Exercise Find the meaning of the following idioms. Then match the phrases to the definitions.A. Start overB. To be very poor and barely have enough of the things one needsC. To act without thinking, usually from habit.D. Something that is done in a legal and proper manner.E. Someone who shares your feelings and views.F. To be in the final, most important, part of somethingG. To say in a very brief, clear wayH. To use too much force in doing somethingI. Someone who takes a side in an argument that they really don’t believe, just to make the argumentinterestingJ. When you treat one matter as less important than others; decide to do it later.K. A brutal form of justice; to harm to others in return for doing harm to youL. Enough space to do what one needs to doM. Someone’s personal weaknessN. Do something only because it is popular.O. A person who doesn’t understand life because they are spoiled is said to live here._____ Above board_____ Achilles’ heel_____ Back burner_____ Back to square one_____ Devil’s advocate_____ Down to the wire_____ Elbow room_____ Eye for an eye_____ Hand to mouth_____ Heavy handed_____ In a nutshell_____ Ivory tower_____ Jump on the bandwagon_____ Kindred Spirit_____ Knee-jerk reaction
A. Try to give blame or responsibility to someone else.B. A person or thing you cannot criticize, even if it is wrong.C. Something that should be easy for all to see...D. Wait until later to do something.E. To very strictly not allow something, or strongly not approve.F. When two competitors are very close; it is not clear who will win.G. Stop something at its very beginning.H. A situation where each thing that happens leads to something worse.I. To express respect, but not really mean itJ. To make progressK. To be not easily upset by the criticism of others.L. A person or thing that looks very strong, but is really weak.M. Someone who always agrees with those in authority.N. To take a greater risk, hoping for greater benefit.O. Something meant to take attention away from important issues._____ Lip service_____ Make headway_____ Neck and neck_____ Nip in the bud_____ Paper tiger_____ Pass the buck_____ Put on ice_____ Red herring_____ Sacred cow_____ Thick-skinned_____ Up the ante_____ Vicious circle_____ Writing on the wall_____ Yes-man_____ Zero-tolerance
WRITING ABOUT GRAPHS AND TABLES Very often information is shown as in a way that we can see instead of read, which call using“graphics.” Graphics may be drawings or pictures. They could also be in the form of a table or graph.These are typical ways that people try to express information visually – in a way that can be seen. Graphsand charts are very useful, because they tell this information in a very simple way that is easy to see.However, because they are so simple, they do not explain the information very well, they simply show it toyou. This is why it becomes important to be able to write well about graphics. There are several times that you could use this. First, it is a part of many English tests such as IELTSand TOEFL. Also, in business and study, people often need to take information that is shown visually andexplain it more completely in writing. In other jobs, you may have to create graphs and tables, sounderstanding how they represent information will help you to create them and use them better as well.Slide PresentationTypes of Graphics We will look at four different types of graphics in this lesson. If you understand how each type ofgraphic is used to show information, you will be able to write about them much more clearly. The first oneis called a line graph (Figure A), because it uses one line to show numbers becoming larger or smaller.Line graphs are useful for showing changes over time, so your writing should pay attention to thesechanges. In our example, we can see that the number of foreign students at this university kept gettinglarger from 1975 to 1985. This is called a “trend,” meaning a long period of time when the number go up,go down or stay the same. You may also notice that the number of foreign students changes very littlefrom 1985 to 1995. This is also a trend. By showing the trends, you can write completely and clearlyabout information presented in a line graph. Bar graphs (Figure B) are especially good for comparing two or more things. You can see in ourexample that we are comparing the amounts of money earned by college graduates with that earned bynon-graduates in England. Therefore, we should probably compare these groups in our writing as well.We can see that college graduates earned more money than the non-graduates. We can also see thedifference becomes larger and larger as each group gets older. You can see that pie charts (Figure C) are often used to show how one thing is divided. In ourexample the one thing is a student’s money, and the pie chart shows how it is spent in different ways.Your writing about this pie chart would be similar to the bar graph – it is best to compare the differentfigures. It would probably be best to first tell the two largest areas (rent and food & study material), thentell the two lower areas (entertainment and clothes). Then you would compare the differences in thesenumbers and tell what reasons you think there are for these differences. Tables (Figure D) can be very easy to understand, but sometimes difficult to write about. This isbecause the information is often less simple. You can see in the example, that we are looking at many
