Actively Engaged in Persuasion Course Chatbot

Listicle

5 Ways You Can Teach Blogging Using the VWT

If you are a teacher interested in helping your students learn digital literacy and professional writing skills for the real world, blogging projects should be your first choice. Using the Virtual Writing Tutor to help them get started is a smart choice. In this listicle, you'll learn about the free tools you can use to teach a range of common blog post types that will serve your students throughout their blogging careers.

1. Glossary creator.

A glossary writing project is a great way to get students to expand their vocabulary. Knowing a word does not just mean knowing its spelling and definition. It also means knowing how to pronounce it, how to translate it, what it looks like, how it is used in a sentence, and it part of speech. That's why the Virtual Writing Tutor's Glossary Creator includes easy to use tools to add words, reliable definitions, text-to-speech pronunciation models, pictures, translations, and sample sentences from concordances. Once the glossary is finished, the student can generate a card game for interactive speaking practice in class, generate a drag and drop matching exercise, and export it to a blog using HTML. In the process, the glossary project will introduce students to a range of language learning tools on the web that they never knew existed.

2. Career summary chatbot creator.

As students work on developing the skills they will need for their future careers, it would be good if they knew something about the career they were preparing for. That's what this blogging project is so great. Students research a career, summarize what they discover by answering career-related questions, and cite their sources using the RADARS framework. At the end, they will have a handy, error-free career summary that they can export to their blog using HTML, and they will have a working speech recognition-enabled chatbot to practice their speaking skills with. You can then use it as the basis of a midterm speaking task to conduct a one-on-one interview or ask students to create a screencast tutorial.

3. Screencast tutorial script composer

The second most popular search engine on the internet is on YouTube.com. People search YouTube for explanations and tutorials all the time. Teach students how to compose a screencast tutorial to record and post to YouTube and then embed into a blog post. It is an excellent writing project that leads to an online speaking project. The Virtual Writing Tutor makes it easy to do with the screencast creator. It takes the student step-by-step through the composition of an engaging introduction, demonstration, and conclusion, it checks their text for grammar errors, and converts their script into text-to-speech pronunciation models to help them eliminate their pronunciation errors, as well.

4. Hypertext narrative creator.

Critical thinking is not just questioning the reliability of sources. Sure that's part of it, especially in academia. Obviously, critical thinking also must include the ability to see how choices and decisions play out in life. When we think about career choices and the road not taken, we are engaging in a kind of episodic critical thinking that is rarely developed in college ESL courses. Yet, college education is supposed to get students to think about ethical choices in practical terms--not just as abstractions, right? That's where hypertext narratives can be so useful. Get students to begin in the present moment and think about choices they will have to make in their futures, have them explore the consequences of those choices in narrative form, and then get them to link them together with hyperlinks to make a choose-your-own-adventure. The Virtual Writing Tutor makes this kind of writing project easy, with onboard grammar checking and a handy HTML export feature to embed the hypertext narrative into a blog post. Then, students can share their writing with each other. Students love it, and they learn a ton of digital literacy and field-related English in the process.

5. Listicle creator.

Listicle creator

This article is a listicle. A listicle is presents a list of prioritized items with an introduction and a conclusion. Listicles are common and effective ways to communicate in writing on the internet. They help students understand paragraphing and prioritize their ideas. The Virtual Writing Tutor has a handy listicle creator. The system guides students in assembling a listicle with an introduction and conclusion, list items with links, images, and descriptive paragraphs. The system provides feedback on grammar errors during the composition process, and displays a word count and error count at the foot of the published listicle. Once the student is happy with the article he or she has written, the listicle can be exported as HTML to their blog. Easy.

Conclusion

With these 5 powerful, yet easy to use tools at your disposal, what are you waiting for? Your students will love blogging. They will value the automated feedback, and grading for you will be a cinch. If you would like a textbook to support you step-by-step, use the Contact Us page on the Virtual Writing Tutor to ask about Actively Engaged Online. You don't need a textbook, but why struggle when teaching blogging for the first time when it could be easy and fun? In any case, use the Virtual Writing Tutor to help and your students jump into blogging this semester.

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Statistics

Word count: 880

Error count: 0

Error density: 0%

Created with the Virtual Writing Tutor’s Listicle Composer.

Job Interview Q&A

a teacher

How do you define the job?

Imagine a student who grew up playing video games with English speakers and thinks there is nothing left to learn. Now imagine a student who can’t string more than a few words together. For me, being a college ESL teacher means helping the first student set new goals so that he or she can attain new levels of accuracy and nuance, and it means helping the second student discover new levels of confidence and fluency so that he or she can engage with the English-speaking community in new ways.

How many years of experience have you had in education?

I started teaching English when I was 18 years old. I taught a Japanese martial artist visiting Montreal during his gap year. But it wasn't until 1995 that that I got my first job teaching overseas. In total, I taught in Korea for 5 years, at a language institute from 1995 to 1997 and then at two universities from 2002 until 2005. At the college level in and around Montreal, I have taught college ESL for about 17 years. But I have been working at my current college for just 13 years.

