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

Hi everyone, the final essay topic for this semester is to introduce a country that you think is interesting or that you like very much. If you have written about a country in a previous essay this year, please choose a different one. This is a good chance to find out about a country you don't know much about.

The last class this calendar year is December 19th. Then we meet January 9th. The test is provisionally scheduled for January 28th.

Today, let's talk about some ways to join sentences together to make longer sentences. The 3 key words you need to know to understand the explanations are:

1. conjunction
2. compound sentence
3. complex sentence

Below are some excerpts from the website we will use today:

The 'magnificent seven' conjunctions (the most commonly used) are:

and, although, as, because, but, if, or

When you make a compound sentence, you are joining two or more simple sentences together with a conjunction. If you took the conjunction away, the sentences would be complete and they would still make sense.
e.g. 'I hate curry, but I like Thai food.'= 'I hate curry' + but + 'I like Thai food'

Complex sentences don't just divide into neat, complete, simple sentences if you take out the conjunctions. In complex sentences the conjunction is used to join together clauses. A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. Some of these clauses might be complete short sentences, but in a complex sentence at least one of them will depend on the conjunction for its meaning.
In other words, if you take the conjunction away, the sentence won't divide into complete units that make sense by themselves.

e.g. 'The dinner was burned because she had forgotten it.'
= 'The dinner was burned' + 'because' + 'she had forgotten it.'

We will visit the lesson Putting Sentences Together at the BBC Skillswise site.

If you have some free time, please try Alpha Attack!

First of all, please note that this is the last class in November. There will be 3 classes in December (5th, 12th, 19th). After that, there's only one class scheduled in January (9th) and then, unless we do a hokou class, the exams start! So you don't have so long to catch up if you're falling behind! Note that, before the exams start, you need to have written 60 posts for the semester (5 posts a week over 12 weeks). At least 12 of those posts should be book reviews.

In today's class, you need to record your most recent essay ("My favorite...") and post it on podOmatic. Please be sure to write a post on your blog linking to your new podcast episode (and make sure your first podcast episode is also linked to in the same way).

Remember that recording can take longer than you expect. Please DON'T wait until the end of the class. If you're unable to finish during the class, please take the initiative in your free time or in a future class to finish the work. Note that I recommend using GarageBand to record so that you have a file to upload again if there is any problem with podOmatic.

If you need grammar help, please call me. But bear in mind that the priority this week is recording, so there is no guarantee that I will have enough time to help you.

If you have free time during the class, please consider reading one of the books I have brought to class and writing a review of it.

One more thing: at the end of November/beginning of December, please remember to update your weblog report.

In today's class:

I hope you enjoyed the campus festival last week!

Today, after Juppun ha Juubun, it's time to do our first weblog assessment for this semester. Download the weblog report file from http://public.me.com/ricklavin2001 and then import into Google Docs http://docs.google.com

We'll start work on the next essay (see the next post) if time allows.

NOTE: No class next week (October 31st)

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. Finishing recording/uploading/linking to podcast
3. Listening to and commenting on others' podcasts
   
4. List: Places in Japan I would recommend to visitors from overseas. (Do this for homework if there isn't enough time in class.)
   
5. Starting Assignment 2
   

With the campus festival approaching, don't forget that you should be writing 5 posts a week. That means that, before the next session on November 7th, you should have written 30 posts*. We will do a Weblog Evaluation on November 7th.

*"30 posts" includes all posts on your Blogger blog (lists, juppun ha juubun, book reviews, essays, essay prep, diary posts, etc.) and all posts on your podOmatic blog/podcast. (Make sure that you have linked to your podOmatic blog/podcast from your Blogger blog.)

Note that this is counted from August, so if you blogged during the summer your requirement during the semester is correspondingly less.

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha juubun
2. Recording your assignment on a place, and uploading the recording to podOmatic (continued from last week). Everyone needs to do this today.

To give you plenty of time for recording, we won't do a list in class, but the topic of this week's list is Books I Like, or Books I Recommend. Please make this list whenever you have time.

Also, please remember that you should be writing 5 posts a week. A typical week's posts would be:

1. Juppun ha juubun (in class)
2. A list (usually in class)
3. A book review (usually outside of class)
4. Some kind of diary post (usually outside of class)
5. Something related to the current assignment. This might be the main assignment itself, essay prep, or a post (episode) on podOmatic.

After doing a juppun ha juubun post, let's move on to our main topic, the assignment on a place. (Perhaps no time for a list today.)

If you have finished writing the first draft of your essay (and posted it on your blog), you need to call me to give you individual help with correcting the essay. (You can then post a second version on your blog.) When we have finished that, you can try recording.

If you haven't finished your first draft yet, you need to get working quickly. If you are working with a partner, you should both take a careful look at your grammar and spelling before calling me for help.

So at any one time, some of you will be writing, some asking for help with correction, and some recording.

Alternatively, if you see that few people are using the microphones, try recording a very short piece to practise. You can replace it later with a better recording.

On today's menu:

1. Make sure you've posted about one or more of the sites you've visited, including a link! (Ask for help if you can't make a link.)
2. Make sure you have written 5 posts including a book review and juppun ha juubun before next week's class.

1. Welcome to Writing IV: explaining the syllabus
2. Juppun ha juubun
3. Today's list (with links)
   
4. Ma.gnolia & Links
5. (Introducing the first assignment)
6. (Comments)
   

Go to Ma.gnolia through winkhome.

