Friday, July 13, 2012
GET YOUR ESSAYS CORRECTED
I found this wonderful website, grammarly.com, which corrects your essays. You need to subscribe and pay a small fee but it is worth it for the service you get. Grammar mistakes, punctuation, organization are all corrected and suggestions are made as to how to improve your essays. I think the site is brilliant and will be very useful to those who can't find anyone to correct their essays or don't want to pay a fortune for the job. I have tried out the site and give it a thumbs up. All you do is copy paste your essay, mark the type of writing and go for it.
THE BUSY TRAP
By: Tim Kreider
Published: June 30, 2012; The New York Times http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?_r=0
Level of Difficulty: **
WATCH, LISTEN AND CONSIDER
WATCH, LISTEN AND CONSIDER
Thanks are due to my friend and colleague
Valerie Needham for this interesting text
BEFORE YOU READ
1.
Describe
the 20th century life style.
2.
How
does such a life style effect one?
3.
Is
this life style actually dictated by outside factors or is it self- imposed?
QUESTIONS
1.
People
who describe themselves as busy are actually feeling ………………………………………..
2.
Why
do people seem to voluntarily clutter up their lives and leave themselves no
breathing space?
3.
Read
the account of the telephone conversation in paragraph 3. Now describe in your
own words what it is that the writer’s friend is unable to do. What effect do
you think such an attitude has on people?
4.
What
does the phrase “those three hours” refer to? What can we surmise about how the
writer likes to live his life? Use your own words.
5.
Read
the account of the conversation with the friend in the south of France. Use
your own words to describe why she is so much happier.
6.
This
friend’s relocation to France not only affected her mood, stress levels and social circle; she also realised something rather important too. It was the fact that …………………………………………………………………..
7.
Why
exactly do we collectively force each other to be so busy?
8.
What
conclusion does the writer reach concerning work and its consequences in the
modern world?
9.
Why
exactly do people enjoy complaining that they are busy?
10.
What
was the writer’s rather unusual reaction to work overload?
11.
What
is the paradox when trying to write?
12.
Why
can idleness lead to creativity and innovation?
13.
What
goal of the modern world would the Puritans agree with?
14.
According
to what principle has the writer been living his life? You will need to tweak
the text.
WRITING TASK
Having read and discussed the text,
write a reaction essay on the topic. If you don’t remember how to write such an
essay, check out my paper on the topic: I will Shout It from the Rooftops;
alternatively, consult your teacher.
THE BUSY TRAP KEY AND TEACHER’S
NOTES
This text discusses a very topical issue and reaches some conclusions
that may not be immediately apparent. For this reason it, it should lend itself
to a reaction essay. The questions where students have to use their own words
are very important in helping them prepare for those multiple choice questions
they get on tests. Level wise, I thought it was ** but let me know if you don’t
agree.
1.
Tired,
exhausted
2.
Because
of their own ambition, drive or anxiety, addiction to busyness and dread of
what they might have to face in its absence.
3.
Make
a spontaneous arrangement to relax; to chill out; to spend time with a friend.
It makes people increasingly stressed and unhappy, it could lead to a host of
stress related illnesses.
4.
Three
hours of totally unstructured, largely unsupervised time every afternoon; he
likes personal time, he can’t bear to live a regimented life (possible answer).
5.
Possible
answer: She has slowed down and is, therefore, much more relaxed and much less
driven.
6.
Her
personality turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment.
7.
Busyness
serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness.
8.
It
is a form of institutional self delusion; histrionic exhaustion is a way of
covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.
9.
It
makes them feel important, sought after and put upon.
10.
Fleeing
town to an undisclosed location.
11.
It
is hard to find anything to say about life…
12.
The
space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing
back from life and …
13.
Full
employment.
14.
Time
is more important than money.
COLLABORATION ACROSS CULTURES
By: Michael Blanding
Published: June 25, 2012; Harvard Business
School Working Knowledge; http://hbswk.hbs.edu
Level of difficulty: ***
Acknowledgement: This text was contributed by a
subscriber to this blog, Celal Yerli. He also tells me that the day of
publication was his birthday. I would like to wish Celal many happy returns of
the day and thank him for a truly interesting text.
Suggestion: It is suggested that you check out
tedtalks and/or YouTube for a related video before starting. The notes you take
while listening and later while reading will help with the writing task.
BEFORE YOU START
1.
Why
is collaboration across cultures so very important in the modern world?
2.
What
sorts of problems occur when communication breaks down?
3.
Why
do you think misunderstandings and bad feelings occur?
QUESTIONS
Read the account of the making of the film about the Tang Dynasty
1.
How
did Franzoni decide to present the story? Why?
2.
What
was the problem as far as the Chinese were concerned?
3.
What
conclusion can be drawn from this account?
