Level II
Chapter 2
Writing
Old Oct 1 2008
English | Vietnamese
IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
English | Vietnamese
Assessment
Water Ecology
Your life: does a river run through it?
Có dòng sông nào chảy qua cuôc đời của bạn không?
Introduction to Topic:
Read the following phrases and excerpts from Vietnamese and American songs and poems.
Excerpt from " Low Bridge, Everybody Down (The Erie Canal)"by Thomas S. Allen, 1905
I've got a mule, and her name is Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
She's a good old worker and a good old pal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
We've hauled some barges in our day,
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay,
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo.
Low bridge, everybody down!
Low bridge, for we're coming through a town!
And you'll always know your neighbor,
You'll always know your pal,
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.
The Erie Canal is an important part of American history that is still celebrated today. School children are often taught this song when they learn about the Erie Canal. The canal was built for the transportation of both goods and people between Albany, New York and Buffalo, New York. It opened in 1825 to much celebration, but it was replaced by more modern transportation, such as railroads, by the early 1900s.
Pulling barges on the canal was hard work. Mules and horses were hitched up to the barge with a rope, and they did most of the pulling, but people still had to walk up and down the canal all day to keep the mules and horses moving. They often sang songs to pass the time, such as the song above. The last part of the song is about the low bridges that the barges often had to pass over once they reached a town. Some of the bridges were so low that people in the barges had to lie down in the barge in order to pass underneath them. Although this was a serious hazard and people were sometimes hurt or even killed, passengers on the barge often joked about this inconvenient part of traveling on the canal.
At Nha Be the river divides
You can go to Gia Dinh or Dong Nai as you wish (Folk song)
Nhà Bè nước chảy chia hai
Ai về Gia Định, Đồng Nai thì về
There is a river next to each household in my village
The river is deeply attached to my childhood. (Hoang Hiep)
Quê tôi ai cũng có một dòng sông bên nhà
Con sông quê gắn bó với tu ổi thơ đời tôi.
You’re from the Hong river.
Do you know that my village also has a river?
I always call it Vam Co Dong with passion. (Hoai Vu – Truong Quang Luc)
Ở tận sông Hồng em có biết, quê hương anh cũng có dòng sông. Anh mãi gọi với lòng tha thiết, Vàm Cỏ Đông ơi Vàm Cỏ Đông.
You can go to Hue as you wish.
You can go to Ngu mountain or to Huong river. (Folklore)
Ai ra xứ Huế thì ra
Ai về núi Ngự ai về sông Hương
Peace like a river ran through the city. (Paul Simon)
Just Around the River Bend
(From Walt Disney’s Pocahontas,
www.letssingit.com/disney-just-around-the-river-bend-cd2dlfc.html )
What I love most about rivers is you can’t step in the same one twice
The water’s always changing always flowing
But people, I guess, can’t live like that
They all must pay a price
To be safe we lose our chance of ever knowing
What’s around the river bend
Waiting just around the river bend
I look once more just around the river bend
Beyond the shore where the gulls fly free
Don’t know what for
What I dream the day might send just around the river bend
For me, coming for me
Old Man River
(from the musical Showboat, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein,
www.scc.rutgers.edu/njh/PaulRobeson/lyrics.htm )
There’s an old man called the Mississippi;
That’s the old man that I’d like to be!
What does he care if the world’s got troubles?
What does he care if the land ain’t free?
Old Man River
That Old Man River
He must know something, but don’t say nothing;
He just keeps rolling
He keeps on rolling along
He don’t plant taters (potatoes),
He don’t plant cotton,
And them that plants them
Is soon forgotten,
But Old Man River
He just keeps rolling along.
You and me, we sweat and strain,
Body all aching and racked with pain.
Tote that barge!
Lift that bale! Get a little drunk
And you land in jail.
I get weary and sick of trying
I’m tired of living and scared of dying.
But Old Man River,
He just keeps rolling along.
Note: “ Old Man River” is written in an African American dialect and therefore grammar and syntax is not necessarily traditional nor standard.
Discuss the following questions:
What other rivers and waterways are celebrated in poems and songs in your culture?
How close to a river or waterway have you lived? How did it or did it not affect your life?
Do you have specific memories about rivers? Describe the emotion you have for rivers.
Poets and songwriters have used rivers in their work for centuries. Sometimes it is used as mere description. Sometimes the river is used as a symbol. Can you identify ways in which the river has been used as a symbol?
