tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post3058351960991595683..comments2023-07-11T08:11:25.508-07:00Comments on Coursera Fantasy: Thoughts about College Writing... not just CourseraLaura Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-85248096236088597112012-09-15T20:41:37.463-07:002012-09-15T20:41:37.463-07:00Hi Amber, I'm not sure why this commment took ...Hi Amber, I'm not sure why this commment took so long to show up! My apologies for not having replied - for sentence structure, a really good technique is just to look at authors that you really like, any kind of writing, and try to analyze what the writer is doing, the very specific things they are doing, and figure out why you like it. If you can find some techniques in other people's writing that you like, you can then imitate that... kind of like learning how to dance by watching very carefully how others dance! :-)Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-76627375324559222412012-08-30T14:45:49.402-07:002012-08-30T14:45:49.402-07:00Hello,
I'm late to this and also frustrated wi...Hello,<br />I'm late to this and also frustrated with how writing has not been taught at my uni in Australia even though I was told I would be taught to write essays it does appear that that is meant to be by some strange secret osmosis process!<br />I was wondering if you had any suggestions/exercices for learning to improve sentence structure? We don't learn sentence diagramming over here, though I am trying to teach myself, it is daunting!<br />I'm just following along with the Fantasy course as I'm overloaded with my current uni session but your essays have great clarity.<br />Regards,<br />AmberAmbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-67152995147267108562012-08-16T11:48:42.461-07:002012-08-16T11:48:42.461-07:00Exactly, Lisa! That's why I feel good about em...Exactly, Lisa! That's why I feel good about emphasizing writing in my classes, even though many of my students come from the engineering school, or are science majors, etc. Writing skills and online communication skills are important for everybody!Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-91842612373581828362012-08-16T11:42:09.078-07:002012-08-16T11:42:09.078-07:00Don't you think it's ironic that they taug...Don't you think it's ironic that they taught us how to calculate the amount of molecules needed to start chemical reaction, derivatives of functions, or even seconds elapsed from one collision to another over the years but they never check our ability in the basic of all communication skills? I love science, but hey, bad writing will get you (almost) nowhere. Some companies will outright reject you once they stumble upon stupid drammar errors in your application.Lisa Santika Onggridhttp://www.mirroredworld.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-78930507699749941682012-08-16T11:25:41.597-07:002012-08-16T11:25:41.597-07:00Exactly, Arenel - getting feedback from multiple p...Exactly, Arenel - getting feedback from multiple people is a valuable experience for any writer, and not very common. I think we should exploit that for all the value we can get out of it! :-)Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-75631203534116459712012-08-16T11:14:25.407-07:002012-08-16T11:14:25.407-07:00I like the idea of a portfolio! I am also taking t...I like the idea of a portfolio! I am also taking the ScFi course at Coursera, and I feel that it lacks this feeling of a work well done ;) After I get some feedback I would like to revise and correct my essay, and then I'd like to have them all in one place to see how I have improved (if I have ;))Arenelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08646965847129179304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-83156446431087991792012-08-16T11:01:20.579-07:002012-08-16T11:01:20.579-07:00Lisa, we have the same problem here with writing i...Lisa, we have the same problem here with writing in schools: everything has to be graded by standardized, multiple-choice tests. As a result, people graduate high school and even graduate college with poor writing skills - despite the fact that they are doing just what they are expected to do for all those years of school. It's a huge problem - I see Coursera as a great opportunity to help with that, but I think they need to be better prepared for the fact that students, a lot of them, really do need help with their writing.Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-74129897326747958082012-08-16T10:59:02.523-07:002012-08-16T10:59:02.523-07:00Ah, that made sense:)
I do hope people have their ...Ah, that made sense:)<br />I do hope people have their essay in their own machines so they at least have copies of their essays. That way, even if the online ones are to be deleted, we still have them safe in our portfolios.<br /><br />I envy you. Here in my country they stopped integrating 'writing' from the curricula since I started junior high. As the result, we're taught grammar, rules, styles, but with NO outlet to show our understanding. It's sort of crazy. That's worse than writing just for grades.Lisa Santika Onggridhttp://www.mirroredworld.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-81270797767796996792012-08-16T10:47:13.335-07:002012-08-16T10:47:13.335-07:00Brave lady to compose on the iPad - I can't do...Brave lady to compose on the iPad - I can't do it, although my husband writes long and detailed emails on his iPhone for crying out loud. How do people do that? I need my keyboard! :-)<br /><br />Anyway, you made my day with the Ant and the Grasshopper: rewriting Aesop's fables is the very first assignment that happens in my class to get students into a creative writing mode! I really do believe that writing can be taught, but you have to get people's creative juices engaged to make that happen... just speaking for myself as both a student and a teacher, telling a story is far more likely to get those juices engaged than writing an analytical essay. Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-90130917826190337632012-08-16T09:12:58.607-07:002012-08-16T09:12:58.607-07:00I'm writing this on my ipad, so please grin an...I'm writing this on my ipad, so please grin and bear it through the typos. Blogger and the ipad browser don't always play nice.<br /><br />It's been over 20 years since I've been in a classroom where writing is supposed to be taught, but if memory serves me right it was never truly taught. Somehow it was a skill we were either supposed to develop by osmosis or it was supposed to have been taught by someone else. I don't believe anyone ever taught writing so to speak in my college years. Studying an inflected language taught me much about grammar, but that was more a desirable side effect. Certainly in middle school and high school, we were subjected to the rules on no I, no contractions, no one sentence paragraphs and the like, and my personal favorite of failure for a run on sentence. (Great wayntomencourage short, choppy sentences.) I can recall two activities of some use and help during many years of formal schooling: rewriting the simple story of The Ant and the Grasshopper in different voices and one or two sessions of group editing. The writing of fiction was actively discourage, and when I chose later in life to write fiction for pleasure I had to visit the Owl for help with the most basic grammar.<br /><br />I do feel that actually reading may provide the greatest benefit as far as writing skills. Here writing is modeled, and the attentive student can find examples of formal, informal, scientific, academic, or whatever writing.Nathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18022144463515710086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-29825365063279311672012-08-16T06:28:22.280-07:002012-08-16T06:28:22.280-07:00Hi Lisa, I guess I did not explain myself clearly ...Hi Lisa, I guess I did not explain myself clearly - I am not talking about the writing people do for themselves (someone motivated enough to write for themselves is in great shape, because they are setting their own agenda - that's the goal exactly!); I am talking about course design here. I think it's wrong to build a course which anticipates that everything the students write will be thrown into the trash can. That tells the students that the only purpose of their writing is to get the grade, which I think is a big part of why people have such a negative attitude about writing for school. Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-90809639002524828052012-08-15T23:10:42.220-07:002012-08-15T23:10:42.220-07:00That 'remedial writing' is necessary in an...That 'remedial writing' is necessary in any writing class. You've done your work, got comments, and now you just have to implement the advices and rewrite your work. <br />I agree that edits and revisions aren't so friendly sometimes. There is a story I never able to finis because I always stop halfway to rewrite it from scratch. Abandoning your works sometimes helps; I look back at them after I forget what I wrote, then I can find errors I missed initially.<br /><br />As for persistent writing, I'm guilty for throwing some works I consider 'mediocre' or 'not good enough' several times...Lisa Santika Onggridhttp://www.mirroredworld.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-46591298694356068622012-08-15T18:17:00.929-07:002012-08-15T18:17:00.929-07:00I know just what you mean, Zannah! Someday I want ...I know just what you mean, Zannah! Someday I want to try writing fiction (truth be told: I want to write a Star Trek novel! or a Doctor Who novel!)... but even for non-fiction projects, like the things I write, the whole process of creating, revising, GROWING the project is such a pleasure. For me, it happens in the back-and-forth between blog and book. I have lots of projects I explore in blogs, and then if a blog grows and grows, I make it into a book.. and then I go back to the blog and rework all the blog content, so that it becomes kind of like the third version of the project... and meanwhile another book is growing. So much fun! It's that sense of fun and discovery that makes writing such a great thing - but so many students live in fear of the dreaded "red pen" for example! Argh! Laura Gibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04994025992373244815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619974859742853534.post-27688066311292173212012-08-15T18:00:15.986-07:002012-08-15T18:00:15.986-07:00My first love is fiction. I write to entertain mys...My first love is fiction. I write to entertain myself, and I work in several collaborative universes with friends. Also, I do it to appease the voices that live in my head. While there are vague hopes at *maybe* publishing something one day, we mostly write for ourselves.<br /><br />Every time I go back and reread an old piece of work, I find errors to correct. I find things that need to be fixed and revised. I make edits accordingly. I have an ongoing series written with a dear friend that's been completely rewritten from the ground up at least five times now. We stopped counting when we passed a million words. And you know what? I love it. It gives me an outlet to exercise my creativity. I don't mind the edits and revisions. It's just an excuse to dive back in and create something even *better* this time.Zannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13077804513441683110noreply@blogger.com