nonsense recordingnonsense recordingnosdfgasdgfasdfasdfnsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recordingnonsense recording

The song we sang today.

Please do Bring Authentic Samples of Writing From Your Field to Class!

Greetings Students!

I just wanted to tell you that your writing is improving! However, we will practice some M.I.E. (Moves Examination Exercises) with your homework that you bring in to me. BE STRONG!

Please be sure to bring an authentic sample of your writing to class this week. We will have much work to do as we looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook over your examinations.

God Bless You and Have a Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Dr.J

Dear Esteemed Students:

Your homework, IF YOU WERE ABLE TO MAKE IT..., is to write a one-page paper describing the conference talk that you attended and your feelings regarding it.

[ONLY IF YOU WERE ABLE TO ATTEND THE CONFERENCE! I HAVE POSTED THIS ON ALL OF MY BLOGS SO DON'T "FREAK OUT" (become "extremely shocked and surprised") if you were unable to attend the conference ... Just disregard this if you were at work, etc., whatever... Thanks!]

Please leave CONSTRUCTIVE (POSITIVE) COMMENTS, as the ENTIRE FREE WORLD is going to read your comments. If you have complaints or criticism, please either contact the author, discuss them in private with the speaker, or forever hold your peace!

The purpose here of this assignment is to inform the world, and the speakers who worked so hard to prepare for it, were appreciated.

Thanks again to Ms. Joanna Chou and NTUST AFL Department Chair, Dr. Lin Mao-sung, for your efforts in making the Conference the success that it was.

Best wishes,

Dr. J

Greetings! Please Take Some Time to Appreciate Your Classmates' Blogs for This Course!

Hello Advanced Composition Class Students!

Welcome to our on-line cyber community!

Please take some time to review and leave at least one comment (in English) on your classmates blogs in the form of peer editing regarding one of their entries. All comments must begin accordingly:

Dear X,
I was just reading over your blog and I discovered that X was really interesting. My favorite part about X was YYYYYYYY. I also noticed, however, that perhaps we could discuss CCCCCCCC in class or in a personal discussion. Maybe, for example, ...

[This is called PEER REVIEW and you have all done this before. Keep remarks friendly and constructive. Descriptive and not Prescriptive! For more examples regarding PEER EDITING, please visit the Purdue OWL]

Thanks!

Dr. J.

P.S. [which is an abbreviation of "Post Script"] Kudos (thanks) to CAREY for compiling all of our links and for sending them to me. I appreciate your efforts in doing this.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Andrew

Peter

Sandy

Grace

Gina

Grant

Brian

Bonnie

Lydia

Colin

Jo

Johnny

Ling Ling

Carey

Frederick

Lauren

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Guide to Grammar and Writing

WOW! THIS STUFF IS COOL! check this out...

This is a FASCINATING SITE! DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE!

This is one of the most interesting things I have seen for a while ... install it for free.

Dr. J.

Here is the assignment for next week. Just give me whatever you got. 12-point font. two to three pages. stapled on the left upper corner.

Write It Now! How To Write Anything, Now!

Write It Now! How To Write Anything, Now!: "Welcome to the Website!
Hello Students:

This is an interesting website. Please check it out if you are interested.

Sincerely,

Dr. J.

The Write It NOW! website is a work in progress - we are adding in new articles and resources for our visitors all the time. So, please revisit as often as you need to and you might find new writing resources every time.
Also, to get some great Writing articles and occasional news updates from the Write It NOW! website, we'd recommend registering for the newsletter - top, left-hand corner of every page (you'll need to check your spam / junkmail folders if you use free email accounts as we send a confirmation email and it often gets chomped by them!)."

Just a note regarding next week's homework. Basically, just become familiar with online blogs and writing-supportive websites (which is the fourth point). We will also do our presentations next week for an exercise on the Purdue Owl; please limit them to about five minutes, if you can. We are doing this to practice evaluating OWLS.

Thanks for your hard work!

