Level I

Chapter 6
Writing

English | Vietnamese Section

English | Vietnamese
IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
Self- and Teacher Evaluation

Topic: Đổi mới and Renovation: Youth Comparisons
Công cuộc đổi mới

Guiding Question
What are the priorities of a developing country in its course of renovation?

Câu hỏi hướng dẫn:
Các nước đang phát triển phải ưu tiên những gì trong công cuộc đổi mới của mình?

English Language Skills:

• Interview Techniques
• Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs and Essays
• Organizing Ideas: Limiting Information
• Using Quotation Marks
• Writing a Comparison/Contrastive Essay
• Transition words for comparisons and contrasts

  Vietnamese Language Skills:

Written Market Explanations

English Language Lesson

Back to Top

Introductory Motivation and Focus:

In most cultures, being young today is quite different than the youth of one’s parents and grandparents. The youth of Vietnam today are living through times of great transition and change. The economics of Vietnam has undergone changes with the Đổi Mới policy, and along with it, changes in lifestyle and society.

You will interview someone from an older generation in order to compare your life under the Đổi Mới policy with the life of an older person. To do this, follow the steps below:

Step #1: Prepare to Interview

In small groups, read the interview techniques in the Introduction to Skills below. These are interview skills suggested for interviewing people from North America. What are the techniques for interviewing a Vietnamese person? Discuss these techniques and revise the techniques to serve the purposes of this assignment.

Each person in the group should think of one or two people in their lives who would be good to interview. With these people in mind, think about what questions could be asked of interviewees. Think about what questions will stimulate the interviewees to talk. Most likely the interviews will be done in Vietnamese, so compose questions in Vietnamese. Some questions will be very general, like “How was your youth different from the youth of today?” or “Was your youth more simple or complex than the youth of today?” Some questions will be more specific, like “In your youth, what were your expectations about married life?” or “In your youth, how did you plan for your life’s career?”

After you have generated many questions in your small group, make a list of questions that you want to ask your interviewee. Focus on questions that interest you the most or focus on questions that you know the interviewee will like to talk about.

Step #2: The Interview

Conduct the interview following the revised interviewing techniques. Be courteous and take good notes about what the interviewee has said.

Step #3: Share the Interview With Others

Return to your small groups and discuss the answers you received to your questions. The discussion should be in English and help you to translate the interviewee’s answers into English. This interview will be the resource of this chapter’s writing assignment, so keep all your notes. Also write down your impressions, and the interesting points that came out of the interview. Do this soon after the interview and soon after the discussion with your small group.

Introduction to Skill(s):

Interview Techniques

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/interviewing.html

There are more ways to gather information than from your text or your teacher. Experts, grandparents, historians, scientists, authors, and many others all have interesting and important stories to tell. To get the most out of interviewing these people, you need to consider a few things that will help you get the most out of your interview.

Preparing for the Interview

• Make an appointment with the person.
• Learn a little about the person before meeting him/her.
• Know what you want to get out of the interview ahead of time.
• Write your questions down before the interview, but be prepared to take a different path of questioning if necessary.

Conducting the Interview

1. Be on time, and be prepared with paper and pen/pencil.
2. Be friendly and courteous - remember they are giving you their valuable time!
3. Ask your questions clearly.
4. Don't interrupt!
5. Ask specific, thought-provoking questions. Avoid yes/no questions.
6. Try to stay focused, but if something interesting comes up go with it.
7. Take good notes. Ask the interviewee to repeat what they said if necessary, but only do this when it is something important.
8. Don't volunteer information unless it is to get the interview going, to get it back on track, or to give background information relevant to your goals.
9. Obtain all the information needed before ending the interview. If necessary, review your notes with the person.
10. Thank the interviewee for his/her time.

Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs and Essays

A writing topic that asks you to consider the relationship between two things are paragraphs or essays of comparison and contrast. For example, in this chapter, you are asked to compare and contrast your life to that of a parent or grandparent. That is, you are asked what are the differences and similarities between the lives of previous generations and your generation. If you write about the similarities, the essay will be a comparison essay. On the other hand, if you want to write about the differences, your essay will be a contrast essay.

There are two organization methods for writing an essay of comparison and contrast.

Point-by-point paragraph

One method is to have one paragraph that explains the comparison/contrast on one topic point-by-point. For example:

When comparing the goals of my life to my mother’s, our views on marriage are very different. Most young women in my mother’s time had arranged marriages—arranged by parents and grandparents. To not marry was to fail in life and to submit to the arrangement was of utmost importance. In contrast, I am of the opinion that my life is not a failure should I never marry. If I marry, it will be for love. To simply marry someone my parents wish me to marry would leave me feeling that my life was not complete.

