English Punctuation - Learn English Free English Punctuation If you think punctuation doesn't matter, think again:- When you are speaking you use inflection, tone, nuance, pauses and word stress to communicate meaning. When you are writing you replace all this with punctuation. Using a full stop at the right time, can save a lot of embarassment:- Lynne Truss made a fortune out of pointing out that punctuation does indeed matter. The title, Eats shoots and leaves, comes from a joke about pandas:- A panda walks into a restaurant, sits down and orders a sandwich. Of course the entry would have been less deadly for the waiter if it had read - Panda: A bear, in the Uridae family, of Asian origin, characterised by distinct black and white colouring. There's another common joke:- An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing,” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is nothing.”
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Approaches to process writing What is process writing? Why should teachers be interested in a process approach to writing? The changing roles of teacher and students What stages are there in a process approach to writing? Classroom activities The importance of feedback Writing as communication Potential problems Further reading What is process writing? Why should teachers be interested in a process approach to writing? Research also shows that feedback is more useful between drafts, not when it is done at the end of the task after the students hand in their composition to be marked. The changing roles of teacher and students The teacher needs to move away from being a marker to a reader, responding to the content of student writing more than the form. What stages are there in a process approach to writing? Pre-writing The teacher needs to stimulate students' creativity, to get them thinking how to approach a writing topic. Evaluating, structuring and editing Now the writing is adapted to a readership. Focusing ideas
Learn Paraphrase Writiing Introduction Do you want to improve your essay writing skills? If yes, learn paraphrasing. It is a skill that will upgrade your writing abilities. Here is a free six lesson e-course. Who should take this e-course? need better writing skills plan to take a TOEFL or IELTS test want to increase English writing abilities quickly dream of studying in a western university Learn Writing Skills This e-course teaches six kinds of paraphrase writing skills. Here are the six skills and links to the lessons. Lesson 1: Synonyms. What is Paraphrase Writing? Paraphrasing is a reading and writing skill. Paraphrasing is not copying. Paraphrasing Helps Essay Writing Paraphrasing helps build writing skills in many areas. improve vocabulary powerlearn different sentence patternsexpand knowledge of expressionsdevelop your own writing style Paraphrase writing is an important reading and writing skill for students in almost every English-speaking country. Research and Results I believe paraphrasing is a great writing skill.
Writer's Workshop Resources and Ideas The majority of time of Writing Workshop is devoted to independent writing. During this time, students are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their pieces. Depending on the age and abilities of your students, independent writing can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as 45-60 minutes. It helps to build stamina with your class, beginning with a short amount of time and building that time until they can work for up 30 minutes or more. According to Katie Wood Ray (The Writing Workshop, 2001), students can also do other activities during their writing time, such as writing in their schema notebooks journal writing writing exercises to experiment with language and style conducting peer-conferences reading to support writing During independent writing time, the teacher confers with students about their writing. Teachers should keep conferences short. Websites on Conferring:
Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing "The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine." - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii "Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" So, what was the correlation? I have been teaching ESL for many years and there is no perfect solution to this problem; however, I do believe I have added quite a few writing activities to my bag of tricks and improved my ability to differentiate writing tasks based on student ability. There is a very important correlation between writing and language development. First the student must have an idea, then think of the appropriate way to say it, then start to write it and spell it correctly, and then create another sentence to continue to communicate the idea. With that said, teachers have a big task in improving ESL student writing skills, but the payoff for instructional dedication can be great. Additional positive academic results have been seen in the "90 90 90 Schools." Language Experience Approach
An Introduction to Letter Writing Because the activities below were developed for students in the U.K., it uses some language specific to their school system. For example, KS1 refers to Key State 1, corresponding to children ages 5 to 7; KS2 corresponds to children ages 7 to 9. QCA stands for Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which is the regulatory body for public school examinations. Introduction Letter writing is an essential skill. Within the KS2 National Literacy Strategy, letter writing is a required element. Handwriting too is an essential element. To be legibleHave a consistent size and spacing of lettersShow flow and movementShow a confident personal styleThus letter writing exercises can fulfil two elements of the curriculum Back to Top What's so special about receiving a handwritten letter? Quite apart from curriculum requirements, being asked to write letters is a task that will appeal to children. Handwritten letters have a charm of their own. Activity 1: Warming up to letter writting Structure:
prompts, lessons, and resources for writing classrooms Dialogue Journals Writing Strategy: Dialogue Journals by Elena Andrei Adolescence is a great period in which students explore who they are, what they like, and how they will fit in the world; it is a period of romance, questioning, and reflection. Dialogue JournalsA dialogue journal is a private, written conversation between teacher and student or between students (Peyton, 1993; Schwartzer, 2004; Staton, 1987). Based on the context, the content you are teaching, current events, time of the year (before or after high-stake tests, for example), the students you have in your classroom, and their interests and characteristics, you can decide if you want to let the students free write or answer a prompt, or both (Peyton, 1993). A dialogue journal is especially useful for English language learning: students get a chance to put their thoughts into words in a nonthreatening way. In my classroom I used dialogue journals as the first activity on Fridays. Student Objectives Teacher Objectives References Kim, D. (2011).
