Writing Class

Rob Whyte ESL writing activities, lessons and composition worksheets that increase vocabulary and teach English students how to write sentences and paragraphs.

Write a Summary

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Summarize a Story

Here is a lesson that teaches students how to write a one paragraph summary. In a previous lesson (click here), I showed you how to write a summary with a template called FACT.

In this lesson, use the same style to write a summary about the story in another video.

FACT Summary Writing

In this lesson, you will write a one paragraph summary with the FACT structure.

  • Focus on the main idea.
  • Analyze by describing the main pieces of the story.
  • Conclude means tell us the ending.
  • Tighten your writing by editing grammar errors, deleting extra words and creating paragraph unity.

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ESL Writing Class Week 14

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It’s the end of the semester and time for the students to review what they have learned in the English writing class this semester.

Writing Exercise 1: Edit

Find the errors. Rewrite the paragraph. When is the last time you had a Coca-Cola. did you know that John Pemberton, a pharmacist in atlanta, Georgia inventd Coca-Cola as a medicine he named the syrup he invented for two of it’s ingredients the coca leaf and kola nuts Coca-cola soon become a popular soft drink. On 1891 Pemberton sold his invention to Asa Candler for $2,300. Candler open bottling plants around the U.S. In 1919, Candler sold the business for $25,000,000!

Writing Exercise 2: Email message lesson

Write an email to the Sheraton hotel. Ask three questions. Use standard email writing message format.

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ESL Writing Lesson: How to Write and Format an Email

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This is the last week of new content to help ESL students learn English writing.

Email Writing Research

  1. This slideshow provides basic data about email messages.
  2. Here is an email which I sent to many hotels in Korea. Some of the answers I received are here.

Dear Sir/Madame,

I’d like to get some information about rooms and availability at your hotel.

I have two adults and one teenager traveling to Seoul. They need a room for two nights
on May 26 and May 27.

1. Do you have rooms available on those nights?
2. What are the rates and taxes?
3. Do you have wheelchair access?
4. What is the best way to travel to your hotel from the airport?

Many thanks for your help and information.

Rob

 

PROFESSIONAL EMAIL WRITING

Writing an effective email in English is not difficult. But my students need to learn a few basic writing skills.  This lesson will help them in the future, especially when they start looking for a job and need to write emails in

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Ideas to Improve Writing Style

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ESL student writing – especially narrative and descriptive pieces – can be flat, dull and homogeneous.

Overuse of simple verbs is one problem that can fix that style problem. Tired verbs like be, find, go, say and see are easy to write in proper. Sure the sentence is grammatically correct but writing is a lot more than just good grammar, ain’t it? Sure, it gots to have style.

Here are a couple of exercises which I uncovered in a terrific book, 500 Word Theme by Harry Kroitor and Lee Martin (1994).

Editing for Style: Tired Verbs

Read the paragraph. Pay attention to the tired verbs (e.g. be, can, go, etc). rewrite the paragraph.

bug-2The Volkswagen is unexcelled for dependability.

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