different things; we are comparing men and women, but we are also comparing different smoking habits.This means that you want to compare both of these differences and show how they affect one another.For example, we can see that among people who smoke very much (more than twenty each day) it is themen who smoke the most. However, among people who smoke little (less than ten each day), there aremore women who smoke. These are the types of things you need to notice and explain in your writing.Five Steps For Writing About Graphics To write well about graphics there are five basic steps, and we will use the line graph (Figure A) toshow these. First, you should find the highest and the lowest numbers. The highest number on our chartabout foreign students is 1,200 in 1995, and that the lowest number was under 200 in the year 2005.From the lowest to the highest is sometimes called the “range” of the numbers. The next thing you shoulddo is to see if there are any things that are similar. From 1985 to 2000 we saw that the numbers changedvery little. By explaining the differences, then the similarities, we have given reader a clear basic idea ofthe information. Then, you should also find the things that seem to be very different from the other information, thingsthat seem unusual. In our line graph, we can see that there is only one time when the numbers stayed thesame – from 1985 to 1990. At all other times the numbers were either going up or down. Fourth, find anytrends. In our example, we can see that from 1980 to 1985 the numbers went up very quickly. However,from 2000 to 2005 the numbers went down very quickly. Finally, tell what the numbers mean. In many ways this last one is the most important for the writer,because our purpose in writing is to explain the chart’s information to the reader in a clear and completeway. For example, the graph seems to tell us that from 1975 to 1995, the school was very successful atgetting students from other countries to attend their university. However, something happened after 1995to make a very large change to this situation. You may tell the reader some possible reasons for this. Is itbecause the cost became too high for many students after 1995? Did it become harder for students to getvisas to study abroad in the United States? Your ability to have ideas about the meaning of the numbersmakes your writing tell more than the reader would learn simply looking at the chart or graph.General Tips Do not try to put every number from the graphic into your essay. If my writing is exactly the same asthe graphic, then there is no reason to read my essay. The reader could simply look at the graph or chart.Your writing is supposed to be a summary of the information. You remember that means to express themain ideas in your own words, not to repeat everything. Also, make sure you understand what is being shown on the graphic. If you look at the chart of menand women smokers, you can see that the numbers used are all per cent (%). This means we would notwant to write, “Thirteen men smoke more than twenty cigarettes a day.” We would wish to tell the reader,“Thirteen per cent of men who smoke, smoke more than twenty cigarettes a day.” Be careful not to add information that is not given on the graphic. For example, we might feel that
many of students in Figure C get some help from their parents in buying study materials, so that themoney they spend is larger than 25% of their own income. However, we cannot tell the reader that this istrue, because it is only our guess. The pie chart does not actually tell us. It is very good to put some ofthese guesses into your paper, simply make sure that you clearly tell the reader that these are only youropinion. Also, do not copy too many words from the graphic, especially words you may not understand. If youdo not understand a word, it is too easy to use it incorrectly in your writing. Even if you use the wordscorrectly, remember that your job is to summarize, meaning to use your own way of expressing. Yourability to take information expressed in one way and change that to your own way of expressing is whatshows that you understood the information. It makes your writing better. Finally, you may use either the present tense or past tense to write about a graphic. However, youmust use the same one throughout the whole essay. For example, looking at our pie chart about studentspending, we may write: Students spend most of their money on food and rent, and study materials. On things such as clothes and fun, they only spend 15% each.Or we may write Students spent most of their money on food and rent, and study materials. On things such as clothes and fun, they only spent 15% each.However, we may not write: Students spend most of their money on food and rent, and study materials. On things such as clothes and fun, they only spent 15% each.Language– Common Terms for Describing Graphics There are some words you can add to your vocabulary to help you very clearly express the ideas andinformation in a graphic. The first of these are vivid verbs which describe what the numbers or informationare doing. Words which show numbers going down are decrease, drop, decline and fall. In Figure A thesewords describe the trend from 1990 to 2000. When the numbers get smaller very quickly, we use wordssuch as plummet and dive. These would describe the numbers from 2000 to 2005. Therefore, we couldwrite: The number of foreign students decreased from 1995 to 2000, but plummeted from 2000 to 2005. For numbers that are getting higher, we use the words rise and increase. This is what you see on theline graph from 1975 to 1980. However, if the numbers go up quickly, as they did from 1980 to 1985, wewould use words such as soar or rocket. Here, we could write: Foreign students at the school rose for five years after 1975, but soared after 1980.