Writing task two Task description You will be given a discussion topic. Your task is to write a 250 word essay on that topic. You should spend around 40 minutes on the task. What is being tested is your ability to: Present a point of view with convincing evidence Challenge an alternate point of view Focus on the topic and avoid irrelevancies Communicate in a style that is easy to follow and cohesive Use English accurately and appropriately Sample task You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Your task Complete the task 2 exercise above. Sample answer It has been around forty years since television was first introduced into Australian households and people today still have mixed views on whether it has a positive or a negative influence on the society. “The essay has a clear introduction which poses the problem. Strategies for improving your IELTS score The style of essay required for Task 2 of the IELTS writing test is standard to academic courses. Connecting sentences A. B.
30 Ideas for Teaching Writing Summary: Few sources available today offer writing teachers such succinct, practice-based help—which is one reason why 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing was the winner of the Association of Education Publishers 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award for Instructional Materials. The National Writing Project's 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing offers successful strategies contributed by experienced Writing Project teachers. Since NWP does not promote a single approach to teaching writing, readers will benefit from a variety of eclectic, classroom-tested techniques. These ideas originated as full-length articles in NWP publications (a link to the full article accompanies each idea below). Table of Contents: 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing 1. Debbie Rotkow, a co-director of the Coastal Georgia Writing Project, makes use of the real-life circumstances of her first grade students to help them compose writing that, in Frank Smith's words, is "natural and purposeful." ROTKOW, DEBBIE. 2003. Back to top 2. 3. 4.
Dr. Rod Ellis: TESOL Written Corrective Feedback - matbury.com Professor Rod Ellis, gave a presentation which is available on YouTube.com. In it, he focuses on written corrective feedback. I’ve written a basic summary below. Get a drink, a snack, your notebook, make yourself comfortable and enjoy an allusive, informative explanation of the current state of affairs regarding written corrective feedback; the types and strategies, what we know, what we don’t know and what we should do. Running time: 1:09:08 Why do we give written corrective feedback? To enable learners to revise their own writing, i.e. produce a better second draftTo assist learner to acquire correct English A Typology of corrective feedback types Strategies for providing corrective feedbackHow learners respond to the feedback Written corrective feedback strategies 1. Advantage – Provides learners with explicit guidance about how to correct their errors. * The effect of focused written corrective feedback and language aptitude on ESL learners. 2. Advantages Disadvantages 4. 1. 2. 5. 6.
ESL Writing Lessons: Topic Sentences (Practice Worksheet) Topic Sentences: Practice Read the paragraphs below. They are missing a topic sentence. Write a topic sentence that introduces the main idea of each paragraph. *Note: You do not have to use a simile or metaphor, but sometimes these are good ways to write interesting topic sentences. __________________________________________________________. When you travel to Europe, you can visit many different countries, such as England, Spain, Germany, and Greece. Her name is Mrs. ESL Writing Lessons: Concluding Sentences Concluding Sentences When you write a paragraph, you need to start with a topic sentence, give examples and details in the body, and end with a proper concluding sentence. The conclusion is the end of the paragraph. You can often use phrases like this to begin the concluding sentence: As you can see, That’s why… In brief, In conclusion, On the whole, In sum, In short, In summary, For example: Topic sentence: My grandfather had more stories than a children’s library. Conclusion: As you can see, my grandfather had an endless imagination that brought smiles to everyone around him. Topic sentence: When I was a child, I thought my grandfather was superman. Conclusion: In short, although he is not really a super hero, my grandfather is very special to me for many reasons. Topic sentence: My pet dog has eaten my homework, destroyed my shoes, and bitten my friend, but still I can never get angry at her. Read the topic sentences below, then write a concluding sentence that says almost the same thing. 1. 2. 3.