Week+5+(May+19-25)

We are heading towards the middle of the trimester already!!! Time surely flies...toc

Until this point in the course, the emphasis has been on content and meaning rather than on mechanics and conventions. So far you have mainly written about yourself, reflected about different aspects of your academic life for the most part, have read and written about plagiarism, the brain, multiple intelligences, digital natives, what good writing is all about and the steps in the writing process. You have also completed a couple of grammar exercises, written a script about Venezuela and some of you have selected pictures, uploaded them and recorded your scripts, [|phew], that’s a lot of work, is it not? This week you will be writing about your life in a completely open way as far as content, but your text will be structured according to certain guidelines.

Materials

 * ideas for writing text, essay checklist, essay parts
 * Googledocs for peer revision
 * Blogger tutorial
 * grammar exercises

Activities
1) Write about your life following the suggestions in this [|page] . Your text should have an introduction, body and conclusion or summary. You are expected to write at least three paragraphs and from 300-400 words (some of you already write almost 700-800 in a sitting, so there shouldn´t be any problem, I guess). This [|checklist]  should help you guide and test your own writing. In case of doubts about the parts of an essay, here is [|a page] you may want to read. Try to include as many transition words as possible. At the end of [|this page] there is a very helpful list. 2) Revise the work of one of your peers. Select it from the Googledocs in the sidebar. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">3) Do the following grammar exercises depending on your needs:  <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">[|there, they´re, their], [|it´s, its,] [|in, on, at] (date-time), [|in, on, at] ([|place]). More quizzes for extra practice: <span class="wiki_link_ext">[|1], <span class="wiki_link_ext">[|2] , [|3] , [|4], [|5], [|6], [|7], [|8.] After completing these exercises, __write a couple of sentences in your wiki page about them__ (if you found them easy, difficult, things you would have to watch out for, things you learned from them, etc.) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">4) Open an account at Gmail and a blog at Blogger (you may use any other blogging platform you are familiar with). Check the tutorial here. You will be writing freely in your own blog from weeks 6 to 12. Write the blog address in your introduction. We will aggregate all our blogs at [|Pageflakes].

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">Benchmarks
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"> I have:
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">completed the assignments for weeks 3 and 4,
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">written about my life in at least three paragraphs (introduction, body and conclusion or summary) in my wiki page following the provided checklist,
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">revised the work of a peer using Googledocs,
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">completed some grammar exercises and written a couple of sentences about them,
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">opened a Gmail account and a blog at Blogger (or another blogging platform).