Writing 2 Spring 2014 Weeks 11 & 12: Task 3 - The Comparative Essay

Hello everyone, Today we are going to write the first draught of our comparative essay. First, let's watch a video made by an American student in Nagasaki called Hannah. Take notes as you watch the video, and answer the questions below.

 

1. What were the two housing options Hannah had to choose from?
2. What problem did Hannah have before she went to Nagasaki?
3. What does Hannah say about the pros and cons (賛否両論) of living in the girls' dorm at Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies?
4. What are the good points and the bad points about the dorm cafeteria?
5. What does Hanna say about the office staff?
6. What facilities does the dorm have?
7. How does Hannah's dorm room in Japan compare to the dorm room she had in America?
8. What does she love about living in the dorm?
9. Why didn't she choose a homestay?
10. What questions do you have for Hannah? Write one and post it as a comment on her YouTube Channel.

OK, now start writing! Write a four-paragraph comparative essay about two types of housing. Your essay should be at least 300 words long. Please submit your essay to my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre by Wednesday 9th July at noon.                
Enjoy!

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Weeks 8-10: Preparing to Write a Comparative Essay

Hello everyone,

Today we are going to start our next writing task, a comparative essay. Look at the diagram on the left. This is a floor plan from Laurier Hall at the University of Windsor. The University of Windsor is my alma mater. In my first year, I lived in MacDonald Hall, across the way from Laurier Hall, in a room exactly like this. The room was very small, about 4 metres long and only about 3 and a half metres wide. Can you believe that two people lived in this room for a whole year? To make matters even more difficult, my room mates was a slob. I was very neat and tidy in those days. You can see a panoramic view of a room in MacDonald Hall by clicking the link.



Do you live in one of the dorms on campus? How does your room compare to this room?
Now let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.

Writing 1 Spring 2014 Week 8: The Essay (Part 2)

Hello everyone,
Well, we've come to the end of the course. Today I will return the first draught of your essay to you. Please write your second and final draught and submit it to my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre by the 25th of June. Also, please post your essay to our class writing blog. Finally, please read one essay and at least 3 more posts by your classmates, and leave comments on each - that's a total of four comments.
Thanks for being a great class. I hope to see you around campus in the future.

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Week 7: Writing a Personal Narrative Part 3

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to start writing our second task. In order to prepare for that we will learn how to identify omissions (省略、削除、切り捨て、脱落), and how to use details to make the story more enjoyable to the reader. After that, we'll learn how to identify digressions (脇道), and get rid of them. We'll also learn how to identify and use the past perfect tense. First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.



OK, let's get started. Please submit the first draught of your second assignment to my mailbox in the Foreign Language Centre by next Wednesday 11th June at 3 pm.
Enjoy writing!

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Week 6: Writing a Personal Narrative Part 2

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to continue preparing for our second writing task, a personal anecdote.
First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.
By now, all of you have a lot of experience using a Japanese/English dictionary, so it's time you started using an English Dictionary. Dictionary.com is a very good site. Another reference tool you should be using is a Thesaurus. A thesaurus is a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms. Synonyms are words that have a similar meaning and antonyms are words that have an opposite meaning. Thesaurus.com is a good site.

Look at the picture on the left. This is a picture of me when I was a high school teacher. I told you a story about a lesson I learned from my students when I was a high school teacher.  Here it is again:

           In 2003, I was lucky enough to get a job teaching at Kanto International High School. I had been teaching in Japan for six years, but this was the first time I was a real independent classroom teacher.  Also, I had started studying toward a Master of Education in TESOL degree at Temple University. I knew that I would have many opportunities to apply what I was learning at graduate school in the classes I was teaching at the high school, so I was very excited when I got hired at Kanto.

          One of the things I had learned at graduate school was the importance of group work, so one day I gave my students a group project. I explained the project to the students, and everyone seemed to understand what they were supposed to do. I handed out some worksheets for the students to use while doing their group project, and then told them to get started. As the students were working on their group project I walked around the classroom, and I realised that all the students were working alone. They must not have understood my instructions I thought, so I asked the students to stop working and I explained again that the project was a group project and they should work on the project together. The students started working on their projects again, and I walked around the class again observing them. They were still working alone. This puzzled me. I had been taught that Japan was a "group-oriented society", so why were these students not working together, as a group? My students taught me a valuable lesson that day. They taught me that what is normal for a group in one culture is not necessarily normal for a group in another culture.

Now it's your turn. Tell us about an experience you had that taught you a valuable lesson.

