This site is designed to provide readers with essays written by established writers and reading supports that may help readers learn how to appreciate the genre of essay.

     The essays are classified by mode, theme, and author. There are ten modes (or rhetorical patterns) in our site:

• description
• narration
• illustration
• classification
• comparison and contrast
• cause and effect
• process
• definition
• argumentation
• analogy

Each mode comes with an introduction that is illustrated in both text and PowerPoint formats. In addition, every mode has at least 5 essays so that readers may understand a rhetorical pattern by studying different essays of the same mode. All of the essays are also categorized into themes such as education, gender issues, growth and heritage, man and nature, relationships, etc. These essays may also be accessed by using the authors' names when readers forget the essay titles.

     Reading supports include reading room materials, multimedia materials, handouts, and interactive templates. The materials provided in the reading room are categorized into:

• About the author - links to author biographies
• Relevant link - links to free On-line sample term papers, our students' annotations or journals, model annotations provided by teachers of Fu Jen Catholic University, etc.,
• Cultural notes - links to our explanations of the cultural information embedded in the essays,
• Questions for response/analysis - Questions that we have prepared to help readers read critically.

Multimedia materials include:

• Audio aids - audio clips in MP3 format that present our precious expert readers' reading of some essays,
• Visual aids - images that may illustrate the texts, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

Our handouts are concept maps, worksheets for outlining, visual organizers, and printer-friendly version of each text.

     To help our readers actively read, we provide dictionary search functions, the annotation writing interface, and the journal writing template. Readers may use two ways to look up new words. One is to double click a new word to bring up Prof. Yen's bilingual dictionary; the other, to enter the new word in the dicitonary search box on the submenu that accompanies each essay. In the writing room, a reader may check out either the annotation writinginterface or the journal writinginterface. Here is how the two templates may work:

     After selecting the Annotation tab that accompanies an essay, the reader may see that on the right of each paragraph of the essay, there is a Take Note button. Clicking on the button brings up the annotation template which has a quote form field and an annotation form area. In the quote form field, the reader may cite an expression or a passage from the essay. In the annotation form area, the reader may key in any sort of reading response. The reader may take as many notes as s/he likes. All of his/her notes on the same essay will be presented on a web page that has two columns. In the left colum is the text of the essay, and in the right, the reader's annotations arranged paragraph by paragraph.

     If the reader is prepared to compose a journal on the essay, he may select the Journal tab in the writing room to bring up the journal writing template. This template will then take the reader to do brainstorming first, writing the journal next, and finally writing up a title for his/her journal. In addition, every reader is given the opportunity to compose 3 drafts.

     The annotations and journals are managed for the purpose of self-regulation and peer learning. Each entry of the annotations is marked with its submission date and time, so is every draft of the journals. The submission record may help learners to keep track of the status of their assignments. To help promote peer learning, annotations and journals may be open for all members to browse when the administrator makes links in the Relevant Links area. Otherwise, they are kept accessible by the notetakers and journal writers themselves.