Teaching Writing With Beginner Students

LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ

PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I

TEACHING WRITING WITH BEGINNER STUDENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

CHAPTER I – ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

I.1 Cultural Difference and Its Impact on Composition Classes

I.2 Different Writing Purposes

I.3 Different Writing Pattern

I.4 Different Conventions

I.5 Common ESL Errors: The Top Ten List

I.6 Writing Assisting the ESL Student

CHAPTER II – APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING

II.1 The Rhetorical Approaches

II.2 The Personal Approach

II.3 Eclectic Approach

II.4 Skill- Getting & Skill-Using

II.5 Composing Process & Phases of Instruction

II.6 Feedback and Evaluation

II.7 Extensive Reading

II.8 Conclusion

CHAPTER III – TEACHING THE WRITING PROCESS

III.1 Process Pedagogy: A Brief Explanation

III.2 Informal Strategies for Invention

III.3 Formal Strategies for Invention

III.4 Writing: Considering Structure and Organization

III.5 Revision: Cultivating a Critical Eye

III.6 Logic and Argument

III.7 Attending to Grammar

III.8 Attending to Style

III.9 Using Peer Groups in the Advanced Writing

III.10 Responding to [anonimizat]

III.11 Managing the “Personal” in [anonimizat]

III.12 Conclusion

CHAPTER IV – CREATIVE WRITING AS LANGUAGE PRACTICE

IV.1 What are the Benefits of Creative Writing in the Language Classroom?

IV.2 Teaching Writing through Literature

IV.3 Creative Ways. Stories and Effects

IV.4 Teaching Ideas. Types of Activities

V. “ ENGLISH, MY FRIEND !” – Exercise book for beginners

INTRODUCTION : For beginners only

V. 1 Unit 1 : “ Hello, my name is…

V.2 Unit 2 : “ Who wants to speak?

V.3 Unit 3 : “ My pet!

V.4 Unit 4 : “ Christmas is coming…! “

V.5 Unit 5 : “ It’s a wonderful day! “

V.6 Unit 6 : “ I love sports ! “

V.7 Unit 7 : “ Happy Easter ! “

V.8 Unit 8 : “ This is my family ! “

V.9 Unit 9 : “ I live in a big house ! “

V.10 Unit 10 : “ I love fairy tales ! “

VI. CONCLUSIONS

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD

For almost 8 years, I have taught writing, or the teaching of writing. I have learned along the way that good writing teachers bring an awareness of the writing process into the classroom. They know that writing is about making and conveying meaning for a variety of purposes and audiences, that writers make choices about the formal conventions of language and the necessary level of correctness based on what, and for whom, they need to write. Good writing teachers bring these assumptions into their classrooms to help students understand that writing is more than grammar exercises and correct spelling. However, they also recognize that you can't teach writing without including mechanics. Attending to the conventions of written discourse, to strategies for correct spelling, and to the review and practice of grammar rules all come with the territory of writing instruction. Good writing teachers recognize that dichotomies like correctness vs. creativity, process vs. product are useless constructs that hold us back from doing good work in the classroom.

Good writing teachers help students see that writing functions in a variety of ways: it helps us learn difficult reading material (summarizing); it helps us pass exams (CAE, CPE, TOEFL, SAT and state exams); it helps us explain, describe, persuade (expository writing); it helps us tell our stories (narrative); and it helps us express emotions, desires, and dreams (poetry, fiction). Further, good writing teachers assist students in making choices about where and why they need to write and then to help them develop as writers within those choices.

Fulfilling this role as teacher has continually reminded me of the issues my writing students face. This has been a valuable lesson and has influenced how I approach writing in the classroom – everything from directions for and assessment of assignments. This lesson is one that should not be lost on developmental educators. We need to always remember what is like to be “on the other side of the desk.” There are fears as well as talents we must address in order to allow our students to grow and succeed not just in our classrooms, but also as they move on to their careers.

CHAPTER I

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

This chapter is intended both to show the fundamental differences involved in working with writers for whom English is a second language (ESL), and to make some particular suggestions for helping the writing assistant to understand these differences and so to improve his students’ writing.

I.1 Cultural Difference and Its Impact on Composition Classes

According to Musumeci, D. “two obvious factors that contribute to differences between first language and second language writers are first language writers' extensive experience with varieties of written discourse and their native linguistic competence”.

When assisting ESL students, we have in view their language level in using the English language. Working with a writer who is English, we can (usually) assume that he better understands the basic idea of the paragraph or that he would place a topic sentence on its right place.

However, with an ESL student, a teacher cannot assume such principles. The values the English language. writing, structure, argument or intellectual property are not universal. Mostly, they are different for each culture, making the writing process for an English or American academic audience extremely difficult and confusing for the ESL student.

I.2 Different Writing Purposes

Why do we write? The purpose of writing varies in each culture, deeply influenced by politics and political history of that culture. A strong management of the country with very strong central governments lead to censorship. Using writing to challenge an authority is therefore dangerous or maliciously used; When it comes to praising the authority in newspapers or books, writing is completely accepted. Writers belonging to cultures like these often get into trouble producing that argument because they fear that their writing might insult their readers.

We may need to talk with our students about how discourse works in, for example, England and America. The English and the American people are allowed to have own ideas and opinions. In our classrooms and outside them, we encourage students to engage in dialogues, so to use writing as for producing dialogue.

When one writes for the English academic purpose, he is free to express himself, however he must pursue some discourse conventions: an appropriate voice, structure, style, etc. Consequently, English writing almost always leads to a dialogue between individualism and conventionalism. Both of them must be handled enough before an essay is revealed the English audience.

I.3 Different Writing Patterns

It is well known that different cultures have different thinking ways.

For example, in the West, they concisely think and write. In other words, they admire writing that "gets to the point." They want their writers to "be straight" with them.

They do not want to be confused by someone who has "gone off the track" – and they cannot endure (in fact their formal system of logic condemns) circular thinking.

Who is to say which way of thinking and writing is better? Still, it is our job to train these students, who are taking one of the Cambridge examinations, SAT exams, TOEFL or going to a Western educational institution, to write in their accepted terms. Therefore, we need to explain to our ESL students why they do things the way they do.

This task isn't always easy, but we have to teach them using different ways, having in mine the simple principles as matters of convention.

I.4 Different Conventions

In order to write effective American English prose, an international student will have to master the vocabulary and grammar. He needs to learn the conventions of American English rhetoric. As ESL teachers, we assist him to understand these conventions. Hence, I have listed a few conventions that differ widely from culture to culture.

Thesis Sentences: A thesis sentence is a sentence which reveals to the reader the reader’s point of view on a particular subject. In American academic discourse, a thesis sentence is most often sited at the end of the introduction. Still, not all cultures ask their writers to use thesis sentences. In some cultures, these types of sentences would be an offense.

Topic Sentences: The topic sentence, in English, is most often placed at the beginning of each paragraph. A native reader of English knows this as well as the teachers of English. That is why, when searching for a quiz on material we have not read, we begin skimming the first sentence of every paragraph, in order to put together the gist of the argument. Therefore, in some cultures, the topic sentences neither are nor often placed as the last sentence of every paragraph. Paragraphs, in these cultures, are structured to build towards the argument point.

Concise Style: In English, they like sentences that are lean and mean. Nouns and verbs that are suspicious of other parts of speech, are usually used – they doubt adjectives and adverbs which appear to inflate prose that is really rather weak.

They develop when writers use more words where one would have been just as enough. Writers who praised speaking other languages sometimes consider English deficient. Where are the lovely adjectives? Where are the complex digressions? As a matter of fact, they seem to love it for different qualities, for example, the beauty of a simple, balanced sentence.

I.5 Common ESL Errors: The Top Ten List

In eight years of experience of teaching English I have made a top ten list of the most common ESL errors. These errors can be found in some writing of native speakers of English, thus some (articles and preposition problems) are common to students for whom English is a second language.

Number One: Articles

Articles are the most usual problems for non-native speakers of English, as for Russian writers, whose languages do not use articles. Sporadically, European speakers will deal with some difficulty with articles: in many languages, a noun requires an article, and it is difficult to some speakers to see when articles should be omitted.

The basic rules for using the articles are not hard to clarify: countable nouns need for articles, but uncountable nouns generally do not. As for a concrete noun generally requires a definite article; as for an abstract noun usually asks for an indefinite article. Hence, the article use depends often on context, the grammatical context and the sentence's meaning. As an example, “Our society disapproves of smoking,” is one context, but “The non-smokers society fights hard to take away smokers' rights,” is a different one.

A more difficult explanation is that some article use is idiomatic, or it requires a lot of grammatical analysis so as to be accepted. An example is using the expression "I have a cold," or "I have pneumonia"? The question is why not using “I have pneumonia?”

Number Two: Prepositions

This type of error is almost singular to ESL writers. Some New Yorkers will wait on line (not in line), but for international students, including Romanians, the difficulty of using prepositions is more serious. Beginner students might have trouble understanding the difference between sitting at the table differs from sitting by the Table; advanced writers miand verbs that are suspicious of other parts of speech, are usually used – they doubt adjectives and adverbs which appear to inflate prose that is really rather weak.

They develop when writers use more words where one would have been just as enough. Writers who praised speaking other languages sometimes consider English deficient. Where are the lovely adjectives? Where are the complex digressions? As a matter of fact, they seem to love it for different qualities, for example, the beauty of a simple, balanced sentence.

I.5 Common ESL Errors: The Top Ten List

In eight years of experience of teaching English I have made a top ten list of the most common ESL errors. These errors can be found in some writing of native speakers of English, thus some (articles and preposition problems) are common to students for whom English is a second language.

Number One: Articles

Articles are the most usual problems for non-native speakers of English, as for Russian writers, whose languages do not use articles. Sporadically, European speakers will deal with some difficulty with articles: in many languages, a noun requires an article, and it is difficult to some speakers to see when articles should be omitted.

The basic rules for using the articles are not hard to clarify: countable nouns need for articles, but uncountable nouns generally do not. As for a concrete noun generally requires a definite article; as for an abstract noun usually asks for an indefinite article. Hence, the article use depends often on context, the grammatical context and the sentence's meaning. As an example, “Our society disapproves of smoking,” is one context, but “The non-smokers society fights hard to take away smokers' rights,” is a different one.

A more difficult explanation is that some article use is idiomatic, or it requires a lot of grammatical analysis so as to be accepted. An example is using the expression "I have a cold," or "I have pneumonia"? The question is why not using “I have pneumonia?”

Number Two: Prepositions

This type of error is almost singular to ESL writers. Some New Yorkers will wait on line (not in line), but for international students, including Romanians, the difficulty of using prepositions is more serious. Beginner students might have trouble understanding the difference between sitting at the table differs from sitting by the Table; advanced writers might have trouble struggling with the difference between being concerned about something, to being concerned with something.

An ESL student might be able to perceive the difference between to apologize for and to apologize to. The best thing we can do is just to explain these differences to students, and to hope they take these explanations with him into his next paper or when he is going to have a conversation with a native speaker.

Number Three: Infinitives

Another category common errors ESL writers make is the use of infinitives. ESL students formulate their English sentences after their native languages; many rules (including those for infinitives) differ from those rules they use in English. Therefore, we will have ESL writers who compose sentences like, "I wouldn't mind to have a BMW." Some categories of verbs call for the infinitive, while other categories do not. Whenever we are unsure about these categories, we could look them up with our students. In explaining the rule to the student, we might learn something ourselves!

Number Four: Using the Wrong Parts of Speech

ESL students might sometimes confuse parts of speech; they might use an adjective instead of a noun, a verb where for a gerund, an adverb for an adjective. They do these mistakes when learning a foreign language. Having patience is the key to reach success.

Number Five: Agreement

There must be a connection between subjects, verbs, tenses, etc. This category of error is not only for ESL writers; hence agreement errors are likely to torture ESL papers.

Number Six: Verb Tense and Forms

ESL students might have problems in choosing the proper tenses; the same as native speakers, they might also be confused by irregular verbs forms, such as dye or die.

Number Seven: Active and Passive Voices

Most students are conscious that they must avoid the passive voice. However ESL writers often make use of the passive voice in order not to take responsibility for those ideas and sentences they are not convinced about.

Number Eight: Sentence Structure

ESL writers often struggle for learning the English sentence boundaries and so are sensible to fragments or convoluted prose. Turning back to the basics is going to help these writers: it is very important to explain to ESL writers the simple sentence, the role of coordination and subordination, but, most importantly, the limits of the English sentence. The idea that is expressed beautifully in Romanian, German, or Spanish break the meaning of the English sentence. We can encourage the ESL writers to be nice to their sentences and support them to understand what an English sentence will endure.

Number Nine: Punctuation

This might be a real problem in many languages, but ESL writers are often defeated. Many times, a student will use punctuation in a sentence according to the rules of his native language: a Romanian will never place a comma before the word "and," for example, simply because it's never done in our language. If we notice persistent punctuation errors, talking with the student about the rules typical of their native language is a very good idea.

Number Ten: The Matter of Style

The advanced ESL writers encounter a style problem. It is rather difficult perceive a language's music and subtle rhythms. We should avoid the simple way of saying, "We do not say it like that!" Rather, we will engage the student in a discussion about language (when time allows). We may, in this discussion, teach him something about the beauty and delicacy of the English language (and, incidentally, we may rediscover something about the beauty and delicacy of the Romanian language).

I.6 Writing Assisting the ESL [anonimizat] of training instructs teachers to be facilitative. It is advisable that we not correct error when we see it. And yet, with an ESL student, it is sometimes hard not to make the correction. What should we do?

We might consider how our colleagues mark their students’ papers in foreign language courses. It is probable they mark errors without naming them each time; they indicate that something is wrong but they leave to students to opportunity to figure out what. It is strategy that works well with ESL writers. Sometimes we might also want to indicate and name the errors – articles, tenses, etc- making remarks on these errors in the margin notes or in the summary comment.

Lastly, whenever one of my students gets into trouble when mastering a clear and coherent style, I often show him a paragraph, I suggest how to be rewritten, and I encourage him to do the same thing throughout the paper.

CHAPTER II

APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING

Writing can be taught in many different ways, each method can be effective, unless the teacher is confident in what he or she teaches. Approaches to teaching rely on approaches to writing.

The following diagram shows what students have to deal when producing a piece of writing:

FIGURE 1 Producing a Piece of Writing

Syntax Content

The writer’s

Grammar process

Mechanics Audience

Organization Purpose

Word choice

 Below there are several common approaches to writing:

II.1 The Rhetorical Approaches

When writing, many of us are influenced by the art of speaking, rhetoric.  It has its virtues, because it encourages awareness of the audience and suggests ways in which a speaker can keep attention focused on the main point. On the other side, rhetoric may lead to less attention to reading and driver writers toward common places. The oral/aural orientation does not limit us, however, from adapting rhetoric to our cultural environment. Instead of resorting exclusively to what we remember and we can easily read and analyse in order to get support for our arguments. What rhetoricians may call invention can be aroused by reading and interpretation of texts.

The structuring of writing is also an important aspect of rhetoric, which sometimes degenerates into a magnified emphasis on the form and the content. The established forms of rhetoric provide the impression that writing an essay seems like filling a ship. This dominance of the form might seem depriving some writers, who prefer to flourish their own forms. Still, the challenge of fitting self-expression in a recommended form can be inspiring. A rhetorical approach stabilized by attention to self-expression and to the way of invention based on analysis can work quite nicely.

There is a different approach related to rhetoric, known as “rhetorical modes.” This approach regards writing in its detailed uses, asking writers to practice a form (a description, a narrative, a comparison, an analysis, etc.) in a full essay. It also has positive and negative forms and needs careful application. Writers may determine to excel in a particular approach, but remain incapable to integrate several modes in a complex essay, yet the purpose of their writing appears to be constrained by the form. Avoiding the fact that a piece of writing might result from a blending of several modes, they may be puzzled by writing assignments that do not provide themselves a particular mode. When one practices modes, he does not have to ignore skills integration and consider the way in which the independent operations add to the whole. He also needs to emphasize his personal stakes as a writer, pursue his thought beyond the mode.  Writers ought to learn to subordinate the rhetorical means to their creativity and self-expression.

II.2 The Personal Approach

Personal essays are meant to develop self-reflection, self-awareness, and they are especially valued for helping us find our personal voices. Whenever the stress on the personal goes too far, yet, the balance takes into consideration the self-indulgence, rather than self-reflection. This imbalance arises perhaps in confusing the personal with the confidential and confessional discourse. Harriet Malinowitz mentions it (Textual Orientations, 1995); a personal essay “doesn’t have to be self-indulgent, as some reflexively presume. Nor is it even absolutely necessary about oneself. Its substance is subjectivity, not autobiography.” Many great writers handle the personal essay as a way of revealing social problems and debate cultural issues. Such use of readings can help a writer establish a more challenging self-reflective process. Being inspired by the topics debated in the texts, a writer can begin exploring his/her personal experiences using new ways. From their personal experience, writers can progress to broader topics, in which they can provide attention and study, and become capable to integrate academic knowledge in their personal involvement. The idea is to detail new concepts derived from reading to personal experience. In order to be effective, personal essays must be reader-cantered rather than writer-cantered.

II.3 The Eclectic Approach

There are some approaches to teaching writing as creative communication (the Free Writing Approach, the Controlled-to-Free Approach, The Communicative Approach, and The Process Approach). Referring to ESL classes, Raimes (Techniques in Teaching Writing, 1983) suggests the use of an eclectic approach, responsive to learners’ needs as their skills develop.

Oluwadiya (1990) favours a “marriage” of the techniques of the product-oriented approach with the techniques of the process-oriented approach; one should aim at using an enriched process approach that borrows freely techniques and strategies that belong to the product-oriented approach.

II.4 Skill-Using & Skill-Getting

So as to make our students effective writers, we should guide them in composing, analysing, conceptualizing, sketching, revising, creating… not only writing or transcribing. An important mission for the teacher is to be capable of filling the break between skill-getting (that is writing down, writing in the language form) and skill using (that is flexibility measures, expressive writing function) activities, that means teaching deeper "at the bone level, not only at the skin." A possible solution is to minimize the usage of writing practice activities, those that are manipulative or impersonal in nature and select those activities that are contextualized, personalized and meaningful even when our students are focusing mainly on form. Moreover, it is advisable to use a mixture of tasks that draw out performance. As much as students’ competence increases, the assignments for writing should become less structured or teacher-directed, but more creative in nature. After all, students must become confident to use the language independently to narrate, describe, persuade, express their feelings and attitudes, question, discuss ideas, and support their points of view.

II.5 Composing Process & Stages of Instruction

When sketching writing practice at the Advanced level, it is very important to include different aspects of the composing process in the instructional cycle. The various procedures of the composing process ought to be taught, practiced more than it has typically been the case in many foreign language programs. However, a few texts have been developed for advanced students (Valds, Dvorak, and Hannum, Workbook to accompany Composicion, 1998) which lead them by means of various steps or stages as they take part in creative and expressive writing, focusing on organization, style, greater precision in grammar and vocabulary. In these texts students practice many types of writing, including description, exposition, narration, and they use different rhetorical techniques such as definition, classification, comparison and contrast, and argumentation.

A typical writing lesson involves three stages:

1)Prewriting: It is defined by Oluwadiya ( “Some prewriting techniques for student

writers”, 1992) as "any structural activities – oral,  written or experiential” – for active student participation  in thinking, talking, writing, and working on the topic under focus in a writing lesson, stimulating higher-level thinking as well as writing skills.

