TSA Writing Skills

(Primary 3)

Pre-writing

Ben is having his summer holiday. He is writing about it.

You are Ben. Look at the pictures and write story about your summer holiday in about30 words. You may use the words in the boxes to help you.

Read the question

Underline the keywords

Situation

What to write

Number of words

Getting ideas(1) Pictures

?

workbooks cartoons

park

From the pictures, find out:

• Where is he?

• What is he doing?

• Does he look happy or sad?

• Is he with someone or alone?

Getting ideas(2) Mind map

• Think about different ideas

• Use the mind map

• Think of answers to the questions on the mind map

(2) Mind map

What did you do?

What did you see?

Did you enjoy your holiday?

How did you feel?

My summer holiday

Where did you go?

Who spend the holiday with you?

What: the thing or action

When: the time Where: the place Who: the people Why: the reason …

How: the way something happens

How many: the number of something

How much: the price …

Getting ideas(3) Question words

• Use ‘wh-’ words and ‘how’ question words to get ideas of different areas, e.g.

(3) Question words

• When? • Where?• What (do you

do)?• Who?• How (do you

feel)?

• Every day, in the afternoon• At home, in the park• Doing workbooks, watching

TV, going to the park …• Me, Daisy• happy

Writing

(1) Making sentences

Write each sentence with a clear structure.

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day. I watch funny cartoons. I go to the park with Daisy when the weather is good. In the afternoon, I play football. I am happy.

I play football.

subject

verb

object

(1) Making sentences:Punctuations

Note the use of capital letters, full stops and commas.

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day.

A clear sentence structure with right punctuations:

Use a capital letter for the first word of a sentence. Use a capital letter for the pronoun ‘I’. Use a full stop ( . ) to mark the end of a sentence.Use a comma ( , ) to separate words in a sentence.

(2) Supporting details

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day. I watch funny cartoons. I go to the park with Daisy when the weather is good. In the afternoon, I play football. I am happy.

1. Write more details.

(2) Supporting details

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day. I watch funny cartoons. I go to the park with Daisy when the weather is good. In the afternoon, I play football. I am happy.

2. Write about time.

These sentences show when ‘I’ do these activities.

(2) Supporting details

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day. I watch funny cartoons. I go to the park with Daisy when the weather is good. In the afternoon, I play football. I am happy.

3. Use more adjectives.

The writer uses these adjectives to describe cartoons, weather and how the writer feels.

(3) Linking ideas

In the summer holiday, I do summer workbooks and watch TV at home every day. I watch funny cartoons. I go to the park with Daisy when the weather is good. In the afternoon, I play football. I am happy.

Use some words to link up ideas.

These words help us join our ideas together.

Formats

(1) Story

Beginning

• introduce the setting and the characters

Development• What happens at first?• Next?

Ending• How it ends? What do you think and feel?

(2) Letter

Recipient

• Opening• Main body• Ending

Date

Sender

Closing

(3) E-mailRecipient

• Opening• Main body• Ending

Sender

Closing

(4) Diary Entry

• What happened

• How you feel

Date Weather

Post-writing

Read Again

• Take 5 minutes to read your writing again

• Check the language (grammar)

- tenses

- spelling

• Check the format (especially letters)

• Check the number of words (about 30 words)

- The End -