It’s week 4 of the English writing class. Time to get ready for a quiz.
Review
What did we do last week?
- looked at the class schedule for the next few weeks
- review complex sentences and did a few practice questions
- did a simple review of articles
- started writing #3: the boat and the goat
- rewrite #2: the rafting story (add voice)
- rewrite #1: creative story (based on a picture, key point: write a great first sentence)
This Week
- start a new writing exercise #4 (Howl)
- rewrite stories 1, 2 and 3
- some people need to come to my office to get feedback (time is a little short in class)
- look at quick review notes
Quiz #1 Review Notes
The quiz has five parts. There are four parts described below. Part 5, which is short, will be a surprise.
PART 1 Complex Sentences
Write one complex sentence with each of these connecting words.
- Because, before, after, while, when, if, unless
If you need to review the grammar, look at this explanation of complex sentences.
If you need more practice questions, try this complex sentence worksheet.
Part 2 Parallel Structure
Read the sentences and make some changes by creating parallel structure.
- He wanted three things out of university: to pick up a marketable skill, to make good friends, and understanding the stock market.
- My grandfather’s favorite pastime is to eat in trendy restaurants and visiting art galleries.
- Julia is in charge of stocking the shelves, writing orders, and to sell computers.
If you need to review the grammar, look at this explanation of parallel structure.
If you need more practice questions, try this parallel sentence worksheet.
Part 3 Change the Subject
Rewrite the paragraph.
a) Change SHE to THEY.
- She is a sales manager. She works for a manufacturing company. She sells many things. She sells batteries and SIM cards. She is busy. She is in the office from 9am to 7pm.
a) Change SHE to I.
- She works for a trading company. She imports coffee beans. She goes to work 5 days a week. In the morning, she drinks coffee and reads email. She has more than 25 messages every morning.
a) Change HE to THEY.
- He is a buyer. He works for a trading company. He buys many things. He buys grapefruit and sugar. He is busy. He is in the office from 7am to 6pm.
Part 4 Editing
Read the paragraph and find the mistakes. Rewrite the paragraph with the mistakes fixed.
- my siters home on Jefferson Street is terrably noisey every feve minutes or so a monster jet takes off from the nearbye airport and its screeching makes everyone quiet until it has passes. Then their is the noise from the heavy traffic in front of the house last is the noisy from the bulldozing for the new apartment complex in back of my sisters house. My sisters home is a noisy place.
- At November 4, 1922 english archaeologist Howard Carter made one of the most inportant discoverys of madern times while on an expedition to Egypt, Carter discovered the tomb of king Tutankhamen King Tut becomed Egypts ruler when he was 9 years old he died just a few years later. Discovered 3,000 years after Tuts’s death, the tomb contained many priceless treasures that are now display in a Museum in the city of Cairo.
Some Quiz Note Answers
Here some answers for parts 3 and 4.
Hours 1 and 2
Intro (15)
- attendance
- review
- quiz notes
Student Writing (10)
Here just a few of the great sentences from the class.
Monday English writing class
“Waiting for death, the man puts the goat on the boat.”
(nice complex sentence)
“You sweet goat. Wait, I will catch you later.”
(wonderful adjective)
“What should I do. If I roll, I will fall into the water.”
(great verb – this is what a cabbage can do)
“Society regards divorce as a failure. However here is a happy divorce.”
(nice contrast)
“Is he trying to abandon me? What would I do with this tasteless cabbage! I am a wolf. The predator.”
(great adjective and character speaking)
Everyone could hear my stomach growling.”
(nice first sentence – set the hunger theme for the story)
Tuesday Class
“My dad had been reading a lot of books about rafting and watching YouTube videos for a few days.”
(details that explain why or how dad knew about rafting)
But fortunately, the human takes the goat away from me. Now I’m totally alone. calm and peaceful.”
(good description of the character; nice use of short sentences)
“I wanted to go back in time when I was a little girl. So I did it.”
(unusual story, so interesting; nice use of a long and short sentence)
“Thank you. You must be an angel” she said.
He sighed and shook his head. Of death.”
(great story end)
Language focused Learning: Noun Modifiers (20)
In the last class, we talked about wordiness. I suggested that too many words is a problem in writing.
Good writing uses the fewest number of words to say an idea. In the lesson, we looked at two ways to reduce the number of words:
- cut out redundant words
- eliminate empty phrases (expletives)
Here is another way to avoid wordy sentences: use noun modifiers.
Click here to get the writing lesson about noun modifiers.
Writing Assignment #4: Summarize and Analyze (45)
In this writing assignment, you will watch a video. The video is called Howl.
The writing challenge is a little different compared to the stories that you wrote before.
Your challenge is to:
- make a summary of the story.
- analyze the story – what is the message? What does it try to teach us?
Click here to get more details about this ESL writing lesson.
Hour 3