Is it true?

Is it kind?

Being a responsible participant in the great online conversation, I pledge that I will use information to:

q       Honestly and joyously express the truth, and that if challenged, I will be able to prove that what I write or say is true,

q       Always treat all people with respect.  I will never use information to cause harm or appear to cause harm to any person or group of people, and

q       Respect and protect information tools and that I will neither do any harm to a computer system, network, software, or other person’s information; nor will I allow others to do harm to a computer system, network, software, or other person’s information.

October 2008

 

     This year, I will be asking that all blog articles first be written in a Word document.  You will save your Word document in an appropriate folder.  When you are ready to post to your blog, all you have to do is copy and paste.  If needed, I will make minor editing changes, before approving anything for publication, but if the blog article needs more than minor changes, I will contact you and advise your teacher.  I won't post articles until the editing work has been done.

 

     Also, try to think about 6+1 Trait® Writing, as you’re working. What do I mean? Consider Ideas, Organization, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Conventions. The +1 is Presentation (or in this case, publishing on your blog).

     Please pay attention to all six traits; proper use of conventions makes your writing easier for others to understand. I will be watching out for proper conventions: spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization and paragraphing.

Please reread your work and ask yourself these questions:

Title: If I have a title, did I capitalize the words correctly?

Spacing: Did I leave one space between words and after punctuation marks?

Punctuation: Did I use correct punctuation?

Capitalization

              Did I use capital letters in the right places?
              Did I capitalize all proper nouns?
              Did I capitalize the pronoun “I”?
              Did I capitalize the first word of a sentence?

Spelling and Grammar: Have I proofread for correct spelling and grammar?

Paragraphing: Have I indented all new paragraphs?

     Anything you submit for the blog comes to me for approval. Remember that your blog reflects you and your school.  It is read by students in Lebanon, Canada, the US, New Zealand and other countries around the world.

     If you have posted something, and you don’t see it online after a few days, you can come and see me or drop me an email; I am probably holding it for review. As I said, I’m not going to publish your work if it needs revision.

 

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Adding Comments

 

Under the article you want to comment on, click on Comments, then click on Add a comment.  
This box will appear.

                      

~  Include your first name or initials only; we never use first and last names when blogging!
~  Do not include your email address; it will not appear in the comment section.
~  If you have a blog, add the URL (Uniform Resource Locator or website address). 
    If you don't, you might consider adding an identifier to your name (Suzy~ ACS Grade 11).

~  Enter the code to show you're human; this prevents computer generated messages from getting onto your blog.
~  Press "submit".  
   
Note that the comment will not appear immediately.  It goes to the teacher for approval (and minor editing, if necessary).

Remember that all writing on the blogs, whether as an article or a comment, should be according to standard English writing conventions.  Please, no "u" for you or "4" for for; this is not SMS text messaging.  And please, remember to capitalize the personal pronoun "i"!  When approving, I will either edit or not post, depending on frequency and time factors!

 Why leave comments?
       1) To let other people know they have an audience.
       2) To encourage people to write.
       3) To make people think more deeply about an issue.
       4) Think how you feel when you receive a comment from others.

Starting your comments with something like the following will help you think about what to write and help the people you are writing to think more deeply.

   ~ This made me think about…….
   ~ I wonder why…….

   ~ Your writing made me form an opinion about…….

   ~ This post is relevant because…….
   ~ Your writing made me think that we should…….
   ~ I wish I understood why…….
   ~ This is important because…….
   ~ Another thing to consider is…….

   ~ I can relate to this…….
   ~ This makes me think of…….
   ~ I discovered…….

   ~ I don’t understand…….
   ~ I was reminded that…….
   ~ I found myself wondering…….