Course Calendar

• Introductions / Course Syllabus
• Enrollment on Nicenet
• In-class writing - on Nicenet, under conferencing
• Useful online resources for writing at the UN:

(1) United Nations Writing Manuals
Go to iSeek - Topics - UN documents to find the UN Correspondence Manual and UN Editorial Manual)

(2) Online Thesauri: ThinkMap ( $19.95 / year) or Thesaurus.com (free)

(3) Online Dictinaries: Onelook (the best) - please ask Jodi to show you this if you missed the Week 1 lesson; Merriam Webster (has a sound file for all words)

(4) English Punctuation Rules (& advanced grammar):
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation at www.grammarbook.com

• Study for a quiz on punctuation, especially commas. Recommended: study the rules and try the quizzes on Grammarbook
• Send Jodi (nooyen@un.org) 3 writing samples of either writing you have done OR writing you wish you had done (a good example). At least one should be your own writing, and please indicate the author for all.
• Write a short review of a writing book or website. Include: title, author, an overview, and either three ways the resource would be useful, or three things you learned from looking at the book or website.

• Course Plan (subject to change)
• Comma Quiz
• Review of Week 1 writing websites
• Parallelism
  Lesson from University of Ilinois
  Lesson from University of Richmond
  Lesson with links to two quizzes (at bottom) from Capitol Community College
  

• Study for a quiz on Parallelism. Read handouts and try online quizzes.
• Read the article you chose in class and take notes. What are the key points? How might you present this using a Powerpoint presentation? Begin to develop a plan.
• Write your answer to the 'Week 2' conferencing question on Nicenet. [*Go to Nicenet; click Conferencing]

• Discussion: As a reader, what do you want to learn from a book/website review?
• Presentation / Discussion: Planning and Preparing PowerPoint Presentations
• Homework Record - A complete list of writing requirements for the course.
• Websites for Writers: Verb Tenses - *See links on our NiceNet page

• Revise your book/website review based on ideas we discussed in class
• Study for a quiz on parallelism & verb tenses
• Complete verb tense charts (optional)
• Prepare your PowerPoint presentation and be ready to present it in class next week.
• Complete 'Individual Consultation Proposal

• Quiz: Verb tenses & Parallelism
• Presentations
• Choose time for first individual consultation

• Complete exercises in the handout on summarizing
• Prepare your PowerPoint presentation and be ready to present it in class 7 Feb (if you're not yet done).

• Presentations (continued)
• Transitional words and phrases

• Do transitional words exercises (will be sent via e-mail)
• Make appointments for individual consultations

• Presentations (continued)
• Style (verbs, vocabulary)
• Flow (transitional expressions)
• 'Last class' comments:

1. Be sure to make consultation appointments.
2. Expect a feedback form in a few weeks. We are very interested in what you think of this new way of doing the writing class - 6 group lessons + 3 individual sessions each.

• Send questions to Jodi about the transitional words and expressions given in class.