Writing Assignment:
In this chapter, you will write about a river or rivers. This may be about one particular river with which you are familiar, or it may be about rivers as symbols or metaphors.*
In this chapter we will practice a form of brainstorming in which one free writes to generate ideas for writing. We use this method to uncover and reveal all thoughts about rivers. The questions and exercises throughout are to help and guide you.
*A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a name, descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from its literal application. Life is a river flowing, for example.
Vocabulary:
Below are non-fiction excerpts about rivers and waterways. These excerpts have words about rivers and waterways that may be useful when writing about rivers and waterways. Words that are in bold print are the vocabulary. Find their meaning in context.
A River Runs Through
The Mekong River in Southeast Asia “rises in Tibet as the Lancang Jiang and flows south through Yunnan Province, China. It forms the Burma-Laos border and part of the Laos-Thailand border and then flows south through Cambodia and Vietnam, creating a vast river delta that is one of the most important rice-producing regions in Asia (from Oxford Family Encyclopedia, 1997, p. 437).”
Canal : Artificial waterway for irrigation, drainage, navigation, or in conjunction with hydroelectric dams (Oxford Family Encyclopedia).
Rivers? Streams? Creeks? They are all names for water flowing on the Earth’s surface . . . [T] hink of creeks as the smallest of the three, with streams being in the middle, the rivers being the largest.
A river is nothing more than surface water finding its way over land from a higher altitude to a lower altitude, all due to gravity. When rain falls on the land, it either seeps into the ground or becomes run-off, which flows downhill into rivers and lakes, on its journey towards the seas. In most landscapes the land is not perfectly flat—it slopes downhill in some direction. Flowing water finds its way downhill initially as small creeks. As small creeks flow downhill they merge to form larger streams and rivers. Rivers eventually end up flowing into the oceans. If water flows to a place that is surrounded by higher land on all sides a lake will form. If man has built a dam to hinder a river’s flow, the lake that forms is a reservoir.
- Nile River: 4,132 miles
- Amazon River 4,000 miles
- Yangtze River : 3,915 miles
- Mekong River : 2600 miles
(from http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/eartivers.html)
Other words that may be helpful:
Other words that may be helpful: |
|||
River structures |
Verbs |
Bodies of Water |
Boat parts |
river bank |
to navigate |
marsh |
out-board motor |
river delta |
to steer |
swamp |
oar |
river spirits |
to float |
Mississippi River |
Ferry |
river bend |
to sink |
canal |
rudder |
shore |
to row |
stream |
lucky eye |
beach |
to swim |
creek |
wake (of the bow) |
current |
to ferry |
across |
barge |
mud |
to drown |
river |
structures |
sand |
to fish |
dock |
|
river plants |
to bob |
bridge |
|
river weeds |
to surface |
quay |
|
irrigation |
to flow |
||
Adjectives: wide, slow, underwater, frigid, monkey bridge, cool, drainage, swift
Introduction to Skill(s):
Organizing Your Ideas: Moving From General to Specific
One way to organize a descriptive paragraph is to identify general information and specific information. Descriptions often begin with general information and are followed by more specific information. The first sentence gives a general description. This is often the topic sentence.
|
Adjectives Add Detail to Your Writing
Writing becomes more interesting when detail is added. Adjectives help create detail. Adjectives can be used in two ways:
1) After the verbs be, seem, and look.
- The river is wide.
- The river seems wild and dangerous.
- The boy looks afraid of the water.
2) Before a noun.
- The wide river takes a long time to cross.
- The wild part of the river is very dangerous.
- The frightened boy clings to the bank of the river.
General and Specific
Below are sentences containing general ideas. Write some sentences under each general sentence that adds detail by using adjectives.
1. The river is wide.
Example: Large ferries take 30 minutes to cross.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
2. The river seems wild and dangerous.
Example: The current is swift and strong.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
3. The boy looks afraid of the water.
Example: His face is pale with the memory of almost drowning.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
More examples of sentences with general information:
- The river flows slowly through my village.
- My hometown is a river port.
- The Colorado River flows through three states before emptying into the Gulf of California.
- The river is the center of life in my village.
- There are different kinds of boats traveling on the river.
- American rivers are often used for recreation.
Topic and Topic Sentences
Exercise 1
Read the following and decide which is a topic and which is a topic sentence. Write T for topic and TS for topic sentence in the space provided. Punctuate topic sentences. Explain your answers.
