GREAT WORK! good things i'm seeing from you and your classmates from Week 1 reflection discussion board

Paraphrasing--yup, it's hard!

I love what Druhi said about paraphrasing: "Don't feel frustration about this. I hope the time will come when we will say paraphrasing is my favorite."

Yes, Druhi! You will all practice this all semester and you'll get great at it!

Reading and Writing as Connected Skills

Many of you commented that you now see how being a good reader helps you be a good writer. Gloria said, "I used to think reading and writing are two different separate things. But now I know they are all connected and if having good reading skills, I will be able to write better and easier."

Laksmi also wrote about the connection between reading and writing in this course: "I was thinking that this course might be all about learning how to write, how can we become a good writer, but now I know this is all about the writing process. It is about how creatively we think and understand the things before we write. Now, I think it’s not just about grammar and sentence structure, it’s about the deep thinking and understanding, and observing the materials."

In responses to Laksmi, Binsa wrote, "Its about how deeply you think and understand the things you read before you write."

Fatima made a good point: "And another thing which is hard for me is generating a new idea, but doing journal helps me to think deeply and develop new concepts, though it takes several hours to think. So, working on journal is challenging for me but also helps me to think deep."

Questions

Bisi asked, "The dialectical aspect got me worried as i read the material because i was thinking how do i complete this aspect? How do i predict or clarify my predictions? What if my prediction is wrong."

Predictions can't be wrong! They are just smart guesses. Don't worry if they're wrong. Also, many of you were a bit confused about journal 2 with the dialectical notes. Maybe you are making it harder than it needs to be! The dialectical notes are just your chance to give your opinion about the passage.

Bisi also asked, "The fragment sentences sometimes might look like a complete sentence: this is unclear to me. For example: It's raining today. should be like a fragment because it sounds incomplete."

This is a good question. But don't judge if a sentence is a fragment or not necessarily on how it sounds. Instead, you need to understand clauses. Remember that a clause has a subject and a verb. It's independent if it has a subject and a verb AND can stand alone as a sentence. It's dependent if it has a subject and a verb AND a subordinating conjunction. So, "It's raining today" is an independent clause. But, "Because it's raining today" is a dependent clause.

Olamide does a great job of reviewing clauses AND she gives a great personal connection that could be used for your dialectical notes. Did you listen to her response? If not, listen here: https://vocaroo.com/bqtIKp5l2Fp

Lastly, Amir has a great advice for us. Listen to his response to Aida, and especially at the end when he tells us we only have one choice: to succeed! https://voca.ro/iDzBxvs9BLZ