Overview of The PC1 Blog

What do you need to do and why?

In order for you to do well in all the courses you take at university, it is very important that you develop a wider and deeper understanding of the world you live in.

One of the most effective ways for you to acquire knowledge about current affairs is to read about current events, analyse them, and discuss them with your peers and teachers.

In PC1, you will have to create a blog and update it regularly by posting about local and national news. You will be required to:

• read about current events in news stories on the Internet 
• create posts on your blog sites discussing what you have read 
• provide links to the original articles you have posted about 
• read, review and make comments on the blog posts of your fellow classmates

You will work on your blogs individually, but you will get feedback on your work in advisory meetings and through teacher and student comments made on your website.

Project & blog advisory meetings will occur during normal class hours (see the PC1 Schedule for timings). You should bring in your laptop (notebook) computer to advisory meetings if you can.

You will need to submit your final completed blog for grading at the beginning of Week 9.

Topics to Post About

You will have to write at least one post per week on the following assigned topics:

• Sport 
• Education 
• Transport 
• Entertainment 
• Science & Technology 
• The Environment 
• Business 
• Politics 

This means that, by the end of term, you should have a minimum of 8 posts.

Useful websites for finding news stories include:-

• http://www.2bangkok.com/:  a website that translates major news stories from the national Thai newspapers and posts them on the internet

• http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/:  a major English-speaking national Thai newspaper

• http://www.bangkokpost.com/: a major English-speaking national Thai newspaper

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/:  a major international news provider

• http://edition.cnn.com/:  a major international news provider

• http://www.reuters.com/:  a major international news provider

NOTE:  Example blogs written by teachers are available via links at the top of this template and on the PC1 Student Website.

General Structure of a Post

Content

Any post you make for the blog should have the following structure and include these details:-

• An introduction to the news story you found interesting and a link to the original article (use stories written in English about national events from within Thailand/your home country only). 
• A summary of the major points in the article plus relevant pictures/vidoes (written in your own words!). 
• Your opinion and feelings about the information in the article. 
• A vocabulary analysis and word count to show how many AWL/Oxford 300 words you have included (use the Vocabulary Analyser) 
• Comments from your peers (in your advisory groups/class/level).

NOTE:  You should not cut and paste any text into your post.  All your writing should be your own.


Design

Your blog should be as professional and interesting as you can possibly make it. In order to do this, you should think about the following things:-

• Design (organisation & format, colour & contrast, use of space, templates, object size & texture, text & fonts, etc.) 
• Writing quality (clear topic sentences, interesting and relevant supporting details, coherent organisation and cohesive linking language, good range and accuracy of grammar and vocabulary) 
• Extra details (pictures, videos, maps, gadgets, attachments, uploaded files, etc.) 
• Ease of use (navigation, links, sidebar items, etc.) 

Remember:  if you are unsure about anything or need advice, contact your advisor as soon as possible - don't wait until it's too late!

Sport

You can post about any sport or leisure activity you like, but it is best to choose one that you enjoy.  This way, when you write about it, it will feel less like work!  Also, your post will probably be more interesting to the reader since you will have a natural enthusiasm for the topic.

Remember that the news story you post about must have happened recently and must be local or national.  This means it must be about your home nation (Thailand or your own country) or any town/city/province/region/area of it.  You would not be able to talk about the FIFA World Cup, for instance, unless your national football team was competing in it.

Sports stories that you could talk about include:-

• a sports event happening in your hometown
• a local competition in Bangkok
• a Mahidol University event
• a national sports event
• international sports stories affecting Thailand

To find current news events, you can use any of the news websites given in the posts above, or you can try using search engines like Google and Bing.  Finally, you might like to look at some of the links below:-

• www.sportsthailand.net
• www.horizonmuaythai.com/Thailand/sports.html
• www.thailandsportsonline.com/
• www.thaiwebsites.com/sportsother.asp
• www.actionsportasia.com/
• www.thaipro.com/dir/Thai/Thai_Sports_1.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand#Sports

Education

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Transport

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Entertainment

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Science & Technology

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The Environment

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Business

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Politics

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