Oluwadiya suggests a series of prewriting techniques as mental warm-ups to support them get started on their writing process:

-Oral group brainstorming   

– Clustering

– Outlining                                 

– Oral compositions
– Looping                                  

– Dialogue writing

– Interviewing                         

– Debating

– Cubing                                   

– Free writing

– Oral reading                          

– Fantasizing

– Use of pictures to stimulate students

– Classical invention

– Visits to places of interest                

– Silent reading

– Lecturing interest in the school locality

 – extensive/intensive

At all levels of the educational system, teachers of writing in ESL, ought to be familiar with the majority of the pre-writing techniques available, adapt and use them according to the needs of their students so as to help them experience a sense of ownership of their writing.

“Pre-writing activities generate ideas; they encourage a free flow of thought and help students to discover both what they want to say and how to say it on paper. In other words, pre-writing activities facilitate the planning for both the product and the process.”

Pre-writing activities should be applied as a therapy to help inexperienced or incompetent students who are likely to slow down their steps of writing by insisting on a perfect essay. These students should be conscious that by doing so, when they try to write down only the”right word in the right sentence”, they obstruct their own fluency and give themselves the “Writer’s Block.” They should be mentioned to leave matters of correctness and form to the revision and editing stages, when they can re-see, rethink, and rewrite their essay to polish it as well as make it Reader Cantered – not Writer Cantered – prose.

2) Composing (focuses on organizational and mechanical considerations)

Writing introductory outlines and answering a number of questions within an organizational framework.

Making ongoing judgements about each aspect of writing, from vocabulary to syntax, style, and organization.

Reviewing, rereading, and anticipating what will appear next.

Reformulating and adjusting parts of the writing as it evolves.

3) Revision

Observing the sketch.;

Revising the stylistic features of the paper;

Revising the grammatical features;

While reviewing, ESL writers should check the following:

The clarity with which the thesis is stated, developed, and supported

The levels to which the writer has accommodated the demands of the intended audience

The levels of grammatical and lexical cohesion and overall coherence of the paper, including organizational and stylistic features besides the selection of diction, syntax, spelling, and punctuation.

II.6 Feedback and Evaluation

The teacher's position toward correction, the manner in which he offers it to students, students’ own impressions about the teacher in general are important factors in the effectiveness of correction procedures.

It is advisable that teachers concentrate more on process in their remarks and use multi-draft assignments; they should teach their students how to use feedback to improve their writing skills (self-correction is very effective; being aware of one’s errors, then, rewriting them using problem-solving techniques is significantly useful for developing writing skills.)

Furthermore, teachers should offer feedback that addresses specific instructional needs and suppositions of the different groups of student-writers. When certain student-writers anticipate feedback on the content, style, and rhetoric, others might value improving feedback of their lexical and grammatical misuses. Therefore, ESL students practice need to improve the grammatical and lexical resources of writers as well as provide them with the strategic discourse, the cultural knowledge in order to help them enrich fluency, manage the complexity of their writing, and engage their readers.

II.7 Extensive Reading

A superior level of writing competence can be realized through extensive reading (cf. Krashen, Writing: Research, theory and applications, 1984). We must support our students to practice reading a lot by giving them the chance to make oral/written presentations, book reports etc.

II.8 Conclusion

After having detailed on the contemporary opinions about the teaching of writing in the ESL classroom, and suggesting some ways to help student-writers to self-sponsor their writing, to be creative and competent, I would say that the writing activities must be structured in ways that they help students understand how to produce cohesive and coherent discourse so as to become self-sponsors of their own writings.

Finally, the key focus of writing practice “should be the larger elements and processes which must be integrated and synthesized for successful written communication.”

CHAPTER III

TEACHING THE WRITING PROCESS

III.1 Process Pedagogy: A Brief Explanation

I consider that the most influential development in writing theory and practice in this century took place in the late sixties and early seventies with the emergence of process pedagogy. Up to then, composition classes, which were influenced by the principles of New Criticism, were largely text-based: students read texts, but also they produced them. This New Critical emphasis on text masked the idea of authorship and its attendant processes. Thus, in these writing classrooms, teachers seldom discussed the process of composing. They rather emphasized text: its clarity, authority, and correctness.

Process pedagogy points to shift attention away from the text but towards the processes that created it – these processes should be understood as being fluid, complex, and, above all, highly individual. Process pedagogy provides teachers a new way of thinking about the teaching of writing.

First of all, process pedagogy stimulates students to understand writing as a process, made up of a series of interrelated activities and strategies. They include invention (brainstorming, free writing, etc.), organization (nutshelling, outlining, etc.), drafting, and revision.

Secondly, process pedagogy makes use of teaching methods that disapprove appropriation of the writer's authority, looking instead to help students to turn into confident contributors to the academic community. In order to achieve this aim, process pedagogy supports several methodologies, among them student-teacher conferences, peer group exercises, peer tutors for all phases of the writing process, and also the use of the facilitative feedback to student writing.

Thirdly, by limiting the use of texts and asking students to write from or about their own experiences and perspectives, process pedagogy accepts the importance of students' personal experiences, their voices, and aims to find appropriate approaches for the personal to inform academic writing.

It's important to note that many writing classrooms incorporate some process methods without devoting themselves fully to process pedagogy. In fact, process pedagogy is compatible with other pedagogies and can be successfully combined with modes of discourse assignments, critical thinking exercises, instruction in logic and argument, and teaching writing through reading.

III.2 Informal Strategies for Invention

Brainstorming

Brainstorming as a tool for invention practice is useful because its quick and efficient way of showing what we know about a subject. Through brainstorming we might also see what we do not know about a topic, which might move us to read and think further.

Brainstorming is an informal strategy for invention, a way in which students write down, as quickly as they can, notes concerning their topic.

These notes can be general or specific; depending on how far along they are in the writing process.

They can also be wide-ranging and associative, or focused upon a certain problem.

They can be very simple, as lists of words, elaborate, unpolished paragraphs that concisely explore an idea.

Young writers can stop whenever they want in the writing process to brainstorm, especially when they feel they are stuck or that they have to fill in some gaps in their argument.

Finally, when we brainstorm, we freely explore that topic, with no pressure of structure, grammar, or style. That way, those ideas for an essay evolve.

Free writing

Free writing is similar to brainstorming, being an informal and quick way to explore an idea. While brainstorming involves making a list of ideas, free writing asks for students to try to detail upon these ideas by writing about them, not paying much attention to syntax or grammar. Free writing can get them "unstuck" when coming up with ideas.

What does free writing mean? Maybe it is just writing whatever comes to your head. When brainstorming one usually list ideas and then try to connect them, usually by drawing arrows and circles, but when free writing it’s much more different because it means just letting the language flow and I think in simple or complete sentences but I not worrying about grammar or style . But instead, I simply let my thoughts come.

Discovery Draft

The discovery draft is a third strategy when coming up with or developing own ideas. It is similar to free writing in that students can freely write, but ignoring the structure and the development of their ideas. They can also omit matters of syntax and style.

Writing a discovery draft is different from free writing. A discovery draft makes a conscious effort to focus on and to develop an idea. In other words, a discovery draft means free writing with an agenda. Having an agenda, discovery drafts is likely to be more structured than free writings.

We might ask students to regard of writing a discovery draft as writing a letter to an imaginary friend about their English paper. They might first summarize for their friend's benefit the texts they have read. They might then raise questions about the texts. They might challenge the writers on certain points. They might note contradictions. They might address and then solve any confusion that they have about their topic. In writing the discovery draft they might have an “ah-ha!” moment, in which they see something that they had not seen before.

When writing the discovery draft, students’ thoughts are focused on their topic. They are giving language to their observations and questions. The mind almost always stumbles across something new – makes a discovery. And with this discovery, a paper is often set.

III.3 Formal Strategies for Invention are students who require a more systematic approach when coming up with ideas. Every young writer over time will develop his own system of invent

Five W's and an H

Nowadays journalism has provided us with the simplest and most familiar way of dealing with a topic: simply asking simple questions like Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Finding answers to these questions students initially find this easy, until they get to the why and how. This is tricky.

We could use this method to try to generate ideas from students about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. When reading Heart of Darkness they noticed Conrad's narrative style that is sometimes difficult to follow. However they deduce that Conrad is the master of the sentence, and they might think that perhaps his narrative style is confusing for a specific reason. They have their observation. Now begin their interrogation.

When in the book did they find themselves confused by the author’s style? What was there happening? Who was acting in those moments? Where was the action taking place? How does Conrad confuse them? Does he play some common game with sentence structure and grammar? Does he use pronouns too loosely, for example? Or does he embed clauses one within the other, in order to find the meaning? Most important, why does Conrad go to all of this trouble? And why do they think this observation is worth making?

These are difficult questions. But it is precisely when they get into difficulty to answer a "why" that a real paper begins with. When the answer comes too easily, they are on familiar ground. They cultivate a strategy for clearing confusion up. It is only when they are asking a question that initially confuses them that real thinking and real writing begin.

Aristotle's Topoi

Aristotle worked to regularize a system for coming up with expressing ideas. We are dealing here with Aristotle’s topoi– a system of specific strategies for invention. Students could think of the topoi as a series of questions that they might ask of a text, those questions that lead them to interesting topics. The topoi are especially helpful when they are asked to deal with a topic that seems very broad to them – for example, the topic of alcoholism.

1) Use Definition

There are two ways so writers might use definition for a topic idea. First, when looking at genus, Aristotle explains it as a general idea within specific limits. For example: defining alcoholism, with the intention of showing how many people are alcoholics even though they consider themselves to be social drinkers.

Secondly, by using definition by thinking in terms of division. Students might think of their subject in terms of parts, classes, etc. For example: consider types of alcoholics or stages of alcoholism, etc.

2) Use Comparison

Using comparisons might be a way of generating ideas. First is to look for similarities. For example: They might want to consider the similarities between alcoholics and gamblers, etc.

They might compare by observing difference. For example: Observe the difference between attitudes from culture to culture; etc.

The final way is to compare by looking at degree. They might consider how something is better or worse in comparison with something else. For example: It is better to be an alcoholic in any other country than in Russia.

3) Explore Relationship

Aristotle established four ways in order to explore relationships as a way of coming up with ideas for writing. The first way is to consider the cause, then the effects. For example, they might research the causes of smoking during pregnancy, or its effects on the family.

They might also take into consideration the subject's antecedent and consequences. In other words, they might ask: “If this, then what?” For example: If pregnant woman smoke to damage unborn babies, they ought to be considered criminally negligent.

They might examine contraries and an argument by proving its opposite. As an example, if they want to say that peace is good, they say that war is bad. Taking into consideration the topic of smoking, they might argue that because sobriety is bad for a person, drinking is good for a person.

Finally, they might search for contradictions, incompatible statements, or controversy. For example: Some doctors believe that smoking is an addiction; others believe it can be defeated through will.

4) Examine Circumstance

There are two ways that students might consider any circumstances in order to bring an idea for a paper. First they might take into consideration the possible and the impossible. Sometimes they can establish an interesting argument by examining what is possible and what is not. For example: Is it possible to quit smoking?

Second is to consider the past, or to look to the future. For example: What is the chance of a smoker to take up smoking again? Has that person tried to quit smoking in the past, or what can we expect in the future? Etc.

Nutshelling

Nutshelling is the process of trying to expose to the students the main point in a few sentences – in a nutshell. Putting their thoughts in a nutshell, they see how those thoughts fit together. They also see how thoughts are relevant to the others, what the overall “point” is. Nutshelling helps them to take their observations or their information and transform them into something meaningful, focused, and coherent.

We might ask students why the writing process is difficult for them. Their answer, in a nutshell? Considering all sorts of answers, they decide that writing is hard because it is not easy to find original structures for an idea.

However, this observation does not seem to them to be able to raise the entire paper. So they keep on raising questions. Should teachers expect their student writers be original? If they expect originality, why do teachers encourage rigid ways of writing? Why don't teachers encourage experimentation with structure, syntax, and style?

Now, having raised some really sharp questions, they will want to try nutshelling again. The writing process is difficult for our students because they are stuck between their teachers' conflicting expectations. On the one hand, teachers aim their students will be original; on the other hand, they insist that their students follow conventions. That is a dilemma for the young writer!

But their dilemma is elucidated. They have “nutshelled” their way to a promising idea for a paper.

III.4 Writing: Considering Structure and Organization

Organizing Their Thoughts

Students usually find it a difficult task to make sense out of their observations about a text. Even once they have figured out what it is that they want to say, they do not know how to say it. How should they begin?

Writing papers in different types of examinations requires that students structure their ideas with sophisticated, complex, and even creative ways. Accordingly, there are no simple formulae that can be offered to them which might work for every paper, every time. However, we can give them some things to think about that will help them as they consider how to structure their paper.

Sketching Their Argument

While their thesis will provide them with their paper's general direction, they will not necessarily get a plan for how to organize all of their points. It might be helpful to make a diagram or a sketch of their argument.

In sketching their argument their goal is to fill the page with their ideas. A good idea might be for the students to begin by writing their thesis and put it where their instincts tell them to: it might be at the top of the page, in the center or at the bottom. About the thesis, they could cluster the points they want to make. Under each of these points, they will note the observations they have made and the evidence they will use. Using arrows, drawing circles, using colored pens, are methods that can help them to find connections between their ideas that otherwise might go unseen.

Sketching is a very important step in the writing process; it allows students to explore visually the connections between their ideas. They line up their argument – A. B. C. – without fully understanding why. Sketching their argument helps they see, for example, that points A and C really overlay and need to be thought more carefully.

Outlining Their Argument

When they have finished their sketch, they are ready to make an outline. The task of their outline is to find the “best structure.” That is the structure that best supports the argument that they intend to make.

When they are outlining a paper, they will have many options for their organization. They should understand, however, that each choice they make eliminates dozens of other options. Their aims are to find an outline in which all their choices support their thesis. In other words, their goal is to find the "best structure" for their argument.

Considering the outline as if it were a puzzle that they are trying to put together is a good idea. If it is easy to shift around their ideas – if paragraphs could be switched around, then they have not yet found the best structure for their paper. They should keep working until their outline fits their idea like a glove.

When they think they have an outline that works they could challenge it. When they start asking questions of their outline, they will begin to see where the plan holds or where it falls apart.

There are some questions they might ask:

Does my thesis follow the direction of my outline?

Are all the main points relevant to my thesis?

Does the outline seem logical?

Does my argument progress?

Do I have sufficient support for each of my points?

Have I made room in my outline for other points of view about my topic?

Have I covered the ground?

Modes of Arrangement: Patterns for Structuring Their Paper

I have already mentioned that there are no formulae for structuring young writers’ paper. I have put students to find a structure that works for them. Having done this, we can say that there exist some general models to arrange information within a paper. They are called “modes of arrangement”.

These models include:

Narration: telling a story

Description: reporting what you see, hear, taste, feel, or smell

Process: explaining a sequence of stages necessary to a process

Definition: illustrating the meaning of words or ideas

Division and Classification: assembling ideas, objects, events into categories

Compare and Contrast: detecting any similarities or differences between topics

Cause and Effect: justifying the reason why something happened.

Young writers’ paper might be a compare and contrast paper. Students should try to be aware of what their purpose is at any given point of their paper. It confuses the reader, if they muddle together their description of a process with its effects.

Constructing Paragraphs

Let us imagine that students have written their thesis. They have interrogated their outline. They know which modes of arrangement they intend to use. They have settled on a plan that they think will work.

Now they have to construct their paragraphs. If one paragraph is incoherent, the argument might fail. It is important that they consider carefully the “job” of each paragraph.

What is a paragraph?

It is generally seen as a single “unit of a paper. A reader enters a new paragraph, he expects is going to hear them declare a point, and then offer support for that point. If they violate this expectation – if their paragraphs have points without offering any evidence to support them – then the reader becomes confused or irritated by their argument. He will not want to read any further.

What should a paragraph do?

A good paragraph will:

Be Supportive.

A good paragraph will find a way to support the thesis. Its relationship with the thesis is clearly declared, so that it will be obvious what the paragraph intends to do. Mainly, a supportive paragraph's main idea develops the argument of the thesis.

Be Strong.

A good paragraph does not have redundant sentences. It is strong and buffed. You know that it has been worked on. In other words, a strong paragraph develops its main idea, using sufficient evidence.

Be Considerate.

A good paragraph never interrupts the other paragraphs. It always waits for its turn. It shows up when and where it is supposed to. Mainly, a considerate paragraph is coherent. It makes sense within the text as a whole.

Writing the Topic Sentence

Just as a paper requires a thesis, so does every paragraph. It requires a topic sentence to control its main idea. If the topic sentence is missing, students’ paragraphs will seem jumbled. Their reader will find he confused.

When they have written a topic sentence, students will ask themselves some questions:

Does the topic sentence favor my argument? Students will give their topic sentences the same “so what?” test that they gave their thesis sentence. If their topic sentence is not interesting, their paragraph probably will not serve to further the argument. Their paper could fail.

Is the topic sentence relevant to my thesis? If they find that their topic sentence is taking them into new ground, they will stop writing and consider their options. They will either have to rewrite their thesis to accommodate this new direction, or they will have to edit this paragraph from their paper.

Is there a good relationship between this topic sentence and the previous paragraph? It is important to make sure that they have followed all the steps in the process of composing their argument.

Does the topic sentence control my paragraph? If their paragraph seems to unravel, they will take a second look. It might be that their topic sentence is not adequately controlling their paragraph and must be re-written.

Where have I placed my topic sentence? Usually, the topic sentence is at the beginning of a paragraph. Readers expect to see it there. They might also put the topic sentence in the middle of the paragraph, if they have information that needs to precede it. They might also put the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph, if they want the reader to consider their line of reasoning before they declare their main point.

Developing Their Argument: Evidence

As a teacher, I am frequently asked, how long a paragraph ought to be. It is possible to make a point quickly, but they should bear in mind that a good paragraph is as long as it needs so as it has to illustrate, explore, and prove its main idea.

Length is not all that matters in paragraph development. The most important is for a paragraph to develop its idea fully.

If our topic sentence is well-written, it should tell us what our paragraph needs to do. If our topic sentence declares that there are two conflicting impulses in a particular fictional character, our reader will expect that we will define and illustrate these two impulses. We might take two paragraphs to do this;

We might take one. If the point is an important one, we take our time. We also use at least two paragraphs. Then, a topic sentence might be understood as controlling an entire section of text.

All in all, when students have written a paragraph, they should ask themselves the following questions:

Have I got enough proof to support this paragraph's idea?

Does this evidence support the assertion I am making in this paragraph?

What can I do to convince the reader that any stretch is worth making?

Am I repeating myself too much in this paragraph?

Have I established all of the important terms?

Can I say what the purpose of this paragraph is?

Developing Your Argument: Arrangement

An important idea to the development of one paragraph is the matter of its arrangement. Paragraphs are arranged for different purposes. For example, if they are writing an art history paper in which they want to describe a painting, then they will perhaps choose to arrange their information spatially. When writing a paper for a sociology course in order to write about shoppers’ behavior at a supermarket, they might want to arrange their ideas from the specific to the general.

They will also want to consider their method of reasoning when they construct their paragraph. Are they using inductive logic, working from clues towards their conclusion? If so, their paragraph will reflect this way of thinking: their evidence will early appear in the paragraph, so the topic sentence comes at the end. On the other hand, if they are using deductive logic, their paragraph might be arranged like a syllogism.

Finally, students realize that the modes of discourse can serve as models in order to for arrange information within a paragraph.

