writing Studio Blog" (follow up comment by pab, April 13, 2011).

If the authors of those as yet unpublished comments are around, I'd like to hear back from them here, on this post (Comments Awaiting Moderation; May 8, 2011). I'd like to get follow-up comments from them, explaining what they were thinking when they made such minimal comments, so long after their classmates and peers had looked around the Writing Studio Blog, and chimed in with interesting and thoughtful comments of their own.

[203 words]