One of the wonderful elements of working online is that you can go back and correct typos and small errors that you did not see while composing, and even better, I do not stop to evaluate your blogs until mid-term, so you have the opportunity to make these corrections before “official evaluuation” occurs: Oct 25th

Midterm occurs at the end of Unit 2. At that time, you will select your favourite three blogs for evaluation and post the url’s on FB. I will remind you. You are free to rewrite and edit to your heart’s content between now and midterm time:

My Instructor’s blog is responsive: I read your work and respond.

Reading through all your blogs can take a long while  because your hypertext and send me off to places like this , where I learn about new ideas and endeavours and have all sorts of new and wonderful insights to add to what I think I already know. Check it out: Wattpad.

After reading through all your blogs I have a few technical notes and general suggestions for you:

• In the future, link in your sources in your works cited when they are avalible online.
• Also, delete the sample page to clean up your blog
• Paste the question you are answering at the top of the post – and you are free to make introductory comments on why you chose this question
• Create interesting titles for all of your posts
•  If you have any questions or comments about this lesson or the assignments in the next lesson, please do post on our FaceBook page
• If you can find the same article in pdf form – that is the best way to link
•  In order to encourage comments, it is a good idea to end your blog assignments with a question.
• Use MLA style for your citations: This is a great style guide: OWL

BE SURE TO READ THE GUIDELINES FOR BLOGGING AND HYPERLINKING IN THE SIDEBAR!

One more note, that I will probably make many times in different ways:

• can you see what is wrong with the following phrase:   “… the Western perspective and the aboriginal perspective are equally valid.”

I want to encourage you to explore different blogs this week, even though you may have made a connection with someone you easily identify with, for the first couple of Units it will be more interesting if we explore beyond our comfort zones and engage with each other as widely as possible. Thanks.

I am very much enjoying your stories about How Evil Came into the World, thank you; we have some excellent writers in this class.

I like to end my reflection blogs with some quotes from your blogs that I find particularly interesting or extremely well-put. Enjoy:

This is a great description of the hyperlink today:

Hypertext, the use of links in story or literature, opens up new possibilities. eWriters can use links to enrich their stories. If they mention the Egyptian pyramids, for example, they are able to link to a picture of those pyramids. Or an explanation of the cultural significance of the pyramids. The possibilities are endless and can be used to enhance the reading experience. Of course these links can also be a distraction, steering the reader away from a writer’s work and interrupting the reading experience, making it harder to follow what is being said. Links even allow for a form of interactive literature. It is possible to write a story and at times – when there is a point in the story where a protagonist is making a decision – give the reader the possibility of making this decision for the protagonist by providing links for different courses of action that lead to different outcomes. This way the story can split up again and again. The reader has an influence on how the story goes on and the storyline doesn’t have to be linear anymore. There are services that support authors in the creation of those interactive stories. Take a look at this example story, “Neighbourhood Predators” by Jon Ingold (Ingold) using inklewriter (inklewriter), one of the services helping you in creating interactive stories, to see how an interactive story can work. Exploration Of Canadian Literature

I find the choices made here to describe Portland fascinating and very nicely expressed:

Geographically speaking, my home is located in Portland, Oregon. Known for food carts, sensitive bearded hipsters, and bike lanes, it’s not a bad place to call home. It’s fairly clean and safe, as far as U.S. cities go. Oregon is the only state that has no restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. Modern Portland is a hub for progressive thinkers and political activists. Interestingly, it is also the whitest city in America.

When I am homesick, Portland can become a magical paradise land in my mind. I remember my Omi’s (German grandma) special cheese toast sandwich that she makes for me in her ancient toaster. ENGL 470: CanLit Chronicles

The following quote really gets to the heart of the power of language in context with our sense of home. And it is worth thinking about why ‘outlawing’ a language is a form of cultural genocide:

Having said that, the multi-cultural Canada does make me feel at home in the way in which this country opens up for cultural diversities. Take languages for example. I still remember the degree to which I was shocked by the trilingual characteristics of YVR airport when I arrived at Vancouver on day one. Although I personally do not feel right about the Chinese language being paralleled with the two official languages of Canada in public properties, I cannot deny the fact that the appearance of my home language does make me feel closer to home and in part leads to my decision of settling down in Vancouver permanently. That may also be the reason why a growing number of Chinese middle-class families, who have been to many places around the world, are making the same decision building up their new homes in here. The other moment which made me feel more identified with my Canada home is when I heard the broadcasters saying “ngo gwok”, meaning “my/our country” in Cantonese which is my mother tongue, when they mentioned Canada in a news programme at a local Cantonese TV station. For example, “’Ngo gwok’ athletes won another two gold medals today at Rio Olympics.” Then I found myself celebrating not only the Chinese Olympics team’s success but Team Canada’s, with two homes living in harmony in my heart via the language that speaks the best to it. We Are in the Same Boat

Wow – what a great way to begin a story:

Home. What a strange word when you say it over and over. Not longingly but with enough emphasis to draw out the sounds. It’s like a meditation, a prayer. Hooome. Hohm. Holy syntax. The combination of heaven and Om melding east and west. A convergence point. And then there’s all the sentiment and the resistance. Perhaps Ohm’s law was more about the voltage and currents that writhe through anybody’s home, and the personal resistances we put up to manage them–our constants. All of this reflection on home keeps me from the point here. My home was being taken from me.  470 blogging

We have some outstanding writers among us: what a treat:

Why should I be careful not to disregard the beliefs of others, even though they are strange and different? Because, as Chamberlain explains, there are borders which occur and show humans that we and all our stories are united (222). This summer I had a born again friend question me about my lack of belief in the religion I was brought up in. I reluctantly entered the conversation, and warned that it may make her feel less close to me if I were to really share my feelings. She wanted to talk anyways, and I treaded carefully through our discussion, knowing that her belief was as firm as my disbelief. We reached a border moment near the end of our talk, when she implored of me, “Didn’t you ever have an encounter with God?” That was a tricky question. Of course I have, but not from her paradigm. There is something in this universe that is amazing, but I simply cannot define God, nor do I even know what I mean by God. I told her I believe she touches upon a higher power, and I also believe that how people get to this enlightened place is not important, but that we are stay open to love in the universe. These borders occur in nature, when ones heart fills with appreciation and a sense of wonder bordering on worship. The borders are revealed when we look at a honeycomb or a spiders web and see their intricacy. This sense of border moment (or intersection as penned by Paterson) occurs when we rise and sing a national anthem, sensing that the ceremony has helped us reach a magical border place of unity. Chamberlain says, “…Them and Us is inevitable. But choosing between is like choosing between reality and the imagination, or between being marooned on an island and drowning in the sea. Deadly, and ultimately a delusion”(239).  Michael’s Foray into Home on Stolen Ground

March 22nd 2008 was the day that my concept of home physically changed. This was the day that my mother and I moved from the south coast of England, to Peachland a small town in beautiful British Columbia. This was the biggest day of my life so far, and at 12 years old for most kids, it would have been the worst day; I was taken away from what I knew, who I knew: my friends and my family. But it was not the worst day of my life. The first 12 years of my life were filled with ups and downs and I realized that this day would be a new up for me, this was the day that I could change everything, no one knew me in Canada and that meant at 12 years old, I could be anyone I wanted to be.  Bryony-Rose Heathwood’s English 470 Blog

ENJOY