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Week 5: Writing a personal narrative

Downloaded from wikipedia

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to start our next writing assignment. Your next writing assignment is a two-paragraph personal narrative about a personal experience. In this assignment you will tell an anecdote. An anecdote is a short description of an interesting event. Your anecdote must tell about something that happened to you that taught you a lesson. In other words, there should be a moral to your story.
First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.

Writing 1 Spring 2004 Week 5: Organising Information by Order of Importance

Hello everyone,
Well, we ran out of time last week, so we are going to learn how to post to our class writing blog today. I sent you an invitation to become an author on our class writing blog. Please check your gmail account, read the message and follow the instructions. After that go to our class blog, and sign in. Look at the picture on the left. Click "New Post". After that, follow the steps listed below:

1. Type your title in the box above the tool bar. Your title should be like this: "My Life at Tsukuba is Wonderful by Taro Higashinihon"
2. Copy and paste your assignment into the textbox. 
3. Look at the corrections I made on your second draught. Correct your mistakes
4. On the right hand side look for "Labels". Type the following words into the box: Academic Writing 1, 2014, and your first name and the first letter of your last name ie. TaroH.
5. Click preview. Make sure everything is OK.
6. Finally, click "Publish".

After you post your paragraph. Read three of your classmates' posts, and make a comment on each.

After that, we'll start our third assignment - Why I Decided to Come to the University of Tsukuba.

For homework, please edit your second assignment and write your second draught, and write your first draught of your third assignment. Please put all your assignments: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, and 3.1 in a folder and deposit them in my mailbox on the fourth floor of the foreign Language Centre. 

Have fun writing! 

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Week 4: Editing your opinion paragraph

Hello everyone, today we are going to edit our first assignment. First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Wordlist.
I have checked your papers. Reread your papers. Check that you have followed the style sheet. In particular, you should check that you have indented the first line of your paragraph. Check that your paragraph has a good topic sentence. The topic sentence should be a general statement that states a clear opinion. Also, remember that a paragraph has only one main idea. After that look for overgeneralisations. Below are some examples of overgeneralisations:

• "All Canadians are polite" - many Canadians are polite, but some are not. These statements are better: "Some Canadians are polite" or "Canadians are known to be polite"
• "Only Japan has four seasons" - actually this is just plain wrong!
• "People from other countries can't eat natto" - I know some Americans, and Australians that love natto. 

Avoid absolutes, words such as "all", "only", "no", "never", and so on.
Ok, please write your second draught. Please print it and put it in a folder with your first draught. Then submit it to my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre.
See ya!

Writing 1 Spring 2014 Week 4: Organising information by time

Hello everyone, today we are going to start our next assignment. Your assignment will be a time order paragraph. First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.

Now let's post our first assignments to our class blog. First, you will need to create a Google account. Then send me a message using gmail, so I can add you as an author on our class blog. After that you can post your first assignment. Please click the link to see previous posts by University of Tsukuba students: The University of Tsukuba Academic Writing Blog. After you have posted your assignment you should read one of your class mate's posts and comment on it.
Finally, don't forget that the first draught of your second assignment is due next Tuesday. Your second assignment is to write a paragraph about either your best experience or your worst experience. You can read some examples of paragraphs about best and worst experiences by clicking the link.
Enjoy writing!

Writing 1 Spring 2014 Week 3: Writing a Second Draught

Hello everyone,
I hope you enjoyed Golden Week.
Those of you who submitted your the first draught of your first writing assignment will see some red marks I've made on your paper. In order to understand those marks you will need our Writing Error Codes handout.

Today we will review the structure of a paragraph and then start our second draughts.

First let's study some vocabulary on Quizlet.

Please submit your second draught to my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre by Tuesday 13 May, at 3 pm.

Presentation 2 Spring 2014 Week 3: Writing a Script Continued

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to continue working on our first presentation.
First, if you were absent last class, please click the link to download the task sheet for your first presentation. Before we continue working on our scripts, let's do some pronunciation practice on English Central.

Now we are going to finish writing the first draught of our script. Your first draught is due on Monday 12th May at 1:30 pm. Please deposit your first script in my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre, just outside the teachers room. You can see a picture of my mailbox on the left. I will check your scripts, and show you where you have made mistakes. You can use our Writing Error Codes handout to help you understand the corrections I will make.

See you next week!

Writing 2 Spring 2014 Week 2: Expressing an opinion

Image downloaded from Ricochet

Hello everyone, Today we are going to learn about expressing an opinion. Your first writing task will be to write a paragraph expressing an opinion about a topic of your choice.

First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Academic Word List.

