Buzz Articles Published May 27

Michelle's "Learning from Mice" and Hiromi's "Young Man Who Went the Distance" and Ritsuko's "Active Teacher Helen" and James' "A Philosophy of Romance."

The "Natalia" New Piece Post

Post them here! Thanks Natalia for your suggestion. Suzanne: we're eagerly anticipating your ghost story at the elementary school!

Here's the file of pieces we looked at in class today.

An interesting (fairly long) piece called On Good Writing

Portfolio Pieces for Feedback

Take advantage of the class session by submitting one piece (something you hope to work on) for our evaluation at Thursday's class. Limit of one per person! Anything from anytime this past year . . .

Buzz Articles Published This Week (So Far!)

To assist you in preparing your portfolio: On Editing.

Also pieces by Natalia on summer music festivals, by Ruth on the Hollywood Bowl concerts, by Stacey on dealing with separation, and by Suzanne on the forbidden palace.

Assembling Your Portfolio REVISED May 16

Locate all the writing you've done since September 2007. *By this I imagine that some of it needs a bit of searching to find; perhaps it's on the blog only; perhaps you've not shared it or shown it to anyone before.

Categorize what you find: is it a first draft?; is it worth working on?; is it phony or forced in any way?; has it been published?; is it the best that you can do?; how well do you use our five senses in the writing?(can a reader imagine the setting easily, for example, in more than one sense?) *This is for your sake. I don't expect to see or know about this step at all. You are trying to find your best in order to do the one revision below and to choose the pieces (5-10) you will present to me in your portfolio. It's up to you!

Write detailed comments for one piece that needs work and is worth the effort. Be brutally honest (If it doesn't work, readers won't buy what you are saying. You'll lose them!) Write up your comments in a short essay.

Take your own advice and rewrite the piece. Make it the best you've done all year.

Choose between five and ten pieces from the year. Word process them, using 12 point text size, double spacing and an indent for each paragraph. Title everything clearly and refer to the exercise or technique where you first began to work on the piece.

Be sure to follow correct form; for example, when inserting dialogue make a new paragraph for each new person speaking. And, of course, punctuate the dialogue correctly!

Write another short essay; in it, describe three things you've learned in Writing 12 this term and how they apply to your current and future success in writing.

Submit all the above to me by May 31. I will comment, but will not proofread (correct mistakes!) and will remark on it if your errors are frequent. A professional presentation (clean text, neatly assembled in a folder of some kind) with minor and very few errors will gain higher marks.

For that indefinable quantity called style, it's subjective. I'll do my best. Remember that I will evaluate your whole year as well in my calculations. Good attendance, participation in all its forms, will get its just reward.

Thanks to all of you for making it happen this term.

New Articles Published

So far, Ritsuko's article on Dina , Yang's on going to hell , Larry's My Son Jerry , Catherine's A New Totem Pole and Hiromi's on the passport office.

Class Document for May 10 (Put Revisions and New Articles Here)

Here's the link: May 10 Document. Looking forward to your revisions and additions. I'll publish a number of articles this weekend and will let you know when done. Be alert to any glitches (like the Letcho) and let me know about them! I'll fix them asap.

New Articles Published (Updated MAY 7)

See Pbuzz Home Page for new articles from Joy, Olivia, Tatyana, Catherine, Ritsuko and Stacey.

And Helena, too! She cannot see our blog in China (censored, I think), but has sent on a lovely article titled, "The Backyard of China," on Yunnan Province in China. And it has a nice photo of a man with his dog.

Thanks Hiromi and Stacey for your edits. I made very minor changes to both. See if you can spot them!

Class Document and Happy Birthday to Me!

Thanks very much for the cheesecake, Rosaria. And for the tea! Ritsuko, your cookies are delicious! I had a nice quiet birthday dinner and now plan a sunset walk with my little dog. The chocolates are creamy and filling and . . .

Here's the link to the document we worked on in class Thursday.