Coherence

Now students have their thesis and their topic sentences. They have spent a lot of time writing their paragraphs, they have made sure that each paragraph argues one point and that this point is well supported with textual evidence. When reading this essay by themselves, they might feel disappointed. Though they have followed their outline, the essay just does not seem to hold together. They might deal with the problem of coherence.

The absence of coherence is easy to observe, but difficult to cure. The arguments in an incoherent essay are hard to understand. What might be wrong?

Students will have to look for these problems in their paper:

1. Make sure that the grammatical subject of their sentences reflects the real subject of their paragraph. They will go through their paragraph and underline the subjects of all their sentences. Do these subjects match their paragraph's subject in most cases? They should remember that the reader understands the importance of an idea, according to where they place it. If their main idea is hidden as an object of a preposition in a subordinate clause, do they really think that their reader is going to follow what they are trying to say?

2. Make sure that their grammatical subjects are consistent. Again, they will look at the grammatical subjects of all their sentences. How many different subjects do they find? If they have too many different sentence subjects, their paragraph will be hard to follow. (Note: For the fun of it, they will underline the sentence subjects in paragraph one. They will find three, more or less: they, the subject, and the reader. The relationship between the three is what this paragraph is all about. Accordingly, the paragraph is coherent.)

3. Make sure that each paragraph is coherent and each sentence should begin by linking itself firmly to the sentence that came before. If the link between sentences does not seem firm, students will use an introductory clause or phrase to connect one idea to the other.

4. Follow the principle of moving from old to new. If they put the old information at the beginning of the sentence and the new information at the end, they accomplish two things. First, they ensure that their reader is on solid ground: he moves from the familiar to the unknown. Second, because we tend to give emphasis to what comes at the end of a

Sentence, the reader rightfully perceives that the new information is more important than the old.

5. Use repetition to create a sense of unity. Repeating key words and phrases at appropriate moments will give their reader a sense of coherence in their work. However, they should not overdo it, or they will risk sounding redundant.

6. Use transition markers wisely. Sometimes they will need to announce to their reader some turn in their argument. Or they will want to emphasize one of their points. Or they will want to make clear some relationship in time. In all these cases they will want to use transition markers.

There are some examples:

To show place -, here, there, above, below, etc.

To show time – during, earlier, later, after, before, currently, etc.

To give an example – for instance, for example, etc.

To show addition – furthermore, moreover, additionally, also, and, equally important, etc.

To show similarity – in the same way, similarly, also, likewise, etc.

To show an exception -, on the other hand, on the contrary, but, however, nevertheless yet, etc.

To show a sequence -, next, then, first, second, third etc.

To emphasize – of course, indeed, in fact, etc.

To show cause and effect – therefore, thus, accordingly, consequently, etc.

To conclude or repeat – on the whole, in the end, finally, in conclusion, etc.

Introductions and Conclusions

They are among the most challenging of all paragraphs. That is because introductions and conclusions must offer support, they must synthesize and provide context for students ‘argument, and they must induce a proper impression on their reader.

Introductions

Writers’ introduction is their chance to get their reader interested in their subject. Appropriately, the tone of the paragraph must be right. They want to inform, to intrigue, but not to the point of being vague. Students should pay attention to the nuances of their tone. They might seek out a second reader if they are not sure that they have managed to get the tone the way they want it.

Evenly important to the tone of the introduction is that their introduction needs to “place” their argument into some larger context. Some strategies follow: Students will announce their topic broadly, and then declare their particular take. For example, if they are interested in talking about the narrator in James Joyce’s novels, they might 1) begin by saying that Joyce's narrator has posed a problem for many of her critics; 2) provide a quick definition of the problem; and 3) declare their thesis (which states their own position on the matter).

Provide any background material important to their argument.

If they want to explore how Viennese morality influenced the work of Sigmund Freud, they will provide the reader, in the introduction, a description of Vienna around 1900. They should not include irrelevant details in their description; they should emphasize some aspects of Viennese which might have most influenced Freud.

Define key terms, in order to use them in their argument.

If, for example, they deal with a philosophy paper on the nature of reality, it is necessary they firstly define the term. How do they see this term of "reality,”? Empirically? Rationally?

Use an anecdote or quotation.

Sometimes they use a story or quotation to reflect the main point of their paper. They should not be afraid to begin with it. They should be sure, however, that there is a connection between that story and quotation clearly and immediately to the main argument of their paper.

Last but not least, students should remember that their introduction is the first impression their argument will make on their reader. They will take special care with their sentences so that they will be interesting. Also, young writers will take the time to consider who their readers are. If their readers are very knowledgeable about the subject, they will not need to provide a lot of background information. If their readers are less knowledgeable, they must be more careful about defining their terms.

Finally, students might want to consider writing their introduction AFTER they have written the rest of their paper.

Conclusions

Conclusions are always difficult to write. How difficult is for students to make the reader feels persuaded by what they have said? Even if the points of their paper are strong, their paper as a whole may be badly concluded.

Students end their papers by simply summarizing. The summary is important to the conclusion. Students will not want their reader to finish their paper saying, “So what?” Absolutely, writing a conclusion is not easy to do.

Many of the strategies above listed for improving students’ introductions can help them to improve their conclusions as well. In their conclusion they might:

Emphasize the importance of their own contribution to it.

Illustrate how their argument might light on that information.

Use an anecdote or quotation to reflect their main idea.

Finally, students should remember that language is especially important to a conclusion. Their goal in their final sentences is to leave their ideas resounding in their reader's mind, give him something to think about and make their language ring.

III.5 Revision: Cultivating a critical eye

Why and How To Revise

Most of students who compose on a computer consider revision as a constant process. Each time they hit the delete button, they cut and paste, take out a comma or exchange one word for another, and they are revising.

But real revision requires that they open themselves up to the possibility that parts of their paper – and even their entire paper – might be re-written.

Acquiring this state of mind is a difficult process. First, they might be very attached to what they have written and they may not want to change a word.

Second, they may not easily understand what is wrong with their paper. Finally, they might simply be sick and tired of their writing. How can they give it another go-through when exhaustion has them in its grip?

We might convince them by saying that revising a paper will help them to achieve a better grade.

But more important than getting grades is that revising their papers teaches them to be a better writer. The best way to learn to write is to rewrite. In the revision process, they improve their reading skills and their analytical skills. They learn to challenge their own ideas, thus deepening and strengthening their argument. They learn to find the weaknesses in their writing.

Even if revising takes a lot of time and energy, it also helps them to become a more efficient writer. If, for example, they have discovered through the revision process that they tend to bury their topic sentences in the middle of their paragraphs, they can take this discovery with them as they draft their next piece of writing. They are less likely to make that particular mistake again.

There are many different kinds of revising:

Large-Scale Revision

This involves looking at the entire piece of writing for places where their thinking seems to go awry. They might need to provide evidence, define terms, or add an entirely new step to their reasoning. They might even decide to restructure or rewrite their writing completely if they discover a new idea that intrigues them, or a structure that seems to be more effective than the one they've been using.

Small-Scale Revision

This type of revision needs to happen when they know that a certain part of their paper is not working. Once they have located the problem, they will focus on revising that one section of their writing. When they are finished they will want to reconsider their paper as a whole to make sure that their revisions work in the context of the entire paper.

Editing

Students, seldom confuse editing with revision. Editing is the process of finding minor problems with a text. These problems might easily be fixed by deleting a word or sentence, cutting and pasting a paragraph, and so on.

When editing, they are considering their reader. They might be happy with how they have written their paper, but will their reader find their paper clear, readable, interesting? How can they rewrite the paper so that it is clearer, more concise, and, most important of all, a pleasure to read?

Proofreading

When they proofread they are looking for possible mistakes in their paper. Most common are punctuation errors, spelling errors, subject-verb agreement, confusion between it’s/it's, their/there, and so on. When they proofread, they need to slow down their reading, focusing on every word, and every phrase of their writing. Reading aloud can help them identify to errors that have gone unseen.

In order to manage these various levels of revision, it is very important to get an early start the writing so that they have time to make any large-scale revisions that their piece of writing might need. Good writers comprehend that revision is an ongoing process. They might find, for example, that they are stuck halfway through the first draft of their writing. They decide to take a look at what they have so far. As they read, they find that they have omitted to make a point that is essential to their argument. They revise what they have written, making that point clear. In the end, they find that their block is gone. Why? Maybe it has gone because what was blocking them in the first place was a hole in their argument. Or maybe it has gone because they gave their brain a break.

Developing Objectivity

How does a writer know what he should revise? Developing a critical eye is a difficult part of the revision process. This makes them a better writer, reader, and thinker. So it is worth considering carefully how they might learn to see their own work with the objectivity essential to successful self-criticism.

The first step in gaining objectivity is to get some distance from their work. If they have planned their writing process well, they will have left themselves some time to take a break from their work. If they do not have this luxury, even an hour of a walk over to pick up a hard copy of their draft might be enough to clear their head.

When they return to their writing they ask themselves if their paper meets their and their teachers’ expectations. Students could read the piece of writing through without stopping. Then ask themselves these questions:

Did I fulfill the assignment?

Giving the students instructions for this assignment, they might reread them and then ask themselves whether or not they addressed all of the matters they were expected to address. Does their writing stray from the assignment? If it does, have they worked to make their argument relevant, or are they coming out of left field? If the teacher has not given them explicit instructions for this writing, they will take a moment to consider what the teacher expects. What position do their teachers take as regards their topic? Does their writing seem to fit into the conversation that the teacher has been carrying on in class? Have they written something relevant or interesting?

Did I say what I intended?

It might be the most difficult question they will ask themselves in the revision process. We think that we have said what we intended. When reading our writings, we can fill in any holes we might find. Thus, our readers sometimes do not keep this information in their mind. It is very important, therefore, to think carefully about what they have said, also about what they have not said. Students could ask themselves: Was I clear? Is my logic solid? Has every stage of my argument been articulated clearly?

What are the strengths of their paper?

In order to develop a critical eye, it is just as important to know when they have written well as it is to know when they have written poorly. It helps, therefore, to make a list of what they think they have done well in their draft. It is also helpful to pick out their favorite or strongest paragraph. When they have found a good paragraph, or sentence, or idea, think about why it is good. They will not only be gaining an understanding of what it means to write well, they will also be giving themselves a pat on the back – something that is very important to do in the revision process.

What are the weaknesses of their paper?

Looking for weaknesses is not as fun as looking for strengths, but it is necessary to the revision process. Again, young writers might try to make a list of what they have not done well in this paper. Their list should be as specific as they can make it. Instead of writing, “Problems with paragraphs" they might say "Problems with unity in my paragraphs, “or even more specific, "Problems with the transitions between paragraphs 3 & 4.” They could also force themselves to determine which paragraph (or sentence) they like least in the paper, figure out why they do not like it, and work to make it better. Then go back through their paper and look for others like it.

Analyzing Their Work

If they have been considering the strengths and weaknesses of their paper, they have already begun to analyse their work. This process involves breaking down an idea or an argument into its parts and evaluating those parts. When analysing their own paper, they are breaking the paper down into its parts and asking themselves whether or not these parts support the paper as they envision it.

Taking every into consideration, here is a checklist reiterating the above-mentioned advice which students might use to analyse their whole paper, or use it to help them find out what went wrong with a particular part of their work.

Considering Their Introduction

If they are writing a researched paper, does their introduction place their argument in an ongoing conversation? If they are not writing a researched paper, does their introduction set context? Does their introduction define all of their key terms? Does their introduction draw their reader in? Does their introduction lead their reader clearly to their thesis?

Considering Their Thesis

Does their thesis say what they want it to say? Does their thesis provide their reader with some awareness of the paper's structure? Does it provide what their thesis had promised?

Considering Their Structure

Make an outline of the paper they have just written. Does this outline reflect their intentions? Are there gaps in the logic? Is each point in their outline adequately evolved? Is each point equally evolved? (That is, does their paper seem balanced?) Is each point relevant? Underline their thesis sentence and all of their topic sentences. After that, cut and paste them together to form a paragraph.

Considering Their Paragraphs

Does each paragraph have a topic sentence?

Are the paragraphs internally and externally coherent?

Considering Their Argument and Its Logic

Have they really presented an argument, or is their paper entirely a series of observations, a summary? Do they see any holes in their argument? Or do they find the argument convincing? Have they supplied ample evidence for their arguments?

Do they see any logical fallacies?

Considering Their Conclusion

Is their conclusion suitable, or does it introduce a new idea?

Does their conclusion sum up their main point? Does their conclusion leave their reader with questions? Does the language resonate, or does it fall flat?

III.6 Logic and Argument

What is an Argument?

The fundamental elements of argument are:

a thesis that reveals the writer's position on the problem at hand;

a set of clearly explained premises that show the argument's line of reasoning;

proof that confirms the argument's premises;

a conclusion that persuades the reader that the argument has been soundly and persuasively written.

If a student’s paper has these essential features, then he has probably presented a sound argument. How can he be sure that his argument is sound?

Understanding Formal Logic

It's important to understand that an argument can be logical without necessarily being true. Consider, for example, the following:

All men are intelligent.

He is a man.

Therefore, he is intelligent.

Is this argument logical? Indeed, it is. The argument for logic in this instance is not whether the statement is reasonable, but whether the argument follows the almost mathematical construction of the syllogism. A syllogism, like the one above, is made up of three statements: the major premise, or general observation; the minor premise, or particular observation; and the conclusion, which is something that one might rightly deduce from the premises given

Consider the following syllogism, and note how it differs from the one above: Everyone who has been exposed to the E-Boli virus has died. John Q. has been exposed to the E-Boli virus. John Q. will die.

What is the difference between the two syllogisms? It's very clear that in the first syllogism, the major premise is not true. Surely there are men in the world who are not intelligent. On the other hand, the major premise of the second syllogism we can accept as true. While there may in fact be people who have been exposed to this virus and lived, we have no record of them. On the other hand, every case of E-Boli that we've seen has resulted in death. Therefore, we can proceed confidently from our major premise to a conclusion that is sound. Of course, in any syllogism all premises must be true (or considered true) if the argument is to stand. Consider the following syllogism: Murder is a terrible crime. Abortion is murder. Abortion is a terrible crime. In this case, it is the minor premise that is most open to challenge. Is abortion indeed murder? If the writer can convince his reader that it is, then the reader will accept his conclusion. This way of arguing is called deduction. When one deduces, he moves from a general argument to a specific argument. The great detective Sherlock Holmes was famous for his deductive arguments. A crime might be solved, for example, along these lines:

All watchdogs bark at strangers.

When X was murdered, the dogs did not bark.

X was not killed by a stranger.

Most detectives, however, use a different kind of reasoning when they try to solve a crime: inductive reasoning. When you reason inductively, you observe the specific(s) and move to the general. Detectives like Colombo and Kojak might gather their clues from specific observations. From these observations they then determine inductively who the murderer is.

It's important to note that many of the major premises used in syllogisms are often arrived at through inductive reasoning. For example, epidemiologists studying the E-Boli virus certainly had to observe the disease carefully before they could come to the general observation that E-Boli always kills. If we recall the early days of the AIDS virus, we will remember that researchers were initially stumped by the illness. Because so many cases in America involved gay men, researchers erroneously dubbed the disease, “Gay Cancer.” When they began to gather more information about the disease, researchers were able to understand that the disease is a virus passed from one individual to another via bodily fluids. AIDS is not cancer. Nor is it a gay disease.

Reasoning inductively is perhaps more difficult than reasoning deductively, because it is easy to make a mistake in our observations. It is also possible that the evidence we have to work with isn't complete, making it difficult to draw persuasive conclusions.

Avoiding Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies are mistakes in reasoning. They may be intentional or unintentional, but in either case they undermine the strength of an argument. Some common fallacies are defined below.

Hasty Generalization: A generalization based on too little evidence, or on evidence that is biased. Example: Statistics show that poor people are unhappy.

Either/Or Fallacy: Only two possibilities are presented when in fact several exist. Example: Shut down all nuclear power plants or watch your children and grandchildren die from radiation poisoning.

Non Sequitur: The conclusion does not follow logically from the premise. Example: My teacher is pretty; I'll learn a lot from her.

Ad Hominem: Arguing against the man instead of against the issue. Example: We can't elect him mayor. He cheats on his wife!

Red Herring: Distracting the audience by drawing attention to an irrelevant issue. Example: Why worry about nuclear war when we're all going to die anyway?

Circular Reasoning: Asserting a point that has just been made. Sometimes called "begging the question." Example: She is ignorant because she was never educated. Or: We sin because we're sinners.

False Analogy: Wrongly assuming that because two things are alike in some ways, they must be alike in all ways. Example: An old grandmother's advice to her granddaughter, who is contemplating living with her boyfriend: "Why should he buy the cow when he can get the milk for free?"

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc: The mistake of assuming that, because event a is followed by event b, event a caused event b. Example: The stock market fell because the Japanese are considering implementing an import tax.

Equivocation: Equates two meanings of the same word falsely. Example: The end of a thing is its perfection; hence, death is the perfection of life. (The argument is fallacious because there are two different definitions of the word “end” involved in the argument.)

III.7 Attending to Grammar

A Brief Introduction

Grammar is the ever-evolving structure of the English language, more than a set of rules. Grammar can be pretty boring: no student likes rules, memorize them and, far worse, applying them. However, grammar is more than this: it is comprehension of how language works how meaning is made or broken.

Most Commonly Occurring Errors

A study concerning errors error by Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors (1993) shows that twenty different mistakes comprise 91.5 % of all errors in texts written by students. If they can control these twenty errors, they will create correct prose. Below there are listed these errors, according to the frequency use.

1. No comma after introductory phrases.

Example: After the devastation of the Tsunami the Japanese were left with the task of cleaning up their city. (A comma should be placed after “Tsunami.”)

2. Vague pronoun reference.

Example: The girl and her mother knew that she was in trouble. (Who was in trouble? The girl? Her mother? Some other person?)

No comma in compound sentence.

Example: The child spent a lot of time in the jungle with his sister Sara and the two of them were never apart. (A comma must be placed before the “and.”)

Wrong word.

This speaks for itself.

No comma in non-restrictive relative clauses.

Here students need to differentiate between a non-restrictive relative clause and a restrictive one. They will examine the sentence, "The girl in the red dress likes ice cream." If she has TWO sisters, then the information about her dress is restrictive, in that it is necessary to defining WHICH sister likes ice cream. Restrictive clauses, essential to identifying the noun, use no commas. Therefore, if she has ONE sister, then the information about her dress is not necessary to identifying her sister. It is NON-RESTRICTIVE and, consequently, requires commas: "The girl, in the red dress, likes ice cream."

Wrong/missing inflected ends.

The term “inflected endings” refers to: adding a letter or syllable at the end of a word, changing its grammatical function in that sentence. For example, adding "ed" to a verb changes that verb from present to past; adding an “s” to a noun turns that noun into plural. Another common mistake is in the usage of who/whom. We say “Who is the student of the day?” In this case, “who” refers to the subject of the sentence. We simply say, “To whom am I speaking?” because, here, the pronoun is an object of the preposition “to.”

Wrong/missing preposition.

Occasionally prepositions will puzzle students. They will observe, for example, which is better: “different from,” or “different than?” Though both are used widely, “different from” is considered grammatically correct. The same debate surrounds the words “toward” and “towards.” Though both are used, “toward” is preferred in writing.

Comma splice.