Dr. J

Dr. J's RECAP of NEXT WEEK'S HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT WEEK:

1) WE WILL DO informal PRESENTATIONS ON THIS PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT:
Visit the Purdue OWL website and comment on an exercise [any exercise that you think would be helpful for you] and tell us whether or not it was useful:

1) Name of the exercise
2) How you did on the exercise
3) Would you suggest it to other learners at your level?
4) Overall comments about the exercise and the OWL...

2) Please see the Student Sample Essay Listed Below and Be Prepared to Comment on It...

[TIMED WRITING EXERCISE] October 19, 2005

Topic : Many students have to live with roommates while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate? Use specific reasons and examples to explain why these qualities are important.

Do you know that your roommates could either save or ruin your life? It happened that I have the opportunity to live in my friend’s house as a roommate for a while. From this experience, I have found out that the roommates should mostly have the qualities of being alert and simple. Why did I say so? Please read on what my perspectives are as follows.

The first character as a roommate is alert. There are so many gas-leaking accidents happened, especially during the winter time. As a good roommate, we should be alert when there is someone who is taking the shower. Ignorance could be a primary regret for the rest of your life. For instance, there was once one piece of news reporting about when student A was enjoying a shower, his roommate, student B, happened to be at home and had saved him from the hand of the death. If student B wasn’t so alert (he could be sleeping during the time while student A is taking a shower,) both of them could have a reunion in the heaven now. Isn’t it?

In addition to the character of alert, simplicity is also a credit to be a nice roommate. That is, if your roommate has a very complicated relationship, you might be involved or influenced all the time. For example, I used to live with one of my friends. She told me that there was once a roommate long ago, who liked to bring her so-called “boy friend” home frequently, and her boy friend changed so quickly. It did cause my friend’s family some trouble and influence their life because of her “non-simplicity.” Especially, my friend has children who are confused with the value of relationship when they see this situation. That’s why simplicity is a very important quality for the roommate.

In conclusion, good roommates should have the qualities of alert and simplicity to reinforce your confidence in living with other people. With these 2 major characters as the standard while choosing your roommates, I believe everyone’s life should be safe and stable, the same as Snow White to live happily ever after.

3) Please visit the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant (http://powa.org) and be prepared to discuss it with the rest of the class.

[I didn't assign this actually, but you should also be visiting as many OWLS as you can and you need to be sure to keep doing timed writings on your personal blogs ... I will evaluate your fluency improvement at the end of the semester!]

4) Please be sure to visit as many OWLS as you can and put them as links using "BLOG THIS" (in OPTIONS on the GOOGLE TOOLBAR).

Thank you very much and have a pleasant week! I can't wait to see you!

Dr. J.

JOHANSON'S ADVANCED COMP. I FALL 2005

JOHANSON'S ADVANCED COMP. I FALL 2005

2)
Another type of homework that I want you to please do is to visit the Purdue OWL website and comment on an exercise that you found was useful:

1) Name of the exercise
2) How you did on the exercise
3) Would you suggest it to other learners at your level
4) Overall comments

3) Please see the Student Sample Essay Listed Below and Be Prepared to Comment on It...

Have a good and safe week.
Dr.J.

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

Students Please Visit This Website and be prepared to discuss it...

Google Toolbar

Google

Students: Please visit here to learn more about how to take advantage of what GOOGLE has to offer, for free!

[TIMED WRITING EXERCISE] October 19, 2005

Topic : Many students have to live with roommates while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate? Use specific reasons and examples to explain why these qualities are important.

Do you know that your roommates could either save or ruin your life? It happened that I have the opportunity to live in my friend’s house as a roommate for a while. From this experience, I have found out that the roommates should mostly have the qualities of being alert and simple. Why did I say so? Please read on what my perspectives are as follows.

The first character as a roommate is alert. There are so many gas-leaking accidents happened, especially during the winter time. As a good roommate, we should be alert when there is someone who is taking the shower. Ignorance could be a primary regret for the rest of your life. For instance, there was once one piece of news reporting about when student A was enjoying a shower, his roommate, student B, happened to be at home and had saved him from the hand of the death. If student B wasn’t so alert (he could be sleeping during the time while student A is taking a shower,) both of them could have a reunion in the heaven now. Isn’t it?

