The Writing Studio Blog

Review of Predecessors' Portfolios

2011-12-13T18:52:00.000+09:00

[130 words]

Flash from the Past: Book Reviews for 2nd Semester

2011-10-31T18:27:00.000+09:00

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]

New Link: Learn English with Comics

2011-10-07T18:40:00.003+09:00

There's a new link in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar:

It leads to a blog loaded with posts in comic strip form to help learners understand phrasal verbs. Clicking on the graphic below will take you there.

I'd like to extend thanks to Carla Arena for point[ing] this out on her blog (Collablogatorium, September 27, 2011).

[54 words]

Classic Number with a Classy Dame?

2011-10-07T17:48:00.004+09:00

What do you think of this duet?

[34 words]

Comments and Advice: September 2011

2011-10-02T18:49:00.015+09:00

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the Writing Studio Blog.

In the left column of the table below is a collection of comments that I'd posted on individual blogs during or just after the summer recess, including a number of suggestions for revising and improving posts. Those without dates and links were pending moderator approvals when I collected them (from previews). They are all in chronological order (earliest to latest). In the right column are generalizations from those comments to advice for all of you to continue to follow. So please read this entire post carefully.

Then, if you have any concerns or questions about those comments, either on your own posts or on those of your classmates or peers, please voice them in class or spell them out in comments on this post. The same goes for the advice and suggestions for everyone. Last but not least, please keep checking your blog dashboards for comments awaiting moderation, and show and tell me in class if you get any that you think are comment spam.

Thank you for your continuing cooperation.

Comments for Individuals	Advice for All
Hi Sakurako, If what you have in this post is a quotation (possibly a preface for a book review), you need to mark the quotation as such (and shorten it), for example, "...[O]ne day, a dazzling new songbird arrives..., and the Emperor has eyes for nothing else" (p. n). Book reviews also need APA-style references. Cheers, PB 2011年8月5日16:13	Start book reviews with brief quotations that are likely to attract readers attention. Mark them clearly as a quotations; Follow them with short citations in parentheses; and Provide a complete APA-style reference, with the authors' given names spelled out, at the end of the review. See the Writing Studio Blog, BR 2-01: Robin Hood (Swan, 1989) (September 22, 2011) for an illustration.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The "n" in parentheses in my previous comment is a placeholder for the number of the page where you got the quotation. I'd also like to remind you that book reviews you do now (Aug. – Sep.) will count for fall semester, and, last but not least, ask you [to] share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年8月5日16:21	For an explanation of factors scores for book reviews you post early this semester, please review the Writing Studio Blog, Book Reviews: Factors to Consider (August 1, 2011).
pab さんのコメント... Hi, Yudai! It is a pleasure to see you tackling serious topics here on your blog. Your remark at the end about discussing such things with your friends lead me to wonder whether there is any place special that you like to go to do that. Cheers, PB. 2011年9月20日火曜日10:21:00 JST ...2011/09/big-earthquake-in-japan	Include information you expect readers to need or want to know. Provide details and give examples.
pab さんのコメント... Takahiro, Is this some sort of machine translation? Please let me know in a follow-up comment ASAP. Cheers, PB [Sep 22, 2011]	Open your blog at least every other day. Please approve comments waiting for moderation within 48 hours, and respond in follow-up comments. [Note: Takahiro has responded to my question in a follow-up comment.]
pab さんのコメント... Shiori's right! You should use three or more labels on every post. Other possible labels for this post would be composition and free-writing. You also need to include word counts on every post. Counting words when you post will make it easy to tally them up for your Proto-Portfolio entries each month. Please put them in square brackets, aligned flush right, on the last line of every post. Cheers, PB 2011年9月22日13:42 ...2011/09/reflections-on-writing-iii.html	Include word counts and labels on every post. See the Writing Studio Blog for model posts showing where to put word counts (last line, aligned right). Choose labels suited to each post. If you're not sure about which labels to use, please ask for suggestions in class.
pab さんのコメント... Hi Natsumi, It sounds like you took some sort of nation-wide certification or qualification exam. I gathered it was challenging, but I couldn't figure out who or what the exam was for. So please let us know more. For example, what subjects where on the exam, and how long did (each part of) it last? Cheers, PB 2011年9月27日火曜日13:38:00 JST	Include information readers will need or want to know. Organize that information in a way that makes it easy to understand how one topic relates to the next. For example: General to specific, for example: Kind of test, Parts of test, Length of parts, & Difficulty of parts. Other organizational schemes you can use are: Time sequence Starting with earliest, or Starting with latest; and Order of importance Starting with the most important, & Repeating the most important at the end.