A comma splice happens when two clauses are connected only with a comma. For example: "Her father was profoundly affected by the divorce last year, it led to a great disappointed." A comma splice might also occur when a comma is used to separate a subject from a verb. For example: “The young boy felt stifled in school in England, and wanted to leave.” (The subject “the young boy” is separated from the verb "wanted." There should be used a comma in this sentence, unless we are playing with grammatical correctness for the purpose of emphasis – a dangerous activity for unconfident or inexperienced writers.)

Possessive apostrophe error.

Apostrophes are sometimes incorrectly left out or put in (her's, their's, its/it’s, etc.)

Tense shift.

Students should be careful to stay in a consistent tense. Very often students shift from past to present tense without good reason. Any reader will find this annoying.

Unnecessary shift in person.

Students should not shift from “I” to “we” or from “one” to “you” unless they have a reason for doing so.

12. Sentence fragment.

Silly things, to be avoided. Unless, like here, students are using them to achieve a certain effect. They should remember that sentences traditionally have both subjects and verbs, and they should not violate this convention carelessly.

Wrong tense or verb form.

Even though students generally understand how to use and build tenses, sometimes they use a wrong tense, using, for example, “In the afternoons, I like to lay on my bed and listen to music”. “Lay” in this instance is the past tense of the verb, “to lie.” The sentence should have been: “In the afternoons, I like to lie on my bed and listen to music.”

Subject-verb agreement.

This gets tricky when students are using collective nouns or pronouns and they think of them as plural nouns. For example, "The committee plans [not plan] a resolution to the problem." Such mistakes like this also happen when their verb is far from your subject. For example, “The army, who has power in this nation and abuses it consistently, uses its influence for bad than good.” (the army is an “it,” not a “they.” The verbs are chosen accordingly.)

Missing comma in a series.

Whenever students list things, they will use a comma. They will have different opinion as to whether the next-to-last noun (the noun before the “and”) requires a comma. (“Apples, oranges, pears, and bananas…”) It is advisable that they use the comma because sometimes their list will contain pairs of things: “For Christmas she wanted books and tapes, peace and love, and for the entire world to be happy.” If they are in the habit of using a comma before the “and,” they will avoid confusion in sentences like this one.

Unnecessary commas with restrictive clauses.

See the explanation for number five, above.

Run-on, fused sentence.

These sentences are those that run on forever; these are sentences that ought to have been two or three sentences but the writer did not sort them, making the reader feel exhausted by the sentence's end which is so long. Fused sentences happen when two independent clauses are put together without a comma, semi-colon, or conjunction. For example: “His family have seen many houses then they chose one to buy”.

Dangling, misplaced modifier.

Modifiers, adverbs, phrases, or clauses, when used wisely, intensify students’ writing. In case they are not well-considered or put in the wrong places in their sentences – the results can be less than eloquent. They could consider, for example, this sentence: “The teacher wrote a paper on discrimination in his office.” Is any discrimination going on in the teacher's office? Is his office the place where he is writing? One expects that the latter is true. If it is, the original sentence has a misplaced modifier and it should be re-written: “The teacher, in his office, wrote a paper on discrimination.” Students should always as adjectives, put their modifiers next to the nouns they modify.
Dangling modifiers intend to modify something that is not in the sentence. Considering this: “As a child, my mother used to bake bread.” The writer intends to say, “When I was a child, my mother used to bake bread.” The modifying phrase “as a child” refers to some noun not in the sentence. It is a dangling modifier. Other dangling modifiers are more difficult to catch. Consider this sentence: “Walking on Dublin’s streets, my heart hurt.” Is it your heart that is walking on Dublin’s streets? It is more accurate to say, “Walking on Dublin’s streets, I felt a pain in my heart”and you avoid the dangling modifier.

Its/it's error.

“Its” is a possessive pronoun and “It's” is a contraction for “it is.”

III.8 Attending to Style

Introduction

I am sure that most of us recognize good style when we see it. However, even if we can easily detect beastly sentences, it is difficult to say WHY a sentence is not working. We look at it; we see that the commas are in the right places; we find no error to speak of. But why is the sentence so awful? When thinking about ways that make a good sentence, it is important for students to put themselves in the place of their reader. What is a reader hoping to find in their sentences?

Information, yes. Eloquence, surely. But most importantly, a reader is looking for clarity. Their reader does not want to wrestle with their sentences. He wants to read with ease and to see one idea build upon the other. He wants to experience, without struggling, the emphasis of their language and the importance of their idea. In short, he wants to read forceful, straightforward, and clear sentences.

The Basic Principles of the Sentence

Principle One: Focus on Actors and Actions

In order to understand what makes a good sentence, it is important for students to understand this principle: a sentence is about actors and actions. The subject of a sentence should aim clearly to the actor, and the verb should relate the important action. This principle might seem so evident that they do not think that it warrants further discussion. Let us look at the following example and determine, in a nutshell, what is wrong with it:

There was doubt in his mind about Michael’s intention to change his new house.

This sentence has no grammatical errors. But certainly it stumbles along, without any force. We will consider the following sentence:

He remained suspicious that Michael intended to change his new house.

We can see some obvious changes: omitting the "there is" phrase; replacing the "doubt" with the more powerful "remained suspicious"; replacing the abstract noun "intention" with the stronger verb "intended." What principle governs these many changes? Precisely that the actor in a sentence should work as the sentence's subject, and the action should be shown forcefully in the sentence's verbs.

At any time students feel that their prose is confusing or hard to follow, they will find the actors and the actions of their sentences. Is the actor the subject of their sentence? Is the action a verb? If not, they will rewrite their sentence accordingly.

Principle Two: Be Concrete

Students who write rely too much on abstract nouns: they use “evaluation" when "evaluate" is more dynamic. They use abstract nouns because they consider that abstract nouns allow them to sound more “academic.” When they write with a lot of abstract nouns, they risk confusing their reader. They also end up putting themselves in a corner, syntactically. Let us consider the following:

Nouns often require prepositions.

In a sentence, too many prepositional phrases are difficult to follow. On the other hand, verbs can stand on their own. For example, let us take the following sentence: An evaluation of the clients by the commercial staff is necessary in servicing our clients. Observe all of the prepositional phrases that these nouns require. Looking at this sentence : The commercial staff evaluates the clients so that we can better serve them is much easier to read.

1. Abstract nouns often ask the “there is” construction.

Having the following example: There is much tension in the entire office about the upcoming decision. This sentence might be rewritten as follows: The entire office discussed about the upcoming decision. The result is a more direct sentence and easier to read.

2. Abstract nouns are, abstract.

Using too many abstract nouns will lead students to un-rooted prose. Instead, they will use concrete nouns and strong verbs to bring your ideas.

3. Abstract nouns can obscure students’ logic.

Consider the following example:

“Decisions with regard to the dismissal of tutors on the basis of their inability to detect grammar errors in the papers of students rest with the Director of Composition. Now consider this sentence. When a tutor fails to detect grammar errors in student papers, the Director of Composition must decide whether or not to dismiss her.”

Principle Three, The Exception: Abstract Nouns And When To Use Them. There are situations where an abstract noun is essential to the sentence, for example, in formal letters, reports, proposals, etc. Sometimes, abstract nouns make allusions to a previous sentence (“these arguments,” “this problem,” etc.). In other instances, they permit students to be more concise (“his needs” vs. “what he needed”). Mostly, in other instances, the abstract noun is an important concept for their argument: love, freedom, revolution, and so on. Yet, if they examine their prose, they will probably find that they overuse abstract nouns. Omitting from their writing those unnecessary abstract nouns makes for leaner, “fitter” prose.

Principle Four: Be Concise

One of the most exasperating things about reading student texts is that students do not know how to write concisely. They use phrases when a single word will do, they offer pairs of adjectives and verbs where one is enough, they over-write, saying the same thing two or three times with the hope that, one of these times, they will get it the way they want it.

Principle Five: Be Coherent

Coherence (or the lack of it) is a typical problem in student papers. Sometimes a teacher deals with a paper in which all the ideas look to be there, but they are difficult to follow. The writing seems tangled. The line of argument is anything but linear. Could the student have composed this paper a bit more readable?

While coherence is a complicated and hard matter to address, there are a couple of tricks for students that will help their sentences to “flow.” Each sentence they write must begin with the old – that is. Then their sentence should move on to revealing the reader something new. If they do this, their line of reasoning will be easier for their reader to follow.

Principle Six: Be Emphatic

Up to now we have been talking about sentences and their beginnings. But what about how they end? If the beginnings of students’ sentences must look over the previous writing, the ends of their sentences must produce ahead into new ground. Then, the ends of their sentence must be courageous and emphatic.

To write emphatically, students will follow these principles:

1. Declare their important ideas at the end of their sentence.

Shift their less important ideas to the front.

2.Trim the ends of their sentences.

Students should not repeat themselves what they've just said if they do not have to. They will simply make their point and move on.

• Use subordinate clauses to hold subordinate ideas.

Students will put the important ideas in main clauses, and less important ideas in subordinate clauses. If they have two ideas of equal importance that they want to express in the same sentence, they will use semi-colons or parallel constructions. These two tricks of the deal are, probably, more useful than any others in suggesting a fair significance between ideas.

Principle Seven: Be In Control

Readers observe when a writer has lost control when these sentences go on and on. That is why, students will take control of their sentences. When they read over their paper, they will look for sentences that never seem to end. Their first impulse might divide them. This solution often works.Yet, sometimes this strategy isn't the most useful one: it might lead to short, rough sentences. Moreover, if they always cut their sentences in two, they'll never learn how that sentence might be long and complex without trespassing the bounds of good writing.

So what do students do when they encounter an overly long sentence? First they will consider the point of their sentence. They will consider carefully the points that they are trying to make and the connections between them. Then they will try to determine which grammatical structure best serves their purpose.

Are the points of equal importance?

Students will use a coordinating conjunction or a semi-colon to join the ideas together. They’ll try to use parallel constructions when appropriate.

Are the points of unequal importance?

Students will use subordinate clauses or relative clauses to join the ideas.

Does one point make for an interesting aside?

Students will insert that point between commas, dashes, or even parentheses at the appropriate juncture in the sentence.

Do these ideas belong in the same sentence?

If not, students will create two sentences.

Principle Eight: Write Beautifully

Young writers will sometimes produce a well written paper, but that might be written better. They might wish to turn their attention to such matters as symmetry, balance, climactic emphasis, parallel structure, rhythm, metaphor, and language. If they are interested in exploring these rhetorical tools, we could refer them to Williams' book Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, where they will find valuable advice.

III.9 Using Peer Groups in the Advanced Writing Classroom

For the past few decades, educators have admitted the value of learning collaboratively. Studies have proved that students do not learn well when they are isolated, silent “receivers” of knowledge. Indeed, learning is most effective when students overcome both isolation and silence. Collaborative learning exercises, peer review workshops, group presentations, collaborative papers, discussion groups, and so on – succeed in our writing classrooms because they give students the chance to become actively participants..

While collaborative learning exercises serve a number of educational ends, the use of peer groups are particularly successful in helping teachers meet their goals in the writing classroom:

Peer groups help students to gain a sense of audience. Students, very often, write only to please their teachers. Knowing the fact that their peers will read their papers helps students to gain a sense of whom they are writing to.

Peer groups help students to understand writing as a public act, rather than as a private, isolated one. Sudents might write papers that aren't clear or persuasive for others. Their peer reviewers help them to understand that they write for a reader.

Peer groups help students to better understand the conventions of academic prose. When diussing about their papers with their peers, students will discover where their readers hesitate. They can also realize why. Often, these discussions guide to a better understanding of writing conventions. More important, students come to realize that academic conventions are not just arbitrary conventions, but create certain expectations among their readers. If a writer wants to be understood by an academic audience, he will heed the conventions of academic writing.

Peer groups give students practice in analyzing writing. It is easier to find deficiencies in one's own prose. It is also easier to analyse student writing than it is to critique the published writing that teachers often give their students as models.

Peer groups force students to talk about their writing. In the peer review session, students will have to deal with questions about their writing. They will have to explain and even protect their writing strategies.

Peer groups help students to comprehend writing as a process, and to increase their sense of mastery of what is often a complex and difficult process. The best mode to learn something is to teach it. While instructing their peers, students discover that they learn how to improve their own writing. Moreover, as they address a variety of problems in their classmates' papers – weak thesis sentences, confusing paragraphs, absent transitions, convoluted sentences, and so on – students come fully to appreciate writing as a complicated and demanding process.

Our discussion so far has pointed to why peer groups are useful to our writing classrooms. The question that remains is how peer groups are most effectively used. Can collaborative exercises be whole class events? Or do they work better when the peer groups are smaller? Should these groups have three members? Two? Four? Should peer work be done in class, or might it be done outside of class? Should a teacher supply guidelines for his peer groups to follow? Should he develop clear or special criteria for evaluating peer work?

The beauty of collaborative learning is the possibility to be practised in many ways. Collaborative exercises can be done with the whole-class or in small peer review groups. Some collaborative exercises work best in pairs – in particular, those exercises that need close and extensive attention. Other collaborative exercises work best when students get many points of view (for example, when the goal of the exercise is to narrow a subject, or to sharpen a thesis).

Peer work might be done in or out of class. Some teachers allot 20-25% of their class time for writing workshops, in which copies of student papers are distributed (usually anonymously) and discussed.

Finally, teachers who routinely use peer groups agree that students do need guidelines in order for these exercises to be successful. A system for evaluating peer work is also useful, in that such criteria motivate students to give their best to the collaborative effort.

Conducting the Peer Review Writing Workshop

Many teachers of writing recognize that the most effective way to talk about writing in class is to discuss the students' own writing. Accordingly, these teachers designate time for collaborative writing workshops.

In these workshops, teachers use specific examples of the students' own writing in order to discuss problems that seem common to all. If, for example, a class seems not to know how to write a focused and interesting thesis sentence, a teacher might gather various thesis sentences and discuss their individual merits. If, on the other hand, the thesis sentences seem competent but the introductions leading up to them are rambling or numbingly general, the teacher might present an introduction or two and brainstorm with the class other strategies for introducing an argument.

In short, the writing workshop allows teachers to be flexible, and to deal with the writing problems that seem most acute.

Not all writing workshops are “whole class” events, however. Some teachers prefer to divide their classes into small groups or pairs, and to have each student critique the paper of a classmate. The merit of the peer review workshop is that it requires each student to take an active and responsible role in the reading and responding processes. In these exercises, students must first analyze and evaluate the writing of their peers; then, in talking with their peers, students must consider how they might, in a sense, teach their classmates to write better essays.

Teaching Students to Read Peer Papers

To be sure that our students are able to comment effectively on their peer's papers, we must teach them ways of reading and responding to student texts. We can begin by modelling the reading process and illustrating that there are a few ways to read a paper:

Reading as a common reader. When our students read as Virginia Woolf called "common readers," they observe their personal feedback to a text. Are they bored or fascinated? Annoyed or delighted? Teachers should instruct students to keep control on their experiences concerning a particular text, as these answers can guide them to a sense of the paper's particular points, weak or strong.

Reading to know the writer. Teachers should discipline students to read the paper for what isn't in it: very often the prejudices and suppositions that are never explicitly affirmed in the paper are exactly the paper's problem. Students should attempt to determine what feelings, values, opinions, or assumptions might be undermining a text.

Reading to diagnose the problem. If we provide them with the right terminology and guidelines, students are generally able to identify what is wrong with their classmates' papers. Teachers should take some class time to explaining which are the most important concepts to the success of a particular paper. Students can then determine why a paper is working and why it isn't, isolating the particular problems.

Reading to improve the paper. Diagnosing what is wrong with a paper, students are still less skillful at giving advice for improving it. When a thesis is weak they have to make it better. Of all the ways of reading we've taken into consideration so far, this is the one in which students need the most careful and thorough instruction. Teachers will perhaps want to devote time to modelling how it is that one transforms a poor thesis or sentence into a better one.

Teaching Peers to Respond to [anonimizat] soon as students have been taught how to read their classmates' papers, they need some instruction in how to respond. We've found that a variety of response tools is necessary for students to give their classmates effective commentary.

Summarize the argument. When a reader has trouble summarizing the writer's argument, it's absolutely sure that the argument has a gap. Summarizing can help students to see where and how their argument has gone awry.

Predict the argument. Reading only the paper's introduction and thesis, a reader might predict the argument to follow. If not, perhaps the introduction has failed to shape the argument. This exercise is fruitful helping students to evaluate the paper's introduction and thesis sentence and to observe the connection between the introduction and the overall structure of an argument.

Ask questions. The most important goals of the peer review are to get the student writer to comprehend how her paper needs to be revised, and to control strategies for that revision. Students can ask questions about the writer's process and what aspect of the process gave him particular difficulties; they can also ask questions about a writer's purpose at a particular juncture; they can ask about the writer's rhetorical strategies.

Reflect what the writer is trying to say. When a particular point is unclear, it can be helpful to try to mirror that point back to the writer: “What you intend to emphasize here is…” The writer will usually observe that his point is ambiguous and can then consider how he might mention his point more effectively to the reader.

Label problems. Student writers can be greatly assisted when their peers take the time to find and to name the problems in their papers. Student writers can make a list of their problems – incoherent paragraphs, agreement problems, and so on.

Make suggestions. Student writers seek advice on their papers. They want to know how to fix what’s wrong with their paper. Their peers should be prepared to make suggestions for improvement. They should also offer their classmates several strategies for solving the problem, allowing the classmate to figure out for himself which of these solutions might work best.

Establishing Guidelines for Peer Review

Peer review exercises are most effective when teachers provide their students with some guidelines or “checklists” for review. These checklists might be general, asking students to respond to the whole paper, or they might be specific, requiring students to focus on one or two aspects of the essay.

While we think that teachers should generate their own guidelines for peer review, based on the skills they most want their students to master, a general guideline or checklist for peer reviews might be created by picking and choosing from the following:

Consider the Topic

Has the writer put forth an interesting intellectual problem or question? In other words, has he constructed a problem that will require a complex, thoughtful answer?

Does the problem seem impossibly broad? Too narrow? If so, how might the writer narrow or broaden his topic so that it is more appropriate or manageable?

Does the reader care about this question? Or does he feel, “So what?”

What might the writer do to get a more interesting “take” on the topic?

Consider the Thesis

Does the thesis present an argument or a declaration of personal feeling? A statement of fact?

After reading the thesis, peer reviews will try to guess the structure of the argument. If they can't make this prediction, they will talk about why.

Does the introductory paragraph describe terms important to understanding the thesis?

How is the language in the thesis? Is it vivid and clear? For example, has the writer arrange the sentence so that the significant information is in the main clause? Has he used subordinate clauses to house less relevant information? Has he used parallelism to reveal the relationship between parts of the thesis? Is this thesis the very best sentence?

Consider the Structure

Does the structure accomplish the terms offered by the thesis?

Are the main points relevant to the argument? Should the writer skip the irrelevant points? Should he rewrite his thesis to fit these ideas?

Does the argument look logical? Why or why not?

Does the writer have enough support for each of his points?

Does the writer accept other points of view about his topic?

Is the argument comprehensive? Has the writer reached the ground?

Consider the Paragraphs

Does each paragraph reduce itself to a single point of the argument?

Does the topic sentence help the argument? Peer reviews will provide the topic sentences the same “so what?” analysis that they gave the thesis sentence. If the topic sentences aren't significant or interesting, how might they be improved?

Does each topic sentence clearly join to the paragraph before?

Does the topic sentence handle the paragraph? Why or why not?

Consider the Evidence

Does the writer have enough evidence to support the paper's idea? Too much evidence?

Does this evidence clearly support the assertion the writer is making, or is the writer stretching it?