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.

1. Delete duplicate or "dead" items from your sidebar.
2. Clean up links in your sidebar.
3. To the bottom of your WAI post, add your top typing speed and the date.
4. Remember that the test is on January 30th. You still have 2 weeks for more blogging.
5. Delete or edit book reviews with only or mainly copied text. Less than half of each post should be copied from the book, and the copied part must be marked clearly.
6. If you have free time, work with a partner to check spelling and grammar in one of your posts.
   

WAI : January

Months	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Totals
Blog posts	19	25	17	11	6	76
Book reviews	1
Posts w. pics	---	---	---	---	---
Posts w. links	---	---	---	---	---
Words	1787	2925			1458

Best typing score: 190 words (December 5th)

Happy New Year and I hope you had a good winter holiday. As I mentioned in December, we won't do anything new in the last two classes. These classes are your last chances to make sure you are up-to-date in the course and to ask any final questions. Some points:

1. How many posts have you written in each month of the course? How many words? (Remember there is still time to increase your word and post total for January.)
   
2. Have you completed a presentation, checked it, uploaded it, and added it to your blog?
3. Have you completed an essay, checked it, and posted it to your blog?
4. Have you written 12 book reviews?
5. Have you reached a typing speed of 100 words per minute and told me by email?
6. Do you have labels in your sidebar? (The most important ones are book reviews, essay, presentation, photos, links, so that I can find them quickly.)
7. Have you made a podcast? (This is optional.) If so, have you put a clear link in your sidebar so that I can find it? And have you made sure the URL is included in the list on my blog?

Today, we are going to make a new WAI post with up-to-date figures. You will need to make a WAI post in the exam, so make sure you master how to do this. You can use the rest of the class time and your free time to finish the WAI, finish any unfinished assignments, or just write more posts. Remember your target is 84 posts over the semester.

Check out these interesting podcasts from students. If your podcast is not on the list, please email the URL to me!

• Toshihiro's podcast
  
• Yuki's podcast
• Shuhei H's podcast
  
• Yui I's podcast
  
• Moe's podcast
  
• Chiemi K's podcast
  
• Ayaka O's podcast
  
• Natsuki T's podcast
  
• SawaCast
  
• Patchwork Elephant's podcast
  
• Nanami's podcast
  
• Monoboo's podcast
• Asaya's podcast
  
• Kayasasu's podcast
  
• Takano's podcast
  
• Gaku's podcast
• Tomoe's podcast
  
• Kuroneko's podcast
  
• Night Sirius's podcast
• Mihoko's podcast
  
• Aimi's Podcast
  
• Megu's podcast
  
• Tom's podcast
• Snow Rabbit's podcast
• Tenjin Diary's Podcast
• Lumi-color's podcast
  
• TikaTika's podcast
• Goodswimer's podcast
• Momoka's podcast
• Asami's podcast
• Ekkachan's podcast
• Chihiro's podcast
• Kiwa's podcast
• Satoko's podcast

As you remember, the blogging guideline for Writing IV is 7 posts a week. That includes typing posts, book reviews, and any other posts that you do. Now 11 weeks have passed since the beginning of the semester. That means that you should have written about 77 posts, with a minimum of about 50.

What can you do if your number of posts is much less than this? A few ideas:

1. Make sure you always paste your typing into your blog.
2. Do a "reading marathon": read 3-5 easy books in a week and write a simple book review for each one. This will help you to read faster and also to write book reviews faster. Remember that you need at least 12 book reviews in your total posts over the semester, but you can increase the number of book reviews if you wish.
   
3. Get used to writing short posts often. You shouldn't need more than 5 minutes to write a short post about something you did recently or some other interesting topic.
4. There are only 2 more classes left after today's. If you have a problem you need to do something very soon. Plan when you are going to write more posts. We calculate 12 weeks in a semester, so the quota for the whole semester is 12 multiplied by 7 = 84 posts
   
5. If you haven't already, write an essay based on the content of your presentation. 5 paragraphs is a good length.
6. If possible, make a podcast. This shows that you are willing to make an effort, and it brings together speaking, writing, and multimedia in one post. Both your essay and podcast can be based on the same material.
7. Don't waste class time. Come on time. Ask questions during the class (not after) if you don't understand something. If you have problems using the computer, don't waste time chatting in Japanese. At the least, you can just write an ordinary post about what you did. For example, for the podcast, just writing your script is a valuable step forward. For the essay, one well-written paragraph is a good post and leaves you less work to do in the next stage.
   

Today's typing topic is Free Time. This will also be the topic next week and the week after.

The rest of this lesson is a catch-up session. It's a good chance for you to ask for help with LibraryThing, labels, links, photos, uploading your slides to Slideshare and embedding them in your blog, etc., if you didn't understand when we did them in class before.

If you're up to date with all these things, just write anything you like on your blog, add the books you have read to your LibraryThing account, comment on other blogs, etc.

Remember: If you still need help, try to go to Mr Tomei's Computer Office Hour (Tuesday 12:10-1:00 Room 1448).

Please check out the Blog Feeds section at WinK Home!

Mr B. has explained how to add a comment feed to your blog. Please check out his post, and try it on your blog. The basic formula you need to add to your feed widget is:

• [YourBlogURL]/feeds/comments/default/?alt=rss

Add a page element at the top of your sidebar, being sure to choose the Feed element.