LI4113 Lab Week 4

TASK 1

This week we assessed the writing style of some blogs.

We looked at two English teachers' blogs on Edublogs.org:

Blog 1: Intrepid Teacher

Blog 2: Mr Czekner's Third grade class blog



Writing style:



B 1:

This blog uses a very descriptive and high level of English writing. The writing style is constant throughout the blog.

The blogger uses this writing style to sound professionnal, to show that he knows what he is talking about, to appeal to other teachers who are in the same situation, to highlight his personal feelings as he navigates the world of teaching.

He basically writes in a linear fashion and gives his opinion.

The writing style is a bit intimidating and at first very sophisticated, but quickly develops into a one-sided rant, which is veru off-putting.



B 2:

This blog is an interactive blog where the teacher, who, most of the time, writes in a formal style, communicates with his pupils, they answer with their own English, give their opinion on the readings and homework. I'd say they find it fun to do their homework online.

Here, I think the teacher uses the formal style to use proper English forms, word order, etc... in order for her to show the pupils a good example, and to help them learn English.

The writing style is formal but yet friendly and easy to understand for a language learner.



Structure:

B 1:

The structure is linear, with random pieces of information and personnal opinions.



B 2:

The structure is linear as well, but it makes sense to use the same structure for classroom tasks and lesson plans, which vary from week to week.

The structure allows ease of use and interaction with the pupils as well as their parents.



Narrative style:

Because a blog's purpose is to convey information to its readers in a manner that they can understand. Pepople intend to read the blog like a newspaper or a book, although broken into smaller segments.

It conveys the personality of the readre vis-a-vis certain subject.
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TASK 2


1) How does CALL facilitate the writing process and post-process?

Writing process:
On-line dictionaries, spell-check, layout and structure, takes less time.

Post-process:
Interaction is facilitated through web, possibility for publishing (e.g. wiki - comments as feedback), Blogger: rating on blogs (tick boxes to avoid being offensive, e.g. not relevant), faster feedback.

2) How exactly is the writing experience an active decision-making process?

Make decisions about language, structure, what info to use,..

3) With re-editing possibilities in micro-publishing, is the final product really finished? How might this affect the participants?

The product is never finished because you can always edit it (it has the effect of taking less care and being less thorough).
It might be less credible.
It hives the possibiliti to get an idea down on paper without paying much attenttion to detail (more risk taking possible).

4) What do you consider to be the main differences between writing for a blog and writing for a wiki?

Wiki: more collaborative, more factual
Blog: for own aims, more personal, write whenever you want to.

On wikipedia, one can't see the comments from other people on the main page, but on a blog one can see it immediately.