Writing Essentials

Spring course 2018

"Get it down. Takechances. It may be bad,but it's the only way you
can do anything reallygood."--William Faulkner

Introduction to “writing essentials” course
Writing Essentials course aims to help

concentrate on the skills that are

vocabulary and fluency. The skills

students improve their writing skills

specific to the writing of English. The

practiced through the course arein variety of texts. The various

approach is learning by doing. By

useful for all kinds of writing. This

problem-solving activities andcompleting certain tasks such ascourse aims to develop your writing

exercises included in the course areorganizing ideas, using linking words

in a huge range of styles and formats -designed to help students discoverand phrases, students become awarefrom history essays, science

what a well-written text is and how itof what a well-written texts looks like

reports, stories, articles,

is different from a series of poorly

and is comprised of. The course ismemos, opinions to formal andconnected sentences. Once theattended for adult learners of allinformal letters and businessstudents become aware of thekinds, thus, students studying

reports. It helps develop essential

differences, they then have thebusiness English can gain from theskills, such as identifying youropportunity to practice skills that areprogram as much as college students

audience, clarifying the purpose ofneeded in order to write effectively.

studying literature and grammar, or

the writing and judging theThis three-semester course willhouse-wives expanding theirappropriate style.

Learning by Doing
Learners generally find that doing something (being active) is more interesting than being told
about it (being passive), and that to understand something involves using own resources
to solve problems. More importantly experience shows that Learning by Doing isinteresting, efficient and most importantly successful.

Methodology

PROBLEMS IN WRITING
Here are some of the reasons why
student’s writing may be ineffective
and difficult to understand.

I. The ideas may not be presented in anorder that makes sense to a reader.
II. The relation between ideas may not beclear because of absence orinappropriate use of linking words.
III. The writer’s attitude to what he or she
is writing may not be clear: Is thewriter describing, suggesting or
criticizing something?
IV. Grouping ideas into paragraphs (logicalorganization) ideas are not grouped
together into distinct paragraphs.
V. Beginning of a paragraph – or
beginning of a longer texts-might notstart the reader in the right direction.
Ending of a paragraph – or ending of alonger text – may not end
appropriately.
VI. A text may contain ideas that are not
relevant to what the writer wants toexpress, or the writer may find itdifficult to think of enough ideas.
VII. The sentences may not have clear
punctuations: There may be commas
and periods without any good reason,or there may be no punctuation where
there should be.

Cohesive Ties are words and phrases thatjoin sentences into unified, wellintegrated, cohesive texts.

Approach and solutions to
Most Frequent problems
TYPES OF EXCERCISES
Each lesson contains a different
combination of exercises andactivities. WHAT: A description ofwhat each exercise type consists of.
WHY: The reason for each exercise
type within the overall objective oflearning to write better. HOW:
General suggestions on how each typeof exercises can be approached.

I. ORGANIZING IDEAS:
Selecting and ordering
information.
WHAT The sentences of the text
appear in random order. Students try
to recompose the text by deciding on
the correct order of the sentences.

WHY The objective to find theright order of the sentences is not the
only purpose. In addition to group
work and discussion, this exercise
helps understand the importance of“cohesive ties” in joining sentences
together into unified wholes.

HOW The paragraphs are cut intostrips so that each strip has one
sentence. This makes it easier for
students to move the sentences aroundinto different arraignments.

II. RELATING IDEAS:
Linking Words & Phrases
A linking word is defined as a word orphrase that shows the logical relation
between sentences or between
clauses. Structurally there are threekinds of linking words and phrases that
we are going to be focusing on:
Transitioning words like however,well, besides, and for instance, join two
sentences by meaning. They aregenerally set of by commas, no matter
what positions they are in, because, ina sense they interrupt the structure of
the sentence. Conjunctions joining
two independent clauses, such as and,so, but, and or: They show aconnection in meaning between thetwo clauses, and are generally
preceded by a comma.
Subordinating conjunctions suchas because, although, require nocommas to set it off, however, thedepended clause is followed by acomma if it begins a sentence. Ex:
I can’t go because I’m working.
Because I’m working, I can’t go.

WHAT The first linking words andphrases in each passage are underlined.
Students are asked to explain whatthese words mean, how they link ideas
and how are they punctuated. For the3rest of the passage the linking words
have been removed, and students must
supply a suitable word to fill the blank,
either by choosing a word from a listor thinking of a word by themselves.

HOW Groups of two or more, students

WHY Students who are learning

IV. GROUPING IDEAS:
Logical Organization

English often have difficulty using
linking words and phrases to show
relationship between sentences.
Correct and appropriate use of thesewords and phrases helps hold a pieceor writing together and gives readers
clues to the writers meaning.

