How do I start?
From the HOME page, you can start at the beginning by clicking
on the sentence.
This will take you to the lessons on Subjects, Verbs, Phrases,
and Clauses
- the four most essential aspects of writing. The more you
know about these, the better you will be able to comprehend
the intricacies of writing.
However, if you are already familiar with these aspects of
writing, you may go to a particular lesson on, say, the use
of commas. Click on CONTENTS,
select Commas,
and click again.
Whether you want to complete all the exercises following
the lessons is up to you. But the only way to find out whether
you have mastered the essentials of writing is to do all the
exercises.
How do I do
the exercises?
There may be two kinds of exercises following a lesson: Test Yourself
exercises and Exercises.
Test Yourself exercises
relate to the lesson you have just completed. These exercises
are meant to help you find out whether you could understand
the rules in that particular lesson.
Follow the instructions at the beginning of each exercise
page. In some exercises you have to click on a Choice
and the computer will prompt instantly to tell you whether
you are right or not.
In most exercises, you will find sentences followed by text
boxes. Type your answer in the text box and click on Done.
If you are correct, you will see a green right mark. If you
are wrong, the computer will respond by prompting you with
some of the words in red to suggest that you should compare
them.
In some exercises, the computer will prompt with a suggested answer.
Compare your answer with the one given by the computer and
try to understand the differences. If necessary, go back to
the lesson to review the rules. If you are still in doubt
about something, you can either talk to your English Instructor,
or email your query in LISTSERV for someone to help.
When you find the question repeated in the text box, you
can revise or modify the entire text by clicking on CLEAR
and typing your answer. You can modify just part of the text
by overwriting or deleting.
While typing in the text box, press ENTER to go to the next
line.
How do I go
from one page to another?
There are various options on each page for navigating from
one page to another.
Each unit is divided into several lessons and exercises.
On the top of each page, you will find unit links like Sentence | Agreement | Punctuation | Quoting & Citing
| Writing Effectively. Clicking
on the unit you are interested in will take you to the first
lesson of that unit.
At the bottom of each page you will find link to the Next
page and Back
page you may have just finished.
Note however that the next page may not be the next lesson
and the back page may not be the previous lesson. The next
page may be the continuation of the current page or exercises
on the current page. Similarly, the BACK page may be a continuation
of the previous lesson or exercises on the previous lesson.
What is this
CONTENT?
Pressing the arrow on the right of the CONTENT
box will give you an alphabetical list of all the lessons
in the program. Clicking on one will take you to the first
page of the lesson you have selected.
What is this
SEARCH?
In the SEARCH
box you may type any keyword that you are looking for. You
may be interested in finding out where you can find Ufo.
Type Ufo
in the search box and it will take you to the lesson where
Ufo
is mentioned.
How can I discuss
my problem with someone else?
Join the Writing199 Users' Group. Send an email to
users-request@writing199.com
In the body of the message box, type
Subscribe.
When you receive an address verification email message, simply
send it back as your reply. This will confirm your subscription
to Writing199 Users' Group.
The next step is easy. Post your comments or queries simply
by clicking on LISTSERV
on the top of a page. Your posting goes to every member of
the Users' Group and some might respond to your comments or
queries. It's a kind of forum where one or more participants
take up a particular issue and discuss it.
How to join
LISTSERV?
Just follow the instructions given above.
How do I
CHAT?
Click on CHAT on the
top of a page. When you are on CHATICQ page, wait for a few
seconds for the entire page to be loaded. Familiarize yourself
with this page. In particular, look for Channels
box on the top left corner, Chat
box in the middle, and Text
box below the Chat box.
Click on the down arrow beside the Channels box, choose Science
and Technology, and click again.
You are now ready to chat depending on whether anyone else
is there from Writing199 on the same channel. Type Anyone
there from 199 and click on SEND.
You will find Anyone there from
199 as a message in the Chat box beside a name
like IrCQ_345. Note down this name and wait. If someone else
is there from Writing199, and ready to chat with you, he or
she should respond, Yes, I'm from
199. Note down this person's IrCQ name. That's
it - enjoy chatting!
To the Instructor
This writing program is designed to help students learn the
essential rules of writing independently at their own time,
convenience and pace. But some guidance from instructors can
make understanding of the rules and their applications in
exercises easier and more effective.
The entire program might be administered to the students
in about twelve hours of fully or partly monitored computer
lab sessions.
As instructor, you may offer brief explanations of essential
rules of each unit before asking your students to do the exercises
on their own. You may interact with your students while they
are at work through interactive CHAT or email. For privacy,
you may create your own chatroom and allow your students to
communicate with you when they need your assistance.
On the other hand, you may not have time to deal with your
students individually. If that's the case, ask them to post
their comments and queries in LISTSERV which is open for response
from peer students and other instructors.
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