Improving Your English Writing An Overview Tutor Isabel

Improving Your English Writing: An Overview Tutor: Isabel Yajiao Deng Oct. 11, 2012

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. - Sir Francis Bacon: Of Studies 阅读使人充实，交谈使人机智，写作使人严谨。

Why do I need to improve my English writing? • Writing to express: to share and exchange information or opinions through writing on a daily basis. • Writing as a thinking tool: the writing process helps clarify our thinking.

Agenda I. The Writing Process (写作过程) II. English Writing Conventions (英语写作规 范) III. Pitfalls to Avoid in English Writing (写 作误区) IV. Useful Resources (有用资源)

Common Problems • Writer’s Block: A blank mind in front of a blank piece of paper; • Brief essays with general statements only but little substance; • Language problems: grammar, vocabulary, style

Step 1: Consider Your Audience • Their Interest • Their Knowledge • Their Purpose

Audience-awareness • Who is going to read what I write? • Why will my readers care about this issue? • What will my readers want or need to know about this issue? • What do my readers already know about this issue? • What do I want my readers to learn about the issue? • If I am trying to persuade my readers of something, how easily will they be persuaded? • What will my readers use my writing for?

Step 2: Select Your Purpose Possible Purposes: • to express or share • to entertain or give aesthetic pleasure • to inform • to persuade

Step 3: Invention 1 • To invent: to develop a topic (to narrow the general topic down and to identify a manageable topic to work on) • Brainstorming: Getting your ideas on paper so you can give yourself the widest range of topics possible • Brainstorming Techniques: – Listing – Clustering – Free-writing Brainstorming

Clustering: Mapping out ideas

Step 3: Invention 2 • Asking journalists’ questions about the assigned general topic: –Who? –What? –When? –Where? –Why? –How?

Step 3: Invention 3 Rhetoric devices: • • • Compare and contrast Cause and effect Problem and solution Analysis Classification

Step 4: Collection • Gathering ideas: books, magazines, the Internet, and discussions • Locating and evaluating research • Conducting interviews

Step 5: Organizing: putting information in an outline OUTLINE I. Introduction A. Grab attention B. State thesis II. Body A. Build points B. Develop ideas C. Support main claim III. Conclusion A. Reemphasize main idea

Step 6: Drafting • Give yourself ample time to work on your project. • Find a comfortable place to do your writing. • Avoid distractions. • Take breaks.

Step 7: Revising: reviewing ideas • Review higher-order concerns: –Clear communication of ideas –Organization of paper –Paragraph structure –Strong introduction and conclusion

Step 8: Proofreading • Review laterorder concerns: –Spelling –Punctuation –Sentence structure & grammar

the Writing Process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Pre-writing Writing Audience Purpose Invention Collection Organizing Drafting Re-writing 1. Revising 2. Proofreading

Agenda I. The Writing Process (写作过程) II. English Writing Conventions (英语写作规 范) III. Pitfalls to Avoid in English Writing (写 作误区) IV. Useful Resources (有用资源)

English Writing Conventions What makes good writing? a. Layout b. Language c. Organization

a. Layout Manuscript Preparation Issues • • • Punctuation Marks Capitalization Formatting Issues: – 字体、字号、首行缩进、行距、页码设置、 封面格式等等

Are they OK to you? 1. Online learning classroom is not a dream. We can achieve it! 2. This will be free style essay : it can be scientific, or imaginative. 3. Does it accurately state your main idea? Is it in fact supported by the paper? Does it need to be changed in any way?

b. Language Issues: vocabulary and grammar • • • Accuracy Effectiveness Variety

c. Organization Writing Issues: unity, coherence and organization

Good writing? • We live in a world in which science and technology is developing very quickly. The development of science needs scientists from all over the world to exchange their work more and more frequently. However, the scientists usually come from different countries and speak different languages. If there isn’t a common language that can be understood by everybody, they won’t understand each other. What’s more, we wish to know what others are doing and what experiences and knowledge we should learn to improve our work, so we must master the foreign language. However, there are countless languages in the world. And we can’t learn all of them. Fortunately, there is one kind of language that is commonly used all over the world—English. Most of the important academic journals are in English, and all the international academic meetings use English. If we master English, we can go to any corner of the world to communicate with the people without knowing their mother tongues. So English is important to scientists.

Revision • English is important to scientist because English, as the vehicle of information, is the most widely used language in the scientific world. According to statistics, most of the scientific academic journals are in English. Most of the world important academic meetings use English as the working language. And most of the scientists of the world can speak, read, and write English. So, when it comes for scientists from all over the world to exchange their work experiences, the only bridge to mend the language gap is English. As far as China is concerned, if our scientists want to know what the outside scientific world is doing and what they should learn from it, the best vehicle of information to decide on is, no doubt, English. Therefore, English plays a very important role in the academic life of scientists.

