Course 3 : Reading comprehension course 2 – structure

1. Interest Level: This course a lot more practical than they others courses. This course on reading comprehension really gave me good advices. And it made me understand some things and made me realize that there’s many ways to structure a good text. I really liked that course.


2. Difficulty: It wasn't difficult at all. The course was simple and the course was well structured.

3. What I Learned (3):

- By using transitional words and phrases, which signal a move from one idea to the next, are transitional words that keep these events linked together in chronological order. Any logical paragraph would sound awkward without transitional words to guide the reader. The chronological order in a text is essential because especially with procedures. If you don't use a chronological order, you won't get the results you desire.

- People remember most what they learn first and last in a given session. I learned about a special technique when you build an argument: the "snow-ball effect". It's about organizing ideas by order of importance. It's to start with what's least important and head on with what's most important. Like a snowball it's getting more and more important. In order to convince your point of view on the reader (even if it's controversial) you have to finish with the most important point so that it would bring a bigger impact on the reader.

- And there's another structure that is often used: the compare and contrast technique. They compare and contrast aspects that must be comparable or parallel. When an aspect is discussed, that same aspect of another subject (whether it is similar to or different from that subject) must be discussed. This connection of the aspects is vital for the compare and contrast technique for a fair contrast. And it must have a point.

4. My score: I got 17 out of 25.

5. Course Rating: I give a 9/10 for this course only because it was very helpful. I understood many others ways to structure a text.


Course 4 : Vocabulary & Spelling 2: Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes


1. Interest Level: I was fascinated by all the stuff I learned. It helped you increasing your understanding and figure out difficult words. Even with the most complicated words the course gave you tools to discover and reveal it's the meaning.

2. Difficulty: It wasn't difficult to follow and to comprehend. And still the exercises were quite supportive to help you understand the whole purpose of the course.

3. What I Learned (3):

- Sometimes you can recognize the sound of a word and still not understand what it means. So you have to look at the word's structure. Check if the word or a part of the word sound or look familiar. You can connect a part of a word to some other word you already know. You may hear words that are not in your vocabulary but identify them as being related to words you do know. Like for example the roots of words will give you clues about other words that share the roots or "family" of the word you know.

- An association with the meanings suggested by some prefixes can help you add to your reading, speaking, and listening vocabularies. And it would be a lot easier to distinguish complicated words by already knowing several prefixes.

- Adding a suffix often changes the function of the word in a sentence without necessarily changing the word's meaning. The suffix it's like a uniform that a word wears for a particular job in the sentence, just like you wear different outfits for different activities. But you have to be aware and make sure you know what the changed word means.


4. My score: 33/50 Some words were rough to figure out. But with practice I will be better.

5. Course Rating: 9.5/10 With the giving practices in the course I was able to increase my vocabulary and understand unfamiliar words. And it gives you constructive guidelines to truly help you grow your language like this one "You may already know a given root that can guide you in determining the meaning of an unfamiliar word. If you don't know the root by itself, you may recognize it from a word you know. By association, then, you link the known meaning to that of an unfamiliar word". I truthfully appreciated that course.