In addition to the character of alert, simplicity is also a credit to be a nice roommate. That is, if your roommate has a very complicated relationship, you might be involved or influenced all the time. For example, I used to live with one of my friends. She told me that there was once a roommate long ago, who liked to bring her so-called “boy friend” home frequently, and her boy friend changed so quickly. It did cause my friend’s family some trouble and influence their life because of her “non-simplicity.” Especially, my friend has children who are confused with the value of relationship when they see this situation. That’s why simplicity is a very important quality for the roommate.

In conclusion, good roommates should have the qualities of alert and simplicity to reinforce your confidence in living with other people. With these 2 major characters as the standard while choosing your roommates, I believe everyone’s life should be safe and stable, the same as Snow White to live happily ever after.

Greetings! Thanks Chi-Nien!

Dear Students,

Like you know, Thursday is my really late teaching night and I was exhausted by the end of the day and forgot to post the POST THIS message here. I am trying to merge the two Advanced Comp. I and Advanced Comp II courses together for your convenience, although I will continue to do two blogs.

THEREFORE, YOU CAN POST YOUR HOMEWORK HERE... OR YOU CAN POST IT TO THE OFFICE PHOTO AS CHI-NIEN SO INTUITIVELY TOLD YOU! WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS! KEEP LOOKING AT THOSE OWLS!

This way, if you are unable to make it to the earlier "show" then you can come to the later 8-10 show. Or vice versa. I am open-minded about this and, believe it or not, but I am finding really strong improvement in your writing so far.

Timed writings are sometimes sort of boring to look at and difficult to do, but they reveal a lot about the western/eastern stereotypical writing styles and techniques that are KEY TO ADVANCED LEARNING.

I am looking forward to seeing you Thursday! I'll have lots of fun stuff graded for you!

Take it easy and like Chi-Nien says, STAY COOL!

Dr. J.

VIEW FROM NEW TAIPEI OFFICE (OCT. 7, 2005)

This was the day of the typhoon. It was incredible how the typhoon ravaged through the university campus and moved anything that was not bolted down around in circles! 

THE NEW OFFICE AT NTUST!

CAN WE DO IT? YES WE CAN! 

ADVANCED COMPOSITION I FALL 2@@5

 

STEPS TO TAKE IN WRITING A TIMED WRITING!

#########################
STEPS TO TAKE IN WRITING A TIMED WRITING!
Take about one minute to plan. You should organize your ideas into two body paragraphs and an introduction and conclusion. You will only have 30 minutes to write ... that means that you must plan what you are going to say carefully so that it will enjoyable and not a confusing and messy painful task ...

INTRODUCTION

grabber sentence
two or three sentences that lead to the thesis statement
THE THESIS STATEMENT

BODY PARAGRAPH #1
TOPIC SENTENCE: The first reason… First of all, …[transition]
End of your paragraph you can add a sentence like conclusion. [therefore, blah blah blah]

BODY PARAGRAPH #2
TOPIC SENTENCE: In addition to [whatever I mentioned in the first paragraph] … another… [transition]
At the end of your paragraph you can add a sentence like conclusion. [therefore, blah blah blah]

CONCLUSION
Restatement of the thesis statement
TWO or THREE sentences that lead up to the final comment…
FINAL COMMENT … “If everyone …” “Perhaps we all,” “If only all of the people…”

########################################

WH Questions: Who, where, why, what, when, and how


UNITY:
each paragraph has only one idea and one idea only. Moreover, each paragraph has a topic sentence, which serves as a contract to the reader…[topic sentence = contract]

COHERENCE:

the entire paper is commanded by a logical format that uses coherent transitions to unify the main ideas... Thesis statement = of the entire paper or work

Reader responsible = stereotype Chinese more “vague” because it leaves more to the reader’s imagination and the reader must play and active part in the comprehension of the text at hand. vs.
Writer responsible = the writer must be sure to place a number of “sign posts” for the reader to follow so that s/he can “digest” the text rapidly and efficiently.