Read “Vital Skills”
4.
Learning
to collaborate creatively with people from different cultural backgrounds can
be very advantageous as ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
5.
The
reason for the above is the fact that ………………………………………………………………………………
6.
Benefitting
from cross cultural cooperation and preventing any friction in the process can
be made possible by a new concept. It is ……………………………………………………………………………………
Read “Testing Cultural Metacognition”.
7.
What
does “such a result” in the phrase “While such a result may be expected” refer
to?
8.
Affective
trust becomes critical if the generation of innovative ideas is at issue. The
reason is the fact that …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
9.
Refer
to the account of the 60 managers. Cultural metacognition seems to have an
effect on ……………………………………………………… in the case of people from different cultures.
What was the consequence of this relationship?
10.
Refer
to the account of the chicken recipe. Which of the pairs were the most
creative? Those in which ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
11.
The
above situation was found to be a direct result of the fact that
……………………………………….
Read “A Learnable Habit”
12.
The
fact that cultural metacognition can be learnt is supported by the fact that
…………………….
13.
What
practical advice does the writer give to those who don’t interact with people
from different cultural backgrounds?
WRITING TASK
Write an essay discussing why it is
important to improve cultural metacognition. In your introduction, introduce
cultural metacognition as a concept; in your development, discuss the reasons
using the notes you made while reading the text and your own views; in your
conclusion, suggest common sense, courtesy and really slowing down and
listening to what others are saying and what you yourself are saying. In short,
suggest that we should put ourselves in other’s shoes.
COLLABORATING ACROSS CULTURES KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This highly topical and very interesting text was sent in by a
subscriber to the blog and a former student. I found it very interesting and it
did lend itself to some good questions and a writing task. The questions have an added advantage of providing practice with
paraphrasing and summary skills.
1.
Through
the eyes of a foreign born general.
2.
The
treatment was too sympathetic towards the general portrayed ….
3.
Cultural
misunderstandings and different ways of operating …
4.
It
can create opportunities for innovation.
5.
Combining
ideas that haven’t been connected before creates the potential to produce
something good and useful.
6.
Cultural
metacognition.
7.
Managers
with higher metacognition scores on the questionnaires garnered higher ratings
from their colleagues as well.
8.
New ideas
are risky to share.
9.
Affective
trust; they were willing to share new ideas with them.
10.
One
of the individuals has high cultural möetacognition.
11.
The
partners had a personal conversation to build affective trust.
12.
People
who have a culturally diverse social network tend to have higher cultural metacognition.
13.
Keeping
a journal and writing down thoughts after each cultural interaction with
someone from a different culture.
YOUR E-BOOK IS READING YOU
By: Alexandra Alter
Published: June 29, 2012; The Wall Street
Journal; http://online.wsj.com ; however, I
would Google the title and the author’s name. When I tried, I found this worked
better.
Level of Difficulty: ***
BEFORE YOU READ
1.
Do
you have a Kindle?
2.
What
do you think of e-books?
3.
What
are their advantages?
4.
Are
there any disadvantages?
5.
Read
the title of the text. The title is meant to remind you of the famous novel
1984 by George Orwell. The catch phrase in this book was: big brother is
watching you. Why do you think the writer chose this title?
QUESTIONS
1.
What
advantage do e-books have over regular books for authors and publishers?
2.
What
is wrong with the familiar method of measuring reader satisfaction through sales
data and reviews?
3.
The
information concerning Fifty Shades of Grey and Divergent is provided to
support the contention that …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
4.
Read
paragraph 9. It lacks a topic sentence. You provide one.
5.
Nook
Snaps has been designed as a way to …………………………………………………………………………….
6.
What
does “the prospect” refer to in the sentence “Some authors welcome the
prospect”?
7.
What
is the potential disadvantage of all this data gathering and related
modifications? What example does the writer provide as support?
8.
Read
the information concerning Amazon and Kindle. How does Amazon view the data it
gathers?
9.
Read
the information in paragraph 19. Who do you agree with? Amazon or Electronic
Frontier? Discuss.
10.
How
might all this data gathering influence actual reading according to B.
Schneier?
11.
The
cases of Copia and Kobo are provided as examples to prove that ………………………………….
12.
Read
the stories of Sourcebooks and Scholastics. What is the advantage of their new
venture? You may provide your own answer if you wish.
13.
Read
the story of Coliloguy to the end. Parish Mail, Great Escapes and Getting
Dumped are all products of the new …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
14.
Read
Tawna Fenske’s reaction to the data forwarded to her. Do you agree with her
decision or not? Should authors be guided in this way or not? Do you think this
new technique will limit creativity and the writing of those great masterpieces
or not? Discuss.
