Eastern Mennonite University

Level II

Chapter 1
Writing

English | Vietnamese

IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
English | Vietnamese
Assessment

Who in the world am I?
Tôi là ai trong thế giới này?

English Language Lesson

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Introduction to Topic:

Black Eyebrows

smilling girlself portrait

Self Portrait

I am a teacher and an artist. I like to help students see the world through new eyes. This means that I teach them to observe carefully and to see things for the first time.

Here you see two pictures of me. One is a photograph and one is a self-portrait. I painted this picture by looking into a mirror. I looked carefully for long periods of time. I enjoyed making this painting.

I can describe myself in writing, too: I have thick, black eyebrows. People often notice this about me. My eyes are brown .My hair is also brown. Smiles come easily to my face. My teeth are straight and strong. I am average by Western standards: my height, my weight, and the length of my nose. By Vietnamese standards I am tall, large and have a big nose. My hair is cut short because I don't like to take time to care for it. My style of dress is casual, but artistic. I wear clothes for comfort and I like clothes made with handiwork. Also for reasons of comfort, I always wear flat shoes. I look calm on the outside, but inside, I hide a lot of nervousness, worry and creative energy. I am very creative, so there are many things happening in my mind.

Vocabulary:

Look at yourself for a long time in the mirror.

1) Describe your hair:_________________________________________

short thick styled black shaved

long thin pulled backbrown fly-away

bald curly straight gray redhead

wavy frizzy permed bleached braided

curled ponytail pigtails

blonde, strawberry blonde in_need_of_a_haircut, shaggy

2) Describe your eyes:________________________________________

black round long_lashed (eye_lids)

brown narrow bare (eye_brows)

blue brighttired (eye_lashes)

hazel sad laugh lines (eye_crease)

green sparkling bloodshot to_blink

squinted intense with_glasses to_cry, teary

near-sighted far-sighted squinted

Western eyes (eyelid showing) Asian eyes (hidden eyelid)

3) Describe your mouth:_______________________________________

large teethy underbiteteeth (smile)

small voluptuous overbite gums (grin)

thin-lipped straight tongue (frown)

full-lipped dimples moustache

tight-lipped braces beard crooked teeth

4) Describe your nose:________________________________________

wide narrow Roman

flat pug freckled

straight bridge of_nose turned_up

hooked flared nostrils

5) Describe the shape of your face:______________________________

oval firm jaw high cheekbones wide_forehead

round square chin dimpled_chin chiseled

broadpointed_chin narrow/thin

6) What do people see or remember about you?_____________________

7) How does your personality show in your appearance?________________

slender slim gentle kind formal

skinny clumsy honest faithful casual

heavy overweight jolly loyal courteous

fat average curious jovial glamorous

well-built curvy interested confident sloppy

muscular posture shy timid adventurous

overt serious nervous quick dull

Introductory activity for topic:

Answer the following questions about yourself

  1. What’s your name?
  2. What does your face look like? (use the vocabulary lists above)
  3. Describe your physical structure.
  4. Who do you look like? Who looks like you?
  5. Where are you from?
  6. How old are you?
  7. What work do you do? Or what do you study?
  8. Do you enjoy your work or your field of study?
  9. How do you spend your free time?
  10. What do you like about your life?
  11. What don’t you like about your life?
  12. Describe your personality.

Introduction to Skill(s):

Writing is a process. We do not write down exactly what we want the first time. Sometimes we need to reorganize, correct, and start all over again.There are nine steps to writing that we emphasize in this book.

Nine steps to the Writing Process:

1. Exploring and Discovering Ideas: ideas for writing need to come from somewhere.

  • explore what you already know
  • create and generate new ideas
  • read and research for ideas
  • get the ideas down on paper
  • build vocabulary

2. Organizing ideas: now that you have your ideas, how do you put them together?

  • develop organizational skills
  • identify the main idea and make topic sentences
  • select and limit the information in a paragraph
  • different types of paragraphs serve different purposes:
  • select the type of paragraph

3. Developing cohesion and style: develop grammatical and lexical skills that serve to unify paragraphs.

  • find the right words
  • connect and transition the ideas

4. Using correct form:

  • practice with the mechanics of writing
  • spelling
  • punctuation and capitalization

