Learn English Writing, Week 4

 

Review of Writing Activities

Here is a summary of what we have done and leaned so far.

1. Learned what makes good writing by looking at the Six Writing Traits.
2. Practiced descriptive writing skills with three stories: Howl, Dog and Sausage and the rafting trip.
3. Learned how to use articles A and THE correctly.
4. make stories more interesting by adding detail – such as your own voice in the story.
5. Practiced writing with voice and adding details by rewriting the rafting story.
6. Practiced editing skills by fixing a few short paragraphs for spelling and punctuation (e.g. bee and bat stories).
7. Learned some vocabulary and simple sentence writing with the textbook (units 1 and 2).
8. Practiced writing clearer sentences by removing unnecessary words (e.g. Helen is a smart and intelligent woman.)
9. Practiced careful writing by rewriting the spider and hyena story and changing the spider to the plural form.

Here’s the plan for this week.

1. Check your answers from Unit 3 in the textbook (on Friday).
2. Finish the third draft for three writing projects: Howl, Dog and Sausage and rafting trip.
3. Complete parallel structure writing practice.
4. Complete choppy sentences and run-on sentences worksheet.
5. Complete the wordy sentence exercise (some people started it last week)
6. Complete the guided writing exercise (a few people started it last week)

Update

Here is the answer sheet for the questions in Chapter 3 of the textbook.

On Friday, the class will work to improve their understanding of articles. Click here to go to the lesson.

Writing Exercise #1: Parallel Structure

Parallel structure. This is a kind of writing style that helps makes your sentences read smoothly. Basically, your sentence has parallel structure when you have 2 or 3 similar elements that use the same word or grammatical pattern.

Look at these sentences. Can you find the part that is not parallel? How can you fix it?

1. Mike likes to listen to rock music and reading mystery novels.
2. While in France, my nephew spent his time studying French, working in a restaurant, and he jogged along the Seine River every morning.
3. Joan decided to paint her office, to add some new curtains, and that the rug needs dry cleaning.
4. He wanted three things out of university: to pick up a marketable skill, to make good friends, and understanding the stock market.
5. My grandfather’s favorite pastime is to eat in trendy restaurants and visiting art galleries.
6. Julia is in charge of stocking the shelves, writing orders, and to sell computers.

Here are some more questions to help you learn to write with parallel structure.

Writing Activity #2: Choppy and Run-On Sentences

Choppy sentences. This is a problem when you have too many sentences mixed together. It’s a problem because it is bad style. There is no sentence fluency.

Run-on sentences: This is a problem when you have one really long sentence that could be 2 or 3 smaller sentences.

Click here to get the exercises for choppy and run on sentences.

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.