WRITING IN ENGLISH

Before you write something in English, always ask yourself

two questions

1.

WHAT AM I WRITING?? IS IT
A LETTER? A POSTCARD? A NOTE? A MAGAZINE ARTICLE? A STORY? A DESCRIPTION? A PROFILE?

This is IMPORTANT because we write each of them organizing information in different ways.. They look different and sometimes they use diferent language.

2. WHO IS GOING TO READ IT?

Friends?

Strangers?

This is IMPORTANT too, because we use different language: A letter to a friend should use very friendly INFORMAL language. Other types might need to sound more serious or FORMAL.

SOME BASIC RULES TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR WRITING: (CLICK ON THE LINKS TO DO SOME PRACTICE)
1. Articles, descriptions and stories should have a TITLE. 2. Paragraphs help the reader read the text. Each main idea should have its own paragraph. Play Story Builder Game . 3. We often use short forms (its, etc) in INFORMAL writing. 4. We use exclamation marks for EMPHASIS and to make what we say sound exciting. 5. We use the present simple for GENERAL SITUATIONS. 6. We use the present continuous for things happening NOW or AROUND NOW.

7. We use the past continuous to show a situation in progress when something happened.

8. We use quote marks to show the exact words that people said:

Hello!
9. We use question marks at the end of questions.

Do you like sports?

10. We use question tags to ask our readers TO AGREE WITH US.

I think thats great, dont you?

11. With LETTERS, we use phrases to say goodbye before we write our name at the end. Bye for now! 12. We dont always write complete sentences in an informal letter. 13. We use You should, Why dont you, How about and What about to make suggestions. Why dont you choose a famous queen?

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR FIRST DRAFT, READ OVER WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN. REMEMBER THE
DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF YOUR WRITING THAT YOU SHOULD BE CHECKING TRYING TO SPOT COMMON MISTAKES. (CLICK ON THE LINKS IN ORDER TO DO SOME PRACTICE)

PROOFREAD:

1. SPELLING: Use a dictionary or other reference to help you. Play the Plural fishing game and Look, say, cover, write & check game .

2. CAPITAL LETTERS: Remember to capitalize the names of people, places, titles, months, days of the week and the personal pronoun I, among others. Play the games Blown Away and Play your caps right.

3. APOSTROPHES: Use them correctly to form contractions (short forms) or show possession. Play the games Beat the clock and Who owns what game . 4. PUNCTUATION: Use commas, colon, semicolon or fullstops to separate words, phrases or sentences correctly. Use quotation marks around the direct words of speakers, and exclamation marks to show excitement. Play the game Going to work with commas and Pin Bored .

5. GRAMMAR: CORRECT VERB TENSE: e.g. I go to school by car yesterday- incorrect (I went to school by car yesterday). Play the Tenses Treasure Hunt Game. VERB AGREEMENT: The verb and the subject agree: e.g. The girls goes- incorrect (The girls go). Play the Verb Subject Treasure Hunt Game WORD ORDER: e.g. I like tennis also incorrect (I also like tennis). SUBJECT OMISSION: e.g. I like tennis, is fun. (I like tennis, it is fun). Play the Personal Pronouns Treasure Hunt Game

FINISHED PROOFREADING?? IS YOUR PRESENTATION NEAT AND TIDY?

THEN NOW YOU ARE READY TO COEVALUATE YOUR WRITING TOGETHER WITH YOUR CLASSMATES BEFORE YOU HAND IT IN TO YOUR TEACHER. THAT WILL HELP YOU SPOT THE MISTAKES YOU MISSED!

 SELF-EVALUATE

YOUR WORK USING THE WRITING RUBRIC. ONCE IT IS CORRECTED, DID IT MATCH THE TEACHERS EVALUATION? WHY? WHY NOT?

TO FINISH IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING SKILLS, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.
KEEP A RECORD OF THEM. TRY NOT TO MAKE THEM AGAIN. PROOFREAD YOUR WRITINGS CONSIDERING YOUR TYPICAL MISTAKES.

BUT, DONT WORRY! YOU CAN ALSO