Why you should use Google Docs...

Hello everybody!

Today I'd like to write something about Google Docs, and in doing so, I'll try to be as more concise as possible!I know that perhaps I tend to write too long blog posts!

We already know how to create and save bookmarks on the Web by means of Delicious, and we realized how useful this is. Now we also learnt how Google Docs works. The advantages of using this tool are the following ones.

• First of all, it's a service where you can save and privately share documents with friends and colleagues, that is not anyone can read or edit your documents, but just those people you decide to invite to.
• Secondly, since this is a Web service, you can easily have access to your documents all the time, and work on them using different computers.
• Next, more than one user can edit the same page at a time, and when this happens you should see who's working on it besides you.
• Finally, I think that Google Docs can be really useful when working with people who are physically distant from you. When it's impossible for people to gather in the same place and work together, Google Docs is just what you're looking for!

I don't think I'll use Google Docs very much in the future because I usually work on my computer, and rarely have to work with others and share documents with them. Anyway, if I had to do this, now I know that I can use Google Docs!And I also think that it would be a good idea to save and update a copy of an important work, such as a thesis, in Google D0cs, too...terrible things can always happen when you have to do with technology!!!

For now that's all!

See you soon

Michela

APA format vs. MLA format

Hello everybody!

In the following post I'd like to point out the main differences between the APA and the MLA styles, which I drew from visiting the links out English teacher gave us. The first difference concerns parenthetical in-text citations: the APA style uses the author's name, date of publication, and page number while the MLA style indicates just the author's name and page number. Secondly, as far as authors and editors are concerned, the APA system lists all authors and editors giving their last names and first initials whereas the MLA system spells out available names, and, in the case there are more than 3, lists just the first one with et al. Another important difference, which partly makes you understand why the APA is used for scientific research and the MLA for humanities category, concerns titles. While the former one italicizes it and capitalizes only its first word, the latter one underlines it and capitalizes every important word in it. Next, as concerns publishers, the APA style uses full names while the MLA style prefers to shorten them. As far as the place of publication is concerned, the APA style adds the state abbreviation when the city is less known whereas the MLA style only lists the city. As regards pages, which have to be indicated always when referring to specific parts of a source, the APA style lists the first page as well as additional ones. On the contrary, the MLA style lists just the first page, adding + to indicate that additional pages were taken into account, too. A further difference is about dates: in the APA aystem dates always follow the author name/s while in the MLA one they're placed at the end of the citation. Finally, as far as indentions are concerned, in the APA style just the first line of each entry is indented whereas in the MLA style it's exactly the opposite: the first line of each entry is flush with the left margin, and the rest of the citation is indented.

Thinking about my BA thesis, I must admit that I used a mixture of these two reference styles. For example, as far as titles are concerned, I wrote them in italics, as the APA style suggests, but I used capital letters with every semantically important word. As concerns the reference list, I indicated the author's name, the title, the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. As for in-text citations I put the author's name and the date in parethesis: so, again a mixture between the two formats. I remember that I had some difficulties in listing references when I had to write my thesis, or when I was asked to write some academic paper. Now I'm becoming even more familiar with the various, different styles you can use to indicate the references of your work. However, I'm still convinced that one of the main difficulty is to decide what style is more suitable for the kind of writing you're working on. Reading further information about the APA format and the MLA format, I learnt that a basic difference between them concerns just the subjects they're commonly used for: the APA style is generally considered to be more suitable for the exposition of scientific research, the MLA style for humanities. Once chosen the format, it's very complicated to follow all the rules it recommends, anyway.

I hope that I'll learn how to use references even better in the future! Writing my MA thesis is going to be a real challenge!

See you soon,

Michela

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"There is nothing in your life that does not have meaning"... but how do we express the meaning of our thoughts? Often with words! So write and speak clearly, if you want others to understand you easily and correctly!

English is a reader responsible language: don't forget it, and do your best to make your message as readable as possible!