So, the topic is “views on marriage” and “marriage as a goal in life.” The one view is stated (that of the mother), there is a transitional phrase—“in contrast”—then the contrast is stated (the view of the daughter).

The second method is a block method in which one topic is stated in one paragraph and the comparative/contrastive topic is stated in a second paragraph.

It seems my grandmother lived in simpler times. She lived by traditional ways in which decisions were made for her: in marriage, in lifestyle, and in expectations. My grandfather and grandmother were betrothed as teenagers in an arrangement between their families. Her life goals focused only on being a good wife, mother, and daughter-in-law. As a result, her life’s desires were simply satisfied by living the decisions of those around her—raising her children was the ultimate goal in life and once they reached adulthood, her life was fulfilled.

Despite having similar goals to my grandmother, my life is so much more complicated. I, too, want a good marriage and to raise my children as good adults. But I have all such decisions to make on my own. It is I who must find a husband, so I worry about how this can happen—where do I find him? How do I know that he is the one? What must I do for a successful marriage? Should my life be more than family. I fill my life with study in order to be the person I want to be and to be more than only a mother. And is there satisfaction in raising the family, or need I be a renowned doctor, a revered teacher, or a rich merchant?

In the first paragraph, the topic is focused on the grandmother. In the second paragraph, the topic is focused on the granddaughter, so one compares the subjects in the first paragraph to the subjects in the second paragraph.

Organizing Ideas: Limiting Information

Most likely the interview you conducted covered a wide range of topics. You cannot write about all these topics in a short essay, so you need to choose one part to write about. Often the biggest problem in student writing is choosing to large of a topic, so students must learn to limit their topics. Some examples of more limited topics based on the interviews may be:

• How my grandmother envisioned marriage compared to my own vision of marriage
• Youthful dreams of careers then and now
• The changes in women’s roles with their in-laws
• How youth spent their evenings then and now

Using Quotation Marks

When interviewing someone, note taking is important. In an interview, the interviewer asks questions and the interviewee answers the questions. Presumably, the interviewer has written down the questions that he/she will ask. But the answers need to be recorder. Some notes will be paraphrasing the interviewee’s answers. This means that the notes taken are not the exact words that were spoken, but the meaning of the answer is written down. Some notes will be an exact quote. This means that the notes record the exact word-for-word answer that the interviewee has spoken. Sometimes an interview will be video-taped or audio-taped in order to get the exact quotes.

When you write exactly what someone has said, quotation marks are used. Quotation marks are used in pairs (“ ”). They come at the beginning of the quote and the end of the quote.

“Who knows me better than my mother and father? I trusted that they would choose a good husband for me.”

The quotation is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.

“Life was much simpler then,” my grandmother said.

“It was frightening,” she said thoughtfully, “to think too far into the future.”

“Wow!” I exclaimed.

“What did I know of life outside the village?” she asked.

For all the guidelines for using quotations refer to the Appendix called “Using Quotations.”

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Writing Assignment:

Recently, a book was published called Young Vietnam: Đổi Mới ’sChildren by Koechiro Toyama. Look to the Passage in English below that describes the book.

Using the interview conducted in the introductory section, write a 5-paragraph essay comparing your life to the life of the person you interviewed. If you are one of Đổi Mới ’sChildren, how is your life different than the life of your parents or grandparents. This would be written in a point-by-point comparison/contrast method. Or write a 4-paragraph essay in block form.

Keep in mind that the 5-paragraph essay should include an introductory paragraph with the essay’s topic sentence. Choose three aspects of your lives to compare—each aspect described in one paragraph. The final paragraph should be a conclusion to the essay.

If you choose to do the 4-paragraph essay, it should include an introductory paragraph, a paragraph that explains three aspects of the life of the interviewee, another paragraph that parallels your life in comparison/contrast to the interviewee, and a concluding paragraph.

Exercises in the rest of the chapter will help you compose the essay.

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Vocabulary:

Comparison transitions: Words that help to explain a comparison between one idea and another and create a transition are:

again, also, equally, furthermore, just as, just like, like, likewise, moreover, similar to, similarly, so, too.

Contrast transitions: Words that help to explain a contrast between one idea and another and create a transition are:

although, and yet, but, despite, different from, even though, except for, however, in contrast with, in spite of, instead of, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, otherwise, still, though, unlike, whereas, while.