5. Writing the First Draft

6. Editing your writing: analyze your first draft

  • Analyze the organization of your ideas and sentences
  • check the cohesion and style
  • correct the form and grammar
  • correct the mechanics

7. Writing a Second Draft for teacher evaluation

8. Using feedback: Taking responsibility for improving writing

9. Developing fluency: Journal writing

Writing Assignment:

By looking in a mirror, you will write about your appearance and about yourself. In this chapter, we introduce to you one way of writing your ideas called “Freewriting.” Here is an overview and guide to a freewriting assignment:

Freewriting

Freewriting is writing down ideas that are circling in your brain. Freewriting is free of rules and styles and should be thought of as a personal tool to help a person to write, record ideas, and unburden oneself of emotions. There was a time when freewriting was used and looked at only by the writer, but in this new age of computers, freewriting takes on other tasks of importance.

As we rely on computers and communication with email, being able to freewrite becomes an essential tool for our daily lives. We use email correspondence to communicate immediately and often our response is to quickly write and send messages. Therefore, it is important that we learn to write clearly in a prompt response. In this text, you often will be asked to correspond by computer, therefore practice in freewriting will be an asset to learning the English language. This means that thinking in English rather than translating from Vietnamese into English should be a skill learned more rapidly than before. The best way to learn to freewrite is to write and write and write.

Before computer correspondence, freewriting was a skill to help generate ideas for writing essays and other compositions. Sometimes this is called “brainstorming.” Of course, it still is a good tool and useful way to discover your ideas. Often when a person is full of emotion, writing down all these feelings can help to get your ideas into a form you can see and organize. This often helps people psychologically. Most diaries and journals are written in a freewriting style. Some people feel the need to freewrite often in order to get their feelings and ideas down quickly.

For academic writing purposes go through the following steps: Concentrate on an idea for a topic. Don’t stop to think about how good it is or whether you can actually apply it to the topic. Instead, write the idea down before you forget it and try to form another idea. When you get used to freewriting, you may find that you have to write very quickly because you will have a lot of ideas at once. This is good. Focus on getting everything you think of written down. Do not focus on how useful each idea is.

Now practice freewriting. Look in the mirror. Write down whatever comes to mind when you see your own image. Are you short or tall? Left-handed or right-handed? What do you like to do? Do you look like a teacher, farmer, nurse, etc.? Do your eyes twinkle? Think of as many things as you can. Write them all down as quickly as you can. Don’t think about whether or not you want to write about it.You can worry about that later. For now, just write down your ideas.

Writing First Draft:

Organizing Ideas. After you have written down everything you can think of, organize your ideas. Sometimes we organize by putting ideas into categories such as people’s appearances (face, nose, eyes, and moustache), free time activities, characteristics, and behaviors.

Put your ideas into categories. This is also a time when you can start to edit your ideas. If one idea does not seem to fit with any other ideas, you can get rid of it or try to think other ideas to go along with it. You can also use the vocabulary list to think of more ideas.

Writing Sentences. The next step is to make sentences for every one or two of your ideas. These can be simple sentences, or you can make them more complex. Here are some examples:

  • I am tall.
  • My hair is short and curly.
  • I am 22 years old, and I am in my third year of college.
  • Fish is my favorite food.
  • I am shy.
  • I study computer.
  • I don’t look like anyone in my family.
  • I like to wear earth tone colors.
  • I don’t like to attract attention
  • But having red hair attracts attention.
  • Being tall attracts attention.

Try to vary your sentence structure so your sentences do not all sound the same.

Organizing Sentences. Now put your sentences in order. You may choose to describe yourself from head to foot, or you may choose to describe yourself by what catches someone’s eye first (for example, dark eyebrows, unmanageable hair, or great height). Another way to order your sentences may be from general to specific: describe your general appearance, then go into detail.

 

Look back at the beginning of this chapter to get some ideas.The paragraphs in the writing piece are ordered in this way:

Paragraph 1: the writer describes occupation and a bit about her personality in relation to that occupation.

Paragraph 2: introduction to a physical and personality description through art.

Paragraph 3: describing physical appearance by most noticeable feature and detail. Then the paragraph moves from the face to more general physical description and ends with some description about how her appearance is part of her personality.

You will focus on writing one paragraph that will look more like Paragraph 3. The sentences written above may begin to form a paragraph like this:

Sometimes I wish that I am invisible because I amvery shy.

But it is hard to be invisible when people see how tall I am .