Describe your prior experience as a teacher?

I started working as a teacher doing private lessons, but that didn't last long. Otherwise, I have taught at language schools in Quebec, B.C, and abroad. I have also taught at universities in Canada and South Korea. But most of my experience has been teaching in and around Montreal at various the junior colleges.

What was your earliest work experience?

My first job was delivering newspapers in my neighbourhood. I always knew that if you wanted money in your pocket, you had to work for it. So, I got myself two paper routes, and every morning before school, I delivered 70 newspapers in the next neighbourhood to mine.

How did you motivate an underperforming team to achieve its goals?

The clearest example I can think of is a group project I had to do with classmates. We met, set tasks for ourselves and planned to meet the following week to share what we had accomplished. When we met, I was the only one to have met the goals we had set. We agreed to meet on the weekend. I realized that the best way to motivate the group was to lead by example, so I worked day and night to produce my best and most complete section of the project. When we met again and they saw how much work I had done, they realized that the presentation was going to look lopsided. That inspired them buckled down and get the work done. In the end, my hard work early in the development cycle inspired my teammates to work harder and get the job done. Our team scored the highest of all of the teams that present that semester.

income potential

How much could I potentially make if I applied myself?

Statistics

Word count: 448

Error count: 2

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Created with the Virtual Writing Tutor’s Job Interview Creator.

Pronunciation App

Are you unsure how to pronounce a word? Use your browser's speech synthesis system to pronounce any word or phrase you type into the input box below. Adapted code based on Jason Mayes' example here: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/xGXZaW Click the HTML button of your blog, and copy/paste the code found here. I checked this blog post for common grammar, punctuation and spelling errors using a free online ESL grammar checker.

Socrates

Socrates was an old friend of mine and a complete drunk. 

The Socratic method is a party game involving alcohol. 

The Career of a Police Officer - HTML

The Career of a Police Officer

Introduction

If you have ever thought of becoming a policeman, this article is for you.

What is it like to be a police officer?

It is very challenging and difficult.

What do police officers do?

Police officers keep the peace. They also have to apprehend criminals and charge them with crimes. They doesn't have a easy job.

What do police officers do on a typical day?

Police officers patrol the city in a police cruiser. They fill in reports and go to court to give evidence.

Where do police officers work?

Policemen work in a police station and in the community. Some police officers work in their police cruisers. Some police officers work at the police headquarters.

How can I become a police officer?

You can apply to the Police Technology Program at Ahuntsic College or John Abbott College. These colleges on the island of Montreal offer a 3-year training program in French and English, respectively. Upon completion of the program, you can apply for weapons training at Nicolet College. Graduates from Nicolet can apply to the various police forces around Quebec and Canada.

How much money do police officers make?

Police officers make on average $75000 per year. Of course, the salaries vary across regions and is starting salary is lower at the beginning of a police officer's career.

What kinds of additional training do police officers need?

Policemen need weapons training and training on new laws.

What are the dangers of being a police officer?

Being a police officer is a dangerous job. During your day, a suspect could punch or kick you while trying to escape. If the suspect is armed, he or she could shoot you. You may be required to draw your weapon and kill someone, causing psychological harm in the form of post-traumatic distress syndrome.

What are the chances that police officers will be replaced by robots soon?

It is unlikely that policemen will be completely replaced by robots. However, speeding tickets are generated by cameras and sent automatically by mail when a driver exceeds the limit.

What age do police officers retire at?

A policeman can retire at 55. Some policemen enter the top ranks and retire much later.

Conclusion

As you can see, being a police officer requires a junior college degree, on the job training, and bravery.

More by this author

Glossary link: https://expressdev.virtualwritingtutor.com/uploads/glossary/125/police-technology%20glossary.html

Screencast link: https://youtu.be/0JejTWWSRvI

Listicle link: http://cop-spot.blogspot.com/2015/09/3-good-reasons-to-become-police-officer.html

Sources and RADARS ratings

Source: https://ca.indeed.com/salaries/police-officer-Salaries

Rationale: to inform or educate

Authority: recognized author

Date: recently published

Accuracy: probably true

Relevance: relevant for this document

Sources: cites sources

Source: https://www.collegeahuntsic.qc.ca/programmes-dec/techniques/techniques-policieres

Rationale: to sell products and services (digital marketing)

Authority: recognized author

Date: recently published

Accuracy: probably true

Relevance: relevant for this document

Sources: no sources cited

Statistics

Word count: 293

Error count: 2

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Created with the Virtual Writing Tutor’s Career Summary Creator.

My Career as an ESL Teacher - A Hypertext Narrative

My Career as an ESL Teacher.

A hypertext narrative by

Nicholas Walker

Created with

The Virtual Writing Tutor Grammar Checker

Next

Word count: 304

Choice count: 2

Section count: 3

Image count: 3

Error count: 1

Field Related Analysis:

Education : 13 matches (choice, class, college, exam, games, goal, homework, management, semester, student, students, teacher, teachers)

Archaeology : 7 matches (class, college, here, plan, Re, study, tell)

Sociology : 4 matches (class, goal, homework, management)

Target Structure:

cursory (2 matches)

put aside (1 match)

straight A's (1 match)

time management (2 matches)

Next

My Career as an ESL Teacher.