Students in Daniel Ferrara's class at International Christian University (ICU) are blogging. Each student has their own blog. Would you like to have your own blog?


Let's look at some blog posts by ICU students. Please choose one blog post and click the link. Then read the post and leave a comment.


"ICU as a hybrid Institution" by Yuri Tami
"Education is..." by Nozomi Koizumi 
"The limits of locavorism" by Mai Ingawa
"Japan's population crisis" by Ikumi Tanaka
"Human beings are the only intelligent life in the universe?" by Naoki Fukushima
"Three things we know about how the brain works" by Kentaro Nakao
"What are trans fats anyway and why are they so bad?" by Arisa Shiokawa
"Is imprisonment a necessary system for dealing with all criminal acts?" by Nakamura Kenta
"Never to old to learn" by Konomi Sano
"Democracy is the best form of government" by Takahiro Takizawa

We'll continue learning how to express an opinion in English next week. Have a great Golden Week!

Writing 1 Spring 2014 week 2: Writing paragraphs

Hello everyone, Today we are going to learn about paragraphs and start our first writing task.
First, lets sign in to Quizlet and study some academic vocabulary.

Look at the picture on the left. It is a picture of the cafeteria in Area 1 on the University of Tsukuba campus. Do you ever eat in this cafeteria? Your first writing task is to write a paragraph about your life at the University of Tsukuba. Click the link to read some examples of paragraphs about student life at Shibaura Institute of Technology.

Your first writing task is to write a paragraph about your life at the University of Tsukuba. Your paragraph should be 200 words or more.  Please submit your first draughts by e-mail. Please download the style sheet, and follow it. The deadline is next Monday 5 May at 6 pm. Please don't be late. Have a nice Golden week!

Writing 2 Spring 2014: Welcome

Hello everyone, welcome to the University of Tsukuba. Today I'm going to introduce you to the course. Please click the link to download the course outline.

This is an academic writing class, so we will be using academic English. We will study academic English using an online vocabulary learning application called Quizlet. Please click the link to download a document that will help you get started with Quizlet. Next, please click the link to join our class on Quizlet.

Look at the picture on the left. This is the course book we will use this semester. Please buy it at the book store. We will start using it next class.

Finally, please leave a comment. Introduce yourself to the class.

Writing I Spring 2014: Welcome!

Image by Charles J. Danoff

Hello everyone, welcome to the University of Tsukuba.

Today I am going to introduce you to this course. Please click the link to download the course outline.

This semester you will do five writing tasks, four paragraphs, and one essay. You will share your writing with your classmates, and the world, by posting them on our University of Tsukuba Academic Writing Blog. Please click the link to see some writing done by University of Tsukuba students in my previous classes.


In order to do academic writing, you need to know academic vocabulary. We will study the most useful academic English vocabulary using an online tool called Quizlet. Please click the link to download a document that tells you how to get started with Quizlet. Next, please click the link to join our class on Quizlet. Now please study the vocabulary for 5 minutes.
Finally, please leave a comment. Please introduce yourself to me and your classmates. Tell us about your hometown, your major and your favourite pastimes.
See you!

Presentation 2 Autumn 2013 Week 3: Writing a presentation script

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to continue working on our first presentation.
First, if you were absent last class, please sign up for English Central. Please click the link for our class: Presentation II Autumn 2013 Thursday 1st.  After you have signed up for English Central, choose a video and practice speaking. If you have already signed up for English Central, please watch a video and practice speaking now.

Next, please click the link to download the task sheet for your first presentation, if you don't already have it.

Now we are going to write the first draught of our script. Your first draught is due on Monday 28th October at 3 pm. Please deposit your first script in my mailbox on the 4th floor of the Foreign Language Centre, just outside the teachers room. You can see a picture of my mailbox on the left. I will check your scripts, and show you where you have made mistakes. You can use our Writing Error Codes handout to help you understand the corrections I will make.

See you next week!

Integrated English 1 2013 Week 8: End of term project

Your final project is a writing task. Please choose ONE of the following options:

• Write a short story (短編小説) about one of the characters in The Inverted Eagle. Create a story about the character’s life after the events in the Inverted Eagle, OR  
• If you don’t like any of the characters in the story, invent a character of your own, and write a story about him or her in the context of The Inverted Eagle.
• Write a new ending for The Inverted Eagle
• Write a review of The Inverted Eagle. Explain why you liked the story, or why you didn’t like the story.
• Write a review of Cup of Death. Explain why you liked the story, or why you didn’t like the story.

