Lecture 2The process of writing

1. Prons: indefinite prons, his/her, shift of prons

2. Agreement

3. Imperative mood

4. Descriptive essay vs. argumentative essay

5. According to

6. Most of people

• If a person whose career is frustrated has a fantasy family, no one could remind his life as a meaningless one.

• The life of each of us is made up of family and career. If one of them is lacking, our life will be not perfect so that we may feel regretful or even painful.

• Our work contains more than just boring and tiring things.

• It is through my student that I gradually reveal the meanings I need.

• Without work, without dream.

• What is a paragraph?– A paragraph is a collection of related

sentences dealing with a single topic.

• Why a paragraph has several sentences?– for a better logical construction and smooth

delivery of ideas step by step.

What makes a good paragraph?

• To be as effective as possible, a paragraph should contain each of the following traits or elements: – unity– coherence– a topic sentence– adequate development– a brief conclusion

There are three reasons why Canada is one of the best countries in the world. First, Canada has an excellent health care system. All Canadians have access to medical services at a reasonable/ an affordable price. Second, Canada has a high standard of education. Students are taught by well-trained teachers and are encouraged to continue studying at universities. Finally, Canada's cities are clean and efficiently managed. Canadian cities have many parks and lots of space for people to live. As a result, Canada is a desirable place to live.

Unity

• The entire paragraph should concern itself with a single focus. If it begins with a focus or major point of discussion, it should not end with another or wander within different ideas.

Coherence

• Coherence helps to make the paragraph easily understandable to a reader. You can help create coherence in your paragraphs by creating logical bridges and verbal bridges.

Time order, emphatic order, spatial order

logical bridges

• The same idea of a topic is carried over from sentence to sentence in a logically natural way.

verbal bridges: Key words can be repeated in several sentences; Synonymous words can be repeated in several

sentences; Pronouns can refer to nouns in previous sentences; Transition words and phrases can be used to link

ideas from different sentences.

• A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with.

• It summarizes the main idea of the paragraph and indicates to the readers what your paragraph will be about.

Topic Sentence

• Functions of topic sentence:1. It supports the thesis by clearly stating a main point in the discussion.

2. It announces what the paragraph will be about.

3. It controls the subject matter of the paragraph. The entire discussion—the examples, details, and explanations—in a particular paragraph must directly relate to and support the topic sentence.

• The topic sentence has two characteristics:– Topic– Focus

• The topic sentence should NOT:– Be too narrow– Be too broad– Contain phrases like “I think”, “In my opinion”, etc.

1. Too many people treat animals badly in experiments.

2. The cosmetic industry often harms animals in unnecessary experiments designed to test products.

3. Grades are an unfair pain in the neck.

4. A course grade based on two multiple-choice exams doesn’t accurately measure a student’s knowledge of the subject.

5. Finding the right job is important and can lead to rewarding experiences.

6. Finding the right job can lead to an improved sense of self-esteem.

Are they good topic sentences?

5. Television is very important.

6. Television plays an educational role in our daily life.

1.He sent his wife a diamond ring on her thirtieth birthday.

2.He always surprises his wife on her birthdays.

3. They decided to change for a new apartment for several reasons.

4. They sold the old apartment because of the leaking roof.

7. To improve reading ability, one needs to acquire some reading skills.

8. To improve English proficiency is very important.

9. The Americans and the British not only speak the same language but also share a large number of social customs．

10. The Americans and the British have many things in common.

Write a topic sentence

1 .First, teaching is learning. To make my lectures more stimulating, I have to read more books and explore more knowledge. Second, teaching means freedom and independence. As a teacher, I’m free to express my own ideas in class. Third, I like teaching because I find dealing with young students an enjoyable thing.

Reference Answer:

Three reasons lead me to choose teaching as my future career.

2. . Chinese students are mostly only child in the family, and their demands are normally accommodated whatever they are. They take it for granted that their parents can buy anything they want. But now in doing part-time jobs, they come to realize how hard it is to earn money. This helps them from a correct view point of life.

Reference Answer: Through part-time jobs, students can learn the hardship of earning money.Doing part-time jobs helps students know the hardship of earning money.

How to develop a paragraph?

• Three levels of development – The general statement (topic sentence)– The primary evidence (major details)– The secondary evidence (minor details)

Example

• My health club has become more of a social gathering place than a fitness center. For one thing, people come here to see and to be seen. The men and women wear skimpy outfits that show off their bodies. The women wear makeup, and their hair is attractively styled as if they were going on dates. The men seek to impress the women by trying to outdo each other lifting weights. Also, some people use the health club as a meeting place. Men and women join because they have heard it is a safe place to meet people. They can observe each other’s behavior and get to know each other before going out.

• Effective paragraphs (see page 59)

• More examples (see page 44)

Which sentence is out of place?

One should know better than to be misled by advertisements.

1. Look at the products themselves to see if they really are what the advertisers claim them to be.

2. Talk to your friends to find out if they have had success with the products.

3. Switch channels if a television program is interrupted by too many commercials.

4. Above all, don’t buy a product because an advertisement says that a famous football player or a movie star likes it.

How to develop paragraphs?

• Development by Time

• Development by Process

• Development by Space

• Development by Example

• Development by Comparison and Contrast

• Development by Cause and Effect

• Development by Classification

Example

• Automobiles have been playing an important role in the daily activities of human society. For example, industry needs them for transporting products, and agriculture depends on them for farm supplies. Besides, automobiles are used every day to carry people to and from work. At weekends, automobiles take families on nice outings.

• Cooperation and competition are the two sides of a coin. Take a football game as an example. In order to win ， one team fight fiercely against the other, but at the same time, the members within a team must cooperate closely. Without cooperation, any competition would end in failure, and without competition, people will have no impulse to advance.

Cause and effect

• Many people are worried about what television has done to the generation of American children who have grown up watching it ． For one thing ， recent studies tend to show that TV stifles creative imagination ． Some teachers feel that television has taken away the child‘s ability to form mental pictures in his own mind ， resulting in children who cannot understand a simple story without visual illustrations ． For another ， too much TV too early tends to cause children to withdraw from real life experiences ． Thus ， they grow up to be passive spectators who can only respond to action ， but not initiate it ． The third area for concern is the serious complaint frequently made by elementary school teachers that children exhibit a low tolerance for the frustrations of learning．

Compare and contrast

• The same qualities that make people good house guests make them good hospital patients. Good house guests can expect a reasonable amount of service and make effort on their behalf, and hospital patients can also do this. Guests have to adjust to what a change is for them, and certainly hospital patients must do the same. No one appreciates a complaining, unpleasant, unappreciative house guest, and the hospital staff is no exception. House guests who expect vast changes to be made for their benefit are not popular for long. Certainly nurses and other personnel with their routines feel the same way about patients in their care. Just as house guests must make adjustments to enjoy their visits, patients must make adjustments to make their stays reasonably pleasant and satisfying under the circumstances.

Redundancy: verbs

1. To bring about a change in the state of affairs

2. They should conduct a careful examination of…

3. Solutions to these problems can be found only through

4. In all matters we must assume the attitude of admitting what we know and what don’t know.

5. It is especially necessary to make great efforts to assimilate the achievements of other cultures.

All-purpose words

Thank You!