ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 2011-2012
A SUMMARY OF WRITING TASKS: •
Informal letter/ email
page 1
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Formal letter/ email
page 2
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Describing a person
page 3
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Narrative/ A story
page 4
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Essay/ Discussion
page 5
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Report (formal/ informal)
pages 6-7
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Dialogue
page 7
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Diary entry/ Web log
page 8
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Article
page 8
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Speech
pages 9-10
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Review
page 10
INFORMAL LETTER/ EMAIL Greeting Hi ... / Dear ..., Introduction Ask your friend some introductory questions. How are you?/ How are you doing?/ How is it going?/ How are you keeping? I hope the summer job is going well. Have you decided where to go on holiday? It was great to hear that … I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write to you. I thought I’d drop you a line because… Paragraph 1 Describe where you are (the place/the weather). Anyway, we’re camping in the Isle of Skye. We’re staying on a campsite … It rained every single day. Paragraph 2 Say what you are doing. Luckily, we didn’t come here for the nightlife! Actually, there isn’t … We go walking every day and yesterday … Paragraph 3 Mention any other thing you find important, anecdotes … Here’s some news for you about … You’ll never guess what happened to me… Ending Make up an excuse to stop writing. Well, I must finish – it’s my turn to cook tonight. Write back soon. I’d better close now, I’ve got to study for an exam. Can’t wait to hear from you. Please write and tell me … Signing off Say goodbye and sign your name. All the best, / Lots of love, / Best wishes Janet Useful vocabulary: Weather, accommodation (tent, youth hostel, campsite, farm, rented cottage, hotel), locations (in a forest, in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains, on the coast, near a town), activities (canoeing, diving, parachuting, rafting, sailing, trekking …). Linking: Involve the reader with questions (How are you? / Can you believe it?). Refer to the reader (Here’s some news for you … / So you can imagine what he’s like! / You can tell me all your news!) Begin sentences with informal linkers (Anyway, we’re … / Luckily, we didn’t … / Actually, there isn’t … / But then, we’re … / Well, I must finish …) Style: Informal linkers, words and expressions.
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FORMAL LETTER/ EMAIL Your address The date
Company’s name and address
Greeting Dear Sir or Madam, / Dear Mr …, / Dear Ms …, Paragraph 1 Give your reason for writing I am writing to you with reference to … / I am writing to complain about …/ I am interested in … / I enclose a copy of … / I am writing in response to the advertisement … / I am writing to request further information about …/ However, I would like to suggest some improvements which I feel could be made … Paragraph 2 Write about your problem/ what you need/ your suggestions/ your requests I would like … / I would also like … / I feel that … / I would be grateful if you could tell me …/ My first complaint is …/ Not only … but also … / In addition, … / The … was also unacceptable./ The first thing I want to inform you of is …/ I would like to begin by informing you that …/ The first request I would like you to consider is …/ I would also like to request permission for… Paragraph 3 Write some suggestions I would like to suggest … / Secondly, / A further possibility is …/ Another possibility would be …/ I suggest that you replace the item/ I would be grateful if you could give me a refund. Formal ending Thank you in anticipation for your help. / I enclose a reference from … / I hope you will consider my application./ If you require further information, please do not hesitate to ask./ Thank you for considering these requests. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully, (if you do not know the name of the person you are writing to) Yours sincerely, (if you know the name of the person you are writing to)
Your signature Print your name clearly
Use: Indirect questions, formal language and expressions. Don’t use: contractions, colloquial vocabulary or colloquial expressions. 2
DESCRIBING A PERSON
Paragraph 1 Introduce the person and give a bit of background, e.g. where he/she was born, where he/she lives now, his/her job, his/her likes and dislikes, how, when and where you met her/him (if you are asked to describe a friend or someone you know).
Paragraph 2 Describe the person’s physical appearance.
Paragraph 3 Describe the person’s personality. Include qualities and faults.
Paragraph 4 Give some examples of the person’s behaviour or relationships with other people. I you describe a friend or someone you know, state why you like her/him.
