Saturday 19 October 2019

Blogging instructions - 2019, October 19

The  following is an exact copy of our template with instructions for blog posts.

Introduction and summary - 120 words maximum

In 120 words or less, introduce and summarize your chosen article in  your words. Include the title of your chosen article; format "the title in bold" and make it a link to the article. First select the title and click B on the menu bar above to make the text bold. Then click "Link" on the menu bar to make selected text a link. Write directly here in the blog. Do not first write in Word or any other program to copy and pastie in here. Do not use the words I, me or my. You can use the words we, us or our. You are welcome to add images and videos, but please do not change the font or other formatting. Delete these instructions.

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Response: What is your opinion? – at least 250 words

Write one or two paragraphs (or three if you like) responding to the ideas in the article that you have introduced above. Again, write directly here in the blog, and delete these instructions. Your response must be at least twice the length of your summary. This is usual: we expect a response to the ideas in a piece of work you have summarized to be much longer than the summary. Your response can be anything that comes to mind, but write full sentences organized in paragraphs. Delete these instructions.


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Question for your classmates

Write one (not two) question for your classmates to comment on in response to your blog post. Delete these instructions. Delete these instructions. If you like, you can keep these instructions open in a separate tab or window as you write. 

2 comments:

  1. Although we can be flexible with them, I made up these blogging guidelines for reasons. In a piece of writing that summarizes and then responds to the ideas in another piece of work, we expect the response to be much longer than the summary. This is reflected, for example, in the IELTS test, where Writing task 1 should be at least 150 words, while Writing task 2 should be at least 250 words: the summary and description of a chart, table or process is significantly shorter than the piece of work where you state and discuss your own opinions.

    And in an exam, you cannot be flexible, but must follow instructions or lose points. In IELTS, if you write less than 150 words for task 1, you lose points. In our blogging, if you write more than 120 words in the summary, that loses points. In IELTS, if you write less than 250 words in task 2, you lose points. Here, if your response is not at least twice as long as your summary, you lose points.

    Instructions in tests and here are set for reasons, and it is usually a good idea to follow them, but as I've said, I'm a bit more flexible than an IELTS, TOEFL or other test is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The paragraph under the heading Introduction and summary - 120 words maximum is 125 words, so your summary should be about that length or less.

      Delete

Before you click the blue "Publish" button for your first comment on a post, check ✔ the "Notify me" box. You want to know when your classmates contribute to a discussion you have joined.

A thoughtful response should normally mean writing for five to ten minutes. After you state your main idea, some details, explanation, examples or other follow up will help your readers.

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