teach English writing exercises

Learn English Writing, 10

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Learn English Writing, 10

Here is the week’s plan to help my ESL students learn English writing skills.

  1. Rewrite second draft of compare and contrast story (coke video).
  2. Rewrite second draft of short story that shows the inquiry approach based on the blind-folded people sitting around a table.
  3. Learn about professional email standards.
  4. Write a business email.

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Writing Class Week 14

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This is week 14 of the semester. It’s the last week of official classes so it is time to complete the wrap up activities and our English learning.

Today’s Notes

  1. Hand back quiz #3 and discuss
  2. Check final exam schedule – December 16th 10-12?
  3. Return remaining pieces of writing for feedback
  4. Write final assignment – before and after assessment
  5. Friday, some notes about the final exam questions plus return of pre and pst writing

UPDATE

Here are the sample questions for the final exam.

Quiz #2

Total score 10 points

Part 1

My class is going on a trip next week. We’re going to an exhibit called “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.” The trip is on Monday, and I’m really excited about it. I am the only one in my family who has not seen this exhibit yet. I have always been interested in dinosaurs. I asked my mom if the exhibit has a lot of information about the Tyrannosaurus, but she could not remember. I guess I will have to wait until next week’s trip to find out!

Part 3

  1. social
  2. economic
  3. cultural

END OF SEMESTER WRITING SAMPLE

This worksheet has one short paragraph. It describes a person’s experience on the subway. The writing gives the reader a good picture of the what we can hear, see and smell in a subway. Read the story. Look closely at the verbs the writer uses to help us understand the place. It is a good example of an old writing rule: don’t tell me about the subway, show me the subway with words. BTW, what are the five  human senses?

Now it’s your turn to write. You will write a one paragraph story.

  1. Choose a place which has many different senses.
  2. Brainstorm a list of verbs, nouns and adjectives.
  3. Start writing one paragraph.
  4. Read, edit and rewrite.

Good luck.

Writing Class Week 13

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This is week 13 of the semester. We are near the end of the session so it’s time to complete a few tasks to help students learn English writing skills.

Today’s Notes

  1. Students hand in homework – rewrite business memo
  2. Tuesday, email writing lesson
  3. Friday, quiz #2
  4. Quick review of the things we’ve learned and done since the mid term exam
  5. Answers for textbook chapter 6-8.
  6. Textbook vocabulary for quiz #2.

Email Writing Lesson

  1. some basic research
  2. research about email messages from Korean hotels
  3. professional email writing structure

1. Basic Email Writing Research

This slideshow provides basic data about email messages.

2. Hotel Email Research

  1. 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?

  1. 2. What are the rates and taxes?
  2. 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

3. 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 English.

Intro

Just about every email – in the professional world – is about two things:

  1. Giving information
  2. Asking for something (a request)

Email is fast, which is good. But you have to write for people who read quickly as well. That means:

  1. be clear (few mistakes)
  2. be brief (not too wordy, no extra information).

In business, the tone of an email is very important. Tone means the feeling people get when they read your message. Emails should be polite. But unlike a business letter, an email does not usually have to be super polite. Also the style (or formatting) of the email message is important.

Email Structure

Here is a worksheet that outlines the basic structure of an email.

10 Rules for Writing Business E-Mails

  1. Remember PAS. Purpose, action, salutation. The beginning should say the purpose; why you are writing. Next, the email should have clear action: are you giving information or asking for something? Finally, close the email with a polite way to say goodbye.
  2. Be informal, but not too friendly. ‘Hello Rob’, or ‘Hi  Mr. Kim’ are okay. Sometimes, people write emails that begin with a name, like “Steve”. Never use emoticons.
  3. Be concise. Business e-mails are short. Usually, 2 paragraphs are enough – few people read long emails.
  4. Use the subject line well. Tell readers why they should open your email.
  5. Remember grammar, word choice, punctuation and spelling.
  6. People scan emails. If it is interesting, they might read it carefully. Many people receive 25 to 100 emails a day. They don’t have time to read every email. Short sentences and short paragraphs are good.
  7. Reference. If your email is a reply, say that. Something like this: “In your last email you asked …..” .
  8. If your message has an attachment, add one sentence to say that.
  9. Use white space. Usually, 2 lines per paragraph. This makes the message easy to scan and read.
  10. Write with active sentences. Passive sentences use more words and take longer to read.

Writing Exercise

You task is to write an email message that sends an answer to a question with information.

Here is the email message with a question. You job is to answer the question by

  1. comparing the two things
  2. write a properly formatted email message

CLASS REVIEW

Since the mid term exam:

  1. analyze numbers, identify patterns of change, describe those changes in words
  2. learned to write with the basic memo format
  3. learn the concepts of close ad faraway words
  4. learned to write about progression (i.e. change)
  5. read and learned vocabulary from the textbook (chapter 5, 6 and 7 since the mid term exam)