[851 words]

BR 2-01: Robin Hood (Swan, 1989)

2011-09-27T17:31:00.005+09:00

"The king stayed in Nottingham for many weeks, but nobody could find Robin Hood. Nobody knew where he was. Or if they did know, they didn't say" (Swan, 1989, p. 42).

This book has many stories about Robin Hood. They come from folk tales about an outlaw, who was a hero of the people. I like folk stories, and I've watched Disney's animated film version (1973). So I decided to read this book.

At first I was surprised, because the pictures in the book were very different from the Disney's images. Other points were the same. For example, Robin Hood had many friends, but also powerful enemies. The Sheriff of Nottingham tried to catch Robin, and the King of England wanted him dead. I won't tell you what happened. You can read the book, and find out for yourself. I will tell you that I was surprised again.

This book is easy to read. Swan (1989) uses a 500 word vocabulary, and puts New Words in the back (pp. 55-57). You can read one story at a time. Color pictures with many of them show key events in the stories.

I liked this book a lot. I think you will, too. If you do, then maybe we can watch the classic film version (Warner Brothers, 1938) together!

Reference

Swan, D. K. (1989). Robin Hood [Longman Classics, Stage 1]. Harlow, England: Longman Group.

[232 words]

Wow, What Did I Miss? (2nd sem., day one)

2011-09-21T16:20:00.001+09:00

In case you're not back from your summer holidays (or forgot classes started today, like I did about this time last year :-), here is a snapshot of class notes reflecting what we did. The main activities and assignments today covered accuracy (labeling issues), fluency (free-writing and extensive writing), portfolio (PF) foundation building, and homework.

To get a closer look, please click on the graphic (above). To find out details, please ask a classmate or peer who attended. If you have questions about classwork and other assignments shown here, questions your classmates and peers cannot answer, please post them in comments on this post.

Last but not least, please plan to attend every class meeting for the rest of the semester, or to gather this sort of information on your own from now on. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

See you next week!

[145 words]

Nancy and Suzy Explore Twitter

2011-09-12T10:25:00.003+09:00

"...[A]n online interaction designer, facilitator and coach... working with a puppet" to help people get a handle on social media (Community Matters, Vimeo, Wed, Feb 16, 2011):

Nancy White & Suzy - An Intro to Twitter

from CommunityMatters on Vimeo.

Twitterers out there: Are they telling it like it is?

[50 words]

Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Periods, Commas and Semicolons

2011-08-16T13:26:00.003+09:00

Following a three-part series on email on the ULiveandLearn blog, Email Etiquette and Guidelines, offering a total of 15 tips (for example, Part Three), Always Learning has started a series of Grammar Basics punctuation guides. Recently these guides have focused on commas in particular. The brief explanations and examples are well worth a look:

Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Periods, Commas and Semicolons

Eight rules for periods include ellipses (2011.07.21)

Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Commas

Four rules for commas (2011.07.28)

Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Commas Used in Series

Rules 6-7 for commas (2011.08.04)

Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Interrupting Commas

Rule 5 for commas (2011.08.11)

If you go to the ULiveandLearn website, and sign up for free membership, you can get weekly email notification of new writing tips. Tips for using semi-colons should be coming soon!

[152 words]

Good PowerPoint Design (Osterwalder)

2011-08-09T10:55:00.003+09:00

Modeling design principles for business presenters, Ostewalder showed and told it all in 135 slides, including step-by-step builds and appendices (Slideshare, "two years ago" [relative date]). He cut to the chase to introduce four basic rules on slides 15-18, then elaborated on each.

Audience's perspective (slide 24, ff.)
Content and structure – Tell a story. (slide 51, ff.)
Visual design – Keep it simple. (slide 83, ff.)
Delivery – a performance for guests (slide 104, ff.)

The highlight for me was the audience profiling tool, a graphic organizer, that Ostewalder introduced on slides 42-46. Try it out!

Good PowerPoint Design - for business presenters

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder

[116 words]

Book Reviews: Factors to Consider

2011-08-01T17:30:00.017+09:00

This post is to remind you how factors work in your Proto-Portfolio spreadsheets. The screenshots below show example factor scores for book reviews (BRs) completed at various times during first semester.

Screenshot 1 shows what the factor score would be for 12 BRs, if you did two each month. Screenshot 2 show[s] the factor score for 10 BRs completed early in the semester. Screenshot 3 shows the factor score for the same number of book reviews (10) completed late in the semester.

