Learn English Writing, Week 3

Here’s the plan for this week.

1. Check your understanding of the answers from the textbook (on Friday). Remember: it is your job to make sure you understand the questions, answers, and vocabulary.
2. Re-write the rafting story (better voice).
3. Re-write the dog and sausage story (word choice, voice and articles).
4. Re-write the howl story (wolf boy story based on the video).
5. Another review of Six Writing Traits.
6. Complete exercise 1 to improve your writing by fixing choppy and run-on sentences (sentence fluency).
7. Complete exercise 2 to help you practice better subject verb agreement (conventions).

Update

Here are the answers fort chapter 2 of the textbook.

Writing Activity 1: Write Less to Say More

Your task is to edit sentences so the main idea is not changed but useless words are removed. Example:

• Wordy:  John was employed and now works for the company Samsung.
• Better:  John now works for Samsung.

1. Helen is a smart and intelligent woman.
2. Our student is a physically ill student today.
3. I will complete my research paper in a period of a week.
4. John’s stylish boots, made of crocodile skin, cost him an arm and a leg.
5. Susan is the teacher who teaches Chemistry at her High School.
6. The student is writing a writing assignment for his English Composition class.
7. The book which is located on the table is a Grammar book.
8. Julius ran with the other runners in the 10,000 meter track event and finished third overall.
9. Her purse, which was manufactured in Italy, was stolen yesterday.
10. Steve was given a warning by the police officer.

Here is Part b.

Paragraphs can be improved by avoiding choppy sentences and, the opposite, run on sentences. Here is a writing worksheet to practice good sentence variety. But, not too choppy and not too runny.

Writing Activity 2: Guided Writing

1. Rewrite the story by changing spider to spiders. Be sure to change all of the subject verb agreements.
2. Write one more paragraph to finish the story.

A spider, and his neighbor, a hyena, decided to go to the river together. There they met the King of the river who gave them a gift. It was a bucket of fish. The spider and the hyena made a fire. As the spider cooked the fish, he threw them on the river bank to cool. However, the greedy hyena ate all of the fish by himself. When the spider walked to the river bank to eat some fish, tears of anger filled his eyes. The hyena asked the spider why he was crying. The spider replied that some smoke from the fire was in his eyes. Quietly, though the spider was planning his revenge.