Preferred topics?

Hi all,

As discussed, the next unit for EL will be on debates. I would like to seek your cooperation in suggest topics you think you'd enjoy discussing - I'll try to pick from this pool and incorporate them into the upcoming lessons.

Anonymous feedback is allowed, in case you were worried about seeming 'uncool' for wishing to discuss, so feel free to comment away!

Reminder to submit

You might remember that you were instructed last term to submit an essay for the Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010. The due date is 30 Sep 2009, so there's no rush yet, but if you are wondering how to go about submitting it, this is how you can do so.

1) Submit your entry online at this site.

2) After you have done so, you can email your actual entry to me for verification. I will not be grading this, but will take note of your participation for record purposes.

Presentation rubric

The mark allocation is 15m for individual, 5m for group. The rubric shows how you will be graded, but not how the marks will be allocated.

You can see that PowerPoint is meant to be optional, so I will not be deducting any marks if you don't use any (or if they are not good), but good visual aids will possibly net you extra marks.

Link to rubric (expires after a week)

Social Advocacy Presentations

(This is an expansion on the presentation instructions/rubric that has been given out to you.)

As you know, the social advocacy presentations will be done next week. The objective of the presentation is to pitch your proposal to your class, pretending that they are the organisation you hope to convince. For example, assuming that you have written to LTA to suggest the construction of an overhead bridge, you are to present your proposal to the class as though they were the relevant authority.

The structure of the presentation should follow the basic structure of an exposition - with an introduction, main body and conclusion. Credit will be given for appropriate use of persuasive styles (e.g. citing the accident statistics for the road in question as logos), rhetorical devices (e.g. use of anaphora when listing reasons to build the bridge) and evidence of tailoring your speech to the audience/purpose/context (e.g. for a presentation to the LTA, the use of Singlish will probably not be advisable).

PowerPoint slides are not required, but for a presentation of that length (minimum 2min per person), visual aids will probably be useful. After each presentation, the class will have the opportunity to ask the groups questions - the Q&A is not graded, but it's a good opportunity for you to grill your fellow classmates =D

I will be giving you time on Monday (20 Jul) to discuss this with your group, but you should begin this over the weekend already. The actual presentations will be done on Wed/Thu (22/23 Jul). Feel free to contact me (by commenting or emailing) if you have further queries.

TH National Creative Writing Competition (extended)

Just a note that the deadline for this competition has been extended to 1 Aug 2009.

Temasek Hall (NUS) is organising a creative writing competition and is seeking short stories (max 1500 words) featuring main characters grappling with current socio-educational issues in the Singapore school setting. Cash prizes include S$500 for distinction works and S$250 for merit works.

Requirements:

• Original work not exceeding 1500 words, typed double spaced
• Each entry should have a cover page with the writer’s name, school, email address, telephone number and word count.
• Writers’ name should not appear on the pages of the story.

Email story to: tehbox1@nus.edu.sg

ERP information

The upcoming ERP assignment (Wed 8 July) will be an expository piece comparing a specific idea in your two books. The details will only be unveiled when you get the questions on the actual day.

This assignment will be marked in a similar manner as the commentary assessment you did last term - I've uploaded the Expository Writing Rubric from that assignment as a quick reference. The actual rubric will differ slightly, but should be pretty similar.

You may bring in your books and refer to them while doing the assignment, but no extra notes will be allowed.

More subscribers wanted!

Subscription rate is still less than optimal, if the class has some sort of mass email account (yahoogroups?), is it possible for someone to help notify the rest of your classmates to please come by and subscribe?

Instructions can be found here if required.