Avoiding nasty surprises with your score

Introduction

Remember that the final exam is on February 4th. You still have several days to solve any problems with your blog. Read the questions and advice that follow carefully.

Have you written more than 5000~6000 words?

There is no official minimum word count for this course. But the course is designed so that most people (especially A-class students) will easily exceed 5000 words:

• You write a Juppun ha Juubun post every week.
• You write at least one book review every week, and that book review can include quotations (clearly marked and not too long) from books and vocabulary lists.
• Some posts involve copying sentences from handouts and other sources. With compositions (e.g. hometowns), you could make one post for every model if you wished.
• You are encouraged to write diary posts and/or extra book reviews as often as possible.
• When writing about a movie (for example), you are encouraged to write at least two posts: one with basic information, and one review (which can also mention the same information).
• Over a year, everyone making an effort should have become more fluent. Most people will have tried writing longer posts, naturally leading to larger total wordcounts.

Thus, if your word count this semester is less than 5000, you probably haven’t been making a constant effort. Check the other items in this post, and make sure that you haven’t forgotten to do something.

Have you posted and updated your final Blog Stats post?

On the day before the exam, check that your data are up-to-date. This will save you time in the exam, meaning that you can spend nearly all the time writing the essays.

Have you improved your writing over the year in some tangible way?

I have written corrections on everyone’s blog fairly constantly through the year, and you have had plenty of opportunities to ask questions about anything you didn’t understand. What aspect(s) of your writing have you improved?