The lesson explained
Period 6 / Writing skills; Period 7 / Writing
Period 6 / Writing skills
1 Read the beginning of an article about online communities. Put the steps in the correct order. Number them 1–6.
Give it an attractive title.
Keep it short (it doesn’t have to be in sentences).
Remember to add a way of contacting you.
- Write a notice.
You need some help setting up your community from someone who knows about computer programming. Write a notice explaining the idea and asking for helpers.
- Discuss the following in pairs or small groups.
You would like to set up an online community. Following the first two steps from the article in Activity 1, discuss ideas about the purpose and the target audience. Think about these points.
Purpose: hobbies, school/studying, entertainment (music, films, etc.), literature, politics
Audience: local, national, international
4 Read the two notices. Then decide which one is best, and why.
NOTICE!
We are trying to start a new club for people who are interested in music because we’re sure there are lots of other students who would enjoy this.
Would you like to join us?
NEW MUSIC CLUB
STARTING SOON
Can you play an instrument, or do you just enjoy listening to music?
Why not join our new music club? Everyone is welcome!
For more detail contact Nuria (07131 498752)
- 2
- Read the rest of the article about online communities.
Probably the most common type of online community is special interest groups. These are groups of people who may never have met, but who have some interest they want to share using the Internet. It may be a hobby, politics or sometimes an illness or other problem that can be helped by sharing information.
For example, someone living in a particular part of the country, who enjoys making wooden toys, wants to set up an online community for people with a similar interest. The purpose is to exchange ideas, share photos of toys and discuss how they are made. This community needs a tool to upload pictures onto the site and a space where they can be discussed by the members.
There are community-building systems on the Internet, many of them free, offering tools that you can use in building your community. Here is a list of the steps you need to take.
Starting an online community
Attract members. Build the site.
Watch it grow! Think about which Internet tools would serve your purpose and audience.
Decide on your community’s purpose.
Identify your target audience (the people who might want to use the site). Why don’t we build a site for students in Palestine who are studying English, to discuss problems and ideas?
Period 7 / Writing
1 Discuss the questions in small groups.
You now have enough people interested in your idea for an online community.
- What should the site look like, and what should it include?
- What pictures could you put on the home page?
- Apart from a home page, what other areas are needed? Choose four or five from this list (or any other ideas you have).
- Gallery (for showing uploaded pictures)
- Forum (for discussing questions or problems)
- News
- Contact us
- About us (general information about the community)
- Links (to other communities or websites)
- Future events
Add your chosen areas to the ‘screen’ below.
- Write a welcome page.
Write two or three paragraphs for the ‘About us’ area of the community website.
- Welcome visitors to the site.
- Explain the idea of the community.
- Say what members can do.
- Invite people to join you.
- Compare your work.
When you have finished writing, compare what you have written with the other members of your group. Decide on the best ideas and put them together in a final version.
Community today
Welcome to our community
www.communitytoday.com
Home About us
COMMUNITY TODAY SEARCH
In this Unit you have learnt about:
- the importance of belonging and fitting in (or not fitting in)
- online communities
- verb to noun changes (verbs ending in -y)
- understanding idioms and proverbs
- sentence linking phrases
- writing notices
- writing a community welcome page