The same factors apply on 2nd semester spreadsheets:

Each BR completed during the 1st two months counts as 1.50 BRs.

Each BR completed during the 2nd two months counts as 1.25 BRs.

Each BR completed during the 3rd two months counts as only 1 BR.

So, if you have time to spare this summer, it would be a great idea to get started reading books and writing reviews for 2nd semester.

Screenshot 1: 12 BRs – same number every month

Factor score = 15

Screenshot 2: 10 BRs – early in semester

Factor score = 14.25

Screenshot 3: 10 BRs – late in semester

Factor score = 10.75

[190 words]

Comments for everyone to read and heed, with no further adieu!

2011-07-17T22:21:00.002+09:00

[Comments and remarks in the table below focus on word counts and labels for blog posts.]

Comments	Remarks
pab さんは書きました... Hi Saori, You're not counting lyrics in this post as your words, are you? I see only about 45 words in your intro. to this song. That's barely 15% of 285 words. Cheers, PB 2011年7月17日21:55	On Kimigasuki~Love you~ post (2011年6月21日火曜日)
pab さんは書きました... Hello again, Saori. Would you please reserve the label "free-writing" for assignments in preparation for more formal writing such as essays. Please use the label "links" only on posts that include hyperlinks, and "media" only on posts that include media. Cheers, PB 2011年7月17日21:48	Recommendations for labels to use and when to use them are on the Writing Studio Blog, Labels and Links page.
pab さんは書きました... Hi Saori, You're not counting Ketsumeishi's words as your words, are you? I see only about 94 words in your intro. to this song. That's barely 15% of 615 words. Cheers, PB 2011年7月17日21:43	On Life is beautiful post (2011年6月22日水曜日)
pab さんは書きました... Hi Saori, You're not counting V6 words as your words, are you? I see only about 40 words in your intro. to this song. That's barely 20% of 190. Cheers, PB 2011年7月17日21:35	On Song of thanks (2011年7月2日土曜日)
pab said... Hi Miyuki, Would you please use the label "essays" only for formal writing assignments that the whole class does: 1-01a-b, 1-02a-b, 1-03a-b, ...? I'd also appreciate a response to my May 20, 2011, comment on your essay 1-02a. Thank you. PB July 13, 2011 4:38 PM	Recommendations for labels to use and when to use them are on the Writing Studio Blog, Labels and Links page.

[Note: Comment dates without links represent previews on blogs where approvals are pending.]

[322 + 29 words]

APA Style Blog: Punctuating the Reference List Entry

2011-07-16T11:14:00.001+09:00

The APA Style Blog: Punctuating the Reference List Entry post by Chelsea Lee (2011.07.14) shows and tells how to punctuate the four main parts of reference citations: authors, dates, titles, and sources.

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Basic Format for Motion Picture References: Have a Go!

2011-06-23T17:40:00.006+09:00

Here is a basic APA-style formatting guide for motion picture references:

Producer, P. P. (Producer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (... [Year] of publication). Title of motion picture [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio or distributor.

(Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide: ...

Other Non-Print Resources: Motion Picture)

If you'd like to have a go at using that guide to compose and format a draft, APA-style reference for the movie that your classmates and peers are reviewing (Mrs. Doubtfire), feel free to post one in comments on this post. Likewise, if you have questions about the composition, formatting, or purposes of APA-style references, in general, please feel free to spell them out in comments on this post.

Last but not least, whenever you're composing references, please remember that:

As with authors' names for book references, you should list producers' and directors' family names before their given names (and middle names or initials, if available) for movies;
Commas and single spaces separate family names from other names or initials, and
For practice in the writing course you are taking, you should spell out given names, followed by middle names or initials (if available). That will facilitate comparison and cross-checking of your draft references.

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Rough Class Outlines for Draft Essays: §1C

2011-06-22T17:25:00.000+09:00

This post represents rough outlines developed in class from proposals of themes and foci for your next essays, thematic reviews of the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. Once you choose a major theme or two from the outline from your section (§1C), you are welcome to draw related ideas from the outline for the other section doing thematic reviews of the same movie (§1A).

Assignment details for your draft essays are in course calendar event descriptions. You'll be getting automated reminders by mail a few days before your essays are due. Please read those messages carefully and completely. Then, if you have concerns or questions about the current assignment, please spell them out right away in comments on this post, where everyone can see them – at least two days before the assignment is due.

