ESL Writing Lesson: Paragraphs About Inventions

Here is a review of some ESL student writing and problems.

ESL STUDENT WRITING

Antecedents

“Cats like people and they have many charming points.”

– – who are THEY? Cats or people?

“Dogs are very familiar animals with humans. They mostly live in houses with humans.”

– – who are THEY? Dogs or people?

Conjunctions

“The bus is going left. Because the door is attached to the right side of the bus.”

– – usually don’t start a new sentence with BECAUSE or AND. These are conjunctions…they join two clauses to make one sentence.

Starting a Paragraph with a Question

Here is an example.

“Do you know penguins? Penguins are birds, but they can’t fly. Penguins know how to swim. They are swimming good as well as other birds are flying.”

I would like to suggest that university students do not start a paragraph with a question. There are two reasons.

First, the first sentence of a paragraph should be your main idea. A question is not an idea, really.

Second, what if you ask a question and the answer is no? Suddenly, the reader may not be interested in reading the rest of the story.

Here is one way to rewrite the penguin paragraph.

“Penguins are strange animals. They are birds. They have wings. But they can’t fly. Another odd fact is that they swim really well. In fact, penguins swim as well as most birds fly. A bird that swims but can’t fly. That is strange.”

Short and Long Topic Sentences

Here are a few examples.

• “Sleeping helps learning.”
• “Lions are cool animals.”
• “Sleep can enhance our skills.”
• “Hamsters are very sensitive animals.”
• “This podcast talks about the relationship between sleep and learning.”
• “Researchers found out that the human brain can learn some simple, new things while sleeping, under particular conditions.”

More ESL Editing

Last time students had two pages of editing questions. Those questions are here: ESL editing exercise. Let’s finish page two of that work.

About Inventions

This week students learned about inventions and an inventor. The story is here: breaking news remote control inventor.

Assignment A

Write a one paragraph summary about the inventor. You may wish to write a paragraph like this:

• a topic sentence with your main idea
• three sentences that summarize his life, work and importance of his inventions
• a conclusion

Assignment B

If you wish, here is a different writing topic:

What is the most important invention in human history?

Write about one invention which has had the greatest impact on people. Then explain why with reasons, evidence and details.

Brain Puzzle: The Bus

There was a picture of a bus. Which way is the bus driving? A long and complete logical answer might read like this.

We can’t see a door in this picture. But we know that buses have front doors, so the door must be on the other side of the bus. We also know that bus drivers sit beside the front door. That means the driver must be sitting on the left side of the bus. That means the driver is looking left. That means the bus is driving to the left.

Another Brain Puzzle: Three Groups of Numbers