TW Admin: Start Up Message to Students 2008

Dear Theme Writers,

Welcome to the course! I am looking forward to meeting you in class on Wednesday.

Before class I would like you to do three (3) things:

1) Think carefully about your writing topic. Please give some thought to what you would like to write about. Theme Writing is one of the most liberal and liberating courses at ICU: it is perhaps the only course that allows you to focus your reading, study, and research on a topic that is entirely chosen by you and reflects your particular interests. Please think about a topic that:

• Is strongly related to your personal interests and experiences. If you have lived most of your life in Japan, your topic should reflect that connection.

• Will let you write something new about it.

• Involves a problem or question that you can answer.

• Is "doable" in about 7 body paragraphs.

2) Sign up for Google Docs (GDS). GDS is free online software that you can use to create, store, share, publish, and collaborate on your documents. It is like a free version of Microsoft Office, but because it is online you can use GDS to access your work at any online computer, anywhere in the world. Moreover, for a course like Theme Writing, GDS makes sharing and collaborating on your paper incredibly easy. It means saying goodbye to the messy process of sending your paper to me as an email attachment. It also means you will never have to miss an opportunity to work on your paper because you left you paper at home. Once you have shared your paper with me via GDS, we can open and your check your paper at my computer. I will also share all course materials with you in GDS. GDS is easy to learn to use and can save you lots of time. GDS can make study easier. Yay! For these reasons, GDS is a requirement for Theme Writing this semester. If you already have a GDS account with Google, you do not have to do anything now. However, if you do not have GDS, please take two minutes now to sign up before class tomorrow.

1. Click GDocs & Spreadsheets, or point your browser at http://docs.google.com. If you have a Google account already, sign in with your Google username and password. You are finished!

2. If you do not have a Google account, click the 'Get Started' button.

3. Fill out the sign-up form and follow any directions that Google gives you.

4. If you have time, watch this short video which explains more about GDS. Click to watch the video.

3) Bookmark the TW Homepage. Our homepage is located at http://twicu.blogspot.com/. Please bookmark this in the browser on your home computer. Also, write down the address some where safe, so that you can access it any time you need to, e.g. your diary, keitai, etc.

Thank you & see you tomorrow,

Owen James