Writing (1)

1. Writing (1) (2008)

2. Welcome to the New Academic Year! Instructor: Miss Mona Jebril M.Sc. Educational Studies Higher Education (Oxford University) _____________________ B.A. English Language and Literature (Al Azhar University)

3. Knowing yourself- a first step! • Introduce yourself (3 min) • Who are you? • Why are you here? What are your expectations?

4. Which of these pieces of writing would you plan carefully? • Birthday card to a friend • Letter to your pen-friend • Postcard to your family • Note to a close friend • Letter applying for a job in Australia • Letter of complaint to a company • English exam composition: ‘Things I like to do’ (from: Cambridge First Certificate, 1993: p. 7)

5. Which of these pieces of writing would you plan carefully? • Birthday card to a friend • Letter to your pen-friend • Postcard to your family • Note to a close friend • Letter applying for a job in Australia • Letter of complaint to a company • English exam composition: ‘Things I like to do’ (from: Cambridge First Certificate,1993:p.7) Informal Formal

6. Formal Writings:(Academic Writing) • As the name implies, it is the kind of writing that you are required to do in college or university. It differs from other kinds of writing (personal, literary, journalistic, business, etc.) in several ways. N.B. (for more details, plz see Writing Academic English, p. 2 Under ‘Audience, Tone, and Purpose’)

7. Writing (1)-Aims • This course provides an introduction to writing at college and university level (Academic Writing) • It introduces writing as an active process of communicating ideas which requires active thinking and good organizational skills • It assumes that writing good English is not only a matter of talent but also a result of good and continuous practice and the learning of certain writing skills and strategies

8. English Main Four Skills Listening Speaking Reading How can you improve your writing? Writing

9. What are the things that We Should take care of when we write?

10. Writing(1)-Objectives • In this course, you will Learn some techniques which will help you to improve your writing • You will learn • how to plan and write a composition (esp. paragraph & essay) • how to improve your style and communicate your ideas more clearly and effectively • how to spell and punctuate • how to write good English (learning more grammar and vocabulary)

11. Book or books? • Main Reference Book +( A Reading List) • Exam: Theoretical (definitions/explanations, etc.) Practical (writing paragraphs, essays, etc.)

12. How Can I evaluate and Improve my work? • Do you agree or disagree with the statements below?(Discuss in pairs) • The teacher should mark my composition and write in all the corrections • It’s best to correct your own mistakes • The teacher should show me where I have made a mistake, but allow me to correct the answer myself • It’s useful to work in pairs, discussing and correcting each other’s mistakes. • Mistakes don’t matter that much. Answering the question is what is important. • It’s helpful to see different answers to a question- to decide which is best and try to say why. • You must not make any mistakes. Correct English is essential. (from: Cambridge First Certificate, 1993: p. 7)

13. Error Correction Symbols

14. Error Correction Sheet (Self-evaluation)

15. Example: (Error Correction Sheet)

16. Some Advices! • Use an English-English Dictionary • Make a glossary of terms • Do all assignments given to you • Ask questions and discuss with each other • Listen, speak and read • Practice as much as you can • Believe that you can do it! To write!

17. The Writing Process Plan *Each phase of the process loops back on the other Pre-writing Write Revise Post- writing Edit

18. What is pre-writing? • Prewriting is any structural experiences that influence active student participation in thinking, talking, writing, and working on the topic under focus in a writing lesson. Such activities may include: (oral group, brainstorming, debating, outlining, oral reading, interviewing, visits to places of interests, clustering, free-writing, etc.) • The importance of pre- writing According to D’Aoust (1986:7): ‘Prewriting activities generate ideas; they encourage a free flow of thoughts and help students to discover both what they want to say and how to say it on paper. ‘ (Thomas Karl,1995)

19. Stage I: Prewriting: Step 1: Choosing and Narrowing a Topic • If you are given a specific writing assignment (ex. A paragraph), then what you can write is limited. • You must narrow the subject to a particular aspect of that general subject. • Ex. Environment Pollution Ocean Pollution 1989 Alaskan Oil Spill

20. Practice! • Narrow each of the following general topics to one specific aspect that could be written about in one paragraph. • University • Television • Sports • Entertainment • Food

21. Prewriting: Step 2: Brainstorming • Brainstorming is a writing technique to stimulate creative thinking and generate ideas and material for writing. *It can get you to write more quickly and save you time. Three useful brainstorming techniques are: Listing Freewriting Clustering

22. Brainstorming by Listing • Listing is a brainstorming technique in which you think about your topic and quickly make a list of whatever words or phrases come into your head • Procedures: • -Write down the general topic at the top of the paper • Then make a list of every word or phrase that comes into your mind about the topic. (The harder you think, the more ideas will flow) 3 -Use words , phrases, or sentences. * Your purpose is to produce as many ideas as possible in a short time, so don’t stop the flow of ideas for juding or editing.

