Tài liệu Developing writting skills 2 part 3 pdf

Look at the first sentence of the last paragraph/part II/: “At the corner of Main and Maple Streets I ran headlong into traffic and was almost run over by a cruising police car.” Would t

Explain what is meant by:

1 After the fire drill was over, we re-entered the building Now

I raced up the stairs, stepping on the heels of the slowpoke ahead of me

2 I was out of my seat in a flash, heading for the teacher’s desk, when a redheaded girl across the aisle tripped me up

3 She leaned over me as I lay sprawled on the floor and hissed

in my ear

4 Slowly I began to erase the troublesome incident from my consciousness, and my fear began to fade

5 I came home that afternoon more mixed up than ever but determined not to stick my neck out

6 … I fled out the front door in my stockinged feet, going forty miles an hour, my heart pounding like a jackhammer in my chest

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

1 Comment on the first sentence of the story /part I/ Is it an effective beginning?

2 Speak on the role of rhetorical questions in the story What

do they add to the text?

3 Why is the story divided into two parts? Do you observe any difference between the ways the actions develop in “Gun in the Desk” and in “Man Overboard”?

4 Point out three sentences in the story that keep you in suspense

5 Point out the climax of the story Account for your answer

6 Copy out some concrete verbs that do justice not only to the bare facts of the event but to its “feeling” as well

7 Look at the first sentence of the last paragraph/part II/: “At the corner of Main and Maple Streets I ran headlong into traffic and was almost run over by a cruising police car.” Would the story be improved by more specific details at this point? Make up two sentences that would be more specific than the sentences from the story

8 Comment on the role of direct quotations Would the expressiveness of the writing gain or lose if they were introduced in indirect speech Why?

9 In the last paragraph of the story, one sentence reads, “In talking to the detective later, I learned how my unwillingness

to get involved had led to the near death of the armored car driver.” Would the story have been better if this had been written out as direct quotation, as a dialogue between the narrator and the detective? Why?

10 Do you consider the conclusion an effective one Would you change anything in it?

EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY

Match the words from the story in Column A with their definitions in Column B

A B

in a way that you cannot explain

memory, come into your mind

dangers or problems of sth

after sb/sth in order to catch them

steps, as if you are about to fall

your senses and mental powers

to understand what is happening

while you are walking or running and almost fall

9) to summon up i) to catch sb's foot and make

them fall or almost fall

through because it contains very small drops of water, especially caused by hot weather

especially a child, because they have done sth wrong

12) coincidence l) a long steady look at sb/sth

over a long period of time

loudly

way

happening at the same time by chance, in a surprising way

YOUR TURN

I Here is an outline of a story written by a student Read it over and then try to write the story from the outline Imagine the details

1 I came back from school and found the house empty

2 “Anybody home?” I called

3 A strong, dangerous-looking man appeared at the top of the stairs with our TV set in his hands

4 I turned and ran for the door

5 When I turned the doorknob, it came off in my hands

6 I tried to force the door open but only succeeded in falling flat on my face

7 The man came up to me and screamed

8 He said, “I’m the TV repair man Your folks know I am here.”

9 He helped me up

10 My parents came home

11 We got the doorknob repaired

II Think of something unexpected that happened to you that could make an interesting story It could be a recent event,

or something way back in the past

Note:

1 It’s best if the event took a very short time – ten minutes,

or an hour Don’t go beyond a day or a week

2 Think of something unusual, surprising, embarrassing, or painful; an experience that turned from bad to good, or from good to bad

III Write a narrative essay on one of the topics below:

1 The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken /Samuel Johnson/

2 What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to

deceive /Walter Scott/

Supplementary Reading:

Hairston, M.: “Successful Writing”

Langan, T.: “College Writing Skills With Readings” Meriwether, N.: “Writing Essays Strategies for Success”

UNIT 2

Description

A writer has three ways to communicate a message: by

1) implying it, 2) telling it, or 3) showing it Of course, all three types

of writing serve specific and important purposes Usually, however, writing that is clearest and has the greatest impact uses language that

shows what you wish to communicate Words that show are more

concrete, specific, and usually more interesting than those that simply tell the reader what you want to say, and they are always more direct than language that only implies or suggests what you mean

Language that shows makes for effective and interesting

writing, especially when your purpose is to describe a person or a place or to tell a story When you describe something or someone, you give your readers a picture in words To make this “word picture” as vivid and real as possible, you must observe and record specific details that appeal to your readers’ senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) More than any other type of writing, a descriptive writing needs sharp, colorful details Thus, there are three

important things to remember about language that shows: it is

concrete, it is specific, and it is vivid

MAKING YOUR WRITING CONCRETE

Concrete language points to or identifies something that the reader can experience or has experienced with his senses Giving the readers a straightforward, realistic account of how things look, smell, sound, taste or feel is one of the most effective ways to make your writing concrete The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feel of things that the reading of description calls up in our minds are known as

images

Compare:

MAKING YOUR WRITING SPECIFIC

Writing that lacks specificity often contains language that is general, which makes it difficult for the writer to communicate clearly and completely One of the best ways to make your language more specific is to use carefully chosen nouns

Compare:

General More Specific Most Specific

cottage

Millionaire?