The beginning of college.

It was the beginning of college. I started thinking about my program. I had to make an important choice.

Choice 1 : Do my homework every week.

Choice 2 : Play more video games.

Do my homework every week.

It was the second week of the semester and my teachers had already begun piling on the homework. After dinner, I gave my English homework a cursory glance and made a snap decision about my time management. I will not put aside my homework, I will do it the night it is assigned, and I will be thorough. This way, I will always be ready, and I can spend more time on homework instead of rushing all of the time. If I have a lot of exams coming up, I will plan which class to study for each day. I will feel confident and have the best chances of pulling off the exam. My goal is to get straight A's all year long.

Write a choice here.

Play more video games.

It was the second week of the semester and my teachers had already begun piling on the homework. After dinner, I gave my English homework a cursory glance and made a snap decision about my time management. Homework can wait. Video games are more fun. If there is something important that I need to do, I am sure my teacher will tell me. The next week, my teacher asked the students in class to share their homework with the person sitting next them. My partner was the most attractive student in class. After my partner shared, I said that I didn’t do my homework. My partner turned to me and said, “You’re a lazy jerk, and I never want to talk to you again.”.

Write a choice here.

New Story

Story

The Career of a Police Officer - iframe

Food Glossary

This is an example of a glossary. It contains food terms, parts of speech, definitions in sentence case from Google Search, text-to-speech pronunciation models, images from Wikimedia Commons, automatic translations to French, and authentic example sentences from the Lextutor Concordancer. I found my definitions on Google.

apple

noun

The round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin red or green skin and crisp flesh.

Example: They may occur to the discoverer in a flash of inspiration, as in the mythical story of Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation being triggered by his seeing an APPLE fall from a tree.

fr: pomme

bagel

noun

A dense bread roll in the shape of a ring, made by boiling dough and then baking it.

Example: In many regions around the country, the BAGEL, a ring-shaped bread product, is a common breakfast item. A BAGEL is often topped with seeds, such as sesame or poppy, or other spiced toppings, and is often served sliced in half, toasted, and spread with butter or cream cheese or other toppings.

fr: beignet

curry

noun

A dish of meat, vegetables, etc., cooked in an Indian-style sauce of strong spices and typically served with rice.

Example: And he came and he had a massive full plate of rice and CURRY and then he had custard and gooseberry pie.

fr: curry

fajita

noun

A dish of Mexican origin consisting of strips of spiced beef or chicken, chopped vegetables, and grated cheese, wrapped in a soft tortilla and often served with sour cream.

Example: Fry for one minute, then tip in the black beans and fajita seasoning.

fr: fajita

gulab jamun

noun

A milk-solid-based sweet from the Indian subcontinent, popular in India.

Example: He ordered gulab jamun for everybody.

fr: gulab jamun

hamburger

noun

A round patty of ground beef, fried or grilled and typically served on a bun or roll and garnished with various condiments.

Example: She finished her HAMBURGER and drank her coffee and paid her check.

fr: l'hamburger

kimchi

noun

Spicy pickled cabbage, the national dish of Korea.

Example: Like all Korean meals, breakfast is usually served with banchan, or side dishes consisting of KIMCHI , steamed eggs and tofu.

fr: kimchi

maple syrup

noun

Syrup produced from the sap of certain maples, especially the sugar maple.

Example: I like to cook without recipes, freely mixing Marsala wine, mustard, artichoke hearts, candied ginger, MAPLE SYRUP , and plums, hoping something capable of being digested will emerge.

fr: sirop d'érable

pizza

noun

A dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, added meat or vegetables.

Example: What about having a PIZZA with me tonight after work?"

fr: pizza

salmon

noun

A large edible fish that is a popular game fish, much prized for its orange flesh that turns pink when cooked.

Example: Our church held a wonderful candlelit SALMON supper.

fr: saumon.

shepherd's pie

noun

A dish of ground meat under a layer of mashed potato.

Example: The meat was melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous and the shepherd's pie had fluffy mashed potato and flavoursome meat.

fr: tarte du berger

shrimp

noun

A small free-swimming crustacean with an elongated body, typically marine and frequently harvested for food.

Example: She said sharks have no bones and SHRIMP swim backwards.

fr: crevette

smoked salmon

noun

A orange fleshed fish flavored using smoldering wood at low temperatures during a curing process and sliced.

fr: saumon fumé froid tranché

spaghetti

noun

Pasta made in long, slender, solid strings.

Example: Do you want SPAGHETTI tonight? Suits me. SPAGHETTI David? Got some of that lovely oatmeal bread?

fr: spaghetti

zucchini

noun

A green variety of smooth-skinned summer squash.

Example: Top them with your favorite red sauce and some stir-fried mushrooms, ZUCCHINI , and peppers.

fr: courgette

This glossary was made with the Virtual Writing Tutor glossary maker and grammar checker.