Aoyama Gakuin - IE3 Writing - Elvin

Dear students, On either the 15th or 22nd of July, please hand in your portfolio of two essays, one classification and one persuasion. These essays are worth 20 points each. You will also be assessed on your mid-term exam (classification) and final exam (persuasion), which are also worth 20 points each. Your final exam will be held on July 22nd. The other 20 points that will go toward your grade will be on your attendance and participation. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will write a persuasive essay in groups. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will review classification. In groups, please classify an aspect of Japan that young non-Japanese people may like to read. Your classification can be opinion or fact and your information should be new and entertaining to your readers. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Please bring your outlines and drafts to class today. Make sure you have clear thesis statements in your introductions, that your summaries, paraphrases and quotes are correclty cited in MLA style, and that these external sources are correctly assigned to your "Works Cited". Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you may start planning your persuasion essay. This essay will be worth twenty points, and should be between 400 and 500 words in length. You should include your name, ID, date, essay title, outline or map, and word count. You should also cite at least three sources and list them in a "Works Cited" according to MLA style. This essay must be typed, not handwritten, and it goes without saying that your homework must be your own words and ideas, unless you are summarising, paraphrasing or quoting other sources. You should choose one topic from the following; Relationships Cross-cultural Values The Environment The Media This essay is due by July 14th, your last lesson. I can check either your outlines or your drafts at any time if you wish. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will read your group persuasion essay in class. After that you will continue to learn about and write in the persuasive style. Classification Essay Homework Assignment This essay will be worth twenty points, and should be between 400 and 500 words in length. You should include your name, ID, date, essay title, outline or map, and word count. You should also cite at least three sources and list them in a "Works Cited" according to MLA style. This essay must be typed, not handwritten, and it goes without saying that your homework must be your own words and ideas, unless you are summarising, paraphrasing or quoting other sources. You should choose one topic from the following; Relationships Cross-cultural Values The Environment The Media This essay is due by July 14th, your last lesson. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will review MLA style. Please download the two prints below and bring them to class. http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/ie3/In-text_citations.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/ie3/MLA.pdf We will also start writing persuasive essays, so please download the guidelines for this type of writing. http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/ie3/persuasionessay.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today is your mid-term test which is worth 20 points. You will be asked to classify something chosen by the teacher on the day. You should write more than 250 words. Ten points will be awarded for the following: 1) map, 2) title, 3) paragraph shape, 4) thesis statement, and three works cited (3) with their corresponding in-text citations (3). The other ten points will be awarded for your writing ability; task completion, cohesion and coherence, grammar range and accuracy, and vocabulary (10). Good luck! Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear  students, Today you will start classification. Kind regards, Chris Elvin Note about in-text citation: In MLA style, writers place references to sources in the paper to briefly identify them and enable readers to find them in the Works Cited list. These parenthetical references should be kept as brief and as clear as possible. Give only the information needed to identify a source. Usually the author's last name and a page reference. Place the parenthetical reference as close as possible to its source. Insert the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur, preferably at the end of a sentence. Information in the parenthesis should complement, not repeat, information given in the text. If you include an author's name in a sentence, you do not need to repeat it in your parenthetical statement. The parenthetical reference should be before the punctuation mark that concludes the sentence, clause, or phrase that contains the cited material. Electroni

Dear students, Today you will practice summarising, paraphrasing and quoting using MLA style for in-text citations and "Works Cited". Please bring something to class that you would like to use for your summaries / paraphrases / quotes. You may bring several sources if you wish. If you would like to learn more about MLA, here is a handout: http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/ie3/MLA.pdf If you would like to generate MLA formatted "Works Cited" automatically, please check out "bib me"  ( http://www.bibme.org ) or  "Son of Citation" ( http://www.citationmachine.net/mla/cite-a-book ). Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today, please show me your completed homework (summary, opinion, in-text citation, works cited). In-text Citations MLA style requires brief citation information to be included in the text of your paper, and most often in parentheses at the end of your summary, paraphrase or quotation. This will signal to the reader that the writing is not  your own, and that the original source can be found in your "Works Cited" at the end of your paper. Works Cited At the end of your paper, you must provide an alphabetical list of all the works that you have cited in your paper. This requirement includes summaries, paraphrases and quotations. If you are citing a book, for example, the MLA format will look like this: Author's last name, first name. Title of book. City of publication: publisher, date. Please do not be too overwhelmed at the moment. By the end of the semester you should all be quite capable. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Thank you for coming to class yesterday. Please subscribe to this blog, or bookmark it, or visit it before coming to class. For our lesson on April 15th 2014, you will read your completed group essays to two other groups. After that, we will start to practice summarising, paraphrasing, and quoting other sources. Please bring a book to class for these exercises. (For example, a Harry Potter story, Great Expectations, Hiroshima, A Brief History of Time, etc.) Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today is your last lesson. You will provide feedback to the university about the course, and then hand in your portfolio. Your portfolio should include your final paper (50 points) and two homework assignments (10 points each). For one assignment you should demonstrate your understanding of how to use another writer's words corrctly, to strengthen your argument and to avoid plagiarism (summary, paraphrase, direct quotation, indirect quotation). The examples you provide should have the correct MLA format for intext citations. For the second homework you should demonstrate how to construct a bibliography in MLA format. Ideally, you should show that you are comfortable compiling bibliographies from a variety of media sources. You may use examples directly from your essay if you wish. Please don't worry too much about these homework assignments. If you can clearly understand the concepts I will be happy and you will earn full marks. Kind regards, Chris El