If the writer is stretching it, what can he do to persuade the reader that this stretch is worth making?

Consider the Sentences

Do peer reviews find the sentences effective? Eloquent? Grammatical?

Do they spot any annoying syntactical or grammatical habits?

What advice on the matters of style and grammar might they give?

Evaluating Peer Exercises

Some teachers who use peer groups want some way of insuring that students are giving these exercises their best efforts. They seek a way of evaluating these exercises – particularly when peer review groups are meeting outside of class.

We offer a few ideas for evaluating our students peer efforts. One idea is to ask students to do their critiques in writing before they meet with their peer review partners or groups. Teachers can then collect these critiques and evaluate them. Another idea is to ask each student to write a page-long critique of how the peer review process did (or did not) help him to re-think and to rewrite his paper.

Whatever method a teacher decides to use, he should be sure that his students understand that their work in the peer groups is an important element of the course, and that it will influence their final grades.

III.10 Responding to student text

Managing the Demands of Time

One of the most powerful teaching tools that a teacher has in the writing classroom is his own pen (or computer). Responding to students' papers is an important way to individualize students' writing instruction, and teachers are keen on finding ways of responding that are efficient (for them) and instructive (for students).

Most teachers report that they spend a good deal of time responding to student papers, taking anywhere from twenty minutes to one hour per draft. The average is roughly half an hour. First drafts typically take longer to respond to than do final drafts, because on the first drafts teachers find themselves raising more questions and making more suggestions than they do on the final papers (on which they more often make evaluative remarks, which generally take less time).

Still, responding to student papers is perhaps the most demanding aspect of any course that includes writing, and teachers are continuously looking for ways to meet this demand. Some teachers have developed systems that work very well – for their particular courses and personalities. We offer a few here:

We should not comment on everything. We will tell students in our responses to a particular paper or draft we intend to focus on their thesis sentences and introductions, their overall structure, their logic, their use of sources, and so on. This method works particularly well in courses that require students to do several papers or several drafts of a paper. Teachers can, as the term progresses, focus on several aspects of student writing.

We could space deadlines so that we are not overwhelmed by drafts. In larger courses, we might divide the class in half or into thirds and require different due dates for these different groups.

Using peer groups is an excellent idea. We can ask our students to meet outside of class to discuss about their papers. Peer groups work better when we've practiced the critiquing process in class and we give students checklists or guidelines for critiquing. Many teachers require that critiqued drafts be turned in along with final drafts so that they have some means of evaluating the peer reviews.

Diagnosing the Problem(s)

A successful response to any paper depends on a correct diagnosis of the papers' problem(s). When we read a paper, we need to consider certain aspects of that paper before we can make a solid evaluation of what problem(s), precisely, the student writer is encountering. These aspects include:

The thesis. The thesis is usually the first thing that we seek when we evaluate a student's paper. Is there a clear thesis? Is the thesis clearly affirmed? Does it make a point worth making? Does it bring a sense of the structure of the argument to come?

The structure. If a paragraph can happen as “happily” on page 3 and also on page 4, the writer has some trouble. We will observe any random analysis of points in a paper. We will observe, too, whether or not the organization pursue the plan set in the introduction and thesis.

Paragraphs: external coherence. Sometimes paragraphs are well written, but they do not seem appropriate, either to the thesis sentence, or to the previous paragraph. If the paragraph does not look relevant to the thesis, we will challenge students to consider ways that they might rewrite the topic sentence to make it relevant. If they cannot, they should see dropping the paragraph from the paper. Further, a paragraph may look relevant to its thesis, but it does not look to “flow” from the paragraph that came before. Generally, this kind of problem aims to weak transitions. We will assist students to make their shifts more carefully.

Paragraphs: internal coherence. Does each paragraph take a topic sentence that manage the entire paragraph? Are all the supporting sentences appropriate to that topic sentence? If not, is the coherence problem fixed in an irrelevance of content, or in sentences that are insufficiently constructed? In order to determine the aim of a coherence problem, we will take a paragraph and highlight the subjects of all of its sentences. If a paragraph's sentences hold too many subjects, the “point” of the paragraph will be absurd to determine.

Style. In order to determine any problems with style in a student's paper, it is fundamental to put some of the sentences to the test:

Consider the simple subjects and predicates. Is the authentic subject of the sentence its grammatical subject? Is the character of the sentence its subject? Is the action mirrored in the principal verb of its predicate?

Consider the “action” between nouns and verbs. Do students exaggerate nominalizations (that is, writing sentences with abstract nouns that might serve the sentences as verbs)? Do students use too much the passive voice, thereby obscuring the subject of his sentence?

Consider the relation of dependent and independent clauses. Do studenst place the information that is important into the independent clause, or is it hidden in some dependent clause?

Consider how the sentences begin, and how they end. Normally, the beginnings of sentences should keep “old information,” while the ends should offer the reader with something ‘new.” Context and transitions should be at the beginning of the sentence. The end of the sentence should be carefully built so that the “new” point is strongly made and does not mark in a somewhat rambling fashion (as this sentence does.)

Consider a student's use of elegant rhetorical devices. Are these devices adequately used, or does the student mishandles them? We'll want to shape elegance for our students in our own replies to their writing. We'll also wish to reward them when they have given a particularly elegant turn of phrase.

Secondary sources. A student's use of sources can be very significant. Sometimes in a poor paper we will observe the promise of an idea, only to discover that these promises are all footnoted. If this is the case, we may want to view that the writing problems may be deep in the fact that the writer doesn't know how to express about his subject. He may not comprehend the conventions of the discipline. Or he may simply not see what it is that he wants to say. In either case, the teacher may wish to meet with the student to observe what problems the student is having with the course materials.

Types of Responses

Once we have diagnosed a student's writing problems, we are ready to craft our responses. Teachers tend to make four different types of responses on their students' papers: facilitative, directive, corrective, and evaluative. We believe that students learn best when teachers craft responses that possess all these qualities. When teachers simply correct their students' writing, students do not learn how to think critically about their writing. Rather, they simply learn how to “fix” their papers so that they meet the expectations of that particular teacher. It is therefore advisable that teachers give priority to the facilitative approach to responding to student writing. This approach, above all the others, brings students to think critically about their own work, and places the responsibility for writing and thinking squarely on the students' shoulders.

Facilitative Responses

Facilitative remarks are most often phrased as questions. These questions are carefully designed so that they encourage a student to consider his ideas and their expression entirely. These questions might sound general – for example, “Where is your thesis sentence?” More often, thus, they are specific, addressing a vulnerability in very particular terms – for example, “You attempt to discredit Nietzsche's brand of nihilism in The Antichrist by arguing that this nihilism is discordant with Christianity. Wouldn't Nietzsche claim that this is its strength?”

The idea behind the facilitative feedback is that students best learn to write when being in charge for their own writing decisions. The helpful question or comment let students to retain this important liability by locating authority and authorship with the student. Teachers who reply facilitative do not provide easy answers, or give them specific directions for revision either. Teachers raise questions that encourage students to shift through and weigh the teacher's remarks, to progress revision strategies on their own, and to maintain responsibility for their own writing processes.

If we are concerned in responding more facilitative to student writing, we should examine our response style. If we find that we are too often directing our students in the writing process – or, indeed, that we are rewriting sentences for them – we will try to determine ways that we might transform our remarks into useful questions. For example, rather than simply asking a student to omit a paragraph, we will put the question of the paragraph's purpose. Instead of noting that a paragraph has no coherence, we will ask a student to identify the main idea of the paragraph, and if he thinks that, each sentence in the paragraph leads to that idea. And so on.

Directive Responses

Sometimes, useful responses are not desirable – not for the teacher, who deems that the student requires explicit writing advice, and not for the student, who wants to know precisely where he went wrong and why. In this case, teachers often make more directive remarks. Teachers might, indeed, tell students to shift a paragraph, to omit a sentence, or to replace a word.

However, directive responses are most instructive when they helped by some explanation: Should the student exclude a sentence because it is unessential?

Because it is irrelevant? Because it does not make sense? The directive amswer is also effective when mixed with facilitative remarks – for example, "This sentence does not work here.

Corrective Responses

The third category of remarks that teachers make on student papers might be classified as corrective remarks – typically copy-editing remarks that point out errors in syntax and grammar. Teachers have various approaches to dealing with grammatical errors and stylistic clumsiness in student writing. These approaches include:

Labeling all errors using specific grammatical terms (agreement problem, comma splice, etc.).

Circling all errors (with the aim of bringing students to labeling errors on their own)

Marking all errors according to a particular code, which corresponds with the course's grammar handbook

Correcting or rewriting a phrase or sentence (with the aim of modeling a correct and/or eloquent style)

Labeling an error the first or second time that it occurs, and then instructing the student to find subsequent errors of that kind in their papers

Looking for patterns of error, and noting the two or three most common patterns in the summary comments (a method that works well for ESL or other troubled students who are making many different kinds of grammatical errors in their papers)

Referring students to Joe Williams' Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, the common style book for Writing 2-3 and Writing 5.

Different methods work best in different situations. For example, classifying errors helps initiate students into the vocabulary of grammar. Circling their errors stimulates students to puzzle out what mistake they made. Considering an error the first or second time it happens and then instructing students to find later examples encourages them to be closer and better readers of their own texts. Isolating errors helps ESL and other students to understand the general principles of English language.

Evaluative Responses (The Grade)

The last category is the evaluative response that usually comprises the grade.

This grade is a slippery beast – especially when one is asked to grade student writing. Most teachers seem to grade student papers based primarily on content: Does the student considers his topic entirely? Is the position presented in the paper appropriately supported? When the student has done a good job concerning the content end of the paper, he can frequently expect high marks from his teacher.

For some teachers, however, a grade on a paper also reflects the students writing. By “writing,” we do not simply imply that commas are in the right place and that modifiers are not misplaced or dangling. Yey, we plan that a student has written clearly and eloquently. So as to get clarity and eloquence, a student must have sound and coherent structure, focused and cohesive paragraphs, a solid sense of the sentence, and good grammar. Whether any of these elements are lacking, one might argue, the content of the paper also suffers. It is therefore important when evaluating a student's paper to consider both his ideas and their presentation. In short, writing counts.

Some teachers handle this matter by assigning two grades: one for the content of a paper, a second for its writing or style. This method is effective in that it allows teachers to reward good thinking or writing without inflating the entire grade. It also allows teachers to motivate a student to address his writing issues: for example, if a student’s writing has consistently received a low mark, that student might feel that he should take his writing problems more seriously.

Yet, there is some disadvantage in this method of grading, developing in students’ mind the notion that form is separate from content. Their writing is likely to be stronger when students are sure that their ideas cannot be good if their expression is poor. Teachers can support this understanding by assingning a single grade that includes both an evaluation of content and an evaluation of form/style.

In any case, if the matter of giving a grade is difficult, the matter of receiving a grade is equally hard. The grade, after all, has buried in it a great deal of information about a student's writing. However, usually the student has no way of accessing this information. Why is this paper a “C+”? What does it need in order to become a “B+”? It's important that we give our students a sense of what our grades actually mean.

Sometimes teachers provide students with sheets on their syllabi explaining what their standards for grading are. Other times, teachers will tell students that the argument (or structure, or language) of a paper will be most influential in affecting their grade. Most often, though, teachers will devote some of their final commentary to explaining or justifying the student's grade. The student (we hope) will be motivated by these comments to really think about his writing, and will keep these comments in mind the next time he sits down to write.

As to the matter of grading drafts of papers: Some teachers grade first drafts of papers more harshly than they grade final drafts because they hope that the student will be moved to do a revision that is substantive. Other teachers do not grade first drafts at all, arguing that grades distract students from the "real" process of exploring an idea because it is interesting, and not simply because it is required. One teacher has the unusual habit of grading a first draft, but not the revised final draft. Because he comments thoroughly on student drafts, this teacher believes that students should not be rewarded for work he has done himself.

Margin Comments vs. Summary Comments

Teachers often consider their responses into two categories: the remarks they make in the margins of a paper, and the remarks they make at the end, called summary remarks. Teachers make different types of comments in different places in the essay: corrective remarks, facilitative questions, and praise for an idea or turn of phrase are likely to be found in the margins. Typically teachers prefer to deal with global matters in their closing comments.

Those closing comments tend to follow a predictable pattern. Teachers often begin their closing comments praising for something well done: a particularly strong moment in the argument, or a readable prose style. Teachers then focus to the essay's themes and ideas, often asking students to note certain points more deeply and thoroughly. Next, they remark the argument's structure: Are the ideas clear and efficient? Are they presented in a logical manner? Finally, teachers will address matters of grammar and style.

Response and Intellectual Development

One further consideration teachers might wish to make when considering their responses to their students' papers is the question of the students' intellectual development. Though many models exist that help us to understand this development, one particularly useful model is offered by William Perry in his Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development: A Scheme (1970). In this work, William Perry claims that students pass through three phases of intellectual development while at high school (outlined below). Chris Anson, in “Response Styles and Ways of Knowing” illustrates how our response styles can inadvertently assist our students in getting “stuck” in their intellectual development. (A very brief summation of Anson's remarks are highlighted in italics.)

• Dualism. Very young thinkers incline to see the world in black and white, good and bad, and so on. Students consider that there is “right” side, and they want to stay on it. They tend to be overly concerned with correctness. When teachers respond to these students by simply correcting their papers, they inadvertently support their notion that there is one right, “correct” way of thinking – all the more reason for teachers to do more than simply correct their student's papers.

• Relativism. As students advance in their academic careers, they come to comprehend that there is no single right answer to a problem. While this is a desirable step in their intellectual development, relativism also encourages in some students the idea that any opinion is as good as another. Relativism leads students to consider that opinion is attached to the person who has it and that evidence has little to do with an argument's value. For this reason, teachers might wish to limit their comments concerning their students' personal “stake”in the paper or in the writing process. Instead, teachers should focus their comments on the elements of a student's argument that are weak or unsupported, so that students might understand that arguments do have value apart from the personal.

• Reflectivism. If students are properly brought through the phase of relativism, they will realize that some opinions are better than others. Being interested in what makes one argument better than another, and they will be able to create arguments that are objective, well reasoned, and sophisticated. When teachers write balanced comments, students will (in time) write balanced essays. If you address matters of argument, structure, and style in your comments, your students will attend to these matters in their own writing.

A Word About Praise

Several studies of teachers' responses to student texts indicate that teachers allow more time to commenting on a text's deficiencies than to commenting on its strengths. One of these studies, held at Texas A&M (Sam Dragga 1985) discovered that only 6% of the comments praised something well done.

Many teachers hesitate to praise papers which are not truly excellent. It is important not to praise students if their work is poor; nor should teachers assign false encouragement. Yet, neglecting to praise students, teachers lose the opportunity to note and to encourage what skills their students do possess. We are therefore encouraged to praise our students for well done and use the margins. We can spot specific examples of excellence and competence.

III.11 Managing the “personal” in student writing

The “Place” of the Personal in the Writing Classroom

The argument in favor of the personal is a reasoning rooted in students' cognitive development: students are taking important examinations ( CAE, CPE, TOEFL,SAT, local, regional and national contests in English) which will greatly contribute to their academic education and future careers. In order for them to make that move in a meaningful way, their "persons" must be involved; otherwise, they are simply posturing.

By “personal” we generally imply writing that is rooted in a student's personal experiences and responses (vs text-inspired, text-based, and text-supported writing).

In order to insure that personal writing assignments will enhance our students' learning process, we might ask ourselves the following questions:

Are analytical and the personal necessarily competing with each other? Is "the personal" competing with the goals of my course? How can I teach students to practice their personal experiences and personal writing to strenghten rather than to diminish the strength of their academic arguments? How do I put in motion students who seem to be "caught" in the personal to writing and thinking that is more analytical?

Here are some of the most intriguing ideas for managing the personal:

Use personal response papers, but root them to the text. Most of the times, I ask my students to produce short personal response essays on the reading they have done. These essay need not provide a thesis, or to the rules of paragraphing. The only demand is that students must begin their essays by citing some part of the text they have read. This demand make students to consider more than their own feelings about the text. That way, they will have to consider why they preferred this particular passage to respond to. Is this passage essential to the text's meaning? Suggestive of other lines of argument or inquiry? Just plain fascinating? And why?

Ask students to analyse their personal writing. Some teachers ask their students to write personal essays about a certain topic. Then, after reading some critical works about that topic, students are demanded to return to their personal essays and then to analyze them according to what they have talked about in class. This exercise initiate students to think critically about their own experiences, increasing their analytical skills.

III.12 Conclusion

Implementing the writing process into the classroom is an effective strategy that teaches students a necessary form of communication.  Writing is a forceful tool that can guide others and clarify one's own thoughts.  Teaching the writing process can provide our students the key to unlocking this mighty tool.

CHAPTER IV
CREATIVE WRITING AS LANGUAGE PRACTICE

IV.1 What are the benefits of creative writing in the language classroom?

There are three areas in which language learners at an upper-intermediate level and above can gain from creative writing. Students express themselves and expose their own ideas. Creative writing can be very encouraging and a lot of fun. Creative writing require playful but rigorous work with language. Many people seem to identify creative writing with an “anything goes” mentality. Yet, in order to create a good text, poem, short story or dramatic scene, the language requires to be correct and it needs to work.
Creative writing needs greater precision in expression. In order to say exactly what they mean, students must be very careful when using the vocabulary and idioms.

For students who study literature there are supplementary benefits. Creative writing provides

options to traditional ways of considering texts. Writing, say, a dialogue between two characters of a novel which does not exist in the text is not only amusing but also asks for a good understanding of their interests and features.
Creative writing can contribute to a more profound acknowledgment of a text. Any student who has worked to write a sonnet, for example, can realize what is involved in a sonnet examined in class.
Discussing work in class increases debating skills and critical reading. An essential feature is class feedback on texts students write.

How can creative writing work?

Starting up
Students who are less confident, may feel stressed to turn in a masterpiece, which may stop them in their writing. In order to prevent this, it serves to do the first activities orally and/or in groups. Students can primarily explore an idea together, possibly without giving themselves on paper. If we prefer to explore a whole range of activities linked to a given area in class, for example, in characterisation, it serves to introduce the topic with a playful start activity, ideally linked to the sort of language games students can play in their own language or in class, and to apply the fact that most people get talking easier than writing. This frees ways into the field that are clear and non-threatening. Writing
Much of this can take place outside the classroom except the activities that need for interaction, for example if two students produce different lines of a poem in a 'ping-pong' writing activity (the two partners write a line of a poem, then interchange papers and write the next line of the poem, proceeding to what the partner put there, then give back, add another line to the one the teammate wrote and continue up to finish the text). Students should also be motivated to rewrite first drafts (which refines the language and the selection of vocabulary).

What can we write?
Creative writing is limitless as far as genre is concerned. Students can write short stories, short dialogues and poems. The main restriction is time and therefore space: most texts need to be relatively short.

For this reason it may be practical to focus on poetry as perhaps the most dense of all the possible genres. It also has the the advantage that the concision of poems enables us to write a first draft in class and to perform a text in class with discussion.

Concerning poetry, many teachers are unconfortable about it because they consider it as the most sublime form of writing. For students, writing poems can seem rather impressive once they understand that formal constraints, especially rhyme, are not fundamental for a good poem.

 What comes first, reading or writing?
When we practice creative writing for “creative” reading, an essential issue is what arrives first, reading or writing.

