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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE
IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Teaching speaking through discussion
COURSE PAPER
PRESENTED BY
Olga Baran
a fourth year student
of the English department
SUPERVISED BY
Larysa Viktorivna Lemeshchuk
an assistant professor
LVIV 2009
Contents
Tarvers explains that “Writing is a powerful instrument of thought. In the act of composing, writers learn about themselves and their world and communicate their insights to others. Writing confers the power to grow personally and to effect change in the world" [18, p.45] Moreover, the skill of writing essays is an essential tool in achieving the desirable grade in the courses studied. The basic essay-writing skills are not that difficult to acquire. The reason why so many students fail to do this is that not enough attention has been paid to teaching them. It is inevitable that schools, colleges and universities spend most of their time teaching the core subject-matter of a course, but hardly any time in advising students how to put their ideas down on paper in the form of an essay. Hedge points out that writing has been a neglected area of English language teaching for some years [11, p.101]. However, when people write down an account of ideas for others to read, they have to explain themselves particularly carefully. The leaps made while talking are not allowed. This makes writing probably the most challenging aspect of studying. White and Amdt promote that “Writing is a form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a voice with which to write, planning, goal-setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written as well as what has been written and searching for language with which to express exact meanings” [20, p.92].
The difficulties in writing essays as well as the process of teaching writing essays show the object of this course paper. The subject lies in the set of skills and hints for teaching learners to write better compositions. This coursework comprises the following tasks:
· to specify the structure of the essay and stages in writing it;
· to clarify the skills and habits necessary for the learners to write properly, clearly and persuasively, and to present the viewpoint forcefully in writing;
· to show the importance of practicing writing topic and concluding sentences, organizing the paragraphs coherently, using appropriate vocabulary, transitional devices and grammar;
· to apply key writing structures to learners' writing;
· to develop strategies for writing, revising, and editing texts that are based on audience and purpose;
· to make students aware of the impact of their choice of words, sentences and organizational techniques on the effectiveness of writing.
Learning solid essay writing skills while in school is the foundation for even the most basic education. Thus, many students do not have the slightest idea on how to begin a creative writing and how to express their thoughts. It is important for learners not to suppress their ideas, they should think widely, in various directions. The practical value lies in helping people to order their essays, to display their knowledge in the well-structured way due to the standards of essay writing, to provoke the learners to write and to believe in their own abilities, the originality and validity of their thoughts. In addition to this, essay writing is a part of a sequence designed to develop specific discourse skills.
Writing process
Definition
Description
Prewriting
Generating ideas, strategies, and information for a given writing task.
Prewriting activities take place before starting on the first draft of a paper. They include discussion, outlining, freewriting, journals, talk-write, metaphor etc.
Planning
Reflecting on the material produced during prewriting to develop a plan to achieve the aim of the paper.
Planning involves considering your rhetorical stance, rhetorical purpose, the principal aim of the text, how these factors are interrelated, and how they are connected to the information generated during prewriting. Planning also involves selecting support for your claim and blocking out at least a rough organizational structure.
Drafting
Producing words on a computer or on paper that match (more or less) the initial plan for the work.
Drafting occurs over time. Successful writers seldom try to produce an entire text in one sitting or even in one day.
Pausing
Moments when you aren't writing but instead are reflecting on what you have produced and how well it matches your plan. Usually includes reading.
Pausing occurs among successful and unsuccessful writers, but they use it in different ways. Successful writers consider “global" factors: how well the text matches the plan, how well it is meeting audience needs, and overall organization.
Reading
Moments during pausing when you read what you've written and compare it to your plan.
Reading and writing are interrelated activities. Good readers are good writers and vice versa. The reading that takes place during writing is crucial to the reflection process during pausing.
Revising
Literally “re-seeing” the text with the goal of making large-scale changes so that text and plan match.
Revising occurs after you have finished your first draft. It involves making changes that enhance the match between plan
and text. Factors to consider usually are the same as those you considered during planning: rhetorical stance, rhetorical purpose, and so on. Serious revising almost always includes getting suggestions from friends or colleagues on how to improve the writing.
Editing
Focusing on sentence-level concerns, such as punctuation, sentence length, spelling, agreement of subjects and predicates, and style.
Editing occurs after revising. The goal is to give your paper a professional appearance.
Publishing
Sharing your finished text with its intended audience.
Publishing isn't limited to getting a text printed in a journal. It includes turning a paper in to a teacher, a boss, or an agency.
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