Planning and writing a blog
| A blog (weblog) –(комп.) желілік журнал, блог |
4.1 Look at the home page of the website Notes from Spain and discuss the following questions.
1 Do you think the site looks interesting?
2 What kind of information do you think is included on the site?
4.2 A. Look at the following blog and entry by Ben, who runs Notes from Spain. Put the paragraphs is Ben’s blog (A - E) in the correct order.
1 _______ 2 _______ 3 _______ 4 _______ 5 _______
| Explore Spain: - Spain postcards - Travel in Spain - Spanish Music - Food/Drink - Food Postcards - Living in Spain - Working in Spain - Books and Film - Spain Photos - Spain Video Useful Resources: - Learn Spanish - Cool Spanish - Book Review - Madrid Guide - Posts RRS: Blog RSS iTunes NFS in iTunes | Notes from Spain – the story so far… by Ben Curtis A So that’s basically my story. Hey, Spain bloggers, lovers and visitors – tell us one of your stories! BThis blog started Life as an experiment. I wanted to know how blogs worked, so I posted the odd picture from Madrid, or comment on a Spanish news item, etc. At the about same time I wrote an article for In Madrid, the local English language rag, on technology, which led to adding the Notes from Spain podcasts to this blog – at first on my own, then Marina got involved. We started by making a travel cast, the a cooking cast, and the podcasts started to improve. CThen I was contacted by a commissioning editor at Fodors who had enjoyed the postcasts and wanted me to edit a chapter for their 2007 Spain guide. I chose Galicia and Asturias, and Marina and I spent a couple of weeks in the north of Spain doing research. This year I wrote a couple of introductory sections for their 2008 guide. Wow, Lonely Planet and Fodors, and all because of the podcasts! DAfter returning home from a recent trip to Thailand I found that I had blogger’s block. I couldn’t think of anything to write about connected with Spain. Then I read a great piece of advice on another site. The piece of advice was to use a blog post to tell a story, so here goes. A question I am occasionally asked about my book, Errant in Iberia, is “what happened next”, and this is part of the story. ENow the interesting bit. The Notes from Spain podcasts have led to wonderful things. First of all, work with Lonely Planet. A few years ago, I wrote several emails to the person in charge pf online content, complaining that the first Lonely Planet podcasts were boring and that they should produce shows like the ones we were putting together on our trips around Spain. Eventually, after my third email, a very nice man called John got back to me, and purchased and of our podcasts for their feed. We have now made five podcasts for Lonely Planet. When I stop to think about it, making podcasts for Lonely Planet is a dream comes true. It was the first time I had ever had the guts to repeatedly contact an institution I admired, and it really paid off! | Site search Our projects… Recent Comments bill on Books Rise in Spain as Subtitles Appear on TV! Tom on Books Rise in Spain as Subtitles Appear on TV! Pepino on Books Rise in Spain as Subtitles Appear on TV! Recent Posts Conversation Starters in Spanish Spanish Divorcees and New TV Don’t Move to a Better Life in Spain Archives June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 |
B. Words in English can have more than one meaning. Look at the dictionary entries for block and post. Which definition corresponds to the meaning of the words as they are used in Ben’s blog?
| block(зат есім) 1 іс-әректті тоқтатушы (ой) 2 компютердегі мәліметтер бөлімі | post(етістік) 1 хатты жіберу немесе пошта қызметі 2 online-ға басылымға жіберу |
4.3 Choose the correct definition (a or b) for the following highlighted words from Ben’s blog.
1. odda strange b occasional
2. raga piece of cloth b magazine
3. casta broadcast b the actors in a film
4. couplea two b two people in a relationship
5. feeda food for animalsb updated content link
6. gutsa courage b intestines
7. paid offa paid back money b brought good results
4.4 Complete the following statements about Ben’s blog by underlining the correctalternative.
1 He speaks to his audience as if they are/ are not friends.
2 He uses the first person pronouns I and we a lot/ a little.
3 He uses / doesn’t useinterjections like hey and wow.
4 He uses / doesn’t usedashes (-) and exclamation marks (!).
5 He joins / doesn’t joinsentences with and rather than moreover, however and therefore.
6 He uses some / no slang words.
7 He rarely / usually uses contractions.
8 As a result of the above points, his style is formal / informal.