HOW Working in groups of two or
more, students would first read thewhole text to understand the meaning,
and then discuss the underlined words
and phrases in the first part of the text,
answering the questions given in theinstructions.

III. SHOWING ATTITUDE
An attitude word can be defined as aword or a phrase that shows how thewriter feels about what he or she iswriting. For example the words inbold text bellow are attitude words:
Obviously if the scandal became publicknowledge, some politicians would have toresign, and personally, I don't think thatwould be such a bad thing.

WHAT The attitude words havewould first read the text to understandthe meaning, and discuss the underlined
phrases in the part of the text, answering
the questions given in the instructions.

The way you organize your information
depends on the kind of paragraph you
are writing. If you are telling a story thelogical organization of the sentences will
be chronological, that is, according totime order. If you are describing whatyour bedroom looks like, you willorganize details according where they
are located, that is, spatial order.
Finally, if you are discussing examples,causes, effects, or reasons, you willprobably use order of importance.

WHAT Several paragraphs of different
text are presented to the student foranalyzing.

WHY Identifying the method oforganization used in each paragraph will
help the students how he or she shouldorganize their own writings.

HOW In groups read the following
paragraphs and identify one of the threemethods of organization used in eachparagraph.

been removed from text and students
supply an appropriate word to fill theblank by choosing from a given list.

V. WRITING PARAGRAPHS:First and Last Sentence

WHY Words that show the writers

Well-written paragraphs make a written
text easier to understand. Each paragraphshould usually have first sentence that
introduces or leads into the rest of theparagraph, and a final sentence thatsummarizes the paragraph (makes a finalpoint) or a sentence that leads into thenext paragraph.

feeling or attitude toward a subject areespecially important when a piece ofwriting expresses opinion such as apersonal letter, or an argumentative
essay. Such words greatly strengthen apiece of writing that intends toconvince readers of something.
WRITING TIP

How to Improve Your Writing Skills
Brush up on the basic principles of writing, grammar and spelling.
Write like it's your job and practice regularly.
Read more so you develop an eye for what effective writing looks like.

In a long text, like a letter or a report, thefirst paragraph should get the reader
interested in the, and usually should outline
the main points.

WHAT There are several types of
exercises such as choosing the best answer fromthe list; making up a suitable answer to fill ablank; and writing the rest of an incompletetext.

WHY Well-written paragraphs allow
rapid and efficient reading of the text. It
should be possible for a reader to skimthrough a long passage by reading the firstparagraph, then the first sentence of any
successive paragraph, and the final
paragraph, to get an overall idea what thetext contains.

HOW Again, students work in groups
when making choices. The whole class willdiscuss the findings of each group. If theywork as individuals the same follow-up
applies as if they were working in a group.

VI. SELECTING AND
ORDERING INFORMATION
These exercises are designed to makestudents aware of what makes something
relevant by forcing them to consider not
only what they are writing, but also why
are they writing and to whom.

WHAT Students are given a beginningof a written text, such as a letter, and areasked to complete it. They are given a long

Lorem Ipsum

list of ideas for possible inclusion.
Students will write the complete text,
adding linking words, phrases, sentences,and concluding paragraphs wherenecessary.

WHY Students often complain about
not having enough ideas o any given topic
to include in their written piece. In these
exercises, a list of ideas is given to thestudents; then they work to identify
relevant and less relevant ideas. In doing
so they realize the difference in having anidea and choosing to use it.

HOW Each individual should firstread through the list silently, making anote of the ideas he or she would
include. After that, all together will go
through the list marking the ideas all
students agree on and noting the ideas
where there is a disagreement. The
disputed ideas will be discussed asthoroughly as time allows.

Spring course

VII. PUNCTUATING
Punctuation marks are essential when
you are writing. They show the reader
where sentences start and finish and ifthey are used properly they make yourwriting easy to understand. This part ofthe course gives practical guidance on
how to use commas, semicolons, andother types of punctuation correctly, sothat your writing will always be clear
and effective.
Punctuation is used to create sense,clarity and stress in sentences. You
use punctuation marks to structure andorganize your writing.

WHAT Punctuation exercises covermost uses of the main punctuation
marks such as: periods, commas,colons, and semicolons, as well as
proper use of capital letters andapostrophes.

WHY Badly punctuated writing is
usually difficult to understand and gives
an impression of sloppiness. Students
can usually learn some basic
punctuation rules easily that help themmake their writing understandable toreaders.

HOW Students first study models ofcorrect punctuation and capitalizationand discuss the rules that underline
their uses.
Discussing why punctuation is usedhelps students establish the “rules”
they need to do the rest of theexercises. Class discussion helps tolead to a “correct “ version. This
exercise helps students build
awareness of why they punctuatethings in a certain way.

See why punctuation is important - no punctuation at all:See why punctuation is important - with punctuation: