Hi, Hilde, Hi Marina (my response to you in bold font)
I want to add information to the site. How to do that?
You already know how to edit pages, so just add anything you like by using the edit button below.
I also informed my students that very soon in two or more weeks they will have an opportunity to be members of Academic Writing.
Good, you can invite them in any time you like, but just let me know first so tha I can "clean up" my texts too…
They were very excited about our project. Good! I told them that Norwegian students will comment on their essays and other works.
Yes, I will try to fit that into my teaching schedule. Ideally, it should go the other way round, too - don't you think? But we may also do it as a part of our topic on "evaluation and assessment" - that is, how to give essay feedback to others.. I'll have to think some more about this.
n two weeks they will hand in their first composition: "What makes me special?" Some of them already wrote their first composition on paper. Word limit was 350 words.
That's a good topic. Are these the texts you want my students to comment? Then it would be very useful to have some keywords from you and/or your students about what exactly to focus on. Style only? Language? Content?
During my course Yakut students usually study the following: 6 steps of writing, structure of paragraph and so on, describing people, describing places, describing buildings, essays: opinion, for and against, letters of applications and to the authorities.
Ok.We only do academic writing in relation to the papers they have to write for literature and civilization studies. We generally do not consider business writing under the category of academic writing. I think we could solve that difference in having a separate page called "Business or Professional communication" or something like that. What do you think?
I want to change the title Literature essay to the title Main types of discursive essays. Again I don't know how to do that.
OK, here's how you change the side menu: in the URL address field, write http://academicwriting.wikidot.com/nav:side
Here, you also click on "edit" and this allows you to change and add sides as you wish. Likewise, the address http://academicwriting.wikidot.com/nav:top lets you edit the top bar menu. Perhaps our names, student names (?) and a little information about the project could go in here?
I added the information to What is an essay. Can you have a look at that and comment? I included there the definition and some theory and practical exercises. I want students to study the information and do exercises and put their answers on the site. What is your opinion?
I only browsed through the page very quickly so I can only give you a superficial answer. But it looks as if much of the information rather could go on other pages. Why not make some words hyperlinked, so that many of the parts of the texts could be put on new pages. It is usually a good idea to go for shoarter texts, and rather take advantage of the hyperlink function. Also, I think the text should be made more accessible by headlines, different fonts, and so on. Butu, as I said I only read it very quickly so I cannot comment in detail. Just saw that it was very long!
Where students should locate their essays? Hmmmm…maybe we should create a page called Student Essays, add their names (or aliases) on this page, and from these names click onto new pages, each containing a separate essay? This would make it easier for my students to work with them, as only one person can edit one document as a time (otherwise you get "page lock conflict" since each page is "locked" for editing for 15 minutes until the next person can open it.
Hope this was useful! Speak to you soon! I am so glad we have started :-)
Hi again, you're doing great! Happy to see you are so active.
I edited the text before saving it to the site but words which were in bold changed. How to edit the existing page?
OK: the text you paste into the site will always come out in plain font, so you need to use the little buttons above (in "edit" mode) to change the text to the way you want it. See this link for some tutorials (videos 4, 5, 6): http://www.wikidot.com/doc:video
I have also started to do some little editing on the text you pasted on the "For and Against Essays" page. Lots of good material! But I think it needs to be broken down and put onto several pages. We have the possibility of clicking on hyperlinked words, so we should take advantage of that function. I have only edited the first part; put a link on the word "colloquial language" (as an example, to show you how many words can be explained on another document), as well as put the first section of practical exercises on a separate page. I am not sure how you would like to organize it, so this is only a suggestion from me to give you an idea of the possibilities.
I have also inserted a "Wiki help page" on the top bar menu which may come in useful in the time which lies ahead.
Hi, Hilde,
Thanks for information!
I'll edit for and against essay myself. I am very busy today, lessons from 10 am to 6 pm, lunch time is free. So, I'll add corrections next day.
Have a nice day!
Bye!