HANDOUT 2

Task 1
Reflecting on text structure, I think that blog posts generally follow the 'traditional' structure of academic writing. I maintain that any text should have an introduction, a body and a conclusion to be considered coherent and logically consistent. As we pointed out in class, the introduction serves the purpose of immediately telling what the text is about, what its author aims at; the body is the central part of the text where the writer widely develops the subject; finally, the conclusion reinforces what has just been written or demonstrated, asserting the same contents of the introduction definitively. As far as my blog posts are concerned, I think that I usually followed this structure. I always began my posts with greetings, and immediately placed the subject matter I was going to develop in the message: I believe that I can well call this part an introduction to the whole text. Then I developed the subjects of my posts, trying to always be as logical and concise as possible. This is very important when you write in English since English is a writer responsible language, which means the reader is supposed to make as little effort as possible to understand the message. I also concluded my posts with a final statement summarising the previous contents, and with greetings. So, I think that I always followed this structure when writing my blog posts because I'm convinced this is the most coherent, logical way to organize any kind of text.
As concerns the 'academic' blogs we found in e-tivity 5, I think there are both similarities and differences between them and my blog posts. As far as similarities are concerned, the most evident one is undoubtedly the fact that they contain greetings, too because they are meant to be far nearer to verbal interaction than other genres, such as academic articles or essays. I think that the main purpose of blogs – be they academic or not – is to share useful information, and sharing information always implies interaction. This is the reason why bloggers, besides providing information about a specific subject, are constantly concerned to keep some kind of interaction with their audience. As far as differences are concerned, the subject, and consequently, the register of the message is undoubtedly the main one. Blogs we found in e-tivity 5 treat personal learning environments, which is a serious subject: a lot of research has been carried out on it. On the contrary, my blog is about my language learning. So, blogs about personal learning environments are much more formal than my blog is. My blog is primarily meant as a means for my English course, that is a means for improving my English, and to be read by my peers. Academic blogs are intended, written, and maintained for a much greater number of readers who bloggers generally don't know. This is the reason why it's always very important for these people to write their posts carefully, deeply reflecting upon the audience's expectations.

Task 2
Since I'm becoming even more interested in the blogosphere, I chose an academic article who examines identity and language use among male and female teenagers creating and maintaining blogs. Its title is Gender, Identity, and Language Use in Teenage Blogs. As far as text structure is concerned, this article perfectly follows the so-called hourglass structure: there is an introduction, a central body where the research is developed, and a conclusion summing up what the study has examined. Since this is an article, the argument is developed on a large scale broken down into smaller parts. Each part then contains claims that are supported by data with underlying warrants. For example, in the first part immediately following the introduction metalinguistic signaling devices like first, next, thus, finally, in short are used. The whole article is structured like this. Other words used to logically link sentences are however, on the one hand, on the other hand, in either case, by contrast, similarly, for instance. It's quite obvious that academic writing makes use of this kind of formal linking words. This is a research article that is supposed to expose the results of the study carried out in a clear, logical way, so that the reader can understand all the steps of the article easily. Cohesion is another characteristic that academic writing should have to be clear and redeable. Examples are the following sentences: “these features are especially important...” where the demonstrative these is pointing back to the points previously developed, or “there were two scores” where there were is pointing forward in the text. Similar examples of both cataphoric and anaphoric reference can be easily found throughout the article. The purpose of these types of reference is to make as easy as possible the reader's understanding of the various parts making up the text structure. As concerns the complexity of this article, I think it's quite simple and clear. Not only are short sentences preferred to complex ones, but also lists, graphics as well as tables are used to expose the information. For example, when explaining the purposes of the study a list made up of four items is used: “of particular interest to us is: 1) the extent...; 2)how emotive features...; 3) how sexual identity... 4) how language is used... . Many further examples could be provided. In this way, the text is much easier to understand, and the steps easier to follow.
Finally, as far as the text's assumed audience is concerned, I don't think there is a specific audience intended to read this article. Obviously, it's meant for people interested in this topic, and in new virtual means of communication in general. I can also assume that it's not meant for adolescents because it would be very difficult for them to understand it.
I believe that all these points should be followed when writing blog posts, too. A blog post should always be formed from an introduction, a central body, and a conclusion, and each of these parts should be evident to the reader. Finally, messages on the blog should be logical, cohesive, clear, and bloggers should keep in mind who their assumed readers are. In short, what changes is the subject and the consequent way of using language, but the structure, logic, cohesion, coherence, and clarity should all be followed in a blog post, too.
That's all for now!
See you soon,
Michela

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Tips for avoiding plagiarism

Hello everybody!

First of all, I really hope you had an happy Easter!

Now, let's keep on working!

I must admit that I became familiar with the concept of plagiarism only when I wrote my thesis. Soon I will have to start working on my dissertation, so I'm very interested in what I can do to avoid it. Searching the web, I found a lot of interesting information about plagiarism, in particular suggestions you can/should follow to avoid legal actions. The information that follows gives you details about plagiarism.

1-First of all, in my opinion it's important to say what a source is. As Aaron states, it can be anything, "a book, an article, a movie, an interview, a microfilmed document, a downloaded image, an anonymous newsgroup posting" (Avoiding Plagiarism).

2-The question you always have to ask yourself is whether the source you found is trustworthy, reliable or not (see this list of criteria).

3- The most common ways to avoid plagiarism are quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. You can write the author's exact words in quotation marks, or convey the same ideas with your own words and naming the souces you used. It's better to name the source within the text (e.g. "X says", "X argues, maintains, states,..."), and not just at the end of the paragraph. As far as correct quotation is concerned, the APA system and the MLA system are commonly used.

