Please read this important information about the types of writing assignments you will be doing in this class, and the kinds of writing tools you will be using.
Writing Assignments
You will be doing several different types of writing assignments for this class each week.
Blog posts. Every week, you will be posting in your blog at the course Ning website. These blog posts are considered formal writing assignments, so you need to make sure the spelling is correct, and you need to proofread your posts by reading them out loud. Most of the blog post assignments have minimum/maximum length assignments, so you need to know how to do a word count to make sure you have met the requirements.
Blog comments. Each week you will read and comment on the blog posts of other students in the class. You will add your comments to the specific blog posts that you are commenting on. Your comments may be brief (a minimum of 2-3 sentences), but your comments must clearly show that you read the original blog post. You need to comment on specific details of the blog post in order to show that you read the original post carefully and thoughtfully. Most of the blog post assignments have minimum length assignments, so you need to know how to do a word count to make sure you have met the requirements.
Storybook webpages. Starting in Week 2, you will be publishing webpages for the class, and starting in Week 5, you will be publishing your Storybook writing assignments in the form of webpages. Again, you need to make sure you spellcheck your writing and you also need to proofread your writing by reading it out loud. In addition, you need to do a word count to make sure your writing is within the minimum/maximum limits for the assignment.
Webpage comments. Starting in Week 5, you will be reading and commenting on the Storybook webpages of other students in the class. You will leave these comments on the Comment Wall that each person has at the Ning website. As with the blog post comments, you need to make sure your Storybook comments show that you have read the other students' Storybook webpage(s) carefully. Your comments about the Storybooks will be more substantial than the comments you make on the blog posts, and so you will need to check your word count to make sure your comments meet the minimum requirement for the assignment.
Writing Tools
As you can see, you are doing your writing in this class for the web, in the form of blogs and webpages, as well as the comments you make about other people's blogs and webpages. None of the writing you will do for this class will be printed out on paper. So, for that reason, you should NOT use Microsoft Word for any of writing you do for this class. Microsoft Word is a great tool for creating printed documents; it is an absolute disaster when it comes to writing for the web (here's why, if you are curious).
So, since you will not be using Microsoft Word, you need to make sure you are able to do type and save your documents, spellcheck them, and also do a word count of your finished work. Here are some of the tools I would recommend that you use for doing that - and if these tools are new to you, you can get Technology Tip Extra Credit for learning how to use them, too!
GoogleDocs: This is a web-based tool you can use for writing and saving your documents. You can access your GoogleDocs from any computer, so if you are using multiple computers and/or working in computer labs or Internet cafes, you won't lose track of your work. GoogleDocs has a spellcheck feature and a word count feature. You should NOT use GoogleDocs for formatting your text (no bold, no italics, no images). Instead, just use it to write the text - and then, when you are creating your actual webpage or your blog post, you can do the formatting and add the images at that time.
Firefox Word Count Plus. You can add the Word Count Plus utilitiy to Firefox so that you can quickly check the word count of anything you are viewing in your browser - blog posts, webpages, etc. That way, after you publish your finished work you can double-check and make sure it meets the minimum/maximum word count requirements.
Firefox Dictionary. This add-on allows you to right-mouse click on any word on a webpage and look it up in several online dictionaries at once. It can be very handy because sometimes there are spelling errors - complimentary versus complementary, for example - which a spellchecker cannot correct for you; instead, you might need to look the word up in a dictionary to be sure.
One final note about writing...
Extra Credit Grammar Quizzes. A lot of students struggle with formal written English, especially with spelling and punctuation. So, to give you some extra help, I have created these Grammar Quizzes for extra credit which I hope will give you some useful practice. During the Orientation Week, there is an optional "Grammar Pre-Test" which you can do for extra credit, and the results of that pre-test should give you a good idea of whether you will need to brush up on your spelling and punctuation skills as you do your writing assignments for this class.
When you are done reading the information on this page, here is the Gradebook Declaration you need to complete:
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PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
I have read the information about the different kinds of writing assignments in this class, and I understand that Microsoft Word should NOT be used for any writing assignments in this class. I will be sure to spellcheck the written assignments I do for this class, and to proofread by reading out loud. I will also do a word count to make sure that my assignments meet the minimum/maximum requirements.
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