ECW, Week Three, March 17-21

Don't let your writing be OUT OF ORDER!

Please, note that we are not covering Chapter 5 (Organizing information by space). None of your assignments and exams are designed to have anything to do with this kind of organization. It is also not an easy topic, so I've decided to skip it.

WRITING PARAGRAPHS USING TIME ORDER

Page 24, Activity 1. My example

Dr. Alden is a director of an English language school. On February 21st, Tuesday, she will have a very busy day. First, early in the morning from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. she will be greeting new students. Second, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. she will give a test to new students. Then, from 10:30 to 11:30 she will be busy ordering new textbooks. After that, from 11:30 to 12:00 she will be making phone calls. Before she starts observing classes from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. she will have lunch with teachers from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. She will be very busy all day long.

HOW TO USE SIGNAL WORDS (such as first of all, second, morever, etc.)

Paragraph example:

There are many advantages of learning English as a foreign language. First of all, people who learn a foreign language are proven to use their brain power more effectively. Second, when you are traveling you will most likely find people from other countries who can also use English so you can communicate with them. Moreover, you will have no problems booking a hotel room, ordering in a restaurant or buying a bus or train ticket. Another thing is that if you are a student you will have access to many books and internet sites, most of which are written in English. Finally, the most important thing is that your chances of employment in the global world that uses English as a common language will be increased. For all these reasons, it is very important that you take studying English very seriously.

ABOUT ENGLISH SENTENCES

SIMPLE, COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

What is a sentence?
- A sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. It begins with a capital letter and ends in a period, exclamation or interrogation marks.

The following are sentences:
He is a student. / Speed kills./ It’s hot today./ He looks tired./ Who’s there?/Are you hungry?

The following are not sentences:
Hot weather (no verb)
The man bought (no complete thought: what did he buy?)
Because it rained. (no complete thought)
Is very handsome (no subject)
Every morning before breakfast (no subject, no verb)

There are four types of sentences:
Simple Sentence has one independent clause.
She married him.
Possible combinations: SV, SSV, SVV, SSVV

Compound Sentence, 2 independent clauses linked by a coma or coordinating conjunctions
She married him and they lived happily ever after.

Complex Sentence: a combination of independent and dependent clauses.

A comma is necessary if the dependent clause comes first:

She later divorced him because he was cheating on her.

Because he was cheating on her, she later divorced him.

Simple Sentences can be very short or very long. To extend a sentence (make it longer) you can add additions.
E.g. the simple sentence: "Dave sings." you can extend with a :
Direct object: Dave sings a song.
Indirect Object. Dave sings to his wife.
Prepositional phrases (starting with in, on, at…) Dave sings in the church.
Adjectives: Tall Dave sings.
Adverbs: Dave sings beautifully.
Additional subject: Dave and his wife sing.
Additional verbs: Dave sings and dances.
Additional sentences: Dave sings, but his wife doesn’t like it.

Look at this sentence:
Dave, who is a member of the church choir, sings a song in the church to his wife, beautifully, but she doesn’t like it. We have 3 verbs and 2 subject but this whole sentence is one Complex sentence.

SENTENCE COMBINING

Independent clauses are combined with other independent or dependent clauses with conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions link two independent clauses, e.g. Dave sings and he dances. Subordinating conjunctions link dependent clauses, e.g. Dave sings because he is in a good mood.

Most frequent coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, so, or.

Here’s the list of most frequent subordinating conjunctions:

if, as, since, unless, despite, so that, when, after, before, during, even if, although (even though), where, whatever, until, because, while, whereas, though, who, whom, whoever, whenever.

HOMEWORK: (on a seperate piece of paper)

Writing a paragraph. Do not forget to follow the rules for writing paragraphs: topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentence.
This time, because you are writing a paragraph that needs to observe the order in time, do not forget to include many signal words, listed on p. 21)

1. Page 26. On your own.

Before writing the paragraph, don't forget to make a time-line. (as on page 25 in activities 3 and 4)

IMPORTANT- DAY CLASS ONLY: Do not forget to bring the Sentence Handout to the next class. Please, read it carefullly before the class.
NIGHT CLASS: you will get the handout on Week four