The Basics ...  

English 1D syllabi: advanced and regular

Write a polite e-mail

Presentation guidelines

Here is our final exam (January, 2023). The deadline for finishing this is midnight on Sunday, January 22.

 Wednesday 1st 

This section includes random—yet somehow related—links from the units in our textbook, Unlock 3 by Carol Westbrook, Lida Baker, and Chris Sowton. Enjoy!

 Chapter 3 — Transportation 
Welcome back, everyone. We'll begin this semester with Chapter 3, which is about transportation. This is a topic that we're well acquainted with because we have excellent public transportation here in Tokyo.

Here we have an example of a so-called 15-minute city located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (in New York City, and here is a second city plan for Edmonton.

However, there is a bit of an issue, countering misinformation about 15-minute cities.

As you'll see on pages 74-75 in our textbook, transportation is an evolving reality. We see this with hybrid cars and EV, and some cities have ventured into human-powered transportation—the humble bicycle. One such city is Washington, DC with its CaBi program.

 Chapter 4 — Customs & Traditions 

Today we acknowledge the upcoming "holiday" of Halloween, which occurs on the final day of October, the 31st. In honor of this important (?) day, your homework this week will include doing our Halloween worksheet. Please hand in this worksheet via File Request (Halloween report) by midnight next Tuesday, October 31 (Halloween!).

Another celebration of note in China is the Dragon Boat Festival.

On a more timely note, on the 4th Thursday in November Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, which is a formal holiday in the US best known as the day when turkey is eaten. It is also the date of a wondrful parade in New York, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

 Chapter 5 — Food & Drink 
Ah, what better way to spend a day than with a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou? (a fine line, very romantic, yes?)

Here, for your enjoyment, is a mouthwatering clip about food in France, which is a cuisine that (I suspect) we all enjoy. As you likely know, French cuisine has a remarkably large amount of such rich ingredients as cheese and cream, yet the rate of obesity is far, far lower than it is for Americans.

A second diet—somewhat similar—is the Mediterranean diet, which is from areas around the Mediterranean Sea, of course. One of the staples is olive oil, as you'll see in this video about a visit to Crete.

 Unit 8 — Rules 
Here we have a ...

 Unit 9 — Adventures 
Let's begin with a look at rather tame adventures. Many of you are likely familiar with World Heritage Sites, of which there are many. How many, you ask? To answer that question, you might well visit the WHS homepage, where you'll find both an extensive list as well as an interactive map.

 Unit 10 — Health 
Ah, that bugaboo of winter, the common cold. We all seem to catch one (or two) occasionally, and I suspect most people have a "sure-fire" remedy or two that will take care of a cold. Here in Japan we also find a somewhat unusual use for a piece of surgical equipment; in the video clip to the right you'll find out more (although you might already know much, much more than I do about this particular subject!).

Here we have an interesting video by Hashem al-Ghaili on the custom of wearing masks in Southeast Asia

 Group Research Project 

As you will know from class, students will be will be conducting a research project this term. I recommend that you work in groups, but you may work alone if you want to. Here is the basic outline of the group research project from class.

 Group Research Project: 

Examples of past group reports:

Second, you will recall that I introduced some projects that my students conducted in years past. Feel free to have a look as you think about topics for your group's project. This handy button will take you there:

Your next task, people: your group will send me one e-mail to introduce your topic and explain your decision. Of course, your e-mail will be written in polite English, and the details of your topic will be in an attachment to that e-mail, which should arrive before our next class.

Just a reminder: your attachment MUST have a correct filename.

Task #2: By November 30 I would like to receive a preliminary report about your progress. As you'll remember from class, here is an example of a preliminary report, and you'll also find some and must include comments here (please look at this carefully). I encourage you to also add images (i.e., screenshots) where appropriate.

 Writing 

As you know from class, I require polite email. Recall, too, that if you send me a file, the filename has a certain form: your name + topic/theme + date.

For your group report, you'll need to use academic style, which I explain in detail in this video on academic paper guidelines  .

 Paragraphs 

This morning we'll begin with a look at the structure of the humble paragraph. This all begins with the topic sentence, which I explain in more detail here. In the meantime, however, I would like you to keep four key points in mind, please: