English Writing

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English Writing

• Lecturer
• Shen Yuru

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Writing and English Writing
Writing is a process in which writers are agents
responsible for making clear assertions (forceful
statements or claims) with effective supports.
Simply speaking, writing, as an important means
of communication, means conveying a message in
language intelligible to a seemingly absent
audience for a purpose.
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Types of Writing

• Narration
• To narrate is to give an account of what
  happened or is happening. Simply speaking,
  narration is the telling of a story, which
  involves characters and ongoing actions.

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• In narration, the sentences are usually organized
  according to time order.

• To gain a good order, sometimes we need the help
  of time order words.

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Example
Kite flying began long ago. For thousands of
years people have sent kites soaring into the
sky. Recently, kite flying has become popular.
Today hobby shops sell many kinds of kites. Are
you ready now to try this sport? At first you may
feel clumsy. Before long you will gain skill.
Soon you will learn to control a kite. Someday
you may even enter kite flying contests.
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• Description

• The kind of writing that aims at conveying a
  mental image of some object, person, place,
  scene, through a verbal account of their
  appearances, movements, actions or changes

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• Description tells how something looks or
  feels or sounds. It talks about such features as
  size, shape, color, sound or taste.

• Description follows various kinds of order,
  depending on what is being described.

• When we describe a place, we usually follow space
  order.

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Example
The classroom is large, clean and
well lighted. The walls are pale green. In the
wall at the left as you enter there are three
large windows. The teachers desk is in the
front. Blackboards cover most of the wall at the
right.
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• When we describe a person, well have to select
  that persons most interesting and most
  outstanding features.

Example The man who opened the door in answer
to my knock was an elderly man, white-haired and
bent. He looked at me over his spectacles, which
were far down on his nose. In spite of his age,
his dark eyes were keen and his voice was clear
and strong. I noticed that he was wearing a
bright-colored sports shirt.
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Four Sub-types of Description
---Describing a person (appearance mind
action language)
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---Describing a place (appearance location
surroundings giving a brief account of its
history, geographic as well as economic position
if necessary)
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---Describing a scene
---Describing an object (shape, size, color and
function)
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How to Write a Description

1. Establish (Create) a dominant impression
2. Appeal to the senses (sight, hearing, smell,
   taste, touch)
3. Include details and use specific language
4. Arrange description in spatial order, sometimes
   in temporal order
5. Use the physical and mental point of view

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Practice 1. Our Library 2. How I Spent Last
Sunday
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• Exposition

• Exposition is the writing that explains. It often
  answers the questions how? And why?

• Its purpose is to present ideas and to make the
  idea as clear as possible.

• It often follows logical order.

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• In exposition, the writer is more likely to
  appeal to the audiences reasons by using
  evidence and logic rather than to appeal to their
  emotions.

• The expository writer usually moves from topic
  sentence to supporting details, from general to
  particular.

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• The expository writer usually develops his
  material by offering examples as evidence, by
  comparing and contrasting, by making analogies,
  by restating, by giving reasons, by classifying
  and dividing his subject, by showing cause and
  effect, by defining, and by arguing from premise
  to conclusion.

Practice Write a one-paragraph composition on
Weekends Mean Different Things to Different
People.
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Basic Principles of Writing

• Honesty (Be honest.)
• Clarity (Be clear.)
• Brevity (Be brief.)
• Variety
• Variety in sentence length
• Variety in sentence movement
• Simplicity (Be simple.)
• Humor (Be humorous.)
• Imagination