AVOID USING FIRST PERSON… AND NEVER USE CONTRACTIONS (I’m, can’t, won’t) [con+ tract+ion]… AND PLEASE DON’T BEGIN SENTENCES FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so); coordinating conjuctions: however, therefore, thus, moreover, nevertheless,

PLEASE POST TIMED WRITINGS HERE:

Students: Please post your timed writings (30 minutes) using your choice of topic from the huge list that I gave you the first day of class, to this message:

OCTOBER 5th GROUP-WORK PAPER REVISION

BRIEFLY DONE GROUP REVISION TO THE FOLLOWING TIMED WRITING

Have you ever had a friend who seemed like she had everything one minute and, at the drop of a hat, suddenly was left crying in the rain with nothing? This reminds me of my Aunt Sally, who always liked to gamble her future on luck. Is it wise to spend your life waiting for good fortune to come your way? Or is it smarter to concentrate on your job and be dedicated to one specific career. I believe that people succeed in life due to hard work because luck is unreliable and people who work hard are more motivated to learn more about their jobs.

First of all, hard work is a key factor to success over luck is because when luck comes, we are often fooled into thinking that it will always come our way. For example, you can visit a casino and make a million dollars but if you are not wise, you may lose your money the next day. If you had worked hard for this huge amount of money, you would maybe have been more careful in spending it. This is why many people who rely on luck and do not hard work end up poorer later in their lives than when they were young. My uncle is a good example, for he used to gamble so frequently that he lost his family and all of his possessions. If he would have worked hard like my father, then he would definitely have an easier life.

Another reason why hard work is the key to success is that people who work hard are more motivated to learn about their jobs. do not think wealth is equal to success. Somebody who wins the lottery is really lucky. Edison, for example, was a very dedicated inventor who always asked how he could improve whatever he was working on. Although he made a thousand mistakes on his way to making the lightbulb, he was successful in the end because he was persistent. It is important to learn as much as possible about all aspects of your job because you never know when you will be asked to take on the leadership of the entire company.

To sum up, people who rely only on luck in life will usually become failures in the end because their luck is almost always limited and short term. Those who are dedicated to their jobs through hard work are usually more motivated to learn as much as possible about their work. If everyone were to stop relying only on luck and become motivated workers, the world would probably a safer and cleaner place. we welcome luck but we can not usually rely on it. On the other hand, hard work always represents a serious attitude toward one’s life. That is the secret of success.

Some people say: luck is the most important factor for one’s success, but I think people who always believe in luck are not practical. I believe that most people who succeed in life due to hard work.

First of all, I do not think wealth is equal to success. Somebody who wins the lottery is really lucky. However, I do not think he really achieves great success in life. In my opinion, the identification of success is the affirmation of the self. If you get a high position or a lot of money just by luck, you will not be proud of it. Through hard work, you can affirm the value of your life.

Another reason why I do not think that luck is the main cause for success, is that luck will never follow you all the time in your life. Most distinguished entrepreneurs make a success of their career because of hard work. Even the great inventor, Addison, passes more than a thousand times of failure for the invention of a light bulb.

To sum up, we welcome luck but we can not usually rely on it. On the other hand, hard work always represents a serious attitude toward one’s life. That is the secret of success.

Welcome to Dr. J's first streaming video discussion for our composition course. Please tune in frequently to hear more such presentations about our class and how to improve your academic writing skills!

Please POST CLASS #3 TIMED WRITINGS

Dear Students,

If you remember, I asked you to please type out your timed writings and post them to our class blog. {Please Post Them Here!} I apologize if you were unable to reach the blog. Sometimes the blog acts "funny" if it's in a bad mood or if I don't republish correctly.

I am going to Kaohsiung for the weekend! I hope you have a good weekend and good luck with the homework. I am looking forward to seeing you again.

Dr. J.

