English Writing

Task D-2 Youth and Society

Contents of Teaching1) Summing up the students’ performance in their first feature

writing.

2) Briefly appreciating another feature-style article: Show Me the Way to Go Home

3) Brainstorming: A Current Problem among young people

Review: sentence refinement

The Summer Palace is one of the biggest and oldest parks in China. It is the most beautiful park in Beijing as well. In the park, there are many famous architectures which make it quiet different from other parks.

Refined version: Many famous architectural features

distinguish the Summer Palace, one of the biggest and oldest parks in China, from just any other park.

After its natural scenery, the dominant feature of Nanjing is the Yangtze River Bridge.

Refined version: Second only to the natural scenery,

the Yangtze River Bridge dominates Nanjing.

Self-conception is the basis of one’s attitude towards success and failure.

Refined version: Self-conception underlies one’s

attitude towards success and failure.

Ecological imbalance is the biggest threat to the survival of wild animals and plants, even human beings.

Refined version: Ecological imbalance threatens the

survival of wild animals and plants, even human beings.

In the front, it was the sharp slope of a cliff.

Refined version: The front cliff sloped sharply.

Part One

Highlights in your first feature writing.

Well-done

Good title and subtitle

To Publish, or to Perish University teachers do not have

an easy time

黎洁媛

Good title and subtitle

The Third Eye Closer look into the photographer

杜吉丽

Good title and subtitle

No Longer All That White The popularized white collars

缪月

Good hook + focus

• When talking about careers, a group of people are generally believed to be lucky and happy in that they have a seemingly entertaining job. On Monday, they are showing their customers the trendy design of clothes in Paris or Rome; on Tuesday, they fly to london visiting the British Museum and the Westminster Church; together with the customers, they wander on the campus of Heidelberg like Kant once did the next day; they go

skiiing in the Alps when it comes to Thursday; then, after a week on the move, they return to China and get their pay on Friday.

Obviously, these professional travelers are tour guides. During their careers, they leave footsteps in different places, where they learn a lot and undoubtedly broaden their mind…

谢斯远

Good details

To these interpreters, doing SI jobs adds more pressure on them and has changed their life into a busier, more stressful one. “The job takes up much time and energy, “ said Linzhi, who also teaches English in the university, “which I can otherwise spend caring for my family and enriching my own life.” It is crucial for simultaneous interpreters to manage their time wisely

since the job is quite time-consuming. “Sometimes I really envy those full-time housewives,” smiled Lin, “they can devote all their time to caring about their families.” She feels lucky though, to be a university teacher, for she has relatively more time and liberty at her own disposal. Still, the job deprives them of leisure time with friends and family.

陈婷

Good dilemma The big dilemma of the temporary shop assista

nts is how to face present and future. They know their present “stable” job is only a non-root tree, which can be easily destroyed even by a breeze. They want to plant a strong tree which can reach the sky, but their lack of knowledge and ability prevents them from getting soil and water. They dare not think about future, because that does not necessarily mean brightness or happiness. Accordingly, they cautiously spend each day so as to delay the unknown future.

郑磊

Good conclusion

People come and go, and people exist and die. One thing does not fade away is the photo which records the temporal through the third eye.

杜吉丽

Common problems

• Some students wrote their features not based on their own survey. Instead, they collect information from magazines or the internet. The get very low marks in the second item of the marking equation – content.

Part Two

Another feature-style article:

Show Me the Way to Go Home

American children are more dependent on their parents because of the changing

social factors.

The First Paragraph: a hook

•Rhetorical mode: illustration,description,quotations

•Discourse marker:first, then , next, when…

Vivid wording:

•crammed with: to force something into a small space (instead of saying “full of”)

•put-upon:badly treated, misused or exploitedE.g. I’m beginning to feel just a little put-upon.

我开始感到有点受人利用了。

Cultural Background

• Condominium: an apartment that is owned, rather than rented. The owner pays a monthly fee to the condominium association for repairs and maintenance of the building and grounds.

• Welcome mat: a small rug placed in front of the door of a house or apartment. Often such a rug will have the word “welcome” printed on it.

The second paragraph:throw out a phenomenon(overall situation)

•Rhetorical mode: comparison(statistics), example, quotation•Vivid wording: abundantly, shift

E.g. He has made his views abundantly clear.

他充分引用了表明了自己的观点。 a gradual shift of people from the country to the town

shifts in public opinions

Cultural Background

• The university of Wisconsin 威斯康星大学 • The US Census Bureau 美国人口局• Northwestern University 西北大学

The third paragraph: reasons of this trend•Rhetorical mode: cause\effect, quotation

•Vivid words: return to the nest, cite a variety of reasons, parental shelters,

amenity: a feature or an item that provides comfort and convenience (fireplaces, dishwashers, air conditioning,etc. are regarded as amenities at home)

The 4th paragraph:supporting example(Sallie Kingston, Bradley Kulat)•Rhetorical mode: description, quotation

•Vivid words:

*take a crack at:attempt at

the crack of dawn:very early in the morning

*miserable:making you feel very unhappy,uncomfortable

E.g Jen has been stuck in a miserable job for the last two months.

The 5th paragraph: following problems

•Rhetorical mode: description, quotation

•Vivid words: hassle over, balance act, sneak around

The 6th paragraph: No good for lengthy home

coming•Rhetorical mode: example, quatation

•Vivid words: lengthy homecoming, wind up with, bog down with, be detrimental to

E.g. Our discussions bogged down in irrelevant details. 我们的讨论纠缠在无关紧要的细节上。 activities detrimental to our interests 损及我们利益的活动

The 7th paragraph:Good for Brief Visit

• Rhetorical mode:example, quotation

• Vivid words ： not hesitate to put out the welcome mat

Part Three

Brainstorming: A Current Problem among young people

Suggested writing task

Write a composition of at least 500 words to report a current problem with young people. Before you start to write, you need to do some investigation about the problem. When writing, try to imitate the style of the input reading.

The EndThank you very

much!