Useful vocabulary: •
Hair long, short, shoulder-length, black, blond, brown, dark, fair, grey, red, ginger, curly, straight, wavy, dreadlocks.
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Age in her/his (early/mid/late) teens/twenties/thirties, elderly, middle-aged, young.
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Special features beard, moustache, goatee, ponytail, wrinkles, freckles.
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General physical appearance good-looking, overweight, short, slim, tall, well-built.
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Personality bad-tempered, cheerful, creative, disorganised, dynamic, generous, hardworking, helpful, honest, insensitive, kind, lazy, materialistic, mean, moody, nervous, outgoing, relaxed, reliable, selfish, shy, sociable, strong, stubborn, tolerant, weak, prejudiced, modest, positive, optimistic, pessimistic, sensible, sensitive, heavy-going.
When using adjectives to describe someone, do not mix positive and negative adjectives in the same sentence without the correct connectors or modifiers. Do not write John is cheerful, fun to be with and bad-tempered. Write John is cheerful and fun to be with but occasionally he loses his temper.
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NARRATIVE/ A STORY
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First think of a general outline for your story.
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Make sure your story has well organized paragraphs, a variety of past tenses, a wide range of vocabulary and appropriate linking words.
1. Introduction Write a few sentences to set the scene and introduce the characters. Describe the main action.
2. Main events Write what happened.
3. Ending Write a suitable ending to your story.
Useful vocabulary: Weather (freezing, foggy, sunny …) Places (castle, woods, valley …) Verbs (escape, get back, get lost, recognise …) Adjectives (frightening, amazing, awful …)
Linking words: It all began, shortly afterwards, a little later, eventually, when, during, before, first, as soon as, after, afterwards, then, suddenly, all of a sudden, just at that moment, out of the blue, later, just then, immediately, while, meanwhile, whereas, in the end, at last, finally, in the end, when it was all over, after everything that had happened, looking back now, it all had been … Verb tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect
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ESSAY/ DISCUSSION Essays normally take the form of a statement on which you are invited to give your opinion. They are formal and normally written for your teacher.
a) 1 Introduction 2 Advantages / Pros 3 Disadvantages / Cons 4 Conclusion
b) 1 Introduction 2 Advantages/pros and disadvantages/cons 3 Conclusion
Linking words: On the positive side, … On the negative side, … One big (dis)advantage of … is … The main (dis)advantage is … Another (dis)advantage is … A further benefit/drawback would be … In spite of/Despite … Despite the fact that … On the one hand, … / On the other hand, … Although, However, Whereas, While Furthermore, In addition, Apart from that, Besides, Moreover Others argue that… There is no doubt that … We should consider … As far as I can see… First of all / Firstly / Secondly / and the third and final reason is that … The first thing to be considered is … In other words… To put it more simply… That is to say… As a result… To sum up / In conclusion To sum up, despite the arguments put forward in favour of … On this basis, I can conclude that … Given this, it can be concluded that … It seems to me … / I believe … / To my mind … / I strongly believe … / I think … / It’s my opinion that …
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AN INFORMAL REPORT Heading To: From: Date: Subject: 1. General Description X is … . The aim of this report is to … 2. List of good points There are several good things about … 3. List of bad points On the other hand, I find these things disappointing. 4 Conclusion Finish the report by making suggestions. (should, need to) Example: Living in Barcelona Useful vocabulary: Positive adjectives – cheap, clean, easy, free, frequent, good, punctual Negative adjectives – damaged, dangerous, dirty, expensive, inefficient, polluted Nouns – accident, bicycle track, bus fares, bus service, bypass, car park, lorries, old buildings, pedestrian area, public transport, shopping centre, traffic jam, traffic lights, train service, zebra crossing Linking words - On the one hand, … / On the other hand, … Although, However, Whereas, While Furthermore, In addition, Apart from that, Besides, Moreover How can I justify my opinions? Personally, I (don’t) think we should choose … because … I would definitely (not) include … because … It would be better to include … as … I (don’t) feel that it’s important to include … as … To sum up / In conclusion
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A FORMAL REPORT Heading To: From: Date: Subject: 1. General Description X is … . The aim of this report is to examine/analyse 2. Findings It was noted that 20% of those questioned believed that… 3. Conclusion To sum up, it seems evident that… 4. Recommendation A letter should be sent to / A meeting should be held with (x)
DIALOGUE 1 Introduction Think of a situation and write about it. 2 Dialogue Once you have introduced a situation, you can start writing the dialogue.