[4 words {remainder of text

replicates previous post}]

Rough Class Outlines for Draft Essays: §1A

2011-06-22T17:20:00.003+09:00

This post represents rough outlines developed in class from proposals of themes and foci for your next essays, thematic reviews of the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. Once you choose a major theme or two from the outline from your class (§1A), you are welcome to draw related ideas from the outline for the other section doing thematic reviews of the same movie (§1C).

You can get closer looks at the snapshots showing expansions of various sections of the class outline by clicking on the graphics in this post. Again, please feel free to mix and match themes and foci from the outline for the other section (in a separate post), with those from your class (above).

Assignment details for your draft essays are in course calendar event descriptions. You'll be getting automated reminders by mail a few days before your essays are due. Please read those messages carefully and completely. Then, if you have concerns or questions about the current assignment, please spell them out right away in comments on this post, where everyone can see them – at least two days before the assignment is due.

[188 words]

Computer Viruses and Threats Explained by Common Craft

2011-06-18T16:48:00.003+09:00

In voice-over on this video animation, Lee LeFever explains what computer viruses, worms, and trojans are, and how they work. He also makes general recommendations for preventing problems that viruses, worms, and trojans may cause. If catching it all while just listening and viewing seems too challenging, you can preview, read along, or review the complete transcript.

Video:

http://commoncraft.com/virus-video

Transcript:

http://www.commoncraft.com/transcript-computer-viruses-and-threats

If you like LeFever's presentation style, and want to watch more Common Craft videos, please check out the "in Plain English" series (search: Common Craft).

[82 words]

Exhibit A: a Slideshow from Flickr

2011-06-10T09:38:00.000+09:00

The slideshow below shows pictures from Exhibit A, an online, public picture collection of copyright-protected images that I have on Flickr. Flickr is an easy to use photo-sharing site.

Do you recognize anything in the pictures? Have you been where they were taken?

If you do, great! Please post a comment letting us know how and when. If not, can you guess what the pictures show, or where they were taken? Which do you think are the best?

If you have questions about any of the pictures in Exhibit A after checking out the details, please shout out in comments on this post. If you're interested in Flickr, here is "what you [can] get with a free account:

300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)
2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)
Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
Only smaller (resized) images accessible [to the public] (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)[.]

(Free Accounts..., 2011.06.10)

[184 words]

Course Links: Update, June 8, 2011

2011-06-08T17:50:00.001+09:00

Students have begun adding another link to the lists of Links (gagdets) in their sidebars. I've followed suit. The green oval in the graphic above highlights a new link in the Writing Studio Blog sidebar. That link is also on the Writing Studio Wiki homepage, in §6.1.

Data on books you review (authors' names, publication dates, cities of publication, and the like) that you glean from the Material Search site work well in conjunction with the Citation Maker, an online tool to help you compose accurate and complete APA-style citations (see: Course Links: Highlights – May 2011). That is, as long as you remember that Citation Maker automatically reduces authors' given names to their initials. For practical purposes, please spell them out (again) completely in reference listings on your book review posts.

[134 words]

Best Essays: Self-Assessments

2011-06-02T12:43:00.003+09:00

This post recap's a message sent to viewers of the Best Essays: Self-Assessments workbook. In square brackets toward the end of the message are a couple of minor revisions (a clarification and a correction).

Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 11:59

Best Essays: Self-Assessments

Hello everyone (§§1A & 1C + assistants):

Thank you for your cooperation yesterday in submitting self-assessments of your best essays to date, especially those of you who submitted the Best Essays: Self-Assessments form only once. I closed the form for additional markup and sorting this morning.

On the left most spreadsheet in this Google workbook (sheet 1: 2011-12_1st-20110601), I've marked redundant entires with dark blue backgrounds across rows. Red backgrounds in individual cells flag failures to follow instructions when entering data, for example:

- more than the last five digits of student numbers,

- blog titles or URLs instead of blog handles, and

- line returns within paragraph text entries.

Please note that most of those undesirable and unnecessary line returns within paragraphs are residuals of copy and paste clippings _from paragraphs on your blogs_, many of which still contain large numbers of undesirable and unnecessary line returns within paragraphs. So please revise previous posts, and remove unnecessary line returns within paragraphs. Then remember to enter line returns only between paragraphs, and then to enter two, to create white spaces between paragraphs.

Most important, however, are the entries that I've flagged with green backgrounds, which reflect growing awareness of distinct qualities of your own writing. In a nutshell, among the qualities you've mentioned are:

+ audience appeal,

+ ease of understanding,

+ grammatical accuracy

+ grammatical complexity,

+ informativeness, and

+ self-expression.

