Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Writing Tips

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the last exploratory post, your comments and opinions were very useful.

One function of the blog that I'm going to put into practice now, and which was mentioned in the comments, is that of a class diary where you can check what we've done in class and what the homework is for the week to come.

Today I will combine the class diary with the week's post, but in the future I will post the class diary on the Sunday after class, then post again with something new on Wednesday.

So, last Saturday we...

  • Checked the homework from the week before (Vocabulary, p. 31, ex. 1-3)
  • Worked on the Formal Writing practice in Unit 5
  • Practiced identifying and constructing defining and non-defining relative clauses, also in Unit 5 (p. 36-37), and in the Grammar Folder in your book (p. 165)
  • Peer-reviewed one another's formal letters from the week before 
The homework for this Saturday is to re-write your formal letter (from ex. 6, p. 33). Use everything that we've learned about formal writing to help you. Make it as good as you can because I'm going to give it a grade. Also, please type it up and print it out.

We've done a lot of work on formal writing over the past two weeks, so I hope you feel more comfortable with it. If you're still a little unsure, or just interested in other resources, check out this video:

These tips aren't specific to formal writing. They're applicable to any and all writing you might do. I encourage you to try to incorporate them in your English learning, I think they will pay off in the future.

Now, for your comments...

  • Which of these tips do you think is the most useful? Why?
  • Are there any other strategies for writing, and for improving your writing, that you want to share with the class? What works for you?
That's it for today. I look forward to reading your comments, have a nice week and I'll see you Saturday. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi everyone!!
    In my opinion the most useful tips in the video are:
    10º. Reading a lot! Reading is a very easy and quick way to learn a language. I feel that when I am reading English I am studying in a passive way. Besides if you work on it after you can get much benefit of your reading.
    5º. Learn prepositions. It's very important to link a noun/adjective/adverb/verb... that you learn with its prepositions. For me (and I think for everyone???)this is one of the hardest part of English. I think is useful to say those words together many times "depend on, depend on, depend on..." after that when you think in "depend" you will listen yourself in your head "depend on".
    3º. Linking words. Know as many as posible and practice with them again and again.
    1º. Practice your writing.

    In my opinion you could improve your writing even if you practice it in Spanish. If you do that you won't improve your English writing but you'll improve your writing. I mean, many times we lose points because we don't know how to organice our ideas (even in Spanish). Therefore we should learn to write first at all in Spanish and then probably it'll be much easier in English.

    See you soon.

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  2. Good morning fellows!

    Well in my opinion and according to the video suggested, the most useful tips are:

    -10) Reading is undoubtedly one basic step in order to improve the writting or the general learning of any language.Although, I disagree a bit with the opinion shown at the video.
    I mean, why should we read boring text/books? Of course we have to gradually increase the difficulty of the readings, but at least under my point of view people will keep back more information if they actually read something interesting for them.
    -7)Practice summarizing is also linked to the act of reading. If you write down the basic ideas you have just read ,you will be able to keep in mind more concepts.
    -5) and 3): Prepositions and linking words are pretty useful if you want to enrich your texts.
    -1) PRACTICE is the key, the final and more important way to improve your writting is to keep on practising.

    These are the general strategeis I try to keep in mind when I have to do a writting.

    Have a nice long weekend ;)
    xx

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