Week 5

Dear students,
Today you will work in groups of four or five. You should choose a topic to write about, narrow the focus, draw a detailed map, do your reseach, and then write your part of the essay. A good thesis should be original, interesting, researched, and include critical thinking. Your group essay should be over 250 words long per person (over 1000 words) and include at least five references. Therefore your essay will have at least five APA formatted in-text citation markers together with their matching full APA formatted references in the Works Cited. All of your references should support and strengthen your thesis. A good reference is the opinion of an expert. A bad reference is something arbritary that you found on the Internet. Wikipedia is fine for this class, but the original source of the Wikipedia article (the references at the bottom of the page) may be better.

For homework, please type your part of the essay in APA format. You should use Times New Roman font. Your text should be 12-point and fully justified. Your references should be hanging indent, left justified. Everything should be double spaced.
It should look something like the file below:
My_Paper
You should include the full essay in your portfolio and highlight the parts that you wrote.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Week 4

Dear students,
Today you will read your summary of a novel that you wrote for homework. After you have finished, please show it to your teacher who will briefly check your in-text citation and Works Cited.
Please also bring a book to class today so that you can:
a) paraphrase a paragraph
b) cite a short quote
c) cite a long quote
Each of these intext citations should be in APA format, and you should also make reference to these in an APA formated Works Cited.
After that, you will study APA in more detail, so please download the files below.

APA Review
APA How to Cite
APA Works Cited Matching

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

* Important Library Visit Coming Soon *

Dear students,
A librarian will come to talk to you soon. Please take note of the date, time, and room where you should go to learn about the library resources.

Tuesday Period 4 students - October11th - classroom 15-606
Tuesday Period 5 students - October11th - classroom 15-404 (our regular classroom)
Thursday Period 2 students - October 27th - classroom 15-403

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Week 3

Dear students,
Today you will start by reading your group essays within your groups. After that you will study or review APA format in-text citations and references so please download the prints and bring them to class.

APA formatted article example

APA in-text citations

APA in-text citation matching exercise

Finally, you will practice summarizing by writing a paragraph about a book that you have read. You should include an APA formatted in-text citation after your summary, and a full APA formatted reference in the Works Cited. You should also write what you found interesting about the book, perhaps in a new paragraph.

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Week 2

Dear students,
Today you will analyze a student essay before attempting to write one of your own in groups. Please bring the academic writing student's booklet to class.

For homework you should complete your part of the group essay (for example; introduction, part A, part B, part C, or summary). Please write at least 150 words in one or two paragraphs  (or possibly more). You should also include an APA formatted in-text citation together with its APA formatted full reference in the `Works Cited`.

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Week 1

Dear students,
Do you remember the essays you wrote for IE3? Today you will write an essay and show it to your teacher.

Some people say that everyone should retire at age sixty-five, whereas others argue that this should not be the case. Discuss both points of view before concluding with your opinion.

You should first draw a map, or write an outline. Then you may begin writing your 250-word essay. You should also include at least one APA intext citation together with its full APA formatted reference in the `Works cited`. This should take about one hour to complete.

After you have finished writing, please try to estimate your score using the bandscale criteria below. Once you have done this, you may show your teacher.

IELTS writing task 2 bandscale criteria

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Academic Writing - Autumn 2016

Dear students,
Welcome to the course. We will be using the textbook at least some of the time, so please consider buying a copy for yourself. Alternatively, you may find one to download below:

http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/2016-NEW-AW-Student-Guide.pdf

COURSE OUTLINE

Academic Writing

Autumn 2016

Instructor:             Chris Elvin

Email:                    chriselvin@gmail.com

Blog:                     http://elvinaw.blogspot.jp

Course Description

Welcome to Academic Writing. This class is designed to accomplish the following:

1) Write a 1500-word research essay.

2) Write direct and indirect quotations.

3) Paraphrase and summarize.

4) Use APA style to cite sources and compile bibliographies.

Course Assessment and Grading Criteria

30%   A portfolio of all the work that you did in class. This will include single and multiple paragraph essays, direct and indirect quotations, paraphrasing, summarizing, APA in-text citations, and works cited reference compilation exercises.

10%   A mid-term in-class essay

10%   A final in-class essay

50%   A 1500-word research essay, which should include a detailed map / outline, and at least seven APA formatted in-text citations together with their corresponding “Works Cited” references.

It will take you most of the semester to write a 1500-word original research essay. Your essay will be graded according to four criteria: thesis, organization (cohesion and coherence), grammar (range and accuracy), and vocabulary.