Please review items 8 and 9 (important qualities, columns J-K [at present]), and tell us in class next week (June 8, 2011) of any other qualities of your or your classmates' [and] peers' writing that you are able to distinguish from this data collection, or through links in it. Please also prepare to identify the topics of the weakest paragraphs in your best essays, and explain what their weaknesses are.

Thank you again for your cooperation. PB

If you have concerns or questions about this message, please spell them out in comments on this post, or voice them in class next week. Thanks.

[382 words]

Comment collection continues, guidelines included!

2011-06-01T07:12:00.000+09:00

Here are two tables full of comments: The first includes comments especially for students in section 1A; the second, especially for students in section 1C. Comments on recent posts are toward the top of each table; those on older posts are toward the bottom. Timestamps on comments are from previews, so they may differ somewhat from those in comments on actual posts. Guidelines in the right hand column are for everyone.

Section 1A	Guidelines
pab said... Hi Sayaka, In your May 27 post about the first class (in early April), you wrote that you didn't know how to do typing homework. That's quite puzzling. How and when did you find out how to do it? Where were the information and instructions you needed to get started, and when did you get them? Please let us know. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 9:29 PM	Using meta-cognitive strategies: know how and reflection
pab said... Hi Yuka [S.], It is interesting to read about your other classes. However, it might be better if you'd shorten the name of the teacher you're writing about to Ms. S. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 7:40 PM	Masking personal info.
pab said... Same here, Yuka. Please shorten the name of the teacher you're writing about to Mr. B. Cheers, PB May 29, 2011 7:43 PM	Masking personal info.
pab さんは書きました... Sorry, Ayayah, but how can you recommend a book without telling us what it is? Please put a short title in the title of your post, and add an APA-style reference citation to the end of your post. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日19:51	Including APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello Kazu, Is this review entirely original? Did you close the book when your wrote this review? You should tell readers, in your own words: + why you chose this book, + whether you found it interesting, and why, and + to whom you recommend it, and why. The only part of your review that should come directly from the story is a short, juicy, quotation, a teaser at the very beginning of your post. The quotation needs to be absolutely accurate, enclosed in quotation marks, and followed by a page number in parentheses. You shouldn't retell the story, or spoil the ending for other students who might read it. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日20:06	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point
pab さんは書きました... PS: Will you please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日20:08	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point; and Including APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello again, haramicky, Will you please also shorten the name of the high school and univ. you mention to "H... high school" and "K... G... U..."? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日21:18	Masking institutional names