4-Internet sources have to be treated like the other kinds of sources. So you're supposed to give name of the author, date when you retrieved the information, title, and URL.

5-Another important distinction has to be drawn between information that is protected by Intellectual Property Rights and common knowledge: the former obviously needs the original source while the latter is part of the public domain. Unfortunately, it's not always so easy to decide whether a piece of information is common knowledge or not.

I saved some useful information about this issue in Delicious.

See you soon,

Michela

Once found, never lost!

Hello everybody!

Did you image that you could lose youself in a virtual place, too?And that sometimes this is so easy?...

I found the task about evaluating online sources really very interesting. I already knew some of the criteria you should follow to decide whether online information is trustworthy or not. Specifically, I always follow these basic rules:

-who is the author? Is s/he known?If not, could s/he de considered authoritative?

-do cross-referencing to see if you can find the same information in other places

-once found a trustworthy source, I use links in it because I presume these are trustworthy, too.

However, in class we pointed out other criteria that you have to keep in mind when searching the Web. Besides that, our English teacher showed us some tools where you are provided with information already filtered. I find them very useful,and by now I'm going to use them often and often. The Web is so wide that it's impossible that you find what you want immediately. Searching Google Blogs, Google Books, and Google Scholar you know what kind of information you retrieve: blogs, books, or academic writings and articles. Finally, it's quite obvious that the importance of these three sources changes in accordance to the work I'm doing. If you have to write your thesis it's much better if you search for books and authoritative articles (even if reliable information can be found in blogs, too); on the contrary, if you want for example to see how language is used on the blogosphere, it's better if you go through other blogs. Once you retrieved the information that interests you, you can then save it as a bookmark on Delicious. In this way, you can have a look at it whenever you want, wherever you are, thus avoiding losing time, or, even worse ... losing yourself on the Web!!!

I'm curious to know what you think about it! By now it's time to retrieve the material for my thesis!

See you soon,

Michela

WHO SAID ENGLISH IS A SIMPLE LANGUAGE???

Hello everybody!

Unfortunately, today I feel a bit frustated because I realized that I still make a lot of mistakes when writing in English...I know that native speakers make errors, too, and I also know that, when using another language, the most important aspect is often the communicative purpose, that is to communicate clearly. However, I'm attending the very last year of English at the University, and language accuracy is important,too (Soon I'll start writing my thesis!).

Now I would like to point out what I've learnt this morning:

-Subordinators are never preceded by a comma.

-Conjuncts, which are independent words or expressions, are followed by a comma, and preceded by a semicolon or a full stop (but never by a comma because a comma can never link two independent clauses).

Conjuncts in English are:

• First of all, first,firstly,...,finally (intoducing a list)
• In conclusion,to sum up/conclude/summarize (introducing a conclusion)
• Despite this,however,on the other hand,on the contrary,no/nevertheless,otherwise (expressing contrast)
• Moreover,furthermore,indeed (reinforcing or adding)
• For example/instance (giving an example)
• Similarly,likewise (saying two things for similar reasons)
• As a result,consequently,therefore (pointing out a result)

However, try to use them only when it's necessary!They are heavy words. So, if you write a logical and clearly-structured text, you don't need to trace the line of your thought explicitly (also because the reader is not so stupid!).

When I write my posts, I have to check:

• Relative clauses (defining vs. non-defining)
• Paragraph and sentence length
• Punctuation

I really hope that I'll make fewer mistakes in the following posts!

See you soon,

Michela

Summing up...
We started to work on the blogosphere about one month ago...Now, I can:

• Create a blog
• Subscribe to RSS feeds and create playlists (Bloglines)
• Post bookmarks and make a network (Delicious)
• Evaluate online sources

Reflecting on Thursday lessons: we learn English in class, too!
This reflective post is about Thursday lessons because I would like to underline some points. On the one hand, it is true that this English course is primarily based on computer as the principal means for language learning.However, I think that Thursday lessons in class are very important for our learning process, as well.First of all, we can speak a lot - especially the people attending the 8:30 lesson - because we are not so much (and this happens really very few times in English courses!) and know each other very well, so that we are less afraid of others' judgements...Secondly, I think that it's very useful to discuss our most common grammatical mistakes in greater detail.In this way, we can really understand them and, consequently, stop making them.