23. Practice: • Brainstorm by listing ideas on one or two of the following topics: • How to be a good student. • Tourist attractions in your country or city. • Problems of working students

24. Brainstorming by Freewriting • Freewriting is a brainstorming activity in which you write freely about the topic because you are looking for a specific focus. • The purpose of freewriting is to generate as many ideas as possible (Write without worrying about appropriateness, grammar, spelling, logic, or organization.) Procedures: • Write the topic at the top of your paper. • Write as much as you can about the topic until you run out of ideas. Include information, facts, details, examples, etc, that come to your mind about the subject. • After you have run out of ideas, reread your paper and circle the main idea (s) that you would be interested in developing. • Take the main idea and free write again.

25. Example: (Brainstorming by Freewriting) • What is the biggest problem at Evergeen Colleg? Well, I really don’t know. Infact, I can’t think of one particular problem although I know there are many problems. For one thing the classrooms are usually overcrowded. At the beginning of this semester, …………………………….the classrooms are poorly maintained ……the library is too small and limited….another problem is parking near the campus……………………..

26. The student chooses one idea to develop further in his paragraph • Topic: To describe the biggest problem at Evergreen College *(parking near the campus) The student writes again: I think finding a parking space close to the campus at Evergreen College is a major problem: (Describing the problem, explaining and giving examples, suggesting or studying solutions, .etc.)

27. Practice! (Brainstorming byFreewriting) • Freewrite on one of the following topic: • Describe one of the disadvantages of using the internet for information communication in the 21st Century. • Describe one of the major problems in your city or country.

28. Brainstorming byclustering • Clustering is another brainstorming activity that you can use to generate ideas. • Procedures: • In the centre of your paper, write your topic and draw a balloon’’ around it. • Then write whatever ideas come to you in balloons around the core. • Think about ideas and make more balloons around them. ‘Your richest idea will produce a cluster of balloons.’

29. Activity: build eyes colour face hair age Name Tastes hobbies Bad points Personal details food music colour size clothes job sex Physical appearance character style nose nationality good points

30. Activity: size build eyes Length colour face hair style Physical appearance nose colour age Name Personal details character job clothes Tastes sex good points music nationality age food hobbies Bad points

31. stage II: Planning • After choosing topics, narrowing them down and generating ideas by brainstorming, now you should be ready for writing • Organise the ideas you generated by brainstorming (listing, freewriting, or clustering) and make an outline. • Procedures: • Grouping ideas in As, Bs, Cs for example. • Developing a topic sentence to cover the points listed under the selected group A,B or C ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ex. Topic sentence Topic: Public transportation Controlling idea: unreliability of Public transportation Topic sentence:One problem is the city’s unreliable public transportation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3Simple outlining (see next slide for explanation)

32. Stage II Planning- (3. simple outlining) An outline is a plan for a paragraph. In an outline, you write down the main points and subpoints in the order in which you plan to write about them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Topic sentence: One problem is the city’s unreliable public transportation. • Supporting point: 1. Daily schedules are unreliable • Supporting detail: - late arrivals • Supporting point: 2 Passengers are victims • Supporting detail: - Missed appointments • - Extra waiting time

33. Practice! • Work on your list of ideas and develop an outline: • Group similar ideas together • Select the idea you would like to write on • Write the topic sentence • Develop an outline! (Feel free to cross out points that you don’t need and add new ideas)

34. Stage III: Writing and Revising Drafts Based on your outline, You might need to read and revise several drafts until you have produced a final copy to hand in. Procedures: • Write your first draft. -------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: • Skip one or two lines per line of writing and leave margins of one inch on both sides of the paper. • While you are writing, you may not be able to think of a word or phrase, don’t worry-just leave a space or a line, it can be filled later. • Writing is a continuous process of discovery, so you can add new ideas or delete original ones at any time in the writing process.

35. Stage III: Drafts-Continued 2. Revise content and organizations (Unity- supporting details- topic sentence-conclusion- developing the controlling idea, etc.) 3. Proof read for Grammar and Mechanics (correctness, subject-verb agreement, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, etc. 4. Write your final copy. ---------------------------------------------------- N.B. Don’t get surprised if you had to change things at the final copy!