You must write at least 100 words. The top 3 stories will be published on this blog and the writers will win a graded reader. The top 3 reviews will be published on Marcus Benevides’ Teach Your Own Adventure Blog (http://www.cyoateacher.com/). Please be honest. Negative reviews have a chance of winning too.

Please click the link to read some of the previous winners' stories.

You must submit your final project by Thursday 20th June at 12:00 noon. Please submit one copy by e-mail, and one printed copy. Please put the printed copy in my mailbox (#FLC 23) on the fourth floor of the Foreign Language Centre, just outside Room CA403.

Finally, please click the links to download your style sheet and your writing error codes sheet.

Enjoy!!!

The University of Tsukuba Academic Writing I & II Wk 9

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to write the second draught of our four-paragraph essay. Also, I'm going to talk to you one-to-one about your essay, in order to give you some advice.
First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link:  NSDU J-E Academic Wordlist. 

Now let's review the structure of our four-paragraph persuasive essay.

Introduction

A. Background information
B. Thesis statement 
C. Reasons

Body

A. Reason 1
B. Reason 2

Conclusion

A. Restate thesis 
B. Restate reasons
C. Closing remark

Today we will also learn how to make intext citations and a reference list. Please look at the examples below:

Intext citations

A quotation

Jung (1989) says, "What we call 'psychology' today is a science that is possible only on the basis of certain historical and moral presuppositions..."

A paraphase

According to an article entitled, "Working Conditions" on the Web site of the Japanese Nursing Association, due to the increasing number of severely ill and aging patients, the demand for nurses in Japan has exceeded the supply.

Journalists in Japan share information with each other. This practice is known as memo-awase. As a result, the articles read the same in every newspaper (McNeil, D. 2010)

References

Book with one author

Jung, C. G. (1989). Psychological types (Vol. 4). Routledge.

Document available on an organisation's Web site with no author and no date

 Japanese Nursing Association (n.d.). Working Conditions in Japan. Retrieved February 13, 2013 from Japan Nursing Association Web site: http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/

nursing/employment.html

Article in an academic journal

Edwards, I. E. S. (1949). Some early dynastic contributions to Egyptian architecture. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 123-128.

Article available on an organisation's Web site with an author and a date

McNeill, D. (2010, March 17, 21:09). Japanese Journalism is collapsing. Retrieved February 13, 2013 from The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan Web site: http://www.fccj.or.jp/node/5491

Now, please write your second draught. Your second draught is due Friday at noon.
Enjoy!

The University of Tsukuba IE Engineering C1 - Trimester 3 Week 8

Hello everyone,
Today we are going to start another fan fiction project. Please click link to download your worksheet: Hound of the Baskervilles Fan Fiction Project.

Before we begin our project,  let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles. Before you study the vocabulary, please check the glossary at the back of your book. Add any unfamiliar words to our flashcard set. Don't forget to log in to Quizlet first.

OK, let's begin. Please submit your story to me by e-mail. The due date is Friday 8 February.
Enjoy!

The University of Tsukuba Academic Writing II Week 8

Good morning, Today we are going to continue writing our four-paragraph essay. First we will edit our introductions and then we will start the body and the conclusion, but first let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: NSDU J-E Academic Wordlist.
Now let's take a look at some new posts on our class writing blog. Please check your posts. If someone has written a comment on one of your posts, please write a reply. Then please comment on 3 more posts.


Now let's continue working on our essay.
You will need to do research in order to write your essay. You must site your sources (引用文献). You must include in-text citations, and a reference list in your essay using APA Style. Look at the examples below.

In-text citation

According to Hoogwijk et al (2003), “…biomass energy is interesting from an energy perspective.”

Miller (2002) argues, “Peggy Johnson from the University of Minnesota makes a strong case for the development of policy statements to guide local decision making related to digital content to parallel the process used for print materials. “

References

.

Biomass. (2013, February 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:41, February 6, 2013, from  http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Biomass&oldid=536054407

Hoogwijk, M., Faaij, A., van den Broek, R., Berndes, G., Gielen, D., & Turkenburg, W. (2003). Exploration of the ranges of the global potential of biomass for energy. Biomass and Bioenergy, 25(2), 119-133

Miller, R. G. (2002). Shaping digital library content. The Journal of academic librarianship, 28(3), 97-103.

Ravindranath, N. H., & Hall, D. O. (1995). Biomass, energy and environment: a developing country perspective from India. Oxford University Press

Whaling. (2013, February 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Retrieved 22:43, February 6, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whaling&oldid=536586778

Please send your essay to me as an e-mail attachment by Friday 8 February.
see you next week.