Even birds may enjoy bluegrass!

The bird on the guitar in the screenshot above (from approx. two minutes into a rough but ready dogwork.com video) seems to have dropped in to listen to Josh Williams, who stopped playing and pet the bird, but continued singing the song. 

KeenValleyGuy, who uploaded the following video, pegged the event at the Doyle Larson Bluegrass Festival, in Denton, NC, on May 5, 2011:

Josh Williams - Mordecai, uploaded by KeenValleyGuy, June 7, 2011

Since the bird didn't get it's own mic, it's hard to tell whether it actually did sing along!

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Writing Studio Bulletin 2-00 (2012): Summer Blogging

What follows is a reply to a student who had written, and asked about blogging (s-)he'd done at the beginning of August.

Hello ..., 

Thank you for your message (Fri, Aug 3, 2012[,] at 11:55 PM; below).  

From it, I gathered that you'd been blogging for the previous few days (Aug. 1-3). You seemed to ... [have been] wondering whether words you'd written since the final exam would count for 1st (spring) semester. 

As I announced in class, displayed on monitors, and summarized on the whiteboard; book reviews and other posts that you write in August and September will count towards achievement of _2nd_ (fall) semester course goals (Writing IV, section[s] 1A & 1C). Writing you've done in August won't influence your grade for 1st semester. Complete Proto-Portfolio and Portfolio Elements entries for 1st semester writing through July were due Aug. 1, as were 1st semester Portfolios.  

Please keep track what you write in August and September in your _2nd_ semester Proto-Portfolios [PPFs] spreadsheet. It sounds like you've got an early start. 

Cheers, PB

(Sun, Aug 5, 2012[,] at 11:22 AM)

I'm sharing that reply here, so you all will understand that you are welcome to continue writing original book reviews and other posts during the summer recess, and to count them in your 2nd semester PPFs. 

To start earning credit for 2nd semester, please note that complete PPF entries for August and September will be due Oct. 1.

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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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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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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