1

Pertemuan 6Experiences

Matakuliah : Writing I

Tahun : 2006-2007

Versi : 6

2

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this session the students would be able to:

Write sentences about their experiences; Use past tenses correctly; Put sentences in a sequence according to the

time they happened.

3

Outline Materi

• Past tenses

• Possessive Pronouns

• Narrative

4

WHAT HAPPENED?

• Your friend came to your house one day. He was soaking wet, but it wasn’t raining outside.

• You asked him, “What happened?”• This is his story:

– It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining. It wasn’t very hot, so I went out to have lunch in the park. I sat on the grass. I was eating my sandwich. Suddenly, there was a spray of water from behind. I got very wet. The gardener was watering the plants!

5

Past Tenses

• In that story the person used simple past and past continuous (past progressive)

• These are the verbs:– was– was shining– wasn’t (=was not)– went– sat– Was eating– got– was watering

6

Past Simple

• Past Simple tense is used to describe a completed action happened at a point in time in the past.

• The time signal includes yesterday, this morning, last year, two minutes ago, when I was a child, etc.

7

Past Continuous

• Past continuous is used for action that happened in the past for a certain period/length of time.– e.g. I was eating my lunch at 1 pm.

(the process of eating has started and in progress at that time)

• Usually used when another action happened at a point in time.– George was sleeping when I visited him.– Clare was studying hard when the rain poured

down.

8

• A story usually consists of events that happened according to a time order. What happened first, next, and what is the end.

• Try ordering the following events– I took a bath and got ready.– I woke up at 7.00 am this morning.– My lecturer told me to forget about the lecture. – I rushed to the university.– There was a traffic jam near the campus.– I came late to class.– My lecturer was not happy to see me.– The class finished 10 minutes after I arrived.

9

Linking words

• You can link one sentence with another with the words: First, then, after that, later, next, and finally.

• You should also use subject pronouns to replace repeated words like ‘my lecturer’.

• Rewrite the sentences now in the right order.

10

I woke up at 7.00 am this morning. Then, I took a bath and got ready. After that, I rushed to the university.

There was a traffic jam near the campus. I came late to class. My lecturer was not happy to see me. He told me to forget about the class. Finally, the class finished 10 minutes after I arrived

11

Conclusions

• Past tenses are used to describe events completed in the past.

• Simple past is used to describe action happened at a certain time. Usually there is a time signal (e.g. yesterday, last week, etc.) in the sentence.

• Past continuous is used when an action was in progress when there was another action happened.

• Linking words are used to connect events in a story.

• Usually events in a story are arranged according to a time sequence.