CLASS #3

Thank you for an interesting class. I really want you to improve your fluency in writing English; please keep a personal journal or practice answering questions for timed writings (I gave you hundreds already) on your own blog. I will read it over periodically and it will be part of your cumulative participation grade. Anything is fine; just do your best!

Please remember to find a website you are interested in learning more about related to English language writing topics (such as those we shall cover in this class) and give me, either by posting it here to this blog entry as a comment or by sending it to the class leader, three to five pages. The idea is to great a class website in which we use CHINESE to show others how to write various types of English writing. THEREFORE, PLEASE ONLY TRANSLATE THE DIRECTIONS AND "HOW TO" into Chinese and NOT THE SAMPLES. I know this is obvious but remember we are teaching our classmates and future students HOW TO CREATE VARIOUS TYPES OF ENGLISH WRITING! Any questions, contact a classmate or Dr. J.

Please remember the formula we discussed regarding timed writings. If you learn this, then everything you write in the future will be better. Timed writings help with fluency and they help with learning UNITY (each paragraph has a topic sentence and one main idea only) and COHERENCE (the entire paper or text that you create is logically arranged with sufficient transitions that lead the reader along! My goal is to give you the most practical class ever. If you need to contact me, please email me directly. I want to help you do as well as you can on your future goals. Please continue to explore your English fluency writing by keeping a tiny journal on your personal weblog related to what we are looking and an exploring in this class. Also, please go online and try to find some cool examples of either etymology or linguistics-related websites. If you can, please bring a copy or two to class so we can discuss them. I wish you the best, and please keep in touch.

Dr. J.

A History of the English Language

A History of the English Language: "The Norman Conquest and
HELLO STUDENTS:
THIS IS A GREAT WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT I TOLD YOU IN OUR LINGUISTICS CLASS! TO KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE, WE MUST KNOW WHERE WE HAVE BEEN... LET'S LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH!


The Norman Conquest and Middle English (1100-1500)
William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 AD. (The Bayeux Tapestry, details of which form the navigation buttons on this site, is perhaps the most famous graphical depiction of the Norman Conquest.) The new overlords spoke a dialect of Old French known as Anglo-Norman. The Normans were also of Germanic stock ("Norman" comes from "Norseman") and Anglo-Norman was a French dialect that had considerable Germanic influences in addition to the basic Latin roots.

Prior to the Norman Conquest, Latin had been only a minor influence on the English language, mainly through vestiges of the Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the seventh century (ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and mass came into the language this way), but now there was a wholesale infusion of Romance (Anglo-Norman) words.

The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef, commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow. Many legal terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in many instances.

Sometimes French words replaced Old English words; crime replaced firen and uncle replaced eam. Other times, French and Old English components combined to form a new word, as the French gentle and the Germanic man formed gentleman. Other times, two different words with roughly the same meaning survive into modern English. Thus we have the Germanic doom and the French judgment, or wish and desire.

It is useful to compare various versions of a familiar text to see the differences between Old, Middle, and Modern English. Take for instance this Old English (c.1000) sample:

Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum
si þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice gewurþe þin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.
To get a feel for Old English pronunciation, play a wav file of this Old English text (518Kb), read by Catherine Ball of Georgetown University.

Rendered in Middle English (Wyclif, 1384), the same text is recognizable to the modern eye:

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;
þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it is dounin heuene.
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us.
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Finally, in Early Modern English (King James Version, 1611) the same text is completely intelligible:

Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen.
Giue us this day our daily bread.
And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill. Amen.
In 1204 AD, King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France. This began a process where the Norman nobles of England became increasingly estranged from their French cousins. England became the chief concern of the nobility, rather than their estates in France, and consequently the nobility adopted a modified English as their native tongue. About 150 years later, the Black Death (1349-50) killed about one third of the English population. The laboring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance, and along with them English increased in importance compared to Anglo-Norman.

This mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle English. The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

By 1362, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely over. In that year, the Statute of Pleading was adopted, which made English the language of the courts and it began to be used in Parliament.