Reading first
Evidently this depends on the activity. If we consider an activity where characters of a play encounter themselves “outside the text”, we definitely need to be familiar with the text, the characters and their circumstances before writing about such a meeting. The very same is available when students are requested to write an ending about “what-would-have-happened-if”.

Writing first
On the other hand, if we desire our students write a text close to a literary one, either in terms of elements (characters, scenes, conflicts, experiences, etc.) or formally, the case is not clear: should our students write first and then balance their results with the literary text or first study the text and then produce their own? This second approach may not function very well here. The canonical text may influence too much, and the result may be just a poor copy or, worse, students may be stopped entirely. Thus, very interesting work may be the result if the students consider a theme, conflict, or experience and then decide how an established writer has managed with the same theme, conflict or experience.

So, Creative writing …

is not the unique way to feel new life into a language class but it provides fascinating, dynamic opportunities for language practice.

is not unlimited but requires precise and accurate expression and vocabulary.

is not writing everything but gives us the chance to concentrate on specific ideas, or literary texts

is not discouraging for most of us but gives opportunities for students to use their language and imagination

is not a replacement for oral communication but symbolizes a lively, motivating way to bring new meaning to a less used language skill.

IV.2 Teaching writing through literature

Integrating Reading and Writing in the Advanced Writing Classroom

Using Reading to Teach Writing

In the nineteenth century, students did not normally write analyses of what they read, but rather wrote themes on recommended topics, such as Vanity, Democracy, Ethics, etc. Reading and writing came curricularly connected at the turn of the century, when many important universities agreed that reading literature was fundamental to learning to write.

Those who plead in favor of reading claim that it inspires students, leading them to great ideas and making their ability better to think critically and analytically. Furthermore, reading focuses class discussion, giving students topics to talk about above their own personal experiences. Reading also allows students something to write about: at seventeen-eighteen, students often do not have enough experience to bring sophisticated topics for their essays, and reading can supply these ideas for them. Finally, reading exemplifies models of truly excellent writing, providing students guidance in voice, organization, language and syntax. One English professor claims that there are definite elements of good writing that can be learned only through reading literature.

Teachers teaching writing courses can use their reading assignments to teach writing. Of course, the readings we assign sharpen our students' analytic skills by requiring them to think critically about the course material, but these assignments might do more. and writing work best when one process fuels or informs the other. In order to make sure that reading and writing are working together effectively in our classroom, we might wish to consider the following:

Limit the quantity of reading assigned so that students have time to dedicate themselves to their writing.

Produce at least one writing assignment in which students are requested to analyse how an argument is built, rather than focusing completely on the content.

Supply students with examples of good writing, talking in class with students about what, precisely, makes the writing so good.

Give students models of bad writing and talk about what, precisely, makes the writing so bad.

Create hand-outs that list the qualities of good writing, and ask students to assess a piece of writing according to these standards. (Consider dividing students into smaller groups and then rejoining to compare observations.)

To sum up, writing and reading are both active processes. Grasping the meaning of a text always involves a mental form of rewriting so by physically writing students naturally consolidate and complement this process.

Why Writing is Essential to Our Students' Learning Processes

The debating on how writing might be used to make better our students' learning processes has appeared since the early seventies, when James Britton (in “Writing to Learn and Learning to Write”) and Janet Emig (in “Writing as a Mode of Learning”) clarified how and why writing was fundamental to learning. Emig's work, which clarifies that the writing is a "unique mode of learning," is especially powerful in convincing us that writing might be a part of all of our courses.

Emig's argument rests on the following assumptions:

Writing serves learning uniquely because students must attend to both the writing and thinking processes as well as the written product – that is, they must not only consider what they think, but how best to communicate what they think to a community of readers.

Writing serves learning uniquely because it is primarily through writing that many of the higher cognitive functions – such as analysis and synthesis – develop.

Writing is particular to learning because it originates a verbal shape that is graphically recorded. (The italics mark to what Emig feels are the important distinctions between writing and the other ways of learning: reading, listening and talking. Reading concerns communication that is graphically recorded. Listening is passive: it neither comes with the reader nor is graphically recorded. Talking can give original ideas.

In short, Emig argues that students' learning is bettered when writing is part of the learning process. What insures their learning is that writing requires them to be active and precise. Emig and others believe that courses that rely solely on lectures and reading assignments are "anathema" to student learning, in that students are not required to be active in processing their own understandings of the course materials. Using class discussion is more effective, because students are asked to participate in the learning process by expressing their ideas. Yet, class discussion cannot bring the same learning benefits that writing will; moreover, it "leans on the environment" to tell its point. Writing must be structured and to the point; moreover, it must bring a context for an audience that is not part of the setting but that exists separate from the writer as he is writing. These distinctions between talk and writing point to the way that writing makes students to become more attentive, more interested participants in their learning.

How to Use Writing to Learn

So far, we have been debating why writing is essential to the learning process. We yet consider how teachers might incorporate writing into their courses.

Frequently, write-to-learn exercises are of two types: those that correlates or are part of our students' reading processes, and those that are part of our students' exploration or invention processes. We will take each in turn.

Write to Improve Reading

Using writing to improve our students' reading experiences is probably the most common write-to-learn exercise. Those teachers who use these types of exercises typically have used them because they know that students often read texts passively, simply to extract information. These write to learn exercises, like those listed below, assure that students work carefully with texts:

Ask students to write in their texts. If students are asked to write in the margins – there they can communicate with the writer – the reading process turns into a far more active. Moreover, making notes in the margins, students observe that there is enough space on the page for their conversations – a reminder that all texts are not "the last word" on a given subject.

Ask students to keep a reading journal, in which they continuously record their responses to what they are reading. In journals, students are generally free to follow their ideas in any way that they feel is productive for their learning process. Some teachers reply in writing to the journals, considering them as a way to involve students in dialogue. Other teachers don't read the journals, but simply consider that they've been kept. Reading journals are particularly effective in promoting students to use the writing process to increase their understanding of the course materials.

Require students to write personal response essays that are rooted to one particular passage in the text. These assignments not only encourage students to write their way towards a more complete understanding of the texts, but they can also serve as the basis for class discussions. I usually discuss my students' personal response essays in class, making observations both about the students' ideas and their writing – noting, for example, when a student has produced a particularly elegant turn of phrase.

Write to Discover What You Think

Coming up with a response to course content is perhaps the most difficult challenge of a student's learning process. Even if students find a topic, they often do not know how to develop their interest into an academic question.

Writing helps students to come up with interesting questions and answers. They have to be taught that writing is not just a way of telling, it is a way of knowing as well: writers often do not have a particular view on a certain subject until they write about it. As E. M. Forster says, "How can I know what I think until I see what I say?" Still writers who have a good sense of the questions that they intend to follow often do not make connections between their ideas until they write about them.

As C. S. Lewis said about his own writing: I do not sit at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it, for I am an explorer… When I have discovered the meaning to me of the various fragments of experience which are constellating in my mind, I have begun to make sense of such experience and to realize some pattern in it; and often I have gone some way with the poem before I am able to grasp the theme which lies hidden in the material that has accumulated. (qtd. in James McCrimmon's “Writing as a Way of Knowing.”)

IV.3 Creative Ways

Stories and Effects

This section focuses on beginnings, endings and on meaning. How we shape a text, or how a text is shaped, will create certain ideas in the reader’s mind. Examining how such effects can be achieved is an important element in the understanding of a text. However, the question of meaning is one that is a different one. In the creative writing anthology The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach (Behn and Twichell 1992) American poet Sidney Lea describes an exercise using a diary or journal, where you choose three journal entries spaced at least four days apart, and explore their connections in a poem. He suggests that this is a good exercise to help overcome ‘writer’s block’. However, what is interesting in this context are Lea’s thoughts on the issue of Meaning.

‘A poem’s aim is not to start with a conclusion and then to seize it, so that someone smart can find the… ‘hidden meaning’. […] Many academic instructors ask, What is the poet trying to say? As if s/he had some terrible throat disease. […] The capital-M meaning of a poem consists… exactly of the language imagination and logic that found the connections [between apparently unconnected personal experiences],’ (p.18).

The same undoubtedly is true for any literary text. We should not so much focus on what the author wanted to tell us (we will never know) or what the ‘message’ is (literary texts do not have one or just one) than examine how the text affects us as readers and how this effect is produced.

This is not to say that we can or should ignore meaning(s) and how this/these may be created. In the context of story telling perhaps it is useful to consider the master story teller Edgar Allan Poe, whose theory of the short story is perhaps best presented in his review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Twice-Told Tales’:

‘A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents – he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tends not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design,’ (Penguin Selected writings, p.446).

Whoever tells a story tells it for effect. This effect might be to educate (as in fable or a parable), to produce goose flesh (in a horror story), to amuse (in a joke) or to create sympathies and antipathies (in romance or almost any personal account).

IV.4 Teaching Ideas. Types of Activities

• And then, what happened…? The objective is to explore imagination through oral story-telling in a group and to see how different stories emerge. Students sit in circles in small groups. One student in each group is given an opening sentence (these could be different ones or all the same to explore the different directions the same opening can lead to).The student in question starts out by spinning a story from the first sentence onwards. After two minutes as acoustic signal is given. The next student takes over the story where the previous one has left off and continues with the plot until the next signal passes the story-telling baton to the next student. The last student needs to try and bring the story to a close. This could be a cliff-hanger ending (‘to be continued’ as in a soap opera) with suitable questions asked or it can be a proper ending (‘and they lived happily ever after’).

• Swapping stories

The objectives of this technique are to plot a story with a particular goal (effect/moral/meaning), to develop a story from a given beginning, and to explore “ideological’ implications of particular endings. Students write down a very rough outline of a story. Then they think of a first sentence that leads into the story and eventually to the effect they want the text to create. They start writing their story until told to stop. They exchange the part of their story already written with their partner. Then they continue writing the new story they’ve been given and bringing it to a satisfactory ending. At home or later the students complete their own story by writing the ending to the text they passed on to their partners. Finally they discuss the differences in their endings as well as if and how the ending supplied by the partner changes the original direction and aim of the story. A similar activity is similar with a Poe short story, e.g. ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, ‘The Tell-tale Heart’, ‘The mask of the Red Death’, etc. The students are given the first paragraphs (or two) of a story they do not know and are asked to read the text very carefully for clues as to the direction the story is likely to take. Based on the language of the paragraphs they analyse what the ‘effect’ may be that the opening suggests. In pairs they suggest how the story could go on and end.

• A disaster happening to wait? The objectives are to work out a character and trace his/her development, and to describe a momentous event without going overboard. 1. Develop a character who is comparatively unlikely to play a major or heroic role in most if not all contexts. Characterise this person in as much detail as you think are necessary. 2. Imagine a disaster, either natural or man-made, which will affect this person. 3. Describe some aspirations or hopes this person had before the disaster struck. 4. Now present the ways in which the disaster has thwarted this person’s hopes or ambitions. 5. Describe briefly what the person is like as a result.6. Write the notes up into a text, which could be a short story, a dramatic monologue (or dialogue), perhaps even a poem.

• Characters in search of (another) author The objectives are to explore in a pivotal scene in a play, and to work out a potential development from an initial scene with a conflict. Examples of plays: Harold Pinter ‘The Lover’ Scene One, William Shakespeare or ‘Macbeth’ I.7, or scenes between Oliva and Viola or Orsino and Cesario/Viola in ‘Twelfth Night’. 1. Hand out a number of scenes to the students and ask them to read them carefully (perhaps as preparatory homework). 2. The students are split up into groups which correspond to the combined number of characters in the scenes the groups deal with (e.g. five if one scene involves three and the other scene two characters). 3. In subgroups (pairs or a group of three) they describe a) the characters, b) the problem or conflict they find themselves in and c) the setting of their respective scenes (it doesn’t matter too much if their understanding is a little off-beam), and put their findings down on a piece of paper. 4. The notes are exchanged and each subgroup attempts to recreate a scene with the information they have been given. This can happen with students writing the part of one character each or in a drama improvisation.5. The resulting sketches of the subgroups are then compared with the original scene, and the students discuss in what way of the contents of the two versions differ.

ENGLISH, my friend!

Exercise book

English exercises for beginners

To my students…

This exercise book is, I shall say from the very beginning, not for grown-ups. Why using a writing book? That’s because this exercise book helps us use English, make language mistakes, trying and trying, up to the moment we are successful in using the English language. Why an exercise book? That’s because writing is for adults, and us, we want to do the same.

That’s right, writing is for adults, because writing is something serious, it means a lot of work, it is not a game! There are rules, there are…

Yes, you are right, but…we shall see! Now we shall try to work seriously, but having fun at the same time!

Do not be afraid! We shall see together how to play with words, with their means, using word phrases. We shall become the writer himself. Shall we make a lot of mistakes? That is not a problem! Mistakes help us improve our language, we correct them and start from the beginning.

Are you ready?

Prepare your pens,

Sharpen your pencils,

Use your imagination,

Your desires and opinions,

1 ,

2 ,

3 ,

Ready?

Go!

UNIT 1

Hello, my name is…

Aims:

• writing short texts about yourself

• writing short texts about other people

PRE-WRITING

1. Complete this hand with five things about yourself:

2. Match the following words to the images below:

big, little, girl, boy, man, woman, sad, happy.

3.Look at the following pictures and write a short text for each one:

Reading

« It’s Amma’s birthday tomorrow»

«Nikini was a little girl. She lived with her mother and father, in a house near the woods. She was very friendly with the animals in the woods. One evening, Nikini’s father came home with a big gift box.

“What’s that Thatha?” Nikini asked her father.

“It’s your mother’s birthday tomorrow,” her father said.

“Oh!” Nikini was very sad.

“How could I forget my Amma’s birthday?

She would never forget mine.

So I should give her a wonderful gift,”

Nikini thought.

“But what shall I give her?” She went into her bedroom and thought.

She loved her mother so much that she couldn’t think of anything good enough for a gift for her. She thought and thought until nightfall, but she couldn’t think of anything. »

(Janaki Sooriyarachchi ,It’s Amma’s birthday tomorrow, Tikiri

Publishers, Sri Lanka, First edition 2008, pp 1-2)

☺For a better comprehension:

› gift box = noun [C] /gɪft bɒks/ a decorative box for putting a present in

› nightfall = noun [U]  /ˈnaɪt.fɔːl/  the time in the evening when it becomes dark

› thought = verb /θɔːt/ past simple and past participle of think

( Cambridge Dictionaries Online)

4. Circle the right answer:

a) Nikini is : a girl a boy

b) Her father’s name is: Thatha Amma

c) They live : in a flat in a house

d) Nikini loves very much: animals dolls

e) Whose birthday is it? Nikini’s her mother’s her father’s

5.Find the synonyms for the following words:

6.Put the following words in these two columns: tall, intelligent, slim, sensitive, good-looking, responsible, fat, friendly, ambitious, skinny.

7.Compare these two children:

Use these words: nine, black, T-shirt, animals, years, intelligent, girl, Biology, pink, subject, wears, books, cookies, boy, kitchen, library, mother, nature

8.Complete the scheme using information from the texts above:

WHILE-WRITING

9.Describe the image below:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

10.Describe yourself and stick a picture of yourself :

Pay attention to the following:

› What is your name?

› How old are you?

› Your physical description:

• your hair

• your eyes

• your appearance: little, big, tall, short, slim, fat, skinny,

• What are you wearing? ( your clothing)

›Your character and personality: good, sad, happy, sociable, friendly, unfriendly…

› What do you like/dislike?

› What are your hobbies?

POST-WRITING

12.Present your project in front of the class. Do not mention your best friend’s name. Let your colleagues guess it. Did they guess?

UNIT 2

Who wants to speak?

Aims:

• Writing about daily activities and environment

• Describing an event and past activities

Activity 1

PRE-WRITING

1.Look at the following title:” Say STOP to…!” What does this title refer to? Give some ideas.

Reading

«Taking Action Around the World: Violence against Children in Institutions and Prisons»

«Here are some examples of actions against violence in institutions and prisons that have been taken by children around the world:

Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Chuka Rehabilitative Centre is a place where boys aged 14–18 who are in conflict with the law are helped through education and job training after school, rather than being placed in prison or detention. The Centre also teaches parents skills for communicating better with their children. The boys themselves help run the centre, deciding on rules, issues to discuss, and helping to choose staff and volunteers. With a safe place to stay, away from the pressure of the home, street, peers and police, most boys at Chuka don’t go on to commit crimes, but rather continue their education or find work.

Philippines: In the Philippines, it was once common for children in conflict with the law to be put in prisons with adults. A network of children’s organisations began to research this problem. With the help of the Christian Children’s Fund, they met over time with members of parliament and recommended that separate detention centres be set up for young people. Eventually, the national government passed a law creating special centres where young offenders can learn skills to become constructive members of the community.»

(http://www.unicef.org/violencestudy/pdf/Our%20Right%20to%20be%20Protected%20from%20Violence.pdf )

☺For a better comprehension:

› training = noun [U] /ˈtreɪ.nɪŋ/ the process of learning the skills you need to do a particular job or activity

› issue = noun [C] (SUBJECT)/ˈɪʃ.uː/ a subject or problem that people are thinking and talking about

› offender = noun [C] /əˈfen.dər/  a person who is guilty of a crime

( Cambridge Dictionaries Online)

2.Find out in the text the synonyms of the following words:

3.Find out in the text the antonyms of the following words:

4.Read once again the text and complete the charts:

Say STOP to………………………………………!

Words mentioned in the text and related to VIOLENCE:

WHILE-WRITING

5. Look at the following pictures and make sentences.

Use: in, on, between, on the left, on the right, behind, under, above.The first one has been done for you.

Reading

« Hero’s adventure»

«Kitty: I can’t believe you lost Hero, Gran. Where did you last see him ?

Gran: He was next to the front door.

Kitty: And now…?

Gran: I don’t know where he is. Why don’t you try looking for him Detective Kitty!

Kitty: Where shall I start?

Gran: Try behind my bed.

Gran: Not in front of the bed. Behind the bed Kitty!

Kitt: Hmm. He was here but he isn’t now!

Gran: Is he on top of the wardrobe?

Kitty: Oops! I was looking under the wardrobe! Let me think.

Mmm… in the bed?

Kitty: Aha! Hero! He’s between the pillows! »

(http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org)

6.True of false?

Gran last saw Hero behind the front door.

Kitty looks in front of the bed.

Hero was behind the wardrobe.

Gran was in the bed.

Hero was between the pillows.

7.Read the sentences and draw pictures.

8.Change the sentences to mean the opposite:

My teddy is on the bed.

There are some books in front of the wardrobe.

Gran’s house is on the left.

Kitty’s schoolbag is under the chair.

His toys are behind the pillows.

9.Answer the following questions:

Who lost Hero?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Who is looking for Hero?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Is Hero on top of the wardrobe?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Does Kitty find Hero?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Where does she find him?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

10.You must write an article for your School Magazine. Think of an activity you have done and fill in the chart:

8.Write the article for your school magazine:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

POST-WRITING

11.Check the article again according to the following chart. Use √ and X:

UNIT 3

MY PETS!

Aims:

• writing about animals and environment

• describing animals

Activity 1:

PRE-WRITING

1. Complete the chart with the right names of animals:

2.Listen carefully and identify the animals mentioned in the song ( www.watchknowlearn.org- Going to the zoo ). Circle the animals that you hear.

Seal, lion, elephant, camel, octopus, crocodile, camel, pig, chicken, deer, panda, rabbit.

Reading

« Polar bears »

« Polar bears live along shores and on sea ice in the icy cold Arctic. When sea ice forms over the ocean in cold weather, many polar bears, except pregnant females, head out onto the ice to hunt seals. A polar bear may also hunt by swimming beneath the ice.

