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IE3 Writing: Lesson 2

4/15/2015

16 Comments

 
Hi everyone,

Great work today! I really appreciated how well everyone fully participated in pair and group work. Although it's only the second lesson, we're getting into the nuts-and-bolts (=idiom for details) of essay writing.

Bibliography

We learned how to make a bibliography for a research paper.  A bibliography is an alphabetical list of all the sources you use for your research paper.  When you organize your source information in your bibliography, you need to arrange it using the MLA style (MLA=Modern Language Association).

MLA Referencing:
MLA referencing is one of the ways you can document your sources in your research paper.  This style is used in the humanities, especially for writing about language and literature.  

Introduction Structure:
We also learned about the different parts of an introduction:  
a.    hook
b.    general statements
c.    thesis statement

You can choose from five different hooks: 
a.  quotes
b.  rhetorical questions
c.  statistics
d.  interesting facts
e. similes

Late Submissions:
Please be aware that your writing must be submitted on time if you would like to receive my comments.  If you submit your writing after a deadline, it will not be checked.

Essay Format:
We quickly went through how to format your essay (e.g. spacing, titles, etc.). If you need additional information, please see the "Essay Format" document at the end of today's summary.

Homework:
  1. Bibliography:  due April 21 before 12noon by email
  2. Introduction:  due April 20 before 12 noon by email
  3. Blog posting #2

Please submit your Introduction and Bibliography as Word documents. You will need to attach them to the emails you send to me.

Blog Question #2:
  1. What difficulties did you have writing your introduction?
  2. What are the benefits of writing your essay step-by-step?

*Write 8-10 sentences.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Tuesday, April 21 by 6:00pm.
16 Comments
IE3W-Shusei
4/15/2015 10:34:02 pm

I had a mighty difficulty writing my introduction because I had to decorate sentences which I am bad at. The other problem I had was that sites I checked were in german. Since sources can only be in japanese or english, I had to sink my time digging deeper. The sites I found, I was not too satisfied however all other sites where about offices or restaurant. So I had to give up my crusade.
The benefits of writing an essay step-by-step are that both teacher and student can fix a mistake quickly. Also we can chew down the essay in smaller chunks. It is quite hard to do something after a very long explanation. So by doing it in step by step we can keep our concentration and do our best.

Reply
IE3W-Midori
4/18/2015 12:22:02 pm

It was difficult for me to rank the sentences from general to most specific. When we write an introduction, it must be coherent to our topics. I managed to break down the elements related to anime. However, it was very hard to choose such elements because there are so many genres. I think there are two benefits of writing our essay step-by-step. First, we don’t have to panic as the end of the semester approaches. Second, we can receive advice from the teacher regularly so that we won’t go off the track. I think we have to keep these two points in mind even when we don’t write an essay step-by-step.

Reply
IE3W-Chinatsu
4/18/2015 06:55:59 pm

It was difficult for me to write an introduction because I've never written it before.For me,it was difficult to write hook sentences. I considered hard writing it, thinking what sentences can make readers attract my topic. At first, my hook statements wasn't suitable for attracting readers,but when I stand in the reader's place, somehow I wrote the sentences which attract readers.It was also difficult to summarize the general sentences. When I wrote the introduction, my number of letters exceeded, so I tried to write a passage more clearly but concicely.I think that writing our essay step-by-step has benefits. If we write an essay without this step, we can't write it more logically. Also, we can write an essay without missing the theme and can wirte it checking with a teacher so we can write the best essay.So writing an essay with step-by-step method can make our essay more logically and clearly understandable.

Reply
IE3W-Kana
4/18/2015 11:44:50 pm

One of the difficulties I had when I wrote my introduction was writing the hook sentence. I wanted to use a simile, but it was hard to compare something to the Korean wave. Another difficulty I had was to connect that hook sentence to the next general statement. Although those sentences have the same “Korean wave” as its topic, it took a long time to figure out how to put them together. When I was writing the introduction, I was always keeping in mind about the funnel organization, and I thought it was supposed to be easy. But thinking about getting the sentences to get more specific one at a time was harder than what I had imagined it to be.
I think the benefit of writing my essay step by step is that I can take time and really think about what I’m writing about. When you have to write a whole essay by a particular deadline, you sort of rush things a little and I think the quality of it would not be so perfect. One more benefit is that the teacher can check my essay one paragraph at a time. By that, I can write the next paragraph knowing that I can rely on my previous paragraph.

Reply
IE3W-Fumio
4/19/2015 07:18:16 am

1, Firstly, it was actually very difficult for me to write the hook sentence too, as everybody else mentioned above. That was because I felt the hook statement sort of has to be English expressions. What I mean by that is, even if it is not weird expression in Japanese, it could be strange in English. So I had to come up with a phrase in English in the process of my thinking. Secondly, it just simply took so much time for me to come up with the phrase.
2, As long as we keep up with the deadline every time, we could hand in the final essay on time. The possibility of submitting it on time would be higher. Also, the quality of the essay would be much better with the teacher's comment feedbacks.

Reply
IE3W-Takahide
4/19/2015 12:41:27 pm

I had many difficulties in the English language. When I write an English sentence, I often think of the content first in Japanese. Then I translate it in my head. After that, I double check if I have any grammatical errors, miss chosen vocabulary, and spelling mistakes. It takes time for me to write even one sentence so writing an introduction which is composed by several sentences, it took me a while to finish each steps for each sentence.
The benefits of writing an essay step-by-step are that we can concentrate on only one part. We can recall what we have learned in class and do our best in each paragraph. Also we can reflect the teachers advice more deeper than doing everything at once.