Section 1C	Guidelines
pab さんは書きました... Hi Sakurako, Have you read the details for either of these two essays on the Writing Studio Blog Calendar? Essay 1-02a: University Life Mon, May 16, 4pm – 5pm Essay 1-02b: University Life – major revisions Tue, May 31, 4pm – 5pm Please (re-)read them. The first called for an essay five+ paragraphs and 350+ words in length (due May 16); the second calls for six+ paragraphs and 400+ words (due May 31). Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日11:43	Referring to course resources (blog, calendar, wiki, and online workbooks[Google spreadsheets])
pab さんは書きました... Hello Saori, Will you please shorten the proper names in this essay to: KGU, HGHS, and Ms. M., ASAP? Then please avoid spelling out proper names in posts and comments. That is, except for names of famous people, for ex., Tom Cruise, and authors' names in book reviews. Last but not least, please share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日11:51	Minimizing institutional names, and Minimizing personal information
pab さんは書きました... Mitsuki, Please bring all three of these books to class on Wed., June 1: ///// BR 1-06: The New House from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki ... Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// BR 1-05: By the Stream from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki … Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// BR 1-04: The Dream from Mitsuki U by Mitsuki … Oxford University Press 1986. Written by roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta ///// Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日11:58:41 JST	Including accurate, APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Hello Arisa, Will you please replace the proper names in this essay with: "... [KGU]" (intro.) "... [an academic high school in Kumamoto City]" (intro.), and "... [KGU]" (concl.), ASAP? Then please avoid spelling out proper names in posts and comments. That is, except for names of famous people, for ex., Tom Cruise, and authors' names in book reviews. Last but not least, please share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日12:08:24 JST	Minimizing institutional names, and Minimizing personal information
pab さんは書きました... Hi Yuka, When you use the label "typing" on posts like this, there is no need to include the word "Typing" in the titles. "How [to] study English" will work fine for this post, which also needs a couple more labels such as: memorizing, studying, vocabulary, ... (your choices). Please share what you learn from this comment with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:19	Creating accurate, attractive, descriptive post titles, and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
pab さんは書きました... [Mitsuki:] Please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1, too. 2011年5月29日日曜日12:24:53 JST	Keeping BRs original, and Including accurate, APA-style references
pab さんは書きました... Yuka, Would you please mask or remove personally identifying info. from this post. "Shoko" is fine, but her date of birth and the name of the high school she attended are too much info. Instead, how about: "She was born in ... [the early 90's. Her birthday is in November {like mine!}].... She ... [went to an academic] high school [in the city]." Next, please replace the label "essays" (reserved for formal writing assignments) with three others more suitable to this post, such as: exercise, friends, interests, ... (your choices). Then please do likewise for other posts and comments you make (or have made), and share what you learn from comments like this with your classmates and peers. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:40	Minimizing personal information, and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
Hi Gaki, What's this post about? It's missing spaces between numbers and words, both in the title and in the body of the post. Though one suitable label would be "quickposts," there's not enough content to tell [what other labels might be suitable], or even [to] count it as a post, is there? Please let me know. Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日12:49	Creating accurate, attractive, descriptive post titles; Creating enough content to merit a post; and Labeling posts appropriately, with three or more labels
pab さんのコメント... Hi Emi, It is a pleasure to see you've gotten a start on your book reviews. However, I'm wondering: Is the content of this book review entirely original? That is, is it all your own ideas, in your own words? Rather than to retell stories, and spoil the endings for other readers, you should focus on what you thought and felt before, during, and after reading the books you review. That is, except for the juicy quotation at the beginning, you should write no more than you can remember with the book closed. Cheers, PB 2011年5月23日月曜日8:41:00 JST ///// Eri さんのコメント... Thank you for your comment. I'll rewrite it. 2011年5月23日月曜日12:34:00 JST ///// pab さんは書きました... Eri, Will you please bring this book to class on Wed., June 1? Cheers, PB 2011年5月29日日曜日13:07:27 JST ///// pab さんは書きました... Emi, Thanks for rewriting this book review! Please make certain to reflect the new word count in your Proto-Porfolio entries for May [due June 1]. Cheers, PB 2011年5月31日火曜日11:03:53 JST	Keeping BRs original, short, sweet, and to the point; Following up on comments in a timely fashion; Including word counts (but not running totals) in posts

[1493 words]

Topic outlines from comments and questions

2011-05-25T18:23:00.000+09:00

This post shows screenshots of outlines that we compiled during class meetings today. The outlines represent topics of interest gleaned from peer-to-peer comments and questions on posts of previous draft essays.

The first four screenshots below represent topics that came up in section 1A (§1A, below). I've moved a few of the topics up, down, or side to side, to put similar topics together, and sub-topics at similar levels in the organizational hierarchy. The next three screenshots below represent topics that students in section 1C shared in class, some of which I've rearranged or re-combined as well.

As you review your own essays, and plan your next revisions, please feel free to select, (re-)mix, and match topics from either or both of the extended outlines below, to amplify and extend in Essay 1-02b what you've already written in Essay 1-02a.

§1A

RoughOutlines1A-1

RoughOutlines1A-2

RoughOutlines1A-3

RoughOutlines1A-4

§1C

RoughOutlines1C-1

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APA Style Blog: Can You Cite Personal Life Experience?

2011-05-23T15:15:00.000+09:00

Chelsea Lee, in the APA Style Blog: Can You Cite Personal Life Experience? (April 28, 2011, ¶1), defines "the purpose of the reference list, which is retrievability of the source for the reader." Lee goes on to explain the purpose of academic citations as consolidation of our "foundation of knowledge" (¶2), and sums up as follows: "...[I]n general, you should provide sources for specialized facts and knowledge. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t speak from personal experience or opinion in your writing" (¶3).

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"When you're in space the weather's fine" (Stormy Mondays).

2011-05-21T13:39:00.003+09:00

Here's a bit of upbeat music, Sunrise Number 1 by Stormy Mondays, to help get you through day one of next week, and maybe even pick you up again off and on when the rainy season arrives. A Jamendo listing for this song says it's a "...[f]inalist for the 'Wake up song' contest - NASA Space Rock ..., two [of which] will be played in the very last space shuttle mission" (Album description, retrieved 2011.05.21).

Royalty free music for professional licensing
In fact, this is the top place finisher in NASA's Original Composition contest. Another music player with all ten finalist songs (voting closed) is available here.[107 words]