Take your time! This cannot be my first priority either, with so much else to do right now, but I plan to write a little now and then. Tip: to monitor this site's latest developments, go to "Site Manager" (on the left menu), then go to "Recent Changes". That gives you a list of every change that has been done, and on what page. On each page, you may also click on the "history" button, and see all the changes to that specific page. It also allows you to compare the different versions. Very useful!
//Hi, Hilde, Can you add information to Literature essays and Civilization essays because I want to have an idea what your students study during the course in Norway. This would be good. What is business communication for you? What should I include there?
Looking forward to your reply
//
Actually, having separate pages for Literature and Civilzation Essays is more a remnant from the original structure of this site, as it was originally intended for a different purpose than our, common, one. I think we should consider how relevant they are. A civilization essay is nothing in itself,as it can either an argumentative essay, a research essay (for/against) and so on. So here we are talking subject matter rather than form and purpose. We could leave the literature essay, although on a lower level (as a sub-category) since in my opinion they are more of a separate genre. Then, I think this site is beginning to look more formalistic and I suggest therefore we leave it out altohether. I don't mind, it's just fits better in a different framework.
As for business communication I would also rather have that on a separate site. To me, business and academia are different spheres, and "essays" belong to the latter. By business communication I think of formal letters; letters of approval/rejection/enquiry, and so on. A separate genre of its own.
Let me know what you think.
BTW when I added info on opinion essay, I created link Exercises. Should I create a new link Exercises to every new theory? Or I should add to existing links, eg Go to Practical exercises. WIKI is s new experience for me, I never created sites before and I am very surprized that I understand something:)
I see you're working hard. Good! As for you last question, I think you create whatever structure you like to the exercises pages. Just keep in mind that the computer is really very unintelligent, so that when you have two pages both called "Exercises", the machine will think it is the same page. For practical reasons, therefore, it is probably wise to call them slightly different things. Also note that the computer takes everything literally, so every capital letter, comma, etc. matters in terms of titles of pages.
Tip: check "orphaned pages" (under "site tools" below) for pages that have no "parent" site. It is useful to check once in a while, to make sure everything links up nicely. So, if you create a page and call it "Marina", and then later change the name of that page, it will actually become orphaned…and the parent page will not be able to trace it anymore…
Hi, Hilde,
I tried to save exersices in for and against essay, created link, typed in ex-s but when I was saving the text, a note appeared: error occured while processing the file, how can I save it?
**Where are you? I have lost you:) Next week our students will have access to wikidot.com in university building because it is prohibited to use some sites in our campus as it is expensive, wikidot.com was in that list of prohibited sites. We had to ask for permission to use it in campus and since next week it will be available for our students. Of course, students can work at home but not everybody has the access to the Internet in their flats, so they prefer to work at university computer class only. I understand that there is not enough info in our site but maybe it's time to open it for everybody, so that students could add their works and comments? I am eager to make students interested in our project. What do you think? **
Hi Marina, sorry for my long silence. I am drowning in work and don't know how to manage it all. I think the right thing for you to do now is to just keep shaping the site according to your own desires, and open it to the students when you feel ready to do so. I am sorry bit I cannot contribute to it right now,. I have lost touch with this project and it did not turn into the cooperative space i would have wanted. Not your fault at all - It is I who have been too absent.
Anyhow, I can get my students engaged in commenting and correcting your students' work on the week after Easter. But, and this is important: I need guidelines from you as to what exactly you want the students to comment on. Also, there has to be some benefit in it for them, too - how do we manage that?
Bye, Hilde (in England at the moment)
Hi, Hilde,
I really hope that when you have more free time, you will also contribute to our project, because your guidance and support are very important things for me. I understand that you have a lot of things to do in Norway.
The main thing I want to know by now - how to make the site open for students? (Will TAlK TALK between us disappear?) Could you do that instead of me?
BTW when is it Easter in Norway?
I want your students to edit the works of the students, give comments, create forums for the talk between your and my students, communicate, share ideas and have fun:)
Bye, Marina (I wish I were in England now:)
Marina: I am preparing for a very big course I have to give tomorrow. I will return to your questions on Friday, and set up a plan. So sorry I am so busy….Hilde