Attendance Policy

You are expected to attend ALL classes.

Plagiarism

Please don’t copy! (Even one sentence that is not your own is too much).

Good luck!

Download Course Outline

January 19th lesson

Dear students,
After you have completed your final draft of your final paper, and before you come to class, please upload your essay to the plagiarism checker below:

http://www.tinyurl.com/mgow8cs

It will be searched for irregular text strings (series of words which have been written and published before), and output a confidence score. If your essay is your own, and you didn`t copy paste, you will have nothing to worry about!

The hard copy of your paper that you hand in today must be typed, and include your name, ID, date, and word count. You should also attach your outline (typed or handwritten). There should be at least seven references in your Works Cited and your essay must have intext citation markers which direct the reader to the correct reference of your Works Cited. Finally, and most importantly, your writing must be academic and interesting!

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

IELTS Task 1 Part B - Model Answer

Dear students,
Here is a model answer for part B of the test you took on January 12th:

Part B Model answer

The two diagrams show how electricity can be generated from the rise and fall of water caused by sea waves. The process involves a structure which is mounted on the side of a cliff or sea wall. This structure consists of a large chamber. One end is open to the sea, and the other leads into a vertical column, which is open to the atmosphere. A turbine is installed inside this column and this is used to generate the electricity in two phases. The first diagram indicates that when a wave approaches the device, water is forced into the chamber, applying pressure on the air within the column. This air escapes to atmosphere through the turbine, thereby producing electricity.The second diagram illustrates the next part of the process when wave retreats. As the water level falls, the air from outside the column is sucked back in through the turbine. As a result, electricity continues to be generated. The turbine rotates only in one direction, regardless of the direction of the air flow. In conclusion, we can see that this structure is useful as electricity is generated in both phases: entering and retreating of water.

(195 words)

IELTS Task 1 example

Dear students,
Here is an example of a task 1 writing task for IELTS.

The bar chart illustrates the percentage of people who hold a science qualification in Singapore and Malaysia. A prominent feature is that a significantly low percentage of people hold science qualifications, that is Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in science from university level studies in both countries. Less than 5% of people hold a qualification in science at Master’s degree level in both Singapore and Malaysia.

There is a significant difference in the percentage of people holding science qualifications at Bachelor level between the two countries; while this number is 20% in Singapore, in Malaysia it is a mere 10%. The percentage of people with school leaving exams in science is slightly higher in Malaysia than in Singapore. 35% of people in Malaysia have a science qualification at this level, whereas the number in Singapore is 5% lower. Finally, more than half the people in both countries hold no science qualification at all.

(152 words)

January 12th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will have a ten-point final exam which will be similar to an IELTS writing task 1 exercise, and that will take about twenty-five minutes to complete.
After that you should continue working on your final draft. Let me read and comment on them if you wish. Before you hand in your final paper, please submit a copy of it to the university plagiarism checker at http://www.tinyurl.com/mgow8cs.
If you want your final paper marked and returned, then the deadline for your paper will be today. Otherwise, the deadline will be January 19th.

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

January 5th lesson

Dear students,
Today I would like to see your outline and first draft, which should be typed and include at least seven in-text citations and matching references in your "Works Cited".
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

December 22nd lesson

Dear students,
Last lesson you should have completed your detailed mind map or outline and begun to write your essay. Please show me your draft today. Remember also that you should have at least seven references in your "Works Cited", which should be in APA format. Your in-text citations should also be in the same style.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

December 15th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will start to write your final paper first draft. Please show me your mind map or outline and thesis statement. If they are good, you should be able to start writing and editing. I can check your writing whenever you wish.
If you have not completed any other assignments, please try to do so as soon as possible.

final paper outline
(not necessary to use, but may be helpful)

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

December 8th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will start to draw your mind map for your final paper, which is worth fifty points. If you are stuck for ideas, the textbook has several examples in the appendix (Learning from Model Student Essays, from page 77).

Academic Writing Students` Booklet

It is a good idea to take a look at these essays not just for ideas, but also to familiarize yourself with academic writing, APA formatted in-text citations, and APA formatted references.

Here are three suggestions for academic writing:
1) Research your topic thoroughly. Make notes and keep track of your sources as you may want to cite them in your paper.
2) Cite experts and reliable sources; They will strengthen your argument.
3) Spend a long time drawing and editing your mind map.
4) Don't start to write until you are completely satisfied that your mind map can not be improved.

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin