How to Be a Successful MOOC Student
Maggie Sokolik & Dorothy Zemach
MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – enable students around the world to take university courses online. This guide, by the instructors of edX’s most successful MOOC in 2013-2014, Principles of Written English (based on both enrollments and rate of completion), advises current and future students how to get the most out of their online study, covering areas such as what types of courses are offered and who offers them, what resources students need, how to register, how to work effectively with other students, how to interact with professors and staff, and how to handle assignments.
This book is suitable for both native and non-native speakers of English, and is applicable to MOOC classes on any subject (and indeed, for just about any type of online study).
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How to Write an Essay
Maggie Sokolik
What does it take to write a good essay? This book covers the basics of grammar, sentence construction, and paragraphs, and then outlines how to plan and write an essay. You will find writing prompts, vocabulary lists, and editing exercises (with suggested answers).
This text was written to accompany the online course of the same name, the first of two courses offered by College Writing Programs of the University of California, Berkeley through edX.org. For students in the course, this book offers additional ways to practice writing, editing, and reviewing the materials. However, the materials here are independent of the course, and function as an effective study of the essay writing process.
Access the course at this link:
www.edx.org/course/Principles of Written English 2.1x
***Note: This revised edition reflects the updated course content and is current from 2022.
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Academic and Business Writing
Maggie Sokolik
What characterizes academic writing and business writing? What are the differences between the two genres? Where do they intersect? This book offers an overview of the features of both styles of writing, as well as opportunities to improve your writing skills in a wide variety of contexts.
This book was written to accompany the free online course of the same name, the second of two courses offered by the College Writing Programs of the University of California, Berkeley, through edX.org. For students in the course, this book offers additional ways to practice writing, editing, and reviewing the materials. However, the materials here are independent of the course, and function as an effective study of academic and business writing.
Access the course at this link:
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Fifty Ways to Teach Writing
Maggie Sokolik
Writing ought to be the easiest of the four skills for students of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Unlike listening and reading, the students control all the words. Unlike speaking, the students can go back, check their work, revise it, and resubmit it. It should then follow that writing would be one of the most popular courses to teach. Yet teachers never say, "I can't wait till I get tenure, so I can teach some of those composition classes of 35 students."
However, writing classes also offer the opportunity to see growth, to share important ideas, and to develop a sense of community. The tips in Fifty Ways to Teach Writing are chosen with that goal in mind -- to make it easier for students to succeed at becoming better writers, and for instructors to enjoy the teaching of writing.
This book is divided into three categories, which represent the stages of process writing:
- Pre-writing and planning
- Writing topics and strategies
- Editing and revising
The Fifty Ways to Teach series gives you a variety of drills, games, techniques, methods, and ideas to help your students master English. Most of the ideas can be used for both beginning and advanced classes. Many require little to no preparation or special materials. The ideas can be used with any textbook, or without a textbook at all. These short, practical guides aim to make your teaching life easier, and your students' lives more rewarding and successful.
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Fifty Ways to Teach Grammar
Maggie Sokolik
Many textbooks do a fine job of presenting grammar to students. However, some students or classes need more practice after they’ve finished the exercises in their textbook.
This guide provides imaginative and enjoyable games, drills, and activities to practice different grammatical structures such as verb tenses, articles, phrasal verbs, pronouns, relative clauses, modals, word forms, syntax, and more.
This book is divided into three categories:
- Reading and writing exercises
- Speaking activities
- Fun & games
Enliven your classes with information gaps, poems, game shows, guessing games, substitution drills, writing prompts, discussion topics, and more.
The Fifty Ways to Teach series gives you a variety of drills, games, techniques, methods, and ideas to help your students master English. Most of the ideas can be used for both beginning and advanced classes. Many require little to no preparation or special materials. The ideas can be used with any textbook, or without a textbook at all. These short, practical guides aim to make your teaching life easier, and your students’ lives more rewarding and successful.
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Fifty Ways to Practice Grammar
Maggie Sokolik
Learning another language is never fast, but the Fifty Ways to Practice series will speed things up by showing you how to practice more efficiently and effectively both inside and outside the classroom. It is useful for beginning through advanced levels.
You will learn 50 ways to notice, understand, and practice different grammatical structures in English. The book is divided into six sections:
- The Big Picture (general advice and strategies)
- Nouns and Verbs
- Adjectives and Adverbs
- Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Articles
- Sentences and their Parts
- Other Topics
You do not need to be living in an English-speaking country or be currently taking an English class to use this book. However, students who are already in a class can also use this book to study and learn more effectively.
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Frankenstein, Dracula, and Gothic Literature: Companion Text for College Writing 11.1x
Maggie Sokolik, editor
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Poems: Companion Text for College Writing II.2X
Maggie Sokolik
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Maggie Sokolik
Maggie Sokolik received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. She is the author of nearly thirty ESL and composition textbooks. She has also written for and been featured in several educational video projects in Japan. She is Director of College Writing 2x, a popular MOOC offered at edX.org.
She is the Director of College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley, where she has taught for over 25 years, and travels frequently to speak about grammar, writing, and instructor education, most recently in Nepal, Australia, China, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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Writing for Social Justice
Maggie Sokolik
Writing can make a difference in your world. Whether it’s personal writing that helps you clarify issues in your own life, letters and petitions to draw attention to local and national issues, or essays about the big issues, learning to write clearly, logically, and effectively can help you change the world.
This workbook/journal offers over 160 thought-provoking writing topics, as well as information on using logic, emotion, and authority to write powerfully.
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