learning 2 write ppt
DESCRIPTION
Power point presentation on learning how to write essays at a C2 levelTRANSCRIPT
Learning to write Based on “Learning to write: Error analysis applied” Carmen Valero Garcés, Guzmán Mancho Barés,
Carmen Flys Junquera, Esperanza Cerdá Redondo
Writing effective texts 0 Writing is a learned behavior, and as all are, culturally mediated. 0 Room for improvement.
0 Different expectations from an English audience than from a Spanish audience.
Writing a good paragraph 0 A paragraph consists of a series of sentences which develop one main idea, an idea that needs to be supported with examples or illustrations.
0 It should be uniCied, complete, ordered and coherent.
Writing a good paragraph 0 Begin your paragraph with a topic sentence (= a statement of opinion or intent, never a fact)
0 The subject should be narrow enough to discuss in one paragraph; if it is too general, there will be no focus or controlling idea. ( one or two controlling ideas max.)
0 For example: "Alcala de Henares is a beautiful city." The subject is Alcala de Henares and the controlling idea is beautiful city. All the sentences you write after should support that controlling idea (all of them should illustrate through examples or descriptions the beauty of the city). * No other subject, such as location or population should be included. These factors are irrelevant to the controlling idea of beauty.
Writing a good paragraph 0 Your paragraph should be complete (the objective is to give enough support to convince the reader that there is a basis to your opinion).
0 A good technique is to read the topic sentence and then ask yourself some questions about it, such as How? Why? Where? and so forth. In our case, we would probably ask, "Why is Alcala beautiful?” We should give the reader enough examples to show that there are indeed reasons for saying that it is beautiful.
0 The basic techniques of support are 0 examples 0 facts 0 statistics 0 physical description 0 personal experience
Writing a good paragraph 0 A paragraph should be ordered. Having a logical order makes your paragraph easier to read and understand. For example, you can start with a general idea and then illustrate your point with speciCic examples. Or start with a question and then provide the answers.
0 The basic orders are: 0 general-‐to-‐particular (or viceversa) 0 wide-‐to-‐narrow (or viceversa) 0 top-‐to-‐bottom (or viceversa) 0 question-‐to-‐answer 0 cause-‐to-‐effect
0 Imagine you are a camera and follow a progressive movement and direction, whether physical or logical, rather than jump around making your reader dizzy.
Writing a good paragraph 0 Your paragraph should be coherent. 0 You can achieve this by using cohesive devices such as logical
transitions, inner sentence connectors, parallel structures, pronouns that clearly refer to the antecedent, repetition of key words, synonyms or words from the same semantic Cield.
0 If your paragraph is well written and coherent, you should be able to mix up all the sentences and someone else would be able to reconstruct it in the original order.
0 If we are writing about the beauty of Alcala, we should use synonyms for beauty, harmony, refer several times to monuments or historic buildings and so forth to remind the reader that our controlling idea is that of beauty. If we are going to list monuments, then numerical transitions will help. In other cases, logical transitions are essential.
Writing a good paragraph 0 Your paragraph should always have a concluding sentence to signal that the main idea is Cinished and the next paragraph will develop a new main idea.
0 The concluding sentence should either 0 restate the idea of the topic sentence using other words 0 sum up the points of support 0 give a logical consequence 0 point out how the reader might use the knowledge provided 0 predict the outcome of a situation 0 provide a solution to the problem.
0 In our example, we might want to repeat that Alcala is attractive or suggest that the reader come to visit and enjoy the city.
Writing a good essay 0 An essay follows similar rules as a paragraph, but all is further developed. 0 If the topic sentence gives us the main idea of the paragraph, a thesis statement will announce the main idea of the essay. 0 Since an essay is longer, the thesis statement will contain more controlling ideas. In an essay, these are called secondary ideas. 0 The minimum essay usually has four or Cive paragraphs: that is, an introduction and three body paragraphs, each developing a secondary idea of the thesis. The topic sentence of each one of those paragraphs will be the secondary idea that is going to be developed.
Writing a good essay 0 The introduction is meant to announce the subject and catch the reader's attention. It usually ends with the thesis statement. Good introductory techniques include: 0 giving background information needed to understand the subject
0 a rhetorical question or a quote to attract attention 0 an anecdote can also be used to spark the reader's interest.
0 The conclusion can either be added to the last body paragraph, or, if more complete, it could constitute its own paragraph. The concluding techniques are the same as explained for the paragraph, but in an essay the conclusion is usually longer than one sentence.
Writing a good essay
0 Writing an essay is a complex process, but by 0 constructing good body paragraphs 0 using sound logic 0 carefully supporting all your claims and opinions 0 taking the audience into account
0 you can achieve clear and convincing essays!