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

Here are the rules on copying that I have already sent to students by email:

Your blog needs to be YOUR OWN WORK. That means not generated by computer, and NOT COPIED from Wikipedia, books, or other sources.

The exception is as I explained in class. If you want to cite (=quote = "inyou suru") something, for example part of a book, you can do that but there are 2 rules:

1. You MUST mark the copied part clearly.
2. The copied part can NEVER be more than 49% of your blog post (number of words).

That means, for example, that if your blog post is 100 words long, a 50-word citation is too long and MUST be shortened. (In general, you should try to keep quotes to less than 30%.)

Please understand that these rules are very important. If you don't understand, please ask. If you break the rules, that will be considered cheating. It might also be illegal.

Things to do to ensure a pass:

Things to do in the last few weeks (last two classes plus make-up period):

1. Final essay (1-05): Self-Introduction (10 years in the future)
2. Get your blog assessment up-to-date. (Your final blog assessment will be in the exam, July 25th. It's important that you master how to do it before then.)
3. Check your blog sidebar/footer.
4. Ask any questions or get help with any technical problems.
5. Make sure you have 12 book reviews, 5 "essays", more than 60 posts, and lots of words.
6. Make sure that your posts are your own work. Copying sentences from books or websites is stealing, unless it's done in a specific way. From an educational point of view, it's like cheating in an exam. It's also a legal problem.
7. Add the books you've read to LibraryThing.
   

Sidebar/Footer Items:

• Visual Thesaurus
• LibraryThing
• Recent Comments
• Links (friends' blogs, Kumamoto links, other)
  

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. Comments
3. Continue creating your presentation

If you've almost finished your presentation, please look at it again. If you have five or fewer slides, please add a few more. And check your grammar and spelling (or ask a friend to)!

When you've finished, try uploading your presentation to Slideshare, and then see try sending it to your blog from Slideshare.

If you change your presentation after uploading it, just upload the new version, then delete the old one. Also delete any blog posts containing the old one, and send the new one to your blog.

Remember that, based on last week's experience, Slideshare works best with Safari, not Firefox.

Note that the deadline for this assignment is next Thursday (June 26th). If you finish today, please start preparing a script to accompany your presentation.

Last week, we didn't have much time to work on "Essay" 4, a presentation about Kumamoto, but you did have a chance to start thinking about the topic, and to experiment with Keynote and/or PowerPoint. This week, we'll start serious work on the presentation. Key points are:

1. Save the work you do, preferably in at least 2 ways/places;*
2. 5 slides minimum, and about 10 slides maximum;
3. You can base your presentation on Essay 2, or do something a little different;
4. You shouldn't have long paragraphs on your slides. It's better to use small amounts of text and some images;
5. Because the amount of text is small, please make sure it's well-written!

If time allows, I'll show you how to sign up for SlideShare, the service we will use to put the presentation into our blogs.

* Please save images and notes as well as your presentation file. In the future, we may use those again to present the information with your voice.

One other thing: I had forgotten all about the "Word Count" widget, but was reminded about it when I saw it on a few students' blogs. I recommend that you install it in your blog footer; then you can count the words in your posts easily.

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. (2nd period) LibraryThing 2: Joining the WinKers group; (1st period) Introduction to the WEI
   
3. Starting Essay 1-03 (a movie review)

Checklist: things you should have done by yesterday (May 15th)

1. written at least 25 posts (including everything below) since March 1st this year;
2. written at least 5 book reviews, with the tag book reviews;
3. written 2 essays, with the tag essays (the Kumamoto essay should also have the Kumamoto tag);
4. added Tags (Labels), LibraryThing, and Recent Comments to your sidebar;
   
5. decided what movie to review for Essay 1-03.

As with Essay 1-02 (about Kumamoto), we'll spend two weeks on Essay 1-03, which is a movie review. In today's class, you'll need to write a post that gives the basic information of the movie, such as title, actors, and director. This post should have the tags essay prep and movies. You don't have to write in sentences; probably a list is easiest. You should also include any useful keywords.

By May 22nd, you should post a version of your review, complete if possible, for correction. This should be labeled movies and essay drafts.

The actual essay is due by May 29th. You should label this one movies and essays.

Remember to use the Essay Map if you find it helpful!

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. [1st period: Add LibraryThing widget to blog] [2nd period: Join LibraryThing]
3. Essay 2 continued: Kumamoto (to be finished by May 15th)

Notes on the essay:

1. Remember that your work for the Kumamoto essay should include at least 2 posts: one labeled "essay prep" and "Kumamoto", and one labeled "essays" and "Kumamoto". If possible you should also have one labeled "essay drafts" and "Kumamoto".
2. Don't forget that this is the 2nd essay. You should already have finished one introducing yourself. Don't forget to label it "essays", too.
3. Please don't use the "essay" label for diary-type posts.
   

Other notes:

1. The essay that we will start next week is a movie review. Please decide what movie you are going to write about before next week's class. If you wish you can choose a partner to work with on the same movie.
2. You should have written at least 20 posts before today's class (since March 1st this year). Those should include at least 4 book reviews and 1 essay. Remember that you can write more book reviews as part of your five-posts-a-week requirement.
3. We will do a weblog assessment soon. Make sure you are ready!
   

Some bad examples of topics for essays on Kumamoto:

• An Overview of Kumamoto
  
• Sightseeing in Kumamoto

Some good examples:

• Traditional foods in Kumamoto
• Kami-tori Arcade
• Transport in Kumamoto
• Kumamoto Castle
• Amakusa
• The History of Kumamoto
• Day Trips from Kumamoto
• Kikuchi
  

Remember to add the "essays" and "kumamoto" tags (labels) to your essay post.