1.__________ Parents are the best teachers
2.__________ Mekong River
3.__________ Most adults find learning a foreign language difficult
4.__________ Tet Holidays in Vietnam
5. _________ Tet is one of the most important holidays in Vietnam
6.__________ Thai community of Ban Pha
7.__________ A close- knit community of Ban Pha has successfully
managed to preserve its unique cultural heritage
8.__________ Fresh water is used for a variety of purposes
9.__________ Vietnamese names
10._________ Names are important in Vietnam
Exercises 2
Read the following topic sentences. Underline the topic and circle the controlling idea.
1. TV has some negative effects on children
2. The Mekong River is one of the most important rivers in Vietnam
3. TV is an effective baby sitter
4. Our work has some unpleasant aspects.
5. College education is important in Vietnam nowadays.
6. Women live longer than men
7. It is difficult for some people to learn a foreign language
8. The Mekong Delta is the rice Basket of Vietnam.
9. Country life in Vietnam is very different from city life.
10. Going by boat is the most common means of transportation in the countryside in Vietnam.
Exercise 3
Read the following paragraphs and underline the topic sentence of each paragraph.
Paragraph 1
No matter who we are, where we are, and what we do, we are all dependent on water. We need it every day, in so many ways. We need it to stay healthy; we need it for growing food, for transportation, irrigation and industry. We need it for animals and plants, for changing colors and seasons. However, despite the importance of water resources in our lives and well-being, we are increasingly disrespectful of them. We abuse them. We waste them. We pollute them, forgetting how essential they are to our very survival.
Paragraph 2
2003 is a year of opportunity. It is a year for us to focus our attention on protecting and respecting our water resources, as individuals, communities, countries, and as a global family of concerned citizens. 2003 is a year for action and reflection. During this year we have a chance to mend our ways, to take stock and make a difference. By protecting our freshwater, we help to ensure our future and our planet's long-term prospects.
Paragraph 3
Everyone needs water. We cannot live for more than a few days without it. Without water all living things will die. Think of how much water you consume everyday, in drinks, food and preparing meals. Imagine your home not having clean running water to have a shower, wash your clothes, flush the toilet, cook your dinner or brush your teeth. Life would be so much harder and the things we take for granted would become an everyday chore.
Exercise 4:
Evaluating topic sentences
Read the following statements and put a checkmark next to the three that you think are effective topic sentences. Then, figure out why each of the other sentences is not effective. Is it too general or too narrow? Does it lack a controlling idea? Draw a line through those sentences and rewrite them.
1. _________ Vacations are expensive.
5. _________ There are several ways to save money on a vacation to Dalat and still have a good time.
6. _________ I am going to write about the time I studied with Bluffton students last Summer.
7. _________ I love music.
8. _________ The history of Vietnamese music is the subject of this paper.
9. _________ Vietnamese is a difficult language to learn.
10. _________ Learning how to write in a foreign language can be a frustrating experience for many students.
11. _________ There are over 50,000 characters in the Chinese language.
12. _________ The topic of this essay is learning to write in a foreign language.
13. _________ The trip to Ha Long Bay cost 1,000,000 dong.
Writing Assignment:
Freewriting Exercise
Write quickly, without worrying about grammar, spelling, or punctuation, anything that comes into your mind as you read the following questions. Don’t think about quality or try to edit as you write; just write down as many thoughts as you can for several minutes. The questions are to help and guide you. If other thoughts about rivers occur to you that do not directly answer the question, write them down anyway. Allow your own thought process to run free.
1. How close to a river or waterway have you lived?
2. How did it or did it not affect your life?
3. What words can you use to describe a river?
4. Do you have specific memories about rivers? Describe the emotion you have for rivers.
5. What does it smell like?
6. How does the water feel when you dip your hand in?
7. What kinds of sounds do you hear around a river?
8. What do the rivers give you? (For example, how are Vietnam’s waterways used for transportation or farming or lifestyle?)
9. How do people use rivers?
10. What waterways in Vietnam are celebrated in songs and poems?
11. Is there anything inconvenient about using the waterways? How do people on the waterways deal with this inconvenience?
12. Is there anything humorous that people laugh about when they talk about using the waterways?
13. Poets and songwriters have used rivers in their work for centuries. Sometimes it is used as mere description. Sometimes the river is used as a symbol. Can you identify ways in which the river has been used as a symbol?