Useful expressions: There are ….. –ing … Hi! / How are you doing? / How’s life? I’m fine / Not too bad It’s ages since we last met! See you! / Bye! / Take care! I am all ears
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DIARY ENTRY/ WEB LOG Write the date Write a paragraph about what has happened on this date You can start with the following phrase: Dear Diary, Use everyday language.
ARTICLE You are often asked to write articles for newspapers or magazines. Make sure you know who you are writing for because that tells you how formal your article should be. An article for other students should be lively, interesting and not too formal. You can use questions to interest your readers. 1. Introduction. What the article is about. Ask questions to involve the reader. 2. Body. 3. Conclusion, including your personal opinion and leaving the reader something to think about at the end.
Use rhetorical questions: Have you ever…? Are you one of those people who…? What do you think about…?
Linking words: First of all, In the first place, To begin with, One thing to consider is… There is no doubt that … It is important to highlight that … On the one hand, … / On the other hand, … Although, However, Whereas, While Furthermore, In addition, Apart from that, Besides, Moreover Astonishingly / Interestingly / Curiously / Worryingly / Sadly / It is sad that … / It is strange that … / It is of some concern that … / It is regrettable that … / It’s worth noting that … To sum up / In conclusion It seems to me … / I believe … / To my mind … / I strongly believe … / I think …
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SPEECH 1. Introducing the topic This morning / Today I am going to… (talk about…/describe…) The aim of my presentation this morning is to… (explain…) I’ve divided my presentation into… (three parts) My talk will be in… First, / Second, / Then, / After that, / Finally, I’d like to give you an overview of… I’ll move on to… I’ll focus on… we’ll consider…
2. Referring to questions Feel free to interrupt me if there’s anything you don’t understand. If you don’t mind, we’ll leave questions till the end.
3. Introducing each section So, let’s start with… Now let’s move on to… Let’s turn our attention to… This leads me to… (my third point) Finally… (let’s consider…)
4. Summarizing a section That completes my… (description of…) So, to summarize… (there are five key points…)
5. Referring backwards and forwards I mentioned earlier… I’ll say more about this later. We’ll come back to this point later.
6. Checking understanding Is that clear? Are there any questions?
7. Referring to visual information This transparency/diagram shows… If you look at this graph you can see… What is interesting in this slide is… I’d like to draw your attention to… (this chart…)
8. Referring to common knowledge As you know… As I’m sure you’re aware…
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9. Dealing with questions That’s a good point. I’m glad you asked that question. I’m afraid I’m not the right person to answer that.
10. Concluding That concludes my talk. That brings me to the end of my presentation. If you have any questions, I’d be pleased/I’ll do my best to answer them. Thank you for your attention.
FILM/ TV SERIES/ BOOK REVIEW Paragraph 1: Introduction title year directed / written by … set in … main characters music/soundtrack Paragraph 2: The plot. In Present Simple Paragraph 3: Conclusion, giving your opinion on the film. Recommendations, strengths, weaknesses Linking words: It is a … based on … It is adapted from … The story centres around … As the story develops / unfolds … By coincidence … when, during, before, first, as soon as, after, afterwards, then, suddenly, later, just then, immediately, while, whereas, in the end, at last, finally. It seems to me … / I believe … / To my mind … / I strongly believe … / I think … Vocabulary: cast perform / performance special effects scene star comedy, thriller, western, romance, drama, science fiction, action, horror, fantasy, animation role / to play a role episode / chapter
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