Types of English Writing & Skills

Lecture 1

Nature of Writing

• Writing is a special form of language use. It is somewhat “unnatural”. Speaking is a natural language use: Language is mainly in the form of speaking. Speaking appeared much more earlier than writing in human history, and there are more languages in the world that have only spoken forms. The comparison of writing and speaking gives us an insight into the nature of writing.

Comparison of Writing and Speaking

Aspects Speaking Writing

Feedback

Nonverbal language

Preparation

Hesitation, pause, etc.

Editing

plenty none

plenty little

offhand sufficient time

allowed not allowed

Could be a sign for low ability

Frequent during the process of production

Different circumstances in speaking and writing set some requirements for writing:

• Sentences are longer and more complex.

• There should be a variety of vocabulary and repetition should be avoided whenever possible.

• Sufficient details should be given in a concise way.

• Ideas in the discourse should be clearly logically related to each other.

Exercise:

• What are the comments in Chinese we often use for school compositions?

切题

表达清楚

文字通顺

连贯较好

内容丰富

结构合理

条理清楚

Types of Composition Writing

• Some …, others …• A situation. How to react?• A picture, or graph, or table. Your

opinion.• Write a letter to a peer or

authority.

Some …, others …

• 1 、有些人认为非英语专业的学生不该参加口语考试。

• 2 、另外一些人认为非英语专业的学生应该参加口语考试。

• 3 、我的看法。

A situation. How to react?

• 1 、人们以为淡水是取之不尽的（提示：雨水、河水、井水）

• 2 、实际上淡水是非常紧缺的（提示：人口增加，工业用水，污染）

• 3 、我们应该怎么办

A picture, or graph, or table.

• Vehicles Crossing the Grand Bridge

The following table shows the number of vehicles crossing the Grand Bridge on the weekly basis. Write a composition that conveys the information in the table. Quote as few figures as possible.

Sunday ▲▲▲▲●

Monday ▲▲▲▲●●● ▲ passenger car

Tuesday ▲▲▲●●●● ● truck

Wednesday

▲▲▲●●

Thursday ▲▲▲●●●

Friday ▲▲▲▲●●

Saturday ▲▲▲●

Notes: Both ▲and ● represents 500 vehicles

Write a letter to a peer or authority

• Suppose you are Zhang Ying.Write a letter to Xiao Wang,a schoolmate of yours who is going to visit you during the week-long holiday.You should write at least 120 words according to the suggestions given below in Chinese.

• 1. 表示欢迎2. 提出对度假安排的建议 3. 提醒应注意的事项

Skills tested in composition

• Description: Composition writers have to possess description skill and tell the thing in an effective and concise way while providing information as much as possible.

• Generalization: Composition writers must have the ability to abstract ideas under discussion so that their writing can become more meaningful.

Format in composition

• As in any other field, composition also has format. Format is a device for efficiency.

• Composition format shows itself as the structure of paragraph.

Simple paragraph structure

Topic sentence

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Complex paragraph structure

Topic sentence Detail 1 Detail 1.1 Detail 1.2 Detail 2 Detail 2.1 Detail 2.1.1 Detail 2.2 Detail 3

Exercise

• Analysis the topics given and work out an outline for each topic.

Micro skill 1: Specification• Specification is one of the basic

features of effective writing. However, the habit from spoken language plays a negative role here. You don’t need to be specific in spoken communication. If you believe writing is a process of putting down in print what you say in conversation, you are wrong. One of differences between speaking and writing is that in speaking, if you keep telling details, you will sound tedious, while in writing, if you don’t give details, you don’t sound convincing.

Micro skill 1: Specification• One of the ways to train your specification skill

is to use you imagination. Try to form an image of the thing or person you want to talk about. Don’t just have “an idea”: Idea is usually too abstract, or so abstract as to become a word in your mind. For example, you all know that there is difficulty in learning English. The word “difficulty” does not conjure up the unpleasant moment during which you were struggling hard to figure out the meaning of the sentence in front of you unless you have this specific moment in your mind. Therefore, have an image in your mind, an image that is characteristic of the thing or person you are talking about. These characteristics are what you want to express. They will finally condense into the word you choose to write down.

