Pukman @ WinK: the community that time didn't forget

Last semester, we did some essays. This semester will be the same, but not all of them are real essays. Some of them will be cooperative, i.e. you will do them with your friends. Some will be multimedia assignments. However, let us continue to use the label "essay" or "essays".

You should start the first assignment in the first class, if you have time, and finish it by Tuesday, October 9th. This first assignment is to make a presentation based on your Kumamoto essay from the first semester!

The area around the Prefectural University of Kumamoto is quite a nice one for shops and eating places. Here are a few, in order of distance from PUK.

Just across from the west gate of PUK is a small restaurant called Little Kitchen. It serves many kinds of food, though Mediterranean is perhaps the main type. It has a lunch set at 740 yen. It's a little expensive, but it includes soup, salad, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink. Drinks you can choose from include not only tea and coffee but also homemade ginger ale, which is very good. The best thing about Little Kitchen, though, is the drinks menu. It has about 20 kinds of foreign beer, including many English beers. This is very unusual in Japan.

One of my favorite coffee shops is Karan, on the opposite side of PUK from Little Kitchen. It is in Nagamine, near Hello Green and the Yamaha music shop. They sell coffee beans as well as serving coffee in the shop. I like their cappucino best.

Mos Burger is a little expensive for a meal, but I like the cafe latte, which is quite cheap. Also, Mos Burger has a nice, quiet atmosphere outside of meal times. Sometimes, I go there in the late afternoon when I'm doing research but feeling a little sleepy.

One of my favorite shops is called Premier Cru. It is in the Takuma area, a little further from PUK than the other places. Its original name was Moshi Moshi Kameya, then it became Good One. A couple of years ago, it closed for about a year, and then returned as Premier Cru. Premier Cru is famous for imported food and drink.

TODAY'S TYPING TOPIC: My favorite book
NEXT WEEK'S TYPING TOPIC: A shop I like

Today's main activities:

1. Talking about reading
   
2. Starting Essay 1 (Kumamoto)

After sending your attendance email and writing your 十分は十分 post, it's time to try to finish your collaborative essays. Work together. Call me to your desk for help with grammar and comments, etc. Remember you should correct as many grammar and spelling mistakes as possible before the deadline. Check out the Orangoo spellchecker.
For phrases, check out the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online.

Checklist:
spelling
grammar: subject, verb, 3rd person singular present "s", past/present
paragraph: does each paragraph have a clear topic? at least 3 sentences?; no returns in the paragraph?; 2 returns after each paragraph?
links
pictures

Some important points about the collaborative essay:

1. The essay should be collaborative. That means that 2 (or more) people work on it together.
   You should both post the same essay in the end.
2. You should discuss all aspects of the essay together: content, grammar, links, paragraph structure, etc. Check each other's work. Think about grammar points such as singular/plural, past/present, etc.
3. The essay should contain many links, at least 3. Of these, at least one should be a pininthemap.com link, so that people can find the place easily.

Finally, remember to link to your partner's essay (or partners' essays)!

Write a blog post about Kumamoto. It could be a sightseeing spot, a place you like, a shop, food, anything connected to Kumamoto! Check the calendar for deadlines, etc.

The first assignment is to write a 3-paragraph review of a book or movie. You can write about the same movie or book as before, but be sure to write 3 good paragraphs. Each paragraph should have 3 or more sentences. Remember NOT to press RETURN within the paragraph, but press it twice between paragraphs.