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. [1st period: Make LibraryThing accounts][2nd period: Play TyperShark]
   
3. Essay 2: Kumamoto (to be finished by May 15th)

For the essay, we will use the Essay Map.
To see what LibraryThing is, take a look at my account.

MORE on the Kumamoto essay:

1. You should write at least 4 and if possible 5 or more paragraphs.
2. Choose a specific, fairly narrow topic.
3. You need to finish one "essay prep" post today, containing some notes or keywords for your essay.
4. I advise you to write another post, labeled "essay draft", by May 9th, containing your essay in rough form. I will comment on those drafts, and you can use those comments to write a better final version.
   

NOTES:

1. You should have written a total of 15 posts (counting from March 1st) before this class, including 3 book reviews and 1 essay (self-introduction essay/letter).
2. Our 3rd essay will be a movie review. We will start this on May 16th. Please watch any movie (at the cinema or on DVD/video) before that date. Make some notes on characters and what happens, to help you when you write the essay. I recommend that you choose the same movie as one of your friends, because you can share ideas and opinions.
3. By next week's class (May 9th), you should have written a total of 20 or more posts, including 4 book reviews and 1 essay.
   

Extra things:

• Juppun ha juubun
  
• Essay 1: Self-introduction
• Commenting

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Writing 3. In this class we'll be doing lots of blogging, including 6 essays and 12 book reviews. It should be lots of fun.

I'll give you a simple syllabus sheet during the first class, with more details to come later. For now, just remember that you need to write 5 posts a week, including a book review. Also, please remember your username and password and the URLs of the key sites, such as Blogger, that we use in the class.

That's all for now. Bye!

Here are some examples of posts using Pin-in-the-Map:

• Rick's Diary: See where I'm from!


• Shiorin


• Safu on Kumamoto


• Stististich on Kumamoto


• Kazu on Kumamoto


• Candie on Kumamoto


• Yoshiko on Kumamoto

Hey everyone,

I've added some polls to my sidebar. Please answer the questions! (This is for Mr Tomei's, Mr Beaufait's, and Mr Lavin's classes.)

And please feel free to add some comments about the course to this post, too. Thank you!

1. Typing Practice (University)
2. Add labels to posts
3. Make sure you have at least 60 posts including 12 book reviews
4. Look through your old posts looking for simple grammatical problems
   

1. Typing practice: A Movie I Like (9:05~9:10)
2. Attendance email
3. LibraryThing demonstration
4. LibraryThing practical & individual writing tuition.

Typing practice is a little later than usual, because I want to talk for a short time about the importance of typing, and of following the class schedule.

If you come early, write a short post on your blog before the typing session. Remember that you don't have to finish it. Be ready for the typing practice.

For (4), please have your essay displayed on your screen.

Next week's typing: A Sightseeing Spot I Recommend

LibraryThing provides an easy way to keep track of your books. You can see my collection here. It is very easy to join. Just enter a username and password, and then start using it. Use the same username as you use for Gmail and Blogger, so that you don't forget it.

LibraryThing gives you a graphical representation of your books. Look back through the entries in your Orange Book and start entering them. You can use an ISBN number or the title to find the book, or you can copy books from other people's collections.

After you have joined, I will send you an invitation to the WinK group. It will then be easier for you to find people who have similar books to you.

After you have entered a few books, you should make a widget to add to your blog. You can do this from the Tools section in LibraryThing. Copy the code, then go to Blogger to Add an Element in your sidebar. Choose the Javascript option.

HOMEWORK:

1. Make sure your total number of posts is up to at least 25 by next week's class.
2. Make sure that 5 of those are book reviews.
3. Practice adding photos and labels and other basic skills.
4. Remember to come on time for next week's typing practice. The topic will be My favorite book.
   

Today's program (short version):

1. Typing (today's topic: My favorite place; next week's topic: My favorite book)
   
2. Attendance email (as quickly as possible)
3. Introducing labels
4. Class bloglist
5. Revision, Comments, Orange books, Free writing, etc.

NOTE: It is important that you don't just wait when I am helping individual students. Start a new post, or edit an old one. Remember that you can "Save as draft" at any time if you need to stop writing.

Today's program (longer version):

1. Typing. Just as last week, you have 5 minutes to type as much as possible on the prescribed topic. Type in Microsoft Word, and use the word count tool. Type the number of words in ( ) at the end.
   
2. After typing, send me your attendance email in the usual way. Remember that the purposes of this email are to take attendance and to give you regular practice logging in and sending email through Gmail. Please send it as quickly as possible.
3. Labels: Labels are used in Blogger to group together similar posts. Some examples would be "book reviews", "essays", "typing", "movies", etc. After hearing my explanation, please make a new "Labels" post. Then make a Labels section in your sidebar. ( I will show you how to do this.) Then edit your old posts to include labels.
4. Bloglist: Please take a look at the class bloglist. Check that your name is on the list. Click on the link and make sure that it goes to your blog. If your name is not there, or if the link is not correct, you need to email me immediately with your name and the correct blog address (copy and paste it).
5. Revision, comments, free writing, orange books, etc: this is the best time to ask me for help. Please don't waste time!
   

New startup routine!

1. Open Word and get ready to type.
2. Type with the timer for 5 minutes.
3. Stop with the timer and count your words.
4. Send the attendance email as usual.

We should be able to finish all of this in 10-15 minutes.
If you come early, you could write a quick post on your blog. But make sure you're ready to start typing at the same time as everyone else!

You need to type 100 words in 5 minutes. You cannot pass the course unless you reach this level by the end of the course. If you pass early, you can come to class 5 minutes or so late.

TODAY'S topic is "My favorite movie". Next week's topic will be "My favorite place".