classwords | site notes

March 10, 2005

List of Entries That Got The Axe

The Axe has been applied to the following pieces of writing":

by TJ D. "She Said . . . "
by Joe P. "Family Guy -- Appropriate or not???"
by Jared H. untitled

Posted to site notes at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

breast enhancment

New Site Feature | The Axe

short explanaton

For writing where this icon is displayed to the right of the title, mouse over text in the content to disclose writing error message links.

entries where The Axe has been applied

longer explanation of usage for The Axe

Entries where this feature has been applied will be designated by this image with a number next to it. It is a proofreading feature. Use your mouse to move the pointer over the text of the entry, line by line, to reveal hidden links that will change to a yellow color when passed over. When these links are clicked, a new small window will pop up. This will not work if you have javascript disabled for your browser or if you have pop up windows blocked.

The number next to the image indicates how many hidden links there are for that entry. Each pop up window will have a message relating to a problem in the text, like spelling or grammar, or a suggestion for a possible improvement. If you see 8 on an entry, it generally means there 8 proofreading errors that need correction. In a few cases there may not be an error strictly speaking, but something that could definitely handled better (as in cases of redundancy and other forms of wordiness).

There are three primary ways these comments will be used. 1) a pop up window may indentify what the error is and how to correct it, or 2) a pop up window may identifly what kind of error it is (the message might simply say “bad punctuation,”) and invite readers to use the comments feature to specify the nature of the error and/or offer a solution, or 3) a pop up window may simply say “error” and invite readers to use the comments feature to specify the nature of the error and/or offer a solution. On the second 2 options, if a reader correctly identifies a correct “fix” in their comments, I will go back and change The Axe message so it gives the correction and the name of the commenter who suggested it.

Further comment about The Axe usage

When will it be use? This feature will be used extremely selectively, on probably less than 5% (1/20) of all entries. This kind of proofreading is very time consuming, particularly if corrections are offered, even if it is done on paper with red ink (the typical teacher mark up). To apply the script needed to make these comments web-based, as they are here, is about 5 times more time consuming than the paper-based method. In picking pieces to use this feature with, I will give priority to students who ask for it (or axe for it) in author notes attached to the original piece; among these, I will give priority to students who appear to have made some effort to correct errors on their own. I really don’t want to waste time on authors who are too lazy to even use spell check on their own writing.

Why bother with this at all? I will address this in a separate entry where I will brag about why this is a pegagogically brilliant innovation.

Posted to site notes at 01:45 PM