Sample:
The first thing that pops into my head when thinking about rivers is a mountain stream—fresh, clear like crystal, freezing cold and pure. The river is so cold that it numbs the hand, and should your whole body be in it, your breath comes out in short, painful spurts and all you can think is “I need to get out of this water!” The rivers I think of are fast flowing. There are boulders and rocks in the rivers and this makes the water white with all the splashing. The river can be a challenge, difficult to cross or difficult to navigate. The current can push you off your feet and carry you away. It is difficult not to panic but to get out of the current, one must keep one’s wits and strategize. The river also symbolizes wonderful times in my childhood—camping, hiking in the mountains. Trying to see who can stay in the water the longest. Waking up in a tent in the morning and washing my face in the river. Wake Up! Seeing that I must cross the river on a log thrown across the river. Can I keep my balance? Can I keep my shoes dry? If I’m lost in the forest I close my eyes and listen for the rush of the river. If I can find the river, I can find my way home. There will be people on the banks of the river.
After you are finished, look over what you have written and pick out the best thoughts or ideas. You will use them to write a short descriptive passage about rivers.
Exercises and Activities for Building Skills:
Exercises and Activities for Developing Content of Student Writing:
Using the sentences and phrases you created during the free write, place them in the chart below to identify them as either general or specific information.
Sample:
General information
The first thing that pops into my head when thinking about rivers is a mountain stream
The rivers I think of are fast flowing.
The river also symbolizes wonderful times in my childhood—camping, hiking in the mountains.
The river can be a challenge, difficult to cross or difficult to navigate.
If I can find the river, I can find my way home.
Specific information
fresh, clear like crystal, freezing cold and pure. The river is so cold that it numbs the hand, and should your whole body be in it, your breath comes out in short, painful spurts and all you can think is “I need to get out of this water!”
There are boulders and rocks in the rivers and this makes the water white with all the splashing.
The current can push you off your feet and carry you away. It is difficult not to panic but to get out of the current, one must keep one’s wits and strategize.
Trying to see who can stay in the water the longest. Waking up in a tent in the morning and washing my face in the river. Wake Up!
Seeing that I must cross the river on a log thrown across the river. Can I keep my balance? Can I keep my shoes dry?
Close my eyes and listen for the rush of the river
General information Specific information
Writing First Draft:
Using the best thoughts and ideas from your freewriting exercise, write a short descriptive passage about a river or rivers or waterways. Identify the general and specific information and order your description accordingly. Select your topic sentence. Add detail by using adjectives.
Editing Process and Exercises:
Read your writing passage and answer the following questions:
Is your topic sentence general but not too broad or vague?
Does your topic sentence have a controlling idea?
Is your topic sentence a complete sentence?
Are all your sentences about one subject?
Do your sentences move from general to specific?
What adjectives did you use and did you use them correctly?
Have you used correct punctuation? Check Appendix A in Chapter 1
Writing Second/Final Draft:
Edit the paragraph and write it correctly according to how you answered the questions above. Read the paragraph again and correct mistakes in capitalization and punctuation. Did you use the correct paragraph form?
THẢO LUẬN:
See the Introduction to Topic under the English section. Follow the instructions and discuss the questions in the introductory exercise.
BÀI VIẾT:
In this part, you will learn how to use descriptive adjective and using them to write about a river.
Tính từ miêu tả (descriptive adjectives):
Cách dùng tính từ miêu tả: (Use)
1. Trong câu tiếng Việt, tính từ miêu tả được đặt ngay sau chủ từ. Động từ TO BE (thì, là) không được dùng giữa chủ từ và tính từ. (In Vietnamese, descriptive adjectives go right after the subject of the sentence. The verb To Be is omitted.)
| Ví dụ: . | Cô gái đẹp | The girl is pretty. |
| Con sông rộng. . | The river is large |
2. Trong cụm từ, khi bổ nghĩa cho danh từ, tính từ luôn đ ứng sau danh từ. (In a noun phrase, the head noun always precedes modifying adjectives.)
Ví dụ: Cô gái đẹp học giỏi. The pretty girl studies well.
Luyện tập:
Em sẽ viết một đoạn văn miêu tả một dòng sông đã gắn bó với cuộc sống của em hoặc một con sông mà em biết , d ùng các tính từ miêu tả trong đoạn văn ấy.
Trước tiên, hãy trả lời các câu hỏi gợi ý sau:
1. Nhà em có ở gần một con sông nào không?
2. Nó ảnh hưởng đến đời sống của em như thế nào?
3. Những từ nào em có thể dùng để miêu tả dòng sông ấy?
4. Tình cảm em dành cho con sông như thế nào?
Sắp xếp các ý trên thành một đoạn văn hoàn chỉnh: (a) mở đoạn: giới thiệu về con sông, (b) thân bài: miêu tả con sông, và (c)kết đoạn: tình cảm của em đối với dòng sông.
Contact
| |
© 1996-2008 Eastern Mennonite University
EMU is a liberal arts Christian college with core values of peace and sustainability.