Topic:

Developing Writing Skills

 The differences between
spoken and written texts
 Written language is complex at the level of
clause while spoken language is complex in
the way clauses are linked together
 Written language is also reinforced by the
tendency of create nouns from verbs
 Writing is often decontextualised
 Skills of writing
 Ability to put sounds down on graphic form
according to the conventional sound-spelling
rules.
 Ability to spell English words correctly, including
using correct punctuation and capitalization.
 Ability to do writing practice, such as dictation,
grammar exercises, constructing dialogues
according to the model, simple translation
exercises.
 Ability to write short compositions, including
functional writing skills, such as writing simple
letters, taking notes, writing outlines and
summaries.
 Major types of writing
 1. Explanation and analysis
(a) a process
(b) an opinion or point of view
(c) event(s) and phenomena
(d) instructions and directions
2. Argument
(a) persuasion
(b) refutation
(c) examining both sides of a point
3. Description and summary
(a) a thing
(b) a person
(c) a place
(d) an event
(e) concepts
4. Narration
(a) a series of events; a report
(b) biography or autobiography
(c) historical events
(d) fiction or nonfiction
 Written Practice
Sentence writing
Parallel writing
Cohesion and coherence
Oral composition
 Sentence writing
(a) What are they doing?
Write four sentences about what the
people are doing.
(b) Time clauses: write four sentences using
‘after’, ‘before’and ‘while’
 Parallel writing
(1) Read the symbols and their meanings

Good hotel dinner

Simple hotel
Tel. number shower
City centre bathroom
Time of opening
Swimming
bedroom ------- pool
Central heating
B breakfast

lunch
 Parallel writing
2. Here is the entry for the hotel Concorde

Good hotel dinner

Tel. number8866 15
City centre 25
All year
40 ------- 1
Central heating
B 7---9

11---3
 Parallel writing
The Hotel Concorde in Paris is a good hotel.
The telephone number is 8866. It is in the
city centre. The hotel is open all year, and
there are forty bedrooms .There is central
heating in the hotel. Breakfast is from seven
to nine. Lunch is from eleven to three, and
dinner is from eight until eleven.There are
twenty-five bathrooms and fifteen showers.
There is also a swimming pool in the hotel.
 Parallel writing
3, Read these symbols and describe the
hotels in the same way
7---9
Simple hotel
4578 200
City centre
All year
Swimming
200 ------- pool

B 6---10
 Cohesion and coherence
(a) Join the following pairs of sentences using
‘and’ or ‘but’
1. Concorde is an ideal way to travel.
Concorde is expensive.
2. Concorde is fast. Concorde is
comfortable.
3. Travellers like Concorde. People living
near airports don’t like Concorde
 Writing reports and advertisements
(b)The advertisement
Stage 1 The class discusses what makes a successful
advertisement.
Stage 2 The class is divided into groups. They are told that
their task is to select a product and write an
advertisement for it which will appear in a magazine.
Stage 3 When they have completed their advertisements they
can pass them round the class. Alternatively they can be
given a period of time to design the artwork for their
text. The advertisements can then be pinned to the class
notice board.