Kaplan’s theory: The Asian 'approach by indirection' • In the Asian rhetorical mode, the writer avoids a direct delineation of thesis (i. e. , statement of topic) in the opening sections of text. The thesis may be mentioned towards the middle of the text, towards the end, or indeed perhaps never clearly at all. It is left to the reader to assemble the main thrust of the argument, based upon the clues in the text. • The loops revolve around the topic and view it from a variety of positions, but never address it directly.

For clarity’s sake: Place Points before Particulars!!! 主旨/�点先行，�据随后。

Good Writing? ① Different people spend their weekends in different ways．②Some enjoy going to the mountains to hike， ski or just relax． ③Water skiing is much more difficult than snow skiing．④Others prefer going to the beach to enjoy the seashore activities and to get a suntan．⑤ Some of these people work very hard during the week；others have rather relaxing jobs．⑥ Still others like to relax by staying home and reading a good book．

Convention: Unity • Definition: The entire paragraph/essay should concern itself with a single focus. If it begins with one focus or major point of discussion, it should not end with another or wander within different ideas.

Convention: Coherence • Definition: Coherence is the trait that makes the paragraph/essay easy to follow and understand to a reader.

Identifying logical and verbal bridges: Life in the city is quite different from life in the suburbs. People living in the city are constantly exposed to the hustle and bustle of urban life． But life in the suburbs is generally quiet and casual and generally more low-key than in the city ．If city dwellers want to see trees and grass， they must go to one of the public parks．On the other hand，the streets of many suburban communities are lined with trees and shrubs， and each house has its own grassy yard．A person living in the city is close to many sources of entertainment，but people living in suburban areas must go into the city for entertainment．

Convention: Coherence Devices Verbal Bridges: – – Pronouns Synonyms Repetition of key words or phrases Demonstrative pronouns Logical Bridges: – Connectors (transitional words/phrases: therefore, on the other hand, otherwise, for example, etc. ) Tense Use: – Consistent and proper tense to avoid unintentional transporting (穿越 ）

Features of English academic writing • Writing is linear. • It is the writer’s responsibility to convey his/her ideas clearly and effectively to the reader. So, some challenging news for the writer: If the reader does not follow you, it is your responsibility.

Agenda I. The Writing Process (写作过程) II. English Writing Conventions (英语写作规 范) III. Pitfalls to Avoid in English Writing (写 作误区) IV. Useful Resources (有用资源)

a. Avoid Absolute Statements 1. 2. 3. Chinese people do not wait their turn and will squeeze their way onto the bus. Americans are aggressive and assertive in business situations. All Americans like to show off their talents and material wealth. 1. Americans sometimes form a line at the bus stop while waiting for the bus. 2. People from Latin America do not think it is polite to make direct eye contact in certain situations. 3. Japanese are used to living in relatively small space, and they know they sometimes can’t avoid bumping someone accidentally. Therefore, Japanese probably won’t apologize if they bump into you in an elevator.

b. Avoid “Random” Writing Everyone has her own lening methods. language is a skill, It is learned through practice reading enough information about it. Tentative Revision: People may have various strategies when it comes to the learning of a language. One way to improve language learning would be ample reading practice. …

c. Avoid Excessive Coordination • In order to improve ability on business, I would like to attend the training during my free time. I always feel tired after the five working days. I don’t want to spend any more time on traffic jam during weekend. The online training is a good method to solve this problem. I do not have to set up meeting times and travel great distances in order to work on a classroom project.

Agenda I. The Writing Process (写作过程) II. English Writing Conventions (英语写作规范) III. Pitfalls to Avoid in English Writing (写作 误区) IV. Useful Resources (有用资源)

Recommended Writing Resources 参考书资源 • 《牛津同义词词典》 The Oxford Thesaurus – An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms • 《朗文简明英语联想活用词典》 Longman Essential Activator 词汇提高资源 • 《Townsend Press英���学��� 》（共六册）

Recommended Writing Resources 写作书籍资源 • • The Elements of Style (by Strunk & White) On Writing Well (by William Zinsser) Writing Analytically (by David Rosenwasser ) Beyond Feelings (by Vincent R. Ruggiero)

Recommended Online Resources 视频资源 • 《英语写作系列课程视频》 (The Complete Upgrade Your Writing Series) • 《英语语法写作系列课程视频》 (English Grammar Series) http: //www. youku. com/playlist_show/id_344 2384. html

Recommended Testing Resources 免费英语测试 http: //www. beiwaibest. com/

Three “A” training Awareness training: One can’t write well if he has no knowledge of features of good writing. Application training: One can’t write well if he has no skill of applying features of good writing to his own writing. Assessment training: One can’t write well if he has no technique of critically reviewing his own writing and sustainably making progress.

Road to Success Extracurricular Reading/Writing • 精�、泛��合 • 精写、泛写�合 • Improve your feel for the language • Raise your language awareness • Create writing opportunities

Sample use of Model Passages Read aloud; Recite 朗读背诵: the feel for the language Dictation 听写: language awareness 普特听写 文本比较： http: //home. putclub. com/tools/find/ Modeling 摹写: awareness for the language and organization

Take-home Messages • Writing is a process. involves thinking. is rewriting.

Thank you for your participation. Good luck in your academic endeavors!