Greetings ... please make any final posts here...

SOPHOMORE COMP. STUDENTS:

It was my great pleasure to get to know you over the years. I hope, sincerely, that our paths can cross again. Always keep in touch ...

I will never forget you.

RJ

-----------------------------------------

REGARDING YOUR PAPERS AND ASSIGNMENT

DEAR STUDENTS:

Your papers are located by the plant on the pile of rocks in the inner sanctum of the Language Center Office (D#114). They are located in a brown folder and the RESUMES are folded.

THE FOLLOWING IS YOUR ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT WEEK:

1) Find your papers in the brownish yellow envelope entitled SOPH. COMP!

(If you do not find your most recent paper, please send it to me by attachment. If your paper has NO CORRECTIONS on it, that means that I NEED TO DISCUSS YOUR PAPER WITH YOU IN CLASS NEXT WEDNESDAY. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU DID NOT DO A GOOD JOB OR THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG, OKAY?!, IT JUST MEANS THAT I WANT TO GO OVER THE PAPER WITH YOU. Please, in the meanwhile, try to rewrite your paper according to the MODEL I provided you with...)

2. Save the original electronic version of your STATEMENT OF PURPOSE [only!] and add my comments (if you agree with them) and make corrections or changes AND THEN POST BOTH VERSIONS ON THIS BLOG ENTRY LIKE THIS:

VERSION #1 (PRE-RJ-EDITING)
.....

VERSION #2 (POST-RJ-EDITING)
...

[PLEASE TAKE OFF ALL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION AND BRING A HARD COPY OF THE NEWEST VERSION AND THE PREVIOUS VERSION TO CLASS NEXT WEEK.]

3. As for the resumes/CV's, try to add in the corrections I made, which are probably mostly only structural and bring a hard copy to class. Try to improve them if you can by looking at others online. For the most part, I believe that you do not need an OBJECTIVE ... JUST DO YOUR BEST WITH THE CV/RESUMES... go online and try to improve what you have... [We are stressing the SOP's more than the RESUMES...but still try to improve what you can ... for your future...]

4. I will give you back your LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION/COVER LETTERS on WEDNESDAY.

5. Please do your best and email me if you have questions...

RJ

JUNE 1st TIMED WRITING

Dear Students,

As I mentioned in class today, please type out today's 30-minute timed writings (on difficulties writing in academic English at the the Taiwanese university) in exactly the same way that you wrote them, with mistakes and all. Please do not put your names or identifying information on your submission.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing you next week.

RJ

this is the stuff that good writing is make of... 

memorize this guys... 

ahahahahahaha 

STUDENTS: PLEASE COMPOSE A TEN (10) MINUTE TIMED WRITING ON THIS PHOTOGRAPH AND THE ONE DIRECTLY BELOW IT. I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR IMMEDIATE REACTIONS TO WHAT YOU SEE... (please remember the timed writing strategies that I taught you last week!) HAVE A GOOD VACATION! RJ 

 

March 23rd, 2005 Assignment

Greetings Students!

We had a really interesting day in class today, despite the fact that we had quite a few "fallen soldiers" who, for medical or soporific reasons, were unable to make it to class today.

We are taking a bit of a more practical turn in that we will focus specifically on strategies that will help us write effectively the TOEFL etc. essay writing section. We will do this in two ways:

1) RJ will ask you to please look over the 500 TOEFL essay writing prompts he gave you in class today.
2) RJ will politely request that you create a TIMELINE that includes as much of the details that you can recall about your life "that made you YOU" that you can remember.
[3) I did not mention this, but hopefully you will do it anyway: add links to five useful ESL/EFL writing-related websites that you can find ...

Why are we doing this? Because these personal events, when combined with the "little planning box in the corner" strategy I discussed today can be extremely effective in helping you "ACE" (do really well on) writing examinations and tests.

GOOD LUCK! Please email me if you have any questions.
RJ

PLEASE POST YOUR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS BELOW AS A COMMENT.

Dear Students:

Please post your comments regarding one of the specific pages of a colleague's entry onto his or her personal class weblog below.

[IF YOU WISH, YOU CAN CHOOSE A PSEUDONYM FOR YOUR POSTINGS ON THIS CLASS BLOG TO MAINTAIN PRIVACY IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE YOUR NAME OR STUDENT NUMBER; HOWEVER, YOU MUST KEEP THE SAME NAME THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER AND TELL ME SO I CAN GRADE YOU...]

Be sure to answer the following questions in your answer, but not listed one by one, but rather incorporated inside of the text of your "review" of the webpage:

• WHO
• WHERE
• WHY
• WHAT
• WHEN
• HOW

Also, please be sure to re-read those two sheets I gave you regarding academic writing. My mother and father will be visiting the class I hope, so please be sure to be prepared to ask them some questions about academic writing and how it has changed their lives.

Thanks,

Robert