Polar bears have been spotted on sea ice hundreds of miles from shore. When the warm weather causes the sea ice to melt, polar bears move back toward shore.

They are the largest predators on land, and they are the largest of all bears. They have fur and skin that allow them to absorb sunlight for warmth. Their blubber, or fat, insulates them in cold water. Polar bears swim using their large front paws to propel themselves through the water and their back legs to steer.

Only humans prey on polar bears.»

( http://kids.nationalgeographic.org)

☺For a better comprehension:

› blubber= verb [I]  /ˈblʌb.ər/ to cry in a noisy way like a child

› to propel= verb [T] /prəˈpel/ to push or move something somewhere

›to steer= verb /stɪər/ [T usually + adv/prep] to take someone or something, or cause them

to go, in the direction in which you want them to go

3.True or false:

Polar bears live in the icy cold .

They hunt whales.

They are the largest predators on land.

Polar bears do not swim, they just walk on ice.

Polar bear eat humans.

4.Put the words in order to make sentences:

seals, polar bears, hunt.

largest, the, are, predators, they, land, on.

fur, absorb, their, skin, and, sunlight, warmth.

swim, they, paws, using, their, front.

ice, beneath, also, they, swim, the.

5. Give a definition for each word, then compare yours with the definition taken from the dictionary:

› carnivores =

Dictionary definition:

› omnivores =

Dictionary definition:

› herbivores =

Dictionary definition:

6.Draw lines between the following pictures and animal names :

WHILE – WRITING

7. Describe the picture below:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

8.Answer the following questions:

Where do these animals live?

Are they carnivores?

What do they eat?

Do you have any of these animals at home?

Which of them is your favourite and why?

9.Stick a picture of your favourite animal and describe it:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

POST-WRITING

10.Check your composition according to the following chart. Use √ or X. :

11. Present your project in front of your colleagues.

12. What does the human do to help the Earth? What should he do? Complete the following scheme:

Activity 2

PRE-WRITING

1. Make two drawings about pollution:

2. Identify other sources of pollution and find solutions:

WHILE-WRITING

3.Look at the following pictures. What do you see? Write 5 lines to describe them:

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

POST-WRITING

4. Check your drawings and make a poster for your school.

UNIT 4

Christmas is coming…!

Aims:

• describing Santa Claus

• making a wish list

• describing a Christmas card

• writing a Christmas poem

Activity 1

PRE-WRITING

1.What do you think of when you hear the word “ Christmas” ? Write four things that come up to your mind:

Reading

«The special gift»

«One night after Santa’s Workshop closed, the elves were having hot chocolate as they decided what to give to each of their North Pole friends for Christmas.

“What can we give Mrs. Claus?” asked Bonnie.

“We could get her perfume,” suggested Bud.

“No, she already has that,” said one of the other elves. “Let’s get her socks!”

Burt, who had been listening to the elves, said, “Those are all good ideas, but I bet Mrs. Claus would really like something you made for her yourselves.”

“We never thought about that,” said the elves.

“What can we make for Mrs. Claus?”

“I know!” said Bonnie. “Let’s all make her Christmas tree ornaments!”

All the elves agreed, because after all, their specialty is Christmas. The elves began to cut and paint and glue their creations, and soon bits of paper and glitter and ribbon were all over the room.

The elves made all different kinds of ornaments out of many different things. Some elves baked dough ornaments of all shapes and sizes. Others created their gifts from Popsicle sticks, clothes pins, yarn and wood.

“These are going to be the best ornaments ever!” exclaimed Bonnie.

“Yes!” agreed Bud. “And making them is a lot of fun, too!”

Late Christmas eve, the elves hung all their hand-made ornaments on a Christmas tree especially for Mrs. Claus.

There were round ornaments made out of balls, snowflakes and stars that twinkled in the light, little houses painted all different colours, and ornaments shaped like reindeer and snowmen.

It was the prettiest Christmas tree ever!

The next morning, when Mrs. Claus walked outside, the elves were all standing around the Christmas tree decorated with their special gifts for her.

“Merry Christmas!” the elves said gleefully, as Mrs. Claus smiled.

“Oh, what a wonderful surprise!” Mrs. Claus exclaimed, admiring each ornament. “These ornaments are all so beautiful, and they will always have a special place in my heart because you made them!”»

(http://www.northpole.com/Stories/#Workshop)

2. Write the unknown words and find their meanings in the dictionary. Make a sentence with each word:

☼………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

☼…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

☼…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

☼………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

☼………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3. Choose the best answer:

a) The elves :

○ were sleeping.

○ were having hot chocolate.

○ were reading stories.

b) They think of a gift for:

○ Santa Claus

○ Mrs. Claus

○ Rudolph, the Red-nose reindeer

c) They want to give Mrs. Claus:

○ a perfume

○ a cookbook

○ Christmas tree ornaments

4. Find five adjectives in the text and make five sentences:

WHILE-WRITING

5. Describe Santa Claus:

6.Santa’s bag has lots of toys. What would you like to get? Help Santa to find the best Christmas present for you and your family. Make a wish list and send a letter to Santa:

7. Write a Christmas card and send it to Santa or to your family:

When writing a Christmas card we simply write “ Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year”.

You may also use other greetings: “Wishing you a magical and delightful Christmas”,“

Wishing you a blessed Christmas”.

8. Convince Santa to bring you lots of presents. Write a poem to him:

S……………………………………….

A………………………………………

N………………………………………

T………………………………………

A………………………………………

C………………………………………

L………………………………………

A………………………………………

U………………………………………

S………………………………………..

Merry Christmas!

POST-WRITING

9. Send your letter and your poem to Santa. Show them to your class.

UNIT 5

It’s a wonderful day!

Aims:

• writing a greeting card

• writing a message

• writing a poem

Activity 1

PRE-WRITING

1.Guess the seasons according to the pictures and put them in order:

2.Write the months of the year for each season:

3..Find a word that rhymes for each season:

WHILE-WRITING

4. Describe each season. Use no more than 20-25 words for each:

5..Describe your favourite season and draw a picture related to it:

POST-WRITING

6.Check your descriptions here:

Activity 2

PRE-WRITING

1.Read the following poem. Complete the blanks by adding different veggies, fruits and colours.

There are many tasty vegetables,

And they are good for you.

Tomatoes are red, I’ ll eat a few,

Cucumbers are green, I’ ll eat them too.

There are many tasty fruits,

And they are good for you.

………………..are…………………, I’ll eat a few,

…………………are……………., I’ ll eat them too.

2.Create your own 4 lines poem. Use as many fruits and vegetables as you can.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Reading

3.What are these texts about? Circle the correct answer:

• letters between friends

• messages between penfriends

4.Complete the following table:

WHILE-WRITING

5.It’s summer. Write a message to find a new friend, a penfriend.

21.Write a greeting card for your friend:

POST-WRITING

6.Check your message :

UNIT 6

I love sports!

Aims:

• writing about yourself

• writing a short description of a place

Activity 1:

PRE-WRITING

1.Do you like sports? Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2.Do you practise any sport? Which one?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3.What sports do you know?

4.Match the pictures with the words:

Reading

«The history of football»

« Football has been played all over the world for centuries, but no-one really knows where or when it began. The Ancient Egyptians played ball games thousands of years ago. Years later, in China, they played a game called “tsu chu” . The players had to kick a ball through a piece of cloth tied to two posts. The Ancient Greeks and Romans played ball games at the Olympics, too.

By the year 1200 ball games existed in Europe. Whole towns and villages played against each other. Sometimes they wear more than 100 players in a team! For the next five hundred years Kings in Britain and France tried to ban football because it was so wild.

The first rules were introduced in 1848.The first football club in the world, Sheffield FC, was formed in 1857. Modern football quickly travelled from Europe to other continents and today it is the most popular sport in the world.»

(http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/order-the-sentences/the-history-football)

☺For a better comprehension:

› to ban = verb [T usually passive]  /bæn/ to forbid (= refuse to allow) something,

especially officially

5.Answer the following questions:

Who were the first to play ball games?

When did Egyptians play ball games?\

Who played at the Olympics?

How many players were in a team?

When were the first rules introduced?

WHILE-WRITING

6.Write a list of advantages or disadvantages of practising a sport:

7.Describe your favourite sport:

POST-WRITING

Activity 2:

PRE-WRITING

1.What sports do you know?

Reading

«Fly into action»

« For skydivers, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s just the beginning. Thousands of people each year try the sport of skydiving. Some only jump once, while others go on to experience lifelong adventures, maneuvering and flipping through the air.“Skydiving is not for everyone. But, if you enjoy the challenge of learning to perform in a completely new environment, are willing to make the effort to do it safely, and can overcome your fears to make the first few jumps – the rewards can be tremendous,” says skydiver Bill von Novak. He has jumped around 5,500 times, is a fill-in instructor at Perris Valley Skydiving in California.

There are three options for your first jump. However, before you can make any attempts at skydiving, a ground course on safety and equipment is required. The length and complexity of the course depends on the jump you choose. The most popular first-jump technique is tandem. Tandem has the shortest ground course, and is the easiest to complete. You and the instructor are strapped together in a double harness (the instructor behind, with you in front). Your instructor wears the tandem rig, which contains a main and a reserve parachute. You jump out of the plane together, and the instructor takes care of opening your parachute

Since skydiving is a risky sport, you must be eighteen years old to jump out of a plane at skydiving schools or areas called drop zones. But, there is an alternative if you are not yet of age – vertical wind tunnels. Vertical wind tunnels simulate the feeling of free fall. They are used by professional skydivers and competitors to practice their routines or tricks. Bill von Novak says, “The wind tunnel is a great way for younger aspiring jumpers to see what free fall is like.”»

(http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/5th-skydiving.pdf)

☺For a better comprehension:

Harness= noun [C] /ˈhaː.nəs /a piece of equipment with straps and belts, used

to control or hold in place a person, animal, or object

2.Answer the following questions:

What sport does this text refer to?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How many options are there for a first jump?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Would you try skydiving? Why/ Why not?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

WHILE-WRITING

3.Write an article for your school magazine to convince pupils to practise skydiving.

POST-WRITING

4.Read your article in front of the class.

UNIT 7

HAPPY EASTER !

Aims:

• writing short texts about yourself

• writing a short description about environment

• writing a poem

Activity 1:

PRE-WRITING

1.Describe the following picture:

2.Write words related to EASTER:

3. Match the pictures with the words:

4.Complete the table with the words which correspond to the pictures :

Reading

«Easter in the United Kingdom»

«Easter is a spring festival of new life. As a pagan tradition it is the beginning of growth and new life after the cold, winter months. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring – Eostre. For Christians, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and practising Christians attend special church services at Easter time. Easter celebrates life and rebirth, which is why we see lots of symbols of new life and fertility at Easter, like eggs, chicks and rabbits.

For most British children Easter means chocolate Easter eggs. The shops are full of bright Easter displays decorated with chicks, rabbits and flowers, all with the objective of selling chocolate eggs in huge numbers. And it works! Ninety million chocolate eggs are sold in the UK each year, and each child receives on average eight chocolate eggs. The eggs are sold in cardboard boxes and sometimes there’s more packaging than chocolate! Some people believe that too much chocolate is eaten at Easter time and most

doctors and dentists would advise people to eat Easter eggs in moderation.

In the UK, chocolate is definitely the most popular way to enjoy eggs at Easter. But there are some less sugary traditions, too. Chickens’ eggs are painted to give as presents, and eggs are also hidden for children to find as part of an “egg hunt”. Some places even hold competitions to see who can roll an egg down a hill without it breaking! Hot cross buns are typical cakes that are made at Easter time. They are like spiced bread rolls with raisins and they always have a cross shape on top. They are delicious served hot with butter.»

(http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/sites/teens/files/easter_-_text.pdf)

WHILE-WRITING

5.Answer the following questions:

a.What does Easter symbolize?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

b. Where does the name of Easter come from?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

c. What does Easter celebrate?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

d.Which are the symbols of Easter?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. Unscramble the following letters to find the some words related to Easter:

a. SGEG –

b. COCHALETO –

c. ESETAR BYNUN –

d. SRPIGN

e. RUESRSEONIT –

7. Write a poem with the following Easter greeting:

H………………………………………………………….

A ………………………………………………………….

P……………………………………………………………

P……………………………………………………………

Y……………………………………………………………

E……………………………………………………………

A…………………………………………………………..

S……………………………………………………………

T……………………………………………………………

E……………………………………………………………

R…………………………………………………………..

8.Use the information below and complete the following table:

9.Choose the correct word :

a. Easter is/isn’t on the same date each year.

b. Doctors and dentists would/wouldn’t advise people to eat many Easter eggs.

c. Christians use/do not use to go to church at Easter.

d. Chickens’ eggs are/are not painted and decorated.

e. Easter Bunny bring/do not bring gifts at Easter.

9.Write resemblances and differences between Easter traditions in Romania and in the UK:

10. Write a short composition about Easter traditions in Romania. Are there any ressemblances with the traditions in the United Kingdom?

POST-WRITING

UNIT 8

THIS IS MY FAMILY!

Aims:

• writing a letter

• writing a short descriptive text

Activity 1

PRE-WRITING

1.They are the Simpsons. Look at the following family tree , then complete the following sentences. Use: mother, daughter, father, sister, grandfather, grandmother, brother, son, baby sister:

a. Homer is Lisa’s……………………………….

b. Marge is Maggie’s……………………………

c. Abraham is Bart’s…………………………….

d. Mona Jane is Lisa’s………………………….

e. Lisa is Marge’s………………………………..

2.Fill in with terms for the opposite sex:

Reading

«The Simpsons»

«When Homer Simpson was a young boy, he had a lot of hair on his head. His classmates didn’t think he was a handsome guy, in fact they, thought he was stupid.He didn’t study hard at school; he preferred to fool around and have fun instead of working. His dad wasn’t very clever either: he never supported Homer in his life.

A few years later in high school he met Marge. She was an intelligent girl who studied  hard to get good grades.

When Marge grew up, she loved to play with her older sisters Patty and Selma. They were twins and they helped their mother to raise little Marge. That's why she's always been such a good student. But then she fell in love with Homer, who's the exact opposite. Her sisters didn’t like Homer at all, because they found he wasn’t good enough for Marge.

After a while, Marge and Homer married each other and they started a family together. They moved to a small house in Springfield. It didn’t take long before Marge was pregnant. So after nine months Marge gave birth to a boy named Bart.

  Although Bart Simpson looked like a cute baby, he turned out out a nasty kid who always seemed to boycot his father's intentions. He threw his food away, he didn’t want to eat vegetables and he puked on his dad’s shirt.  Marge was always the patient parent, but Homer often became angry. Then he attacked little Bart and tried to kill him for a few moments. Bart didn’t mind that and made his father angry on purpose.

When Bart became a toddler, he got a little sister: Lisa. Little Lisa Simpson looked a lot like her mother: she was a cute, intelligent baby and she adored  her brother Bart. She followed him and copied him wherever he went. Bart hated his sister, he ignored her most of the time. But when that didn’t work, he even tried to kill her. It took a while before Bart realized that having a sister can be a lot of fun too! And from that moment on, he defended her with all his heart.»

(http://www.englishexercises.org)

3.Decide whether these sentences are true or false. Correct them if necessary:

T F

a. Homer met Marge at work.

b. Patty and Selma are twin sisters.

c. Marge e was a good student at school.

d. Homer and Marge live in a big house in London.

e. Little Lisa was an intelligent baby.

4.Complete the sentences with words describing family relationships:

a. My parents’ parents are my………………………………………………………

b. My brother’s sister is my………………………………………………………….

c. My mother’s husband is my………………………………………………………

d. My father’s son is my……………………………………………………………….

5.Complete your family tree with names:

6.Write a short paragraph to describe your family, then stick a picture with your family:

Reading

«Little Red Riding Hood»

«Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

    One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

  'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

    The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.»

(Anna E. Altmann & Gail de Vos, Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales as

Literary Fictions for Young Adults, Libraries Unlimited, USA,2001, p.254)

7.True or false:

a. Little Red Riding Hood is named after her red velvet hood.

b. Her grandmother gave her the red hood.

c. Nobody loved her, especially her grandmother.

d. Her mother sends her to grandmother with a bottle of wine and an apple pie.

f. On her way to Grandma’s house, she met a nice rabbit.

WHILE-WRITING

8.Help Little Red Riding Hood to write a letter to her grandmother to thank her for the present.

POST-WRITING

10.Check your letter:

Activity 2

PRE-WRITING

1.What are your parents’ jobs? Where do they work?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2.What other jobs are there in your family?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Reading

«The Bus Driver»

«Dana Miller is a bus driver. She drives a bus in the city of Philadelphia.

She works the night shift. That means she starts work at 10:00 at night and gets off at

6:00 in the morning. In the world of bus driving, this is sometimes called third shift.

Dana has been driving a bus for 15 years. She started when she was 23 years old. She loves her job most of the time. She gets to see the beautiful city from her seat.

She gets to meet all kinds of people.

There is the guitar player. He lugs his heavy guitar on the bus every Friday night. He plays at a nightspot downtown. People call him Get Low. That is because he likes to play the guitar on his knees. If the bus is not too crowded, Get Low plays in the back of the bus. The bus is seldom crowded at night. He likes to warm up on the bus before shows.

There is the woman who works at the pretzel factory. Each day the “Pretzel Lady” brings Dana a bag of fresh, soft pretzels. They fill the bus with a wonderful smell!

Sometimes Dana’s job is hard. It is hard when Dana sees people down on their luck.

One time, a young woman left her sleeping baby on the bus. There was a note on the baby's blanket asking for help. Dana had to call the police.

Another time, a teenaged boy stole money from Dana on the bus. He had a fake gun. Dana thought it was real. She was very scared.

Occasionally, driving the bus can be scary. But most of the time, driving the bus is great. Dana does not want to work anywhere else.

“How was your night?” Dana’s husband likes to ask when she gets home.

“Good music, good food, and a great view of the city,” she says.»

(http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/The_Bus_Driver.pdf)

☺For a better comprehension:

› to lug = verb [T usually + adv/prep]  to carry or pull something with effort or difficulty

because it is heavy

(Cambridge Dictionaries Online)

3.Identify the job mentioned in the text. Can you add more?

4.Where does Dana drive a bus?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. Is Dana’s job easy? Why? Explain:

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. What is your opinion about this job? Would you like to become a bus driver? Why/Why not?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Complete the following table. Use the dictionary if necessary:

WHILE-WRITING

8.Write a letter to your grandma in which you tell her about your favourite job :

POST-WRITING

9.Check your letter:

UNIT 9

I live in a big house!

Aims:

• writing an announcement

• writing a postcard

• writing a short descriptive text

Activity 1

PRE-WRITING

1.Write words related to HOUSE:

2.Look at the following pictures and identify them. Write a sentence for which of the following words: cottage, tent, skyscraper ,semi-detached house, igloo.

a)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

b)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

c)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

d)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

e)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Reading

3.Read the following announcements:

(http://www.thehomesmine.co.uk)

4.Choose the best answer:

a) the texts are:

○ descriptive

○ instructive

○ announcements

b) the purpose of the texts are:

○ to rent a house

○ to sell a house

○ to describe a habitual situation

c) true or false:

○ the first announcement is for selling a semi-detached house

○ the second announcement is for selling a bungalow

○ both houses are for rent

5. Identify the information we find in an announcement:

WHILE-WRITING

6.Mary sent John a postcard in which she describes her room.She has some spelling mistakes. Can you find them?