Micro skill 1: Specification

• To be specific, you must also be sensitive to the extent of specification among words. To many people, language consists of words, and words make up language. This reasoning leads them to a fallacy that different words express different things, and therefore words are not interchangeable. In fact it is common in any language that we can use different words to refer to the same thing. For example, “difficulty” in English learning can be replaced by “problem:, “hardship”, “pains” and “effort”, all these substitutes being more specific than “difficulty”.

• Exercise: Develop an image about the thing described. Find the characteristics of the image. Find a word that best match the situation. Finally modify the sentence.

Exercise: Specification

• 1. College students try hard to find a job after graduation.

• For college seniors, the new year begins with their plans to go to various job market to hunt jobs and the activity goes on until their graduation.

Exercise: Specification

• 2. Students are disappointed when they look for a job.

• Jobs that are available for students are usually those of high responsibility but low pay.

• Jobs students can get now are those they were instructed to look down upon in their childhood.

Exercise: Specification

• 3. We enjoyed the food in the dining room.

• Food in the dining room—deep fried meat ball, steamed fish and various vegetables—became a hot topic among students.

Exercise: Specification

• 4. They are waiting impatiently for the bus at the bus stop.

• They keep looking in the direction where the bus is coming and proposing various suggestions for the improvement of the public transportation in the city.

Exercise: Specification

• 5. Pollution makes our life terrible now.

• Our homes are garbage factories that turn out tons of waste to be discomposed in decades of years.

• 6. We all studied hard at high school.• 7. There are many bad commercial adver

tisements.• 8. New technology will bring us many be

nefits.• 9. As a college teacher, you can do whate

ver you like.• 10. Nowadays college tuition fee become

s a problem in our country.

Micro skill 2: One event in one sentence

Description is a basic skill in writing. When you want to tell others what it is like, you can describe it. Description seems easy, because compared with other kinds of discourse skills, such as argumentation, you don’t have to work out abstract conclusions; you have already some ideas in your mind. What you need to do seems to be “putting down what is there in your mind.” However, it is not that easy. When we are trying to describe a scene or an event in words, we find ourselves ineffective: it is difficult to describe it in a concise way.

Micro skill 2: One event in one sentence

• Now, try to describe your feeling of the room you are in. You may describe it as:

• It is not a hot room, but bright with all lights on, and the teacher’s voice sounds monotonous, and I feel somewhat dulled.

• The decryption is OK if it is done orally, but if it appears in a piece of somewhat formal writing, it seems a little too loose. Let’s work together to make it concise. Answer the following questions first:

Micro skill 2: One event in one sentence

• What is the general impression of the situation?

• Dull• What is the cause of it?• The teacher’s dull lecture.• What helps to increase such a

feeling?• Brightness of the room.• What helps to reduce such a feeling?• The cool room.

Micro skill 2: One event in one sentence

• Now, put the situation into one sentence, using the pattern:

cause effects though counterfact • The teacher’s monotonous voice that linger

ed in the brightness of the room with all the lights on generated a feeling of dull in me despite the fact that the room temperature was set to a comfortable coolness for such a hot summer night.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

A family man’s duty does not end when he leaves the office—taking children for an outing or accompanying the wife for shopping places a demand no less than that of office work.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Today’s college plays a multi-functional way: profession trainer, intelligence promoter, knowledge provider, life entertainer and a go-between.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

School holiday means the end of school education, and also stands for the beginning of out-of-school education—there are various subjects waiting for kids in the holiday: piano, calligraphy, computer, literature and painting.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

To get a free ticket for the concert, some fans will try every means to reach the goal, standing in the line day and night.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Generation gap also appears in shopping behaviors—the older generation is more concerned with the price of the product while the younger generation is more interested in brands.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.

Exercise: Use one sentence to describe the following pictures.