We choose to see or not see. Sort of.

We choose to see or not see. Sort of. by ccla on Polyvore

I choose to write it all down

I choose to write it all down by ccla featuring a printed hosiery

bitterfly

bitterfly by ccla featuring miss selfridge

Same Day Heart Repair in Alberta

Blair Stone’s a busy guy, with a government job and a jam-packed calendar that typically leaves him little time to hang around hospitals or to fuss over things like a twinge in the chest.


“I was out walking my dog when I got this chest pain. Most men go into denial with this sort of thing, so I made excuses like it was indigestion,” says the Red Deer man. “I had no idea what the pain of angina was supposed to feel like. So I basically ignored it.”

But the pain became more prevalent and, in September, the 58-year-old found himself at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, where received a stent in the catheter lab to relieve an obstructed artery. What really amazed Stone, however, was the fact that he was able to go home the very same day.

Like Stone, heart patients with narrowing or blocked arteries are now benefiting from a new Alberta Health Services (AHS) outpatient program that restores blood flow and returns them to the comforts of home the same day.

Continue to the full article here.

Example Writing Course Assignments - Exercises for You to Try

Assignments

This section features detailed instructions for the papers and lists all the short assignments. Please consult the calendar for all relevant due dates. This course is taught through MIT OpenCourseWare.

Manuscript Drafts and Submission Guidelines

Both papers and short assignments (except short assignment #4) are due in class in hard copy on the date listed and should be submitted on the class Web site, by class time, as well. Assignments should all have a title, your name (on all pages) and a date on them, twelve point type, and one inch margins all around. The electronic version should be in either Microsoft® Word or RTF format.

Papers

Paper 1: Narrative Essay, ca. 800 words

Your first assignment is to write about yourself-about your own intellectual interests and passions. In particular, I would like you to address the question: What scientific or technological issues, questions or problems most deeply interest you, and how do you think those interests will shape your life?

Paper 2: Contrasting Technical Descriptions (2), ca. 1200-1600 words

The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience in adapting a piece of technical writing to a specific audience. The assignment consists of two short independent pieces. Choose something that you know a lot about, but which would probably not be familiar to a broad, general audience. It could be anything from an abstract concept, to a technique, a skill, an object, or an activity (e.g. a sport or a hobby). Write a description or explanation of it that is aimed at a general audience. (Characterize the audience you have in mind before you begin to write.) You could imagine that this description will be one component of a larger piece of writing aimed at that audience.

Then write another description of the same thing, this time for a more specialized audience of your peers. This audience could be people who share with you a very specific area of specialization within a field, or it could be a broader audience within that field.

Paper 3: Literature Review, ca. 1200-1500 words

This assignment links to the fourth assignment. In order to propose the creation of a course, you have to very thoroughly research the academic landscape. A successful course proposal answers a variety of questions: How will this course fit in with other courses and course sequences? Who will teach it? What texts will be used? What students can be expected to take this course? To answer these questions, you need to delve into a variety of kinds of research. These may include: examining course catalogs and syllabi at other institutions; interviewing or surveying faculty or students; reading reviews of potential texts, or reading the texts themselves; becoming familiar with Institute statutes on course creation. Your research review should consist of a bibliography of the sources you have explored, along with a narrative which briefly explains what you have found, what was useful and what was not, and what research gaps you have yet to fill before you can write the design proposal.

Paper 4: A Design Proposal, ca. 2400-3000 words

In this assignment, you will develop an idea for a course at MIT, undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education. You will then write a formal proposal describing the course and its rationale. The purpose of this assignment is for you to become familiar with the format and style of a proposal.

Individual Oral Presentation of Paper 4, ca. 10 minutes

An in-class, oral presentation of your Design Proposal. Eight minutes to present; two minutes to answer questions.

Short Assignments

Note: For short assignments 3, 4, and 7 (which are written proposals of papers 2, 3, and 4, respectively), you will write from a few sentences to a paragraph about what you plan to do. This shouldn't take much time or effort, but it is important that you complete these assignments and complete them on time.