7.Write the mistakes you have found and correct them:

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

8..Describe you own room in a postcard you sent to a friend. First make a plan for your writing.

Activity 2

PRE-WRITING

1.Listen to Phil Collins’s song “Another Day in Paradise”. Can you guess the theme of the song? Write down the words you know :

2.Listen again and complete the missing words:

She calls out to the …………….on the street
"……………., can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere ……………………,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He ……………………………… he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses … ……………
Seems embarrassed to be there.

Oh think twice, it's …………………………. for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in………………………………………
She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been ……………………………
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
Can't …………………………….. but she's trying

Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise.

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can ……
You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been………………. on from every place
'Cos she didn't fit in there.
Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in ………………………..
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise.

3. Does the woman in the song have a house? Where does she live?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

WHILE-WRITING

4.Is there any difference between “house” and “home” ?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5.Complete the following squares about your house:

7.Project – Draw and describe your ideal house :

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
POST-WRITING

8. Evaluate your project:

UNIT 10

I LOVE FAIRY TALES!

Aims:

• describing the weather

• writing a short story

PRE-WRITING

Activity 1:

1.Describe the following pictures:

1 2 3

…………………………………… ………………………………… ………………………………………..

…………………………………… ………………………………… ……………………………………….

…………………………………… ………………………………… ……………………………………….

4 5 6

……………………………………. ………………………………….. ………………………………….

……………………………………. ………………………………….. ………………………………….

……………………………………. ………………………………….. ………………………………….

2.Have you recognized the story? What is the title of the fairy tale? Put the pictures in the right order:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Reading

« Snow White »

«Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at a window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of black ebony. And whilst she was sewing and looking out of the window at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell upon the snow. And the red looked pretty upon the white snow, and she thought to herself, would that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame. 
Soon after that she had a little daughter, who was as white as snow, and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony, and she was therefore called little Snow White. And when the child was born, the queen died. 
After a year had passed the king took to himself another wife. She was a beautiful woman, but proud and haughty, and she could not bear that anyone else could surpass her in beauty. She had a wonderful looking-glass, and when she stood in front of it and looked at herself in it, and said, 
“Looking-glass, looking-glass, on the wall, 
Who in this land is the fairest of all?” 
The looking-glass answered,
“Thou, o queen, art the fairest of all.”
Then she was satisfied, for she knew that the looking-glass spoke the truth.

But Snow White was growing up, and grew more and more beautiful, and when she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the day, and more beautiful than the queen herself. And once when the queen asked her looking-glass, 
“Looking-glass, looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?”
It answered,

“Thou art fairer than all who are here, lady queen.
But more beautiful still is Snow White, as I queen.” 
Then the queen was shocked, and turned yellow and green with envy. From that hour, whenever she looked at Snow White, her heart heaved in her breast, she hated the girl so much. And envy and pride grew higher and higher in her heart like a weed, so that she had no peace day or night. She called a huntsman, and said, “Take the child away into the forest. I will no longer have her in my sight. Kill her, and bring me back her lung and liver as a token.” The huntsman obeyed, and took her away but when he had drawn his knife, and was about to pierce Snow White's innocent heart, she began to weep, and said, “Ah dear huntsman, leave me my life. I will run away into the wild forest, and never come home again.” And as she was so beautiful the huntsman had pity on her and said, “Run away, then, you poor child.” 
“The wild beasts will soon have devoured you,” thought he, and yet it seemed as if a stone had been rolled from his heart since it was no longer needful for him to kill her. 
And as a young bear just then came running by he stabbed it, and cut out its lung and liver and took them to the queen as proof that the child was dead. The cook had to salt them, and the wicked queen ate them, and thought she had eaten the lung and liver of Snow White.

She ran as long as her feet would go until it was almost evening, then she saw a little cottage and went into it to rest herself. Everything in the cottage was small, but neater and cleaner than can be told. There was a table on which was a white cover, and seven little plates, and on each plate a little spoon, moreover, there were seven little knives and forks, and seven little mugs. Against the wall stood seven little beds side by side, and covered with snow-white counterpanes. Little Snow White was so hungry and thirsty that she ate some vegetables and bread from each plate and drank a drop of wine out of each mug, for she did not wish to take all from one only. Then, as she was so tired, she laid herself down on one of the little beds, but none of them suited her, one was too long, another too short, but at last she found that the seventh one was right, and so she remained in it, said a prayer and went to sleep. 
When it was quite dark the owners of the cottage came back. They were seven dwarfs who dug and delved in the mountains for ore. They lit their seven candles, and as it was now light within the cottage they saw that someone had been there, for everything was not in the same order in which they had left it.»

(Snow White Illustrated, From Grimm’s Household Tales, 1884,

Translated by Margaret Raine Hunt, Illustrations by Frantz Jüttner, 1910, p.3-4)

☺For a better comprehension:

Haughty = adjective  /ˈhɔː.ti/

unfriendly and seeming to consider yourself better than other people

ebony = noun [U] (WOOD) /ˈeb.ən.i/

a very hard dark wood of a tropical tree, used especially for making furniture

 prick = verb [T] /prɪk/

to make a very small hole or holes in the surface of something, sometimes in a

way that causes pain

dwarf = noun [C]  /dwɔːf/

in stories for children, a creature like a little man with magical powers

ore = noun [C or U] /ɔːr/

 rock or soil from which metal can be obtained

3.Choose the right answer:

a) When does the story take place?

○ in spring

○ in winter

○ in summer

b) How old was Snow White when her father married another woman?

○ two years old

○ eleven years old

○ a year old

c) The queen told a huntsman :

○ to kill Snow White

○ to leave her in the forest

○ to marry and go away

d) What did Snow White find in the forest?

○ another castle

○ a small cottage

○ a small tree house

e) How many dwarfs lived there in the cottage?
○ eight

○ five

○ seven

4.Which season is mentioned in Snow White?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5.Complete the pictures below. Use: snowy, rainy, cloudy, sunny, windy .

6.Choose the sentence that suits best for each picture :

7.Listen carefully to the following weather forecast:

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/weather-forecast

8.Complete with the words that are missing:

« Welcome to the …………….forecast. Now, let’s see what the weather is ……………today. In the north of the country it’s very ………………and cold. There is a chance of some ………. too, so don’t leave home without your umbrella! The …………….. is around 10º centigrade. In the east it’s rainy all day today, I’m afraid. There may be a thunderstorm in the afternoon. The temperature is a bit higher, at around 13º. In the west and middle of the country the weather is dry, but …………… So no rain for you, but it is quite ……… and the temperature is just 10º. The south of the country has the best weather today. It’s cloudy most of the time but ……………….. this afternoon. The temperature is around 15º.  »

WHILE-WRITING

9.Complete the following weather forecast for Romania:

Read again the Snow White fairy tale and divide it into paragraphs, according to the following table:

12.Use the table above and write a story yourself:

POST-WRITING

13.Check your writing:

VI. CONCLUSIONS

Teaching writing has become a real necessity nowadays because it is a prevalent form of communication in real life; they use smartphones, there are blogs, people use computer-mediated communication, they text a lot. We use writing for a variety of everyday communicative purposes, from making a shopping list to writing essays for school. In a computer-mediated age, being able to write is an essential skill in any language.

By learning a second language we learn to communicate with other people, to understand them, talk to them, etc. We also need to communicate with people who are not right in front of us; so we might need to write to them. Yet the most important reason to teach writing is that writing helps or students learn. It reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, vocabulary we teach our students. When our students write they get adventurous with the language, they go beyond they have just learned, they take risks. They become very involved with the new language and they often discover something new to write. The close relationship between writing and thinking makes writing a valuable part of any language course.

Integration of the writing task into the whole curriculum confirms the notion that writing is not simply a skill to be acquired or displayed; rather it is a powerful shaper of the way we view ourselves and the world. Failure to pay attention to audience and purpose in designing foreign language writing tasks will result in students' reduction of the task to one whose purpose is "merely to complete the assignment" (Lee and Van Patten, 1995, p. 221)

Both teacher and students profit from treating writing as a mental process and a means of communication. When students realize that teachers read their writing to understand what they are trying to say rather than to judge their grammar and usage, they write more interesting compositions. They are also willing to write more, which is perhaps the best way to refine one’s writing; and they eventually take more care with what they write because it means more to them.

My own experience indicates that less correction of grammatical errors, together with honest attention to content, can sometimes reduce grammatical mistakes in future compositions. Teacher grading time can be reduced in length and enhanced in quality.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

activity A single exercise or game, etc.

aims Things that you hope will be done or achieved during an activity or a

lesson

analysis Separation of a whole into its component parts

application An act of putting to use <application of new techniques>

argument An abstract or summary especially of a literary work

assignment A specified task or amount of work assigned or undertaken as if

assigned by authority

brainstorming A group problem-solving technique that involves the spontaneous

contribution of ideas from all members of the group

cause and effect Explaining why something happened, or the influence of one event

upon another

character One of the persons of a drama or novel; the personality or part

which an actor recreates

clarity The quality or state of being clear

cognitive Of, relating to, or involving cognition (the act or process of knowing

including both awareness and judgement)

coherence The quality or state the quality or state of cohering : as

a : systematic or logical connection or consistency

b : integration of diverse elements, relationships, or values

comprehension The act or action of grasping with the intellect : understanding

comparison and contrast An examination of two or more items to establish

similarities and dissimilarities

concision The quality or state of being brief

content The ideas, facts, or opinions that are contained in a speech or a piece of

writing context

The parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw

light on its meaning

creative writing Having the quality of something created rather than imitated :

imaginative <the creative arts>

criticism The art of evaluating or analyzing works of art or literature; the

scientific investigation of literary documents (as the Bible) in

regard to such matters as origin, text, composition, or history

critical thinking Consisting of or involving criticism <critical writings>;

exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation

discourse Formal and orderly and usually extended expression of thought

on a subject; connected speech or writing

drafting To draw the preliminary sketch, version, or plan of

eliciting A much-used technique for involving learners more in lessons.

Eliciting involves drawing language from the students ( rather

than giving it to them).

essay A short piece of writing giving someone’s ideas about politics,

society, environment etc.

evaluation To determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by

careful appraisal and study

extensive reading Reading in order to gain a general overview of the contents.

form The structural element, plan, or design of a work of art

formal Relating to or involving the outward form, structure, relationships, or

arrangement of elements rather than content <formal logic> <formal style

of painting> <formal approach to comparative linguistics>

function The purpose for which language is used in particular situations.

gist The main point or part : essence <the gist of an argument>

hand-out A piece of paper with information given to people who are attending a

lesson, meeting

inference The act or process of inferring : the act of passing from one proposition,

statement, or judgment considered as true another whose truth is believed

to follow from that of the former

informal An informal style of writing or speaking is suitable for ordinary convention

or letters to friends

intensive reading Careful and detailed reading of sections of text or speech

language skills There are four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing.

Listening and reading are ‘receptive’ skills; speakingand writing are

‘productive’ skills.

logical line A type of lesson that has a clear , logical progression from one item to the

next.

narrative Something that is narrated: STORY; the art or practice of narration;

the representation in art of an event or story; also : an example of

such a representation

nutshelling Stating the main facts about something in a short, clear way

objectives Intended student achievements in a lesson

organization The act or process of organizing or of being organized

outline A condensed treatment of a particular subject <an outline of world

history>; a summary of a written work

paragraph A subdivision of a written composition that consists of one or more

sentences, deals with one point or gives the words of one speaker,

and begins on a new usually indented line

practice Giving the learners chances to use the language being studied

process A series of actions or operations conducing to an end

revision An act of revising(to look over again in order to correct or improve)

rhetoric The art of speaking or writing effectively: as a : the study of

principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient

times b : the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or

persuasion

sentence A word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or phrases forming a

syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a command,

a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action, that in

writing usually begins with a capital

letter and concludes with appropriate end punctuation, and that in

speaking is distinguished by characteristic patterns of stress, pitch,

and pauses

strategy A careful plan or method

summary Covering the main points succinctly

style A distinctive manner of expression (as in writing or speech) <writes

with more attention to style than to content> <the flowery style of

18th century prose>

synthesis The combining of often diverse conceptions into a coherent whole

task Something the student is asked to do. Many tasks are in the form

of questions requiring answers, but a task may require a student to

do things like draw a picture, choose an object from the table, etc.

text A book or other piece of writing that is connected with learning or

intended for study

theme The main subject or idea in a piece of writing, speech, film etc.

theory The general principles or ideas of a subject

topic sentence A sentence which summarizes the main idea of an entire paragraph

topoi A system of specific strategies for invention

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anson, Chris, M. (1989) “Response Styles and Ways of Knowing”. In Theory, Practice, and Research. Urbana: NCTE

Aristotle. (350 B.C.E) Rhetoric. Translated by W. Rhys Roberts. Online version

Badger, Richards and White. (2000) A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal Volume 54(2), pp. 153-160

Behn, Robin and Twichell, Chase. (1992) The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets who Teach. Ed. By R. Behn and C. Twichell

, James. (1984) Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. : UP

Derrida, Jacques. (1978) Writing and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. : Press

Dragga, Sam. (1985) Reporting Technical Information. 11th ed. : Press. [co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth Tebeaux, ].

Elbow, P. (1973) Writing without teachers. : Press.

Emig, Janet. (May 1977) Writing as a Mode of Learning. College Composition and Communication.

Evans, Virginia.(1997) Successful Writing, Proficiency. Express Publishing

Foucault,Michel.(1997) "Self Writing." In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, ed. Paul Rabinow, trans. Robert Hurley and others, 207-22. Vol. 1 of The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984. : New Press.

Harris, Stefanakis, Evangeline (1977). The Power in Portfolios: to Sit Beside the Learner. In Torff, B. (Ed.) Multiple Intelligences & Assessment. : IRI Skylight Publishers.

Hart, C. (1998). Doing a Literature Review : Teaching Writing through Literature

Hedge, T. (1988). Writing. Press

Howatt, A. (1984). A History of English Language Teaching. : Press.

Kennedy, George, Alexander (1999). Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Traditions from Ancient to Modern Times. Press

(1984). Writing: Research, theory and applications, Pergamon Press

Kroll, B. (1990). Second Language Writing: Research insights for the classroom, Cambridge University Press

Lunsford, Andrea,A. and Connors, Robert, J.(1993) “Teachers’ Rhetorical Comments on Student Papers”. CCC 44.2: 200-223

Malinowitz, Harriet. (1995) Textual Orientations. Boynton/Cook.

McCrimmon, James. (1976) Writing with a purpose. : Houghton Mifflin

Murphy, James J. (1987) Introduction to Quintilian on the Teaching of Speaking and Writing. (xx-xx) : UP

Oluwadiya, Adewumi (1992). “Some prewriting techniques for student writers” ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM. Oct. ’92, pp.12-15, 32.

O'Sullivan, R.(1991). Literature in the Language Classroom. The English Teacher. Retrieved December 31, 2003 from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1991/main6.html

, R. (1990). Language learning strategies. What every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

, R. (1996). Language Learning Strategies around the World. Cross-cultural Perspectives. Manoa: Press.

Perry, William G., Jr. (1970), Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development: A Scheme. : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston

Piaget, J. (1929). The child’s conception of the world. : Harcourt Brace.

Peregoy, S.F., & Boyle, O.F. (2001). , Writing, and Learning In ESL. : Addison Wesley Longman.

Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in teaching writing, Oxford University Press.

Richards, J. (1985). The Context of Language Teaching. CUP.

Strunk, William, Jr. (1918). The Elements of Style, : Priv. print. [: Press of W.P. Humphrey]

Tribble, C. (1996). Writing. Press

Valds, G., Dvorak, T., Hannum, T.P. (1998). Workbook to Accompany Composicion, McDraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

White, R. & Arndt, V. (1991). Process Writing. Longman

William, Joseph (2000). Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (6th ed.). : Longman

Dictionaries

Cambridge Dictionaries Online

Web site references

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/big-city-small-world/series-3-episode-1-%20burglary

http://www.unicef.org/violencestudy/pdf/Our%20Right%20to%20be%20Protected%20from%20Violence.pdf%20 26th January , 11:25

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-videos/heros-adventure

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=28524&CategoryID=7918

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/polar-bear.html 11th February , 22:15

http://www.northpole.com/stories/

http://www.songlyrics.com/jack-johnson/i-got-you-lyrics/

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/order-the-sentences/the-history-football

February 21st , 10:09

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/5th-skydiving.pdf March 12th , 12:51

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/sites/teens/files/easter_-_text.pdf March 31st , 19:23

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6313

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/The_Bus_Driver.pdf April 6th , 14:26

http://www.thehomesmine.co.uk

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/weather-forecast

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/writing/

http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anson, Chris, M. (1989) “Response Styles and Ways of Knowing”. In Theory, Practice, and Research. Urbana: NCTE

Aristotle. (350 B.C.E) Rhetoric. Translated by W. Rhys Roberts. Online version

Badger, Richards and White. (2000) A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal Volume 54(2), pp. 153-160

Behn, Robin and Twichell, Chase. (1992) The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets who Teach. Ed. By R. Behn and C. Twichell

, James. (1984) Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. : UP

Derrida, Jacques. (1978) Writing and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. : Press

Dragga, Sam. (1985) Reporting Technical Information. 11th ed. : Press. [co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth Tebeaux, ].

Elbow, P. (1973) Writing without teachers. : Press.

Emig, Janet. (May 1977) Writing as a Mode of Learning. College Composition and Communication.

Evans, Virginia.(1997) Successful Writing, Proficiency. Express Publishing

Foucault,Michel.(1997) "Self Writing." In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, ed. Paul Rabinow, trans. Robert Hurley and others, 207-22. Vol. 1 of The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984. : New Press.

Harris, Stefanakis, Evangeline (1977). The Power in Portfolios: to Sit Beside the Learner. In Torff, B. (Ed.) Multiple Intelligences & Assessment. : IRI Skylight Publishers.

Hart, C. (1998). Doing a Literature Review : Teaching Writing through Literature

Hedge, T. (1988). Writing. Press

Howatt, A. (1984). A History of English Language Teaching. : Press.

Kennedy, George, Alexander (1999). Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Traditions from Ancient to Modern Times. Press

(1984). Writing: Research, theory and applications, Pergamon Press

Kroll, B. (1990). Second Language Writing: Research insights for the classroom, Cambridge University Press

Lunsford, Andrea,A. and Connors, Robert, J.(1993) “Teachers’ Rhetorical Comments on Student Papers”. CCC 44.2: 200-223

Malinowitz, Harriet. (1995) Textual Orientations. Boynton/Cook.

McCrimmon, James. (1976) Writing with a purpose. : Houghton Mifflin

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Web site references

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/big-city-small-world/series-3-episode-1-%20burglary

http://www.unicef.org/violencestudy/pdf/Our%20Right%20to%20be%20Protected%20from%20Violence.pdf%20 26th January , 11:25

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-videos/heros-adventure

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=28524&CategoryID=7918

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/polar-bear.html 11th February , 22:15

http://www.northpole.com/stories/

http://www.songlyrics.com/jack-johnson/i-got-you-lyrics/

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/order-the-sentences/the-history-football

February 21st , 10:09

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/5th-skydiving.pdf March 12th , 12:51

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/sites/teens/files/easter_-_text.pdf March 31st , 19:23

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6313

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/The_Bus_Driver.pdf April 6th , 14:26

http://www.thehomesmine.co.uk

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/weather-forecast

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/writing/

http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/