New Course with Coursera; Introduction to Public Speaking.

I am interested in a new course; Introduction to Public Speaking. It’s amazing how many people are interested and excited starting this course. The reasons for taking this course varies for each individual and particularly for those requiring more confidence like myself. I would like to ensure I utilise this time effectively and enhance my skills while I am not working.

I have also registered with the IfL and it can be counted as part of my CPD. I love learning and teaching therefore, I feel it’s necessary to continue with updating and improving skills.

I have completed my degree and awaiting results now which is quite exciting for me as a mature student. I have always regretted not completing my schooling when I was younger but like they say ‘ It’s never too late to learn’!

Final post on the Crafting an Effective Wrtier course.

We have come to an end and it has been quite a journey. I am a little out of date writing about it now but have enjoyed the overall experience. It has helped tremendously with updating my knowledge of grammar and could be also undertaken as a refresher course. It has been interesting to see how many people from all over the world come together and form a community sharing the same aim or goals. I would recommend the course to anyone interested in learning or updating their grammar skills. I will be looking at other courses with Coursera so watch this space for more……

I think for me the course came at a busy time where I was concentrating on completing my PCET degree and I missed out significant bits such as the quizzes which are worth 60% of the marks awarded. I received great grades apart from that. However, the course is offered again and can  be retaken if required.

week 5

Week 5 is about the writing process for example, paragraphs, punctuation, capitalisation, spelling and confusing words such as homophones: hare and hair. We are always requested to complete peer reviews analysing the work of 5 students based on a rubric. Our final assessment was to choose a topic to write about from a list of four.I chose to write about Topic 1.
Discuss at least four (4) short term and/or long term effects that finishing Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade will have upon you personally, academically, and/or professionally.

Adjective and Adverb clauses

I will write 3 sentences with Adjective Subordinate Clauses and 3 sentences using Adverbial Subordinate Clauses.

Adjective Subordinate clauses modify a noun. They use a relative pronoun; who, whom, that, which, whose, when, and where.

1. Sylvia, who was my best friend, was waiting in the shop for me. (who modifies Sylvia)
2. The house that I intended to buy was already sold. (that modifies house)
3. I remembered my appointment when I opened my diary (when modifies appointment)

Adverbial Subordinate Clauses modifies a verb by describing; how, when, why, where, or under what condition something is happening or someone is doing an action.

1. Because it’s warm, I won’t wear a coat.
2. Although my mother was ill, I went to class.
3. Whenever I go to bed, I read a book.

week 4

Hi again,

We have completed the peer reviews for week 3 and it’s coming to the end of week 4 now. We have now been requested to write a description of a natural object or scene in nature with a little more detailed information. We will be using clauses, phrases and sentences using some of sentence types we have looked at in the unit. We have also to include any previous learning such as; the active voice and verbs, maintaining the correct subject and verb agreement and the same tense. It must include at least nine or more sentences. subject-verb agreement.

I have somehow missed the quiz again!!! That’s 60 points!!
I would have enjoyed the quiz!!!

Week 3

We are now about  to look at writing sentences using all the parts of speech. I have tried to keep up as I have recently been rather busy. However, I noticed I missed a quiz!

We have been asked to write about a scene using vivid descriptions:

Write a description of the scene you have observed. Use action verbs and active voice in your sentences. Also, keep your verbs in the same tense and maintain correct subject-verb agreement. Your description should consist of 8 or more sentences.

This is my description:

It was a pleasant and delightful bright sunny day so I decided to drive to the park. As soon as I got there, the weather mysteriously changed for the worst into a bitterly cold and drizzly day. Without hesitance, I dashed back to my car for shelter as I had no cardigan and decided to sit there for a while until the weather calmed down. As I waited in my car I observed a mother darting across the road heading towards a shelter with her children scurrying behind her avoiding the puddles that had gathered on the road. Then I noticed her little girl sobbing and glancing behind longingly at the road as she lost grip of her dolly. Her mother yelled at her irritably as she plodded back in a haste to pick it up. She snatched the dolly just missing a car speeding past and handed it over to a relieved and delighted little girl. The rain forced itself aggressively for 10 minutes and suddenly to my surprise it stopped and started to brighten up again! I laughed quietly and thought to myself, what unpredictable weather we contend with in the UK!

We have now evaluated the work of five

We have now evaluated the work of five students. I hope I have not disappointed anyone with the marks! I was also worried whether mine would be accurately assessed. It is a little complicated for a beginner to mark. 

Next

We had to Choose two of the sentences listed below to expand by adding logical additional parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases). Each sentence had to contain a minimum of 12 unique words to earn full points; additional words beyond twelve may repeat previous words and will not count against the writer.
The children play.
The woman walks.
The sharks swim.
The flowers bloom.
The wind blows.
The computer hums.

My sentence: The crowd of enthusiastic young children play noisily and happily at the playgroup as the mothers nattered away munching the biscuits speedily as the fascinating conversation proceeded towards an unexpected climax, forcing the listeners to stretch forward curiously in and attentively all ears in their seats.

The clock ticked slowly and as she sat waiting eagerly and anxiously for the long awaited dreaded appointment

Week 2

Week 2 was about forming parts of the basic sentence. We looked at the eight parts of speech and how they function.
We looked at nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. We were suppose to be looking at prepositions, conjunctions and interjections but I overlooked the latter and went straight to the assignment. We were asked to write two sentences in a journal; a list of at least five to ten nouns and five to ten adjectives as you observe a scene at home, work, or in your community. here’s my list:
The Dusty table
The Noisy road
The Bright sky
The Drizzly day
The clock ticks

The clock ticked slowly and as she sat waiting eagerly and anxiously for the long awaited dreaded appointment.

The crowd of enthusiastic young children play noisily and happily at the playgroup as their mothers nattered away munching the biscuits speedily as the fascinating conversation proceeded towards an unexpected climax forcing the listeners to stretch forward curiously in and attentively all ears in their seats.

week one of the Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade

Week one was an introduction to the course and a self check quiz was undertaken which would form part of an overall score for the course.
A calendar was to be created and a Google was recommended but no compulsory.