werdna's essay-writing initiative - TIMETABLE on pg 1

[lexitu]

I'd be surprised if everyone keeps to their word...

Let's just say.. I'll be sending out some.. friendly reminders.

Hehehe.

[m@tty]

Ummm... I did English like, 3 years ago when there wasn't even a context part. But I'm happy to reread 1984 and Accidental Tourist and have a go at marking those essays ONLY IF nobody else can. (But hopefully someone who did English more recently can take those texts?)

Oh and Lantana if need be, I don't think I have a copy of it anymore but I unfortunately remember a lot of it.

Study score 46

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Should I be capping the number of members?? Reading and going through 25 essays in one week is going to be quite a tough ask for the essay markers..... I might cap the number of members at around 35. Thoughts?

You should just make it compulsory for the MEMBERS who want their own essays critiqued, to agree to reviewing 2-3 essays. That way you all get practice writing, as well as getting feedback on it. And you'll also learn to mark essays, so you'll be able to pick up mistakes in your own writing, they'll get to study other peoples wriing in detail and pick up tricks, techniques etc. Also, it means it'll all get marked.

Perhaps each of the markers only does 1 essay per week? Like, they make their way through members, so that each week a handful of the essays get marked thoroughly by these markers. And work it so that it cycles through members so over the course of a few weeks everyone gets personal input from the markers.

It will be a big challenge, and it will take strong resolve for markers and members to stick at it the whole year.. But IF it works, it could be awesome.

[ninwa]

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Oh thank god.

[m@tty]

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Oh thank god.

There is still language analysis

[werdna]

Ummm... I did English like, 3 years ago when there wasn't even a context part. But I'm happy to reread 1984 and Accidental Tourist and have a go at marking those essays ONLY IF nobody else can. (But hopefully someone who did English more recently can take those texts?)

Oh and Lantana if need be, I don't think I have a copy of it anymore but I unfortunately remember a lot of it.

Study score 46

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Should I be capping the number of members?? Reading and going through 25 essays in one week is going to be quite a tough ask for the essay markers..... I might cap the number of members at around 35. Thoughts?

You should just make it compulsory for the MEMBERS who want their own essays critiqued, to agree to reviewing 2-3 essays. That way you all get practice writing, as well as getting feedback on it. And you'll also learn to mark essays, so you'll be able to pick up mistakes in your own writing, they'll get to study other peoples wriing in detail and pick up tricks, techniques etc. Also, it means it'll all get marked.

Perhaps each of the markers only does 1 essay per week? Like, they make their way through members, so that each week a handful of the essays get marked thoroughly by these markers. And work it so that it cycles through members so over the course of a few weeks everyone gets personal input from the markers.

It will be a big challenge, and it will take strong resolve for markers and members to stick at it the whole year.. But IF it works, it could be awesome.

I like this idea.

I have capped members at 25 and markers also at 25.

This way, we can rotate the markers around so that they only need to mark 1 essay a week... and the amount of essays/members is workable.

One more year 11 to join the initiative!

[werdna]

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Oh thank god.

There is still language analysis

Ahh yes... ninwa, can I put your name down?

[m@tty]

Ummm... I did English like, 3 years ago when there wasn't even a context part. But I'm happy to reread 1984 and Accidental Tourist and have a go at marking those essays ONLY IF nobody else can. (But hopefully someone who did English more recently can take those texts?)

Oh and Lantana if need be, I don't think I have a copy of it anymore but I unfortunately remember a lot of it.

Study score 46

No one's from next year's English class is actually doing any of your texts.. so you're lucky! Thanks for the thought anyway ninwa.

Should I be capping the number of members?? Reading and going through 25 essays in one week is going to be quite a tough ask for the essay markers..... I might cap the number of members at around 35. Thoughts?

You should just make it compulsory for the MEMBERS who want their own essays critiqued, to agree to reviewing 2-3 essays. That way you all get practice writing, as well as getting feedback on it. And you'll also learn to mark essays, so you'll be able to pick up mistakes in your own writing, they'll get to study other peoples wriing in detail and pick up tricks, techniques etc. Also, it means it'll all get marked.

Perhaps each of the markers only does 1 essay per week? Like, they make their way through members, so that each week a handful of the essays get marked thoroughly by these markers. And work it so that it cycles through members so over the course of a few weeks everyone gets personal input from the markers.

It will be a big challenge, and it will take strong resolve for markers and members to stick at it the whole year.. But IF it works, it could be awesome.

I like this idea.

I have capped members at 25 and markers also at 25.

This way, we can rotate the markers around so that they only need to mark 1 essay a week... and the amount of essays/members is workable.

One more year 11 to join the initiative!

No, you misunderstand xD

The bulk of the marking gets done by the students. Then some of the essays, a number based on the available markers, get marked by the designated markers.

This way the students become self sufficient, so when the markers' activity inevitably decreases with uni workload etc. there is minimal loss to the program.

It also makes it less exclusive, so in any given week a newbie can put forward an essay so long as they agree to critique another 2-3 essays as best they can. Otherwise you would be out of line with the purpose of VN.

[shinny]

Yeh, I was thinking along the lines of what m@tty said. I think the qualified markers should more just be there to support it and deal with any conflicts or indecisiveness in the marking. Ultimately, I don't think you can rely on this system being supported by markers. I assume many are eventually going to get fed up and bail.

[werdna]

No, you misunderstand xD

The bulk of the marking gets done by the students. Then some of the essays, a number based on the available markers, get marked by the designated markers.

This way the students become self sufficient, so when the markers' activity inevitably decreases with uni workload etc. there is minimal loss to the program.

It also makes it less exclusive, so in any given week a newbie can put forward an essay so long as they agree to critique another 2-3 essays as best they can. Otherwise you would be out of line with the purpose of VN.

Yeap I understand now. So maybe members marking half, essay markers marking half?

I'll be keeping a track record of everything though - overdue work, how many more essays members need to mark, which essay markers have been inactive, etc.

[werdna]

Yeh, I was thinking along the lines of what m@tty said. I think the qualified markers should more just be there to support it and deal with any conflicts or indecisiveness in the marking. Ultimately, I don't think you can rely on this system being supported by markers. I assume many are eventually going to get fed up and bail.

True... this is why I didn't like the idea of having one thread per marker or assigning a group of members to one marker - it would be too much and members wouldn't be able to work independently.

Let's put the system this way - it's just like how VN members used to do it - posting up their essays for ANYONE, not just English pro's, to critique. The only difference here, is that I will be providing the articles, the topics and the prompts, and chasing up all members for overdue work. The qualified markers are just there to help us out and provide advice whenever they can, and rank the week's essays if this is what the other members want.

[m@tty]

Nah, not a designated number.
(Anyway, I don't really think that there will be 15 markers throughout the year.. Then again, I expect that there will be less than 30 students who stick with it also.. maybe 10-15?..)

And  was suggesting that each week, anyone who submits an essay provides a (brief) critique on another 2-3 essays, so everyone gets some decent feedback, without anyone being overworked. I expect at the beginning, many of the year 12s will give basic advice, simply because they haven't really done it before. But as the year progresses, and they observe how certain markers go about critiquing, the year 12 will learn, and markers will become less and less necessary

[werdna]

Nah, not a designated number.
(Anyway, I don't really think that there will be 15 markers throughout the year.. Then again, I expect that there will be less than 30 students who stick with it also.. maybe 10-15?..)

And  was suggesting that each week, anyone who submits an essay provides a (brief) critique on another 2-3 essays, so everyone gets some decent feedback, without anyone being overworked. I expect at the beginning, many of the year 12s will give basic advice, simply because they haven't really done it before. But as the year progresses, and they observe how certain markers go about critiquing, the year 12 will learn, and markers will become less and less necessary

Good idea. I will make it compulsory for members to critique at least 2/3 essays BEFORE they post their essay.

[m@tty]

Yeh, I was thinking along the lines of what m@tty said. I think the qualified markers should more just be there to support it and deal with any conflicts or indecisiveness in the marking. Ultimately, I don't think you can rely on this system being supported by markers. I assume many are eventually going to get fed up and bail.

True... this is why I didn't like the idea of having one thread per marker or assigning a group of members to one marker - it would be too much and members wouldn't be able to work independently.

Let's put the system this way - it's just like how VN members used to do it - posting up their essays for ANYONE, not just English pro's, to critique. The only difference here, is that I will be providing the articles, the topics and the prompts, and chasing up all members for overdue work. The qualified markers are just there to help us out and provide advice whenever they can, and rank the week's essays if this is what the other members want.

Yep. That's a good system. Maybe there should be a board for each username? So people can go like "English Essays" -> "werdna" -> "Context", and then they'll be sorted by date. Otherwise I see this getting very messy.. =\

[werdna]

Yeh, I was thinking along the lines of what m@tty said. I think the qualified markers should more just be there to support it and deal with any conflicts or indecisiveness in the marking. Ultimately, I don't think you can rely on this system being supported by markers. I assume many are eventually going to get fed up and bail.

True... this is why I didn't like the idea of having one thread per marker or assigning a group of members to one marker - it would be too much and members wouldn't be able to work independently.

Let's put the system this way - it's just like how VN members used to do it - posting up their essays for ANYONE, not just English pro's, to critique. The only difference here, is that I will be providing the articles, the topics and the prompts, and chasing up all members for overdue work. The qualified markers are just there to help us out and provide advice whenever they can, and rank the week's essays if this is what the other members want.

Yep. That's a good system. Maybe there should be a board for each username? So people can go like "English Essays" -> "werdna" -> "Context", and then they'll be sorted by date. Otherwise I see this getting very messy.. =\

Excellent idea. EXCELLENT!

I can see this username organising idea working once the subforum is ready to go!

[shinny]

And  was suggesting that each week, anyone who submits an essay provides a (brief) critique on another 2-3 essays, so everyone gets some decent feedback, without anyone being overworked. I expect at the beginning, many of the year 12s will give basic advice, simply because they haven't really done it before. But as the year progresses, and they observe how certain markers go about critiquing, the year 12 will learn, and markers will become less and less necessary

Yep, was thinking that's how it'll work. Come exam time, you guys really need to be self-sufficient given most of us uni students will be busy, but also because you should have the ability to mark essays yourself anyway. At the start of the year when we're less busy, I'm sure you guys will start to see how we mark and what we expect and from there you can work it out yourself I guess.

Yep. That's a good system. Maybe there should be a board for each username? So people can go like "English Essays" -> "werdna" -> "Context", and then they'll be sorted by date. Otherwise I see this getting very messy.. =\

Too many sub-forums I think. I think just a separate thread for each person.