Peter: notes on blogging the news

Summary of "xxxxx"

In the heading above, replace the xxxxx with the title of your chosen source. Make it a link to that source so that your readers, your classmates, can easily find your source if they would like to see it. Then delete these notes and write one summary paragraph to tell us the ideas in your source. Rule 1: The maximum word length is 150 words. In both IELTS and TOEFL, the number of words suggested for the integrated writing task is 150, although they state that as the minimum rather than the maximum. For our purposes, 150 maximum is more challenging, and that's good for us. Rule 2: Write in a register appropriate for an academic context. Rule 3: Remember you are writing one paragraph, which should be a single, coherent piece of work from your topic sentence to your concluding sentence. There are exactly 150 words in these notes.

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Nnnnn's response to "xxxxx"

In the heading above, replace Nnnnn with your nickname. And again, replace the xxxxx with the title of the source you have summarized. Like the independent writing tasks in both TOEFL and IELTS, this is where you give us your opinions. While maintaining a register suitable for an academic context, although perhaps a bit more relaxed than your summary, which should be academic English, tell us your responses to the article you have summarized. 

This is not a formal essay. You can jump to different topics as new ideas occur to you. Although it would be a good idea to help your readers follow the move, if you get an idea and want to talk about something very different, that's not a problem: just start a new paragraph to develop your new idea. 

Your response can be to tell why you disagree with something in your chosen article, how it conflicts with our own experience, how it reminds you of something, how it applies to your own life, what position with regard to a social issue it suggests, the movie you saw three years ago, why you think your society is totally wrong (or right) about something, or whatever. It's response writing. You should write coherent paragraphs, with some links between each. 

But do not write a formal academic essay. This is response writing for fluency, so that you can practice turning your ideas into well-written sentences that fit into coherent paragraphs developing an idea. 

Yes. In modern academic English, people do start sentences, and even paragraphs, with But. But don't overdo it. 

Again following the TOEFL/IELTS lead your response here should be at least 300 words. In both TOEFL and IELTS, it is better aim to write 350 words or more, but 300 is the minimum they ask for. We want the same here. And as above, delete all of these notes and replace them with your response. You can write two or three paragraphs, or more if you like. While 300 words is the minimum, try not to exceed about 500 words. To give you some ideas of length, these notes are 513 words, which is the maximum length for your response here — but 200 words less will be fine.. 

Please do not change the formatting. I chose it to be easy to read. As we noted before, the paragraphs are correctly formatted for writing on an online forum. If you like, add an image or two to your post. I usually add an image from my source to my summary, and if I have one that's relevant, another image to my response, but not always. You're the author; these things are for you to decide. 

"Do not change the formatting" means that if you would like to write in another program, such as MS Word, you should paste only the text in here, which means first copying and pasting into Windows Notepad or the same of Mac, and then copy that text to paste in here so that all of the weird (for this blog) formatting is removed.

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Nnnnn's question 

In the heading above, replace Nnnnn with your nickname. Then delete these notes, replacing them with one (only one, not two or more) question that you would like your readers to respond to. This question should invite a response that needs a paragraph to answer. If you have taken a position in your response, you might ask what your readers whether they agree with your. You could ask what solution they would suggest to a problem you raised. You could ask ... anything you like that invites readers to think critically or relate your summary or response to their own lives, experiences or ideas. But you can only ask one question.