My short , red, curly hair attracts a lot of attention.

I just want to quietly study computer and hope that no one notices me. But I enjoy life. I wear my most comfortable clothes and I can spend hours absorbed in my work at the computer. My field of study has opened new worlds to me and I like that.

When you have organized these sentences, follow the “Rules for Form of Sentences and Paragraphs” below.

Rules for the Form of Sentences and Paragraphs

(quoted from Interactions I)

1. Write the title in the center of the first line.

2. Capitalize all important words in the title.

3. Don’t capitalize small words like a, the, to, with and at in titles, except at the beginning of a title.

4. Skip a line between the title and the paragraph.

5. Indent (leave a space) at the beginning of every paragraph.

6. Begin every line except the first at the left margin. (Sometimes a line for the left margin is on the paper. If it isn’t, leave a space of one inch.)

7. Leave a one-inch margin on the right.

8. Use a period (.) at the end of every sentence. (For rules on punctuation, see Appendix A

9. Leave a small space after the period.

10. Begin every sentence with a capital letter. (For rules on capitalization, see Appendix B ).

11. Also capitalize names of people and places. (See Appendix B).

12. If the last word of a line doesn’t fit, use a hyphen (-) to break it. You can break a word only between syllables (e-quip-ment).

13. Periods and commas (,) must follow words. They can’t begin a new line.

14. Every sentence in the paragraph follows the sentence before it. Start on a new line only when you begin a new paragraph.

15. In formal writing most paragraphs have four to ten sentences. A paragraph usually has more than one or two sentences.


Correct these paragraphs using the rules for the form of sentences and paragraphs in the box above:

meet the new english teacher

melinda newman has come to our campus to teach English to first and second year English majors. she is a forty-year old woman from chicagoillinois in the united states

. she is very unusual on our campus because she has red hair and blue eyesShe stands 192 cm tall. shewill be anoutstanding teacher in more ways than one. welcomeher to our campus

Editing Process and Exercises:

Cohesion and Style

A well-written paragraph has cohesion. Cohesion is the “glue” of a paragraph; that is, it connects the ideas in a paragraph. A good writer writes in such a way that their paragraphs are easy and clear to read with cohesion and style.

Let us consider cohesion and style when editing the first draft of your writing.

  1. A cohesive paragraph has correct verb tenses.
  2. Good grammar and rich vocabulary improve the style of a paragraph.
  3. Special words such as and, but, so and also connect your ideas.

Exercises and Activities for Building Skills:

Using “And”: When you have two verb phrases about the same subject, you can connect the phrases with and.

I am a teacher

I am an artist.

I am a teacher and an artist.

I teach students to observe carefully.

I teach students to see things for the first time.

I teach students to observe carefully and to see things for the first time.

1. Connect these phrases with and:

eyes are black; hair is black

a.___________________________________________________

teeth are straight; teeth are strong

b.___________________________________________________

height is standard; weight is standard

c.___________________________________________________

2. Now find some phrases in your paragraph that you can connect with and. Be sure they refer to the same subject.

Using “Also”: Use also when two sentences have similar ideas. Also is used in the second sentence, usually before the main verb in the sentence, but after the verb “be.”

Example: My eyes are brown. My hair is also brown.

Example: She is intelligent. She is also beautiful.

3. Use “also” in the following sentences:

He is a good father. His is a good husband.

She likes to wear silk dresses. She likes to wear high heeled shoes.

He likes to play soccer in his free time. He likes to read.

4. Now find some sentences in your paragraph that you can add also to. Be sure that the sentences have similar ideas.

Using “And, But” and “So”: By placing a comma (,) before and, but,or so, you can connect two complete sentences.

“And” is used to add more information:

Example: I wear clothes for comfort, and I like clothes made with handiwork.

“But” is used to contrast one piece of information to another.

Example: My style of dress is casual, but artistic

Example: I am average by Western standards, but I am big by Vietnamese standards.

“So” is used when showing a result”

Example: I am very creative, so many things are happening in my mind.

5. Use “and, but,” and “so” to connect these sentences:

a He is a farmer. He has strong hands.

b She is very young. Her skin is very soft.

c Her parents are tall.She is short.

d He is very tall.He moves very quickly.

e She has blonde hair. Her eyes are blue.