The Middle English period came to a close around 1500 AD with the rise of Modern English.

English Grammar Quizzes - Easy (ESL, EFL)

English Grammar Quizzes - Easy (ESL, EFL)
Publish
HEY STUDENTS LOOK AT THIS WEBSITE! IT'S FULL OF FREE EXERCISES FOR YOU TO DO. I LOVE IT!

English Grammar Quizzes - Easy (ESL, EFL): "English Grammar Quizzes - Easy
Levels 1 & 2 | Levels 3 & 4 | Levels 5 & 6 | Level Unsorted
Activities for ESL Students has over 1,000 activities to help you study English as a Second Language.
This project of The Internet TESL Journal has contributions by many teachers."

An Impressive Beginning: A Timed Writing From First Week Other Class

QUESTION:

Should we judge people by their external appearances? Why or why not? Please give specific details and examples to present your answer.

[DR. J liked this essay very much because it shows a good beginning. Please see his comments in purple. I don't mean grammar or spelling comments. I mean his writing organization comments BELOW.]

ORIGINAL STUDENT WORK

I agree with the statement that one should never judge a person by external appearances, although most people’s impression to do so. My reasons will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
First, judging a person by external appearances is very subjective. A saying goes “never judge a book by its cover.” If you do so, you might miss a chance to broaden your knowledge and view. The same reason, if we judge a person by external appearances, we might lose the opportunity to know a valuable person.
Secondly, judging a person by external appearances might let you lose money. There are so many liers and phony people in the world. Their best dequise is looking good which can really gain people’s trust. At the end, you will find out they really are and what they want – your money.
Third, judging a person by external appearances might let you feel regards forever. Some people fall in love at first sight and get married immediately. They never spend time to get along and know each other better. The result is regret and divorce. And a lot of sorrow for the rest of their lives.
According to the above reasons, I agree with the statement that one should never judge a person by external appearances. Be objective, not subjective. [END]

DR. J's Comments Added to Work

[Add a grabber sentence that catches the reader's attention better! Like: Have you ever met a person who dressed like a homeless person who was really a millionaire? Then go into your essay.]I agree with the statement that one should never judge a person by external appearances, although most people’s impression to do so. My reasons will be discussed in the following paragraphs. [Here, you should give a simple thesis statement that tells the points you will be discussing in the essay. Like I said, a timed writing usually only has time for two -THREE at most - body paragraphs.]
First [of all], judging a person by external appearances is very subjective. A saying goes “never judge a book by its cover.” If you do so, you might miss a chance to broaden your knowledge and view. [Give us an example to add depth and support and, to be honest, length, to this paragraph!] [By ...]The same reason, if we judge a person by external appearances, we might lose the opportunity to know a valuable person.
[I prefer a transition sentence that says: "In addition to "whatever I said in the first paragraph topic sentence" ..., "the stuff I'm going to talk about in the next topic sentence is another reason why blah blah blah...] Secondly, judging a person by external appearances might let you lose money. There are so many liers and phony people in the world. Their best dequise is looking good which can really gain people’s trust. At the end, you will find out they really are and what they want – your money. [Nice little conclusion to this paragraph! You are a good writer!]
[PERSONALLY, I don't think that THREE paragraphs is possible in such a short amount of time. Try to do just two and develop them well with exemplification and with good sentence variety. Three is too much, I believe.] Third, judging a person by external appearances might let you feel regards forever. Some people fall in love at first sight and get married immediately. They never spend time to get along and know each other better. The result is regret and divorce. And a lot of sorrow for the rest of their lives.
[You could say, "In conclusion" which is liked by some and disliked by others or you could simply repeat your thesis statement in a restated way ..."] According to the above reasons, I agree with the statement that one should never judge a person by external appearances. [TRY TO ADD ONE OR TWO SENTENCES HERE! DIFFICULT BUT EFFECTIVE] [For these reasons, it is best to strive to be an objective person rather than a subjective one ... Often what we see is not always what we get...] Be objective, not subjective.