WRITING TASK
Think about all you have discussed
and write a reaction essay on the topic. If you don’t remember how to write a
reaction essay, read my paper on the topic first. The title of the paper is I will shout it
from the Rooftops and is filed under papers. Alternatively, consult your
teacher.
YOUR E-BOOK IS READING YOU KEY
AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This wonderful and thought provoking text does not lend itself to as
many of those good careful reading questions I like to be able to write but it
does lend itself to a superb piece of writing. It is a very new concept so has novelty
value too. Enjoy.
1.
They
are providing a glimpse into the story behind the sales figures, revealing… OR,
they make reading measurable and quasi public; OR They can know what happens when a reader sits down with a book.
2.
They
offer a post mortem measure of success but can’t shape or predict a hit.
3.
Some
findings confirm what retailers already know.
4.
Possible
answer: Readers of different types of books tend to have different reading
habits.
5.
Engage
readers in nonfiction and long form journalism.
6.
The
prospect of creating even better books than they create today.
7.
It
could hinder the kinds of creative risks that produce great literature. War and
Peace
8.
As
the collective intelligence of all the people reading on Kindle.
9.
Open
ended
10.
Readers
may steer clear of digital books on sensitive subjects.
11.
The
shift to digital books has fueled an arms race among digital start ups seeking
to cash in on the massive pool of data collected by e-reading devices and
reading apps.
12.
The
venture allows these publishers to track which story lines and characters are
resonating with young readers … OR your own answer: books can be shaped
according to public demand, which can , in turn, increase sales.
13.
The
interactive content created for Kindle.
14.
Open
ended.
FIFTEEN WAYS TO AVOID OVERLOAD AND WORK SMARTER; AVOIDING DEATH BY TO-DO LIST
By: Jason W. Womack
Published: 01/ 11/ 2012; Quality Digest; http://qualitydigest.com; alternatively, Google the title and author's name
Level of Difficulty: ***
Acknowledgement: This text was contributed by a
subscriber to this blog, Celal Yerli. I would like to take this opportunity to
thank him for a truly riveting text.
Suggestion: Allow yourself 45 minutes for the
questions.
QUESTIONS
1.
The
source of the anxiety, frustration and distress that stems from a feeling that
one just has too much on one’s plate is down to
……………………………………………………………………………………..
2.
The
solution is two pronged. First of all, you need to acknowledge the fact that
…………………. Second of all, you need to ………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3.
Getting
rid of everything you can and unsubscribing will produce an added bonus. What is it?
4.
What
is the advantage of having blocks of time for work and blocks of time for
interruptions?
5.
The
advice the author gives concerning managing emails basically involves
………………………….. Be general.
6.
The
basic reason for inertia according to the author is a feeling of ………………………………
The way to deal with it is to do ……………………………………………………………………………………first.
7.
Read
the section “Keep your Blackberry out of bed”. What is the take home point from
what you have read? Be general and use your own words.
8.
Delays
cancellations and similar holdups can turn out to be a blessing in disguise
because ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Be general.
9.
Why
can one complete a 60 minute meeting in 45 minutes according to the text?
10.
Figuring
out what exactly is preventing you from focusing will enable you to …………………………
11.
What
does “this” refer to in the phrase “This will save you time” in the
section”Identify the verbs that need attention”?
12.
The
author suggests end-of-day note cards to both determine …………………………………………but
also to ………………………………………………………………………………………( you will need to tweak the text)
13.
What
are the two advantages of weekly debriefs?
14.
Forecasting
6 months ahead will set you off on the right track because …………………………………
WRITING TASK
Select your favorite suggestions
concerning how to work more efficiently then add your own ideas and write a
problem solution essay.
FIFTEEN WAYS TO AVOID OVERLOAD AND WORK SMARTER KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This relatively simple yet interesting text was also contributed by a
subscriber to my blog and a former student, Celal Yerli. It has turned into a
kind of search reading exercise so there is a time stamp. Again the questions
are designed to surreptitiously help with paraphrasing and summary skills.
1.
How
you think about work.
2.
You’re
never going to get it all done; improve the way you approach the things you
need to get done.
3.
Reduce
your psychological burden.
4.
You
get more done; OR: increasing daily productivity.
5.
Cataloging
and organizing them.
6.
Dread;
something small and manageable.
7.
Possible
answer: If a job needs doing, do it at the right time. Don’t sit staring at it.
8.
You
can look through your to-do list and pick something – anything – to work on.
This answer best summarizes everything.
9.
Because
we fill the time we expect to fill.
10.
Get
more done in less time at a higher level of quality.
11.
Picking
smaller verbs to describe tasks that are easier to start and faster to finish.
12.
That
which you need and want to do; to motivate you to get better.
13.
They
help you hold yourself accountable; they allow you to make course corrections
if necessary.
14.
What
you think about is what you do.
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