1. Make a list of the steps you take from the time you are given a writing assignment to the time you hand it in. Make sure that you include the more "casual" steps in your process. That is, not just "then I revise," but also, "I meditate/eat cookies/lift weights/take a walk, then I revise."
2. Find an ad for a job that appeals to you and write a letter of application for that job-essentially a one page cover letter to go with a c.v. Bring in both the ad and the letter. You may fictionalize your cover letter but it should be serious rather than satirical.
3. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 2.
4. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 3.
5. Bring in a book review from a technical journal in your field.
6. List at least five ways in which you think the design of the course is working well and five things that you would modify, eliminate, or supplement.
7. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 4.
8. List five Web page design characteristics you find appealing and five which you find problematic.
9. Write a short, email response to a technical problem.
10. List at least five ways in which you think the design of the course is working well and five things that you would modify, eliminate, or supplement.

Group Presentation

In addition to the short written assignments, each student will be responsible for participating in a group presentation, with two or three other students. The following topics will essentially be student-presented:

• Argument
• Reviews and Critiques
• Graphics
• Web page Writing and Design
• Email

Free Online Writing Courses

The free courses can help you improve your writing skills:

1. Learn to Write a Feasability Study from About.com’s About U. I took a similar course in college. If you’ve never written a feasibility study, here’s your chance to learn how.
2. Writing Interview Winning Resumes also from About.com’s About U. Knowing how to write a good cover letter and resume is important to job hunters, but it’s also a good skill for any freelancers to have. This course will show you how.
3. Intensive Grammar Workshop also from About.com’s About U. A great, free grammar course for beginning writers, non-native writers of English, or experienced pros looking to freshen their skills. Remember that poor grammar could cost you a gig…
4. Introduction to Technical Communication: Explorations in Scientific and Technical Writing from MITOpenCourseware. Learn some of the basics of technical writing by following the course notes and syllabus of an MIT instructor.
5. Becoming Digital: Writing About Media Change from MITOpenCourseware. Learn how changing media has affected communications from an MIT instructor’s course notes. This sounds very interesting.
6. The NetWriting Masters Course from Writer’s Helper. A free 49-page e-book on writing for the web by Ken Evoy. Learn how to write for the Internet.
7. The School of Journalism at Wikiversity. This isn’t one course, but rather, a whole online journalism department through Wikiversity. Pick one course, or take all of them.
8. Technical Writing. Again, not one course, but a series of courses through Wikiversity. This can be a great way to learn more about technical writing.
9. Marketing Writing Tips from the HP learning center. Page through lessons that illustrate common business writing mistakes and explain how to avoid them.
10. Creative Writing 101 free course on creative writing from Suite 101. Is creative writing your dream? This course contains eight lessons. Once you finish this course, you may wish to follow it up with their Creative Writing Workshop.

For more on what to expect from free writing courses, visit the original article at Freelancefolder.com

Free Online Writing Exercises

From Stephen Lloyd Webber, of Wellness and Writing Immersion Retreats. Not everyone is physically or financially able to travel across the world with us for a writing retreat, so he created a free virtual space for creative writers from around the world to get together and learn. In a short amount of time, this site became a  popular place among creative writers.



Some course highlights include:

Course 1. Direct Observation. Do you sometimes get stuck in the details? Have you ever wondered how to write better descriptions? This course digs deep into the thick of what propels different modes of descriptive writing, taking you through exercises that challenge you to observe again, and observe closer. The heart of dynamic descriptions is direct observation. If you’re looking for an original and exciting take on writing descriptively, this course is for you.

Course 3. Poetry. What makes sacred poetry different from other types of writing? What is it about haiku that can stop us dead in our tracks with only a few words? How can writing be a spiritual experience? This course guides you through some insights into modes of writing that lead to a richer experience of the world around and within you.

Visit http://writingvacation.com/exercises/ and stretch those writing muscles!