And now, a bit of grammar!
As far as grammar is concerned, I would like to point out some things I learnt during these Thursday lessons:
1-THE KEY RULE:TRY TO SIMPLIFY LANGUAGE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, so that your posts are much easier to read, and you probably make fewer mistakes;
2-Instead of using these English words:
deepen, also, such, in fact, must, will, distinguish, use the following ones: learn, too, this, indeed, have to, going to, stand out. Instead of don't have to/mustn't use shouldn't, to be not supposed to, can't, or the Imperative.
3-Don't use Present Perfect, use simple Past;
4-Keep in mind that the word order in English is always S+V+O (Subject+Verb+Object);
5-Some rules on punctuation:

• Semicolon:it links two closely related independent clauses (S+V); use it as little as possible!
• Full stop:it is used to end a sentence, a complete thought; use it as much as possible!
• Comma:it is used for a list, or when you're adding something, developing something that is'n a complete though;
• Colon:it is used for a list, or for giving an explanation of what you've said before;
• Lists:you have to use commas when you have words or noun-phrases,you have to use semicolons when the items are short independent clauses
• Words like because, while, since, as, whereas introduce a dependent clause, and are never preceded by a comma.
• Words like however, furthermore, therefore introduce an independent clause, so you can never put a comma before them.

6-Present Perfect:

• Unfinished time (since, yet, ever,...)
• Unfinished actions (I've been talking too much!)
• Present consequence (however, both Present Perfect and Simple Past are potentially correct in this case: e. g. I've lost my wallet/I lost my wallet. It depends on the viewpoint from which you analyse action).

7-Everything means the whole, whereas anything means a part of the whole.

8-For example = e.g. means "one of many"/that is = i.e.: you're giving the explanation, and the explanation is just one. That is is always preceded, and not followed, by a comma.

9-LINKING:

• Coordinate: and, but, or (you can use a comma if you want to)
• Subordinate:since, because, as, although, despite, ... (they're never preceded by a comma!)
• Punctuate: , ; :

10-Subordinators in English:

• TIME: after, before,when,while,as soon as, until.
• REASON: because,so,since,as,due to.
• PURPOSE: to,in order to,so as to.
• CONCESSION: although,even though/even if,despite,though,whereas/while
• CONDITION: if,unless,as long as.

And last but not least: be careful with sentence fragments and run-ons!

Surprise, surprise!...Bookmarking is so delicious...
Hello everybody!I'm sorry...I haven't written anything since last Friday...as you know, I was very busy because I had to work on my PPT presentation on my job application letter for the English course with Professor Taylor...Finally, I have time to write something about how my language learning process is going on...
Last week I learnt how you can save bookmarks on the web, so that you can click on your favourite sites even when using other computers. I think that this computer resource is really useful not only because you can visit the sites that interest you much quicker, and can see them listed one after the other, but also because, exploring tags, you are provided with a lot of interesting information, which has already been filtered by other people having probably the same interests as you. In my opinion, what is even more important is the fact that when you save bookmarks you can write notes, usually a few short sentences, where you explain the significance of the information you saved, so that people reading them can decide immediately wheter the site is relevant to him/her or not. So, these sentences are supposed to convey the main topic of the web page as well as its value, the reason why s/he chose to save it.
As far as the task of this week is concerned, I found it useful, too because, once again, we put in practice what we learnt in theory. In my opinion, this is indeed the only way to really become familiar with some discovery. All of us was asked to explore tags on Delicious as well as Google sites and blogs to find information regarding language learning, which is the real purpose of our blogging activity. Then, we were asked to create a network, so that we're able to share the information found on the web with the other members of our group. My group found very interesting sites and blogs about idiomatic expressions, everyday conversational language, punctuation, listening activities, C.V. and cover letter writing, newspapers, pronunciation. In particular, I think that English Punctuation by How to Learn English, BBC Learning English/Pronunciation Tips, and APA Formatting and Style Guide are the best choices. Obviously, what I've just said depends on my personal knowledge needs, and it's not a kind of absolute truth!

The first site I chose about puctuation interests me because I have a lot of doubts when using punctuation in English:it is really very different from Italian!So, sometimes there is interference from my own language. However, I'm trying to follow some simple rules (following too many rules is sometimes even worse!), such as the fact that semi-colon is used not so much in English as in Italian, or the fact that a complete thought has to be signalled with a full stop, and never with a comma.However, this site can really help me learn more about how punctuation is used in English.

The second site is a BBC site about problems with pronunciation, another troublesome issue when considering the English language.This site provides you not only with theory about the sounds of English, but also with quizzes, videos. podcasts, so that you can practice what you learnt.

As far as the last site I chose is concerned, I already visited it during the first semester when I had to write my wikipage about architecture.It is indeed a site with information about the ways to write references in accordance with the different types of sources (Academic writings, Internet sites, books, articles,...).I find it very useful because this year I'm writing a lot of academic texts, which have to contain the list of the sources my work depends on, as well.And these references have to be cited properly.Moreover, this site will be very useful when I'll have to write my thesis.How to cite references is always an important issue.

For now, that's all guys!

See you tomorrow,

Michela