MAKING YOUR WRITING VIVID

Besides using figurative language (metaphor, simile, epithet, etc.) you can make your writing vivid by choosing verbs, adjectives and adverbs carefully

Compare:

1) The old church needed repair

The pre-Civil War Baptist church cried out for repairs to its tottering steeple, its crumbling stone foundation, and its cracked stained-glass windows

2) An old homeless person was in an alley among some garbage

The body of a homeless man, his face wrinkled and blistered, lay in a pile of oil-covered rags and filthy cardboard boxes piled in the corner of a long alley devoid of life and light

MASTERS OF DESCRIPTION

Charles Dickens and Somerset Maugham were masters of the art of description Readers of their novels are presented with visual treats, page after page The following two selections are fine examples of the descriptive technique As you read them, be prepared to explain their strengths:

1 Mr Squeer’s appearance was not prepossessing He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two The eye he had was unquestionably useful, but decidedly not ornamental: being of a greenish gray, and in shape resembling the fan-light of a street door The blank side

of his face was much wrinkled and puckered up, which gave him a very sinister appearance, especially when he smiled, at which times his expression bordered closely on the villainous His hair was very flat and shiny, save at the ends, where it was brushed stiffly up from a low protruding forehead, which assorted well with his harsh voice and coarse manner He was about two or three and fifty, and a trifle below the middle size; he wore a white neckerchief with long ends, and a suit of scholastic black; but his coat sleeves, being a great deal too short, made him appear ill

at ease in his clothes, and as if he were in a perpetual state of astonishment

at finding himself so respectable

from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Did You Note

The frightening aspect оf the one-eyed man?

His wrinkles?

The careful description of his hair?

The treatment of Squeer’s clothing?

The way the author begins with a single detail, and builds to a picture of the whole man?

2 But Tiaré Johnson would never under any circumstances have been rich She could not keep money The daughter of a native and an English sea-captain settled in Tahiti, when I knew her she was a woman of fifty, who looked older, and of enormous proportions Tall and extremely stout, she would have been of imposing presence if the great good nature of her face had not made it impossible for her to express anything but kindliness Her arms were like legs of mutton, her breasts like giant cabbages; her face, broad and fleshy, gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness, and vast chin succeeded to vast chin I do not know how many of them there were They fell away voluminously into the capaciousness of her bosom She was dressed usually in a pink Mother Hubbard, and she wore all day long a large straw hat But when she let down her hair which she did now and then, for she was vain of it, you saw that it was long and dark and curly; and her eyes had remained young and vivacious Her laughter was the most catching I ever heard; it would begin, a low peal in her throat, and would grow louder and louder till her whole vast body shook She loved three things - a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man To have known her was a privilege

from The Moon and Sixpence by W S Maugham

Did You Note

The minute, detailed description of her arms, chin, face?

her breasts?

her hair?

her voice?

The way the author builds the picture around Tiar é ’s most striking feature – the enormity of her proportions?

Point out the language means the authors employ to make the descriptions concrete, specific and vivid How do they help you to visualize the persons described Do the descriptions give you an idea

of Mr Squeer and Tiaré’s personality as well as of their appearance?

Tips for successful writing

Support: Details

When you write about a person you want the reader to feel in the end “I know this person; I understand something about the kind

of person he or she is” A vivid portrait of a person is very likely to include information about his physical features, his behaviour, his speech and his manner of dressing

Organization: Coherence

When describing, you can put concrete details into a spatial pattern (spatial order), according to any arrangement you think best

For example, you might describe a place from east to west, from left

to right or from larger items to smaller ones; an object from top to bottom or from inside to outside; and a person from head to toe By using adequate transitions you can prevent your reader from getting lost as the description proceeds

Mood

The feeling that a piece of writing creates is called the mood

A topic sentence usually prepares the reader for a certain way of looking at a subject If, for example, a topic sentence says “The old house smelled dank and strange” the reader will expect the writing to describe a frightening or a depressing place

Tone

The author’s attitude toward his or her subject is called the tone which may be mocking, ironic, playful, or serious

YOUR TURN

1 Select an exquisite piece of description of a place or a person from fiction Comment on its organization, the concrete details, specific words, figurative language and carefully chosen words that contribute to the creation of a vivid image

2 Following the tips given above write a paragraph describing either a person or a place

Supplementary Reading:

Hairston, M.: “Successful Writing”

Langan, T.: “College Writing Skills With Readings” Meriwether, N.: “Writing Essays Strategies for Success”