DR. J's FINAL COMMENTS

I liked this essay because it shows much of the organization that we are aiming for. It is divided into different sections and even attempts to elaborate on three points. I was very impressed with this essay because it was completed in only 20 minutes and was organized so well. However, we need to try to limit our paragraphs, I believe into two body paragraphs and come up with effective grabber first sentences and concluding sentences that "elevate the paper!" Good Job! We will discuss this more!

Dr. J

JOHANSON’S ADVANCED COMPOSITION [FL3105301]CLASS #2 SEPTEMBER 21

Brief self-introductions of students to Professor and presentation of name-cards

Dr. J reviews the basics of last class: what we did and where we hope to go.

TIMED WRITING- TOPIC:
“This is my last semester of my life and I must learn as much about academic writing and English writing as possible. In this essay, I will tell you exactly what I want to learn and how I want my Professor to teach it to me in as much detail as possible.”

Dr. J discusses last week’s handouts:
10 TIPS for the Standard Timed-Essay
TOEFL Scoring Guide for the Standard Essay

~BREAK~

In groups, students discuss the handout Dr. J gave last week regarding STANDARDIZED TESTING WRITING PROMPT QUESTIONS:

What are the different types of questions?
What words are repeated in almost all questions?
What about the last line of each question, what should be do with it?
How do you feel about these types of questions? What strategies might be useful in preparing to face these types of questions?
How might this exercise be applicable to us in our “real-life, real-time” jobs and our current positions as either worker, student, or employer?

DR. J’s Lectures on his reaction to last week’s timed writings:
Problems:
i. Fluency
ii. Transitions
iii. Lack of “grabber” first sentences
iv. Weak endings that showed little or no timing or practice
v. Lack of exemplification (e.g., examples)
vi. Failure to communicate in English writing

Solutions:

i. We will each create our own blog and on this blog keep a daily (if possible) journal of events or try to answer one of the questions on the Writing Prompt List like a timed writing.
ii. Extensive training by Dr. J on the use of transitions and visions of “where we want, should, and must go” with our current writing
iii. Self-analysis tools for evaluating our own writing

~HOMEWORK (for September 28, 2005)~

1. Class Leader will announce textbook purchase details via e-mail:
2. [DISREGARD #2]
Write one-two pages about your timed writing from September 14 and describe the following: 1) your general reaction, 2) your goals for future improvement, 3) specific areas in which you might improve, 4) strategies that you hope to use to improve your English-language writing skills in the future.

3. Create your own blog with blogspot.com and investigate and list five interesting On-line writing laboratories. Email your blog URL to the Class Leader and Class Leader will email it to me and I will post them all on our class blog.

CLASS #1 GREETINGS (SEPTEMBER 15, 2005)

Today we had an interesting evening.
1) We first heard Dr. J describe his past history (yawn!) and then he told you of the importance of creating your NAME CARD for next week.
2) Then, Dr. J discussed the course description and gave you copied of the OFFICIAL SCORING SHEET of the TOEFL (1-6), as well as a list of 10 suggestions from Dr. J on timed writing.
3) We took a break and engaged in a 20-minute timed writing. Afterwards, Dr. J gave you sheets with several hundreds of TOEFL/TOEIC questions on them. You can read over the sheets Dr. J gave you if you wish, but please just take it easy and prepare yourself for the rest of the class. I promise that I'll give you plenty to do ...
4) Please remember to create your NAME CARD and think of a "pen name" for later postings if you do not want everyone in the universe to see your writing. Like I said, I will NEVER EVER discuss the true identity of ANYONE'S paper, but we will be sharing each other's work over the course of the semester. A daily journal is suggested but not required.
Academic writing success is mostly organization, much fluency, and some grammar. The way in which you present your ideas is more important that grammar.
Of course, Dr. J will correct your grammar, but IDEA ORGANIZATION & MANAGEMENT are the true keys to passable and impressive L2 (second language) writing. I am excited about this course, and I wish you the best! Dr. J