6. Are there sentences in your paragraph that can be connected with and, but and so?

7. Now edit your first draft by answering these questions:

a Is your paragraph cohesive with correct verb tenses?

b Have you followed the correct form for sentences and paragraphs?

c Have you connected your ideas with “and, but, so,” and “also” to make a cohesive paragraph?

Writing Second/Final Draft:

Rewrite your paragraph neatly. Use good grammar and correct form. Read it out loud to yourself, then have a classmate read it. Turn the final draft into your teacher

 

Vietnamese Language Lesson

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Ngữ pháp 1A (Grammar 1A):

Đại từ nhân xưng: (Personal Pronouns – Outside the home)

 

Ngôi thứ nhất

(I)

Ngôi thứ hai

(II)

Ngôi thứ ba

(III)

Số ít

(Singular)

Tôi

Ông/bà/bác/chú/cô/

anh/chị/bạn

Ông/bà/bác/chú/cô/

anh/chị ấy; nó

Số nhiều

(Plural)

Chúng ta/

Chúng tôi

Các ông/bà/bác/

chú/cô/anh/chị/bạn

Các ông/bà/bác/

chú/cô/anh/chị ấy; họ

Chú ý: - Chúng tôi: không gồm người nghe (not including listeners)

- Chúng ta: bao gồm cả người nói và người nghe (incuding both

speakers and listeners)

Hệ từ Là: dùng để biểu thị mối quan hệ giữa chủ ngữ và vị ngữ danh từ trong câu. (equal to “to Be”, connects subject and noun predicate of a sentence)

Ví dụ: Tôi là Lan.

Chị ấy là người Việt Nam.

Chúng tôi là nông dân

Họ là giáo viên.

Luyện tập 1.2 (Exercise):

Dùng các từ gợi ý viết thành câu theo mẫu (Write complete sentences with the suggested words):

VD:Tôi/ Nam/ nông dân

Tôi là Nam. Tôi là nông dân.

1. Chị ấy/ Laura/ sinh viên

2. Cô ấy/ Hoa/ kỹ sư

3. Ông ấy/ Bell/ nhà báo

4. Chúng tôi/ Lan và John/ giáo viên

5. Họ/ Tim và Phúc/ nông dân

6. Anh ấy/ Minh/ học sinh

MẪU CÂU THƯỜNG DÙNG (COMMON PATTERN):

1. Mẫu câu chào: (Pattern to greet someone, to say hello and goodbye to someone)

[ Xin] Chào chị (anh, ông, bà, ….)

Ghi chú: Câu chào dùng khi gặp mặt hoặc chia tay không phân biệt thời gian.

2. Hỏi tên: (pattern to ask and answer about names)

Tên của bạn/anh/chị/ông/bà…là gì?

- Tên tôi/anh/chị/em là _______ .

- Tôi là _______.

VD:Tên của chị là gì? – Tôi là Hoa.

Tên của bác là gì? – Tên tôi là Paul.

3. Mẫu câu hỏi:

Câu khẳng định (Statement) + à [phải không]?

VD:Cô ấy là người Việt Nam à? – Đúng vậy.

Bạn là sinh viên phải không? - Phải.

Họ là nông dân à? – Không/ Không phải. Họ là giáo viên.

Luyện tập 1.3 (Exercise):

I. Điền vào chổ trống với cặp đại từ cho sẳn “ông” và “cháu”. (Fill in the blanks with the given pronouns “ông” and “cháu”)

A: Chào ông.

B: Chào _______. Tôi là Nhật. _____ tên gì?

A: Cháu tên là Chris. ______ là người Việt Nam à?

B: Đúng vậy.

A: Còn ______ là người Mỹ.

II. Dịch sang tiếng Việt (Translate the following sentences into Vietnamese):

1. She is a student.

2. They are American.

3. We’ve lived in Mekong Delta for three generations.

4. They are farmers?

5. I am Linh. I am an engineer.

6. You are students?

Bài viết:

  • Làm việc từng đôi, hỏi nhau về tên tuổi, gia đình.
  • Viết một đoạn văn giới thiệu về bản thân bạn (tên, tuổi, nghề nghiệp, gia đình). Cho biết tại sao bạn muốn học tiếng Việt? Bạn mong muốn sẽ học được điều gì?
  • Viết một đoạn/bài văn trả lời câu hỏi “Tôi là ai trong thế giới này?”

 

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