Passage(s) in English:

Written by Koichiro Toyama, "Young Vietnam - Đổi Mới ’sChildren" is an insightful book with a fantastic collection of photographs taken by the author, coupled with a credible array of statistics, facts and figures.

Young Vietnam: Đổi Mới ’s Children

This book takes us into how the young generation of Đổi Mới , Vietnam government's 1986 policy reform plan (" Đổi Mới " meaning "renovation"), is coping and living through dramatic changes their parents never faced. Changes in life-style, education, industrialization, information technology and globalization are just a few to name.

Based on Toyama's own intimate understanding of Vietnam and its people, the book focuses on how these changes affect the youth, especially those living in Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam (once known as " Saigon" before the Vietnam War). In addition, information was via the media, interviews and questionnaires.

How deep an impact has the Đổi Mới policy have on the young? What mindset changes does it bring to them? Can it result in the older and younger generations of Vietnam living in conflict? How reflective are these occurrences on other Asian societies? Read the book to find out more!

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Exercises and Activities for Comprehension and Analyzing Content:

To set up the comparison for your life and the life of the interviewee, you may want to make a chart similar to the chart that follows. Of course, you may choose your own subjects. Your subjects should be the questions that you used in your interview. The interviewees can be a variety of other people: father, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, neighbor, etc.

 

subject	mother’s life	my life
on marriage	Most young women at the time had arranged marriages—arranged by parents and grandparents. But my parents had a more modern point of view. I was unusual in that I could choose who I wanted to marry	Though I know my mother wished me to be married, she kept quiet. She knew we would argue if she said anything. I was of the opinion that my life would not be a failure should I never marry.
on being female	Early in life I understood that I was limited in opportunities compared to my brother. And I accepted that because it was tradition and I was a good daughter. If we were to work outside the home, there were only a few professions we could consider: teaching and nursing	I feel a wide horizon before me. I can choose from many professions though I know that in some places, I will have to be strong to prove that a woman can do such things. Times are changing, and those who hold to old fashion ideas I will simply ignore.
educational opportunities	I was in high school when the war came and so we had to stop going to school. By the time the war was over, I was too old to continue my education.	I know that if I study with all my abilities, I will enter the university and fulfill my dreams. My parents hope that I will be able to do this. I may be the first person in family to go to university. I think it can happen for me.
free time
hopes for the future
goals in life

Exercises and Activities for Developing Content of Student Writing:

When you have completed the chart, select the three of the subjects from the chart that you would like to include in your essay.

Write sentences that compare or contrast with these three subjects. Use the transitional words in the Vocabulary section to set up the comparisons and contrasts. For example:

My mother’s high school education was interrupted by war. By the end of the war, she was too old to go back to school. Nowadays, however, people of all ages are found in our university. I can go to school now when I’m young, or I may postpone my education in lieu of getting more life experience.

Either write them in point-by-point—one subject that compares the interviewee to you, or the block style in which three subjects about the interviewee are written in one paragraph and then the three subjects are written about you in the next paragraph.

Exercises and Activities for Building Skills:  

Place quotation marks in the proper places:

1. What choices you have these days! my grandmother said.
2. Alas, she said, I am in love with another.
3. Why is life so complicated? he asked. In my youth, we lived a simpler life.
4. I did not know of life outside the village, she said, so my life was fulfilling.
5. He said, My life was interrupted by the war.

Paraphrase the sentences above.

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Exercises and Activities for Incorporating Skills into Student Writing:

Write topic sentences for each of your subjects. Then formulate your paragraphs.

Writing First Draft:

Write an introductory paragraph that includes the main idea. Attach the paragraphs you wrote in the exercise above. Then write a concluding paragraph.

Editing Process and Exercises:

1. Check the structure of your paragraphs. Does each paragraph have a topic and concluding sentence? Does the body of the paragraphs support the main ideas?
2. Did you limit your ideas to three subjects?
3. How did you compare and contrast the main points of your essay? Are you consistent in the way that you did it?
4. Did you use transitional words to make your comparisons and contrasts?
5. Do you have any quotations? Did you use quotation marks correctly?
6. Check spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
7. Read your paragraphs aloud. Are there awkward word choices? Is the grammar correct?
8. Have a friend read your essay. Does your friend understand what you are writing?

Writing Second/Final Draft:

Re-write your essay and hand it in to your teacher.

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