Reply
IE3W-Aoi
4/19/2015 11:46:14 pm

It was difficult for me to come up with good sentences including hook statement. It also difficult to organize information and make general sentences most specific sentence. And I didn't know how I should connect general statements to three classification of my topic. Because of these difficulties, it took me a while to write introduction.
One of the benefits of writing essay step-by-step is that you can get feedback from teacher each time. Then you can fix your essay by teacher's advice. By this process, your essay can keep good quality till the end. Another benefit is that you don't have to rush at the last minute. It happens when you are writing whole essay at a time.

Reply
IE3W-Nodoka
4/20/2015 12:36:39 pm

I had many difficulties while writing the introduction. What was most difficult was coming up with a good hook statement. It took a lot of time for me to come up with the one that I chose. This made me a little frustrating because I couldn't start writing without starting with a hook statement.
I think the benefit to write an essay step by step is that you can get the teachers advice more often. Also, you can change the parts as you go on. This means that you dont have to change the whole thing if there is some inconsistency in the beginning part. Also, doing this step by step makes you feel that it is not too much work than writing this essay from the introduction to concusion.

Reply
IE3-W Azusa
4/20/2015 03:31:41 pm

Firstly, it was difficult for me to make hook statement. I have never written an essay with a hook statement. I wanted to use rhetorical question, but it was too difficult for me to use it, so I used different one. I'm not sure whether my statement is ok or not, but I tried my best.
Secondly, I think it is important for us to build an essay step-by-step, because we can check and understand where is wrong. By checking it, we can avoid making same mistakes in the same essay. Also, we can confirm what we are writing. If we write whole essay at the same time, we might often forget what we are writing.

Reply
IE3W-WilliamHaruki
4/20/2015 06:10:09 pm

1. It took me a while to think of a hook statement that would give off the kind of feel I was looking for. Rhetorical questions didn't feel quite right, as my topic is quite specific. I ended up using an "interesting fact" type of statement to open the paragraph. Once I figured that out, the rest went quite smoothly. I didn't have any trouble coming up with general sentences to follow up on the hook, and the thesis statement wasn't very troublesome either.

2. The advantages of writing an essay step by step include the fact that after each section is finished, you get to review your work and recieve constructive feedback from your teacher and peers. You can then use this obtained information to write your next section to a better standard. This allows the essay, when finished, to have a higher overall quality.

Reply
IE3-W Yuto
4/20/2015 06:22:38 pm

Writing the hook sentence was a big difficulty. Although this topic wasn't used by others, social networking is something that everyone uses in their daily life, and finding a catchy idea within this resource proved to be difficult for me. The hook statement made me rethink about my essay over and over, which now I appreciate, because it let me think about my topic a little deeper. It also made me realize that I may have been thinking too much about wanting to "hook" the readers by trying to write complex details about my topic, so I decided to try to make the readers think that what I am writing is important to them since I believe that social networking is part of almost everyone's life.
The benefits of writing an essay part by part is that it gives us ample time to think deeply about what to write in each part of the essay. However, it may help if we can also have time to plan our essay as well. Considering that this is a classification essay, it is required that we need enough information and a same ammount for each idea to equally summaraize our topics.

Reply
IE3W-Luke Andrew Worley
4/20/2015 06:43:50 pm

It took me longer than I thought to think of the hook statement that will start off my introduction the way I wanted to. Also, I had a hard time guiding my topic through the introduction, I guess because I stated my topic pretty specifically but yet the words that I came up with led my introduction to be a general one.


I think the benefits you get from writing essays step by step are that u can make sure every step is following your statement and connects well. As I said, I had a hard time writing the introduction because my introduction wasn't really following my hook statement. So i think I'm able to work on that easier going step by step. I also think it's good that we are able to focus on one section every week allowing us to have good balance and a more organised schedule for our essay.

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IE3-W Tomomi
4/20/2015 06:50:17 pm

One of the difficult part when writing an introduction, was to think of an hook sentence. I have never used it before when writing an essay, so it took me a long time to come up with a good sentence. Also, it was very hard for me to connect the general information of my topic to my three classification smoothly.

I think the benefits of writing an essay step by step is that you can spend more time to look back. It is hard to look for all the mistakes after writing the whole essay, but if you have time to do so for each paragraph it would be easier, and you will have your essay finished in better quality.

Reply
IE3-Mio
4/20/2015 06:53:16 pm

I am writing about Disney but I only knew about theme parks. There are some resorts that are owned by Disney so I had to search them. Also, writing a hook statement was a difficult thing. I don't think it's that catchy.
Writing my essay step by step is a good thing to do because I can take my time only to that part; can concentrate and think more deeply. And because I'm writing one paragraph, I won't get off track. I think it is a good idea to write step by step.

Reply
IE3 Writing Soichiro
4/20/2015 06:54:50 pm

1.I found it hard to begin the hook sentence,and I'm still not sure if my hook sentence is ok.
I'm going to write about three sports,but exept for volleyball,I've hardly ever played badminton or tennis so I'm having a hard time in understanding the rules.
Explaining the good and fun parts of the sports are easy,but without playing the actual sport,it's difficult to find demerits.

2.Doing this essay step by step gives me time to think about my topic carefully.Actually,I've never written such long sentences,so I think it would be to hard for me to do at once.I think being able to construct a sentence as I want is a skill I'll need in the future.It's a good opportunity to get used to it!

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IE3writing Aira Yoshioka
4/20/2015 07:00:03 pm

I had some difficulties finding the content of the essay .Japanese traditional words are difficult to explain and I had to translate Japanese traditional furniture in English .Also it was difficult for me to find good examples of Japanese traditional colors ,since there are many kinds of Japanese traditional colors.
I think there are benefit to write in the early stage.we can recognize the mistake and this can let us write our essay more smoothly.

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