36. Summary So far! • Academic writing is a special kind of formal writing. • Prewriting activities are useful for narrowing down and generating ideas. • Revision is an essential part of the writing process. (Writing is a process of discovery)

37. What is a Paragraph?An Overview • A paragraph is the basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develop one main idea. - In academic writing the paragraph may stand by itself or be part of a longer piece of writing (essay, a chapter of a book, etc.) • The length of a paragraph is unimportant, however a paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly.

38. Example: • ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

39. How to Write a Title Single paragraphs do not usually have a title, just when you practise, titles may help to organize and limit your thoughts. For longer essays or reports, the use of titles becomes more necessary. Notes on writing the title: • The first , last and all important words are capitalized • The title is not underlined. • The title is not enclosed in quotation marks (‘ ‘). ------------------------------------------------ Ex. How to Be a Good Student. Reasons for Poverty in Gaza. The Disadvantages of the Internet in the 21st Century.

40. The Three Parts of a Paragraph • 1. Topic Sentence • 2. Supporting details • 3. Concluding Sentence.

41. The Three parts of a paragraph • 1. The topic sentence The topic sentence: The topic sentence is the most important sentence in a Paragraph. It briefly indicates what the paragraph is going to discuss. It states the main idea of the topic and limits the topic to one or two areas. TopicV. Controlling Idea Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important Characteristics. Topic Controlling idea

42. Examples of topic sentences: • Driving on freeways • The importance of gold • How to register for college classes ---------------------------------------- • Driving on freeways requires skill and alertness. • Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics. • Registering for college classes can be a frustrating experience for new students.

43. Examples of topic sentences: • Driving on freeways • The importance of gold • How to register for college classes ---------------------------------------- • Driving on freeways requiresskill and alertness. • Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics. • Registering for college classescan be a frustrating experience for new students.

44. The topic sentence-------------------------------------- • The topic sentence is the most general statement in the paragraph because it gives only the main idea. But, it should not be too general (neither too specific). If it is too general then the reader cannot tell exactly what the paragraph is going to discuss. (ex. A menu in a restaurant- ‘meat’/’Soup’/’Salad’) • Examples: Too general:American food is terrible Too specific: American food is tasteless and greasy because Americans use too many canned, frozen, and prepackaged food and because everything is fried in oil. Good: American food is tastless and greasy. • The topic sentence may be the first or last sentence in a paragraph. * The topic sentence is helpful to the reader as well as to the writer.

45. The Topic Sentence Recognize the Topic Sentence: • a) Later on, people began to write on pieces of leather, which were rolled into scrolls. • B) In the earliest times, people carved or painted messages on rocks. • C) In the Middle Ages, heavy paper called parchment was used for writing, and books were laboriously copied by hand. • D) With the invention of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century; the modern printing industry was born. • E) Some form of written communication has been used through out the centuries.

46. The Topic sentence Recognize the Topic Sentence: • a) Later on, people began to write on pieces of leather, which were rolled into scrolls. • B) In the earliest times, people carved or painted messages on rocks. • C) In the Middle Ages, heavy paper called parchment was used for writing, and books were laboriously copied by hand. • D) With the invention of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century; the modern printing industry was born. • E) Some form of written communication has been used through out the centuries.

47. Practice: • Write a topic sentence for two of the following topics: Ex. Topic: Television’s effect on children Topic Sentence: (1) Television is harmful to children because it teaches them violence as a way of solving problems. (2) Television retards a child’s reading ability. -------------------------------------------- • Smoking cigarettes • Ramadan • Foreign travel • Space exploration • Television’s effect on children

48. The Three Parts of a Paragraph • 2. Supporting sentences The supporting sentences develop the topic sentence. They explain the topic sentence by giving facts, reasons, examples, quotations, etc. • 3. The Concluding Sentence This signals the end of the paragraph and leaves the reader with important things to Remember.

49. The concluding sentence-continued • Use one of the followings for the concluding sentence: • Finally, • In conclusion, • In summary, • Therefore, • Thus, • As a result, We can see that……… It is clear that……….. All in all…………….

50. Unity and Coherence • A good paragraph has the elements of unity and coherence: Unity:You discuss only one idea in the paragraph which is stated in the topic sentence, and then each and every supporting sentence develops that idea. (The paragraph should not end with another idea or wander within different ideas- it should have a single focus!) Coherence: The paragraph should be easy to read and understand. For this you can: • Keep your sentences in a logical order & • Connect your ideas by the use of appropriate transition signals: ex. (first of all, however, for example, etc.