If the numbers change very little, as they do from 1985 to 1990, we would say that they level out. Thehighest number given in a graphic can be called its peak. In our line graph, we can see that the peak is at1985, when the numbers reached 1,200. When the numbers go very low, but then rise again later, we cancall this a dip, which we can see between 1985 and 1990. Therefore, we could describe the informationthis way: The number of foreign students soared from 1980 to 1985, when they reached their peak of 1,200. Then they dipped to 800 between 1985 and 1990. Then they rose again to 1,200 and leveled out until 1995.You may have noticed that in this passage, the word “dip” was used as a verb. This is true for much ofthe vocabulary taught here. For example, we could have written, “The numbers peaked at 1,200” Just thewords “plummet” and “soar” can be used only as verbs.To describe the verbs, there are certain common adverbs as well. When numbers go up or down slowlyover time, we would use terms such as slightly, steadily, or gradually. If they rise or fall very quickly, thiscould be described as sharply, rapidly or drastically. We could write about our line chart in this way: The number of students declined steadily from 1995 to 2000, but then plummeted drastically from 2000 to 2005.If you look at the year 2005 in the line graph, you can see that the number is not exactly at 200 or 100.When we have these kinds of numbers, we should avoid using words such as “around” or “about” todescribe this. We would not write, “In 2005, the number of students was about 100.” This does not workvery well, because it is not specific enough. “Around” could be either higher or lower than one-hundred–the reader cannot tell. For this reason, it is best to use phrases such as “just under” or “just over,” to givethe reader a clearer, more specific understanding. “The number of foreign students was just under 100,”is a better way to express this, because now the reader knows more.Figure A: Line Graph
Figure B: Bar GraphAverage Income in British PoundsFigure C: Pie ChartMonthly Spending by an Average College Student
Figure D: TableCigarette Smoking by gender % men women20+ a day 13 910-19 a day 11 10less than 10 a 7 10dayquit 30 24never smoked 39 47In about 75 words, summarize the information on this line graph.
PERSONALITY PROFILES Writing about people is a type of descriptive writing. Our goal is to make the reader feel that he or sheknows that person in some way. However, describing people is not exactly the same as describing placesor things. This is because people have personalities, which are the different ways each person acts thatfeels that makes each one of us a bit different from one another. That is why we often call such writingpersonality profiles. This means that we show what a person is like using their actions, speaking,appearance and other aspects which makes that person an individual. Writers tell about people for many reasons. Biographies tell us lives of those who may be famous,important or sometimes common people. When people write their own life stories, we call theseautobiographies. Magazines often tell us about music, movie or TV stars so that we can know more aboutour favorite entertainers. You may need to write about yourself in a personal statement. This is an essaythat many post-graduate schools ask people to write when they are applying to become a student. In thisessay you write about your experience, skills and ideas that you feel would make you a good student fora specific major. Some jobs ask for personal statements as well. For example, teachers are often askedto write about their past experience, what made them want to become a teacher, and what they hope todo in the future. These types of writing are all the same in one way – the writer wants to make readersfeel almost as though they have met the person.How Do You Show Personality? Describing how a person looks is usually the first thing that we do when describing them. This isbecause it may be easier imagine the subject’s personality if the reader can already “see” that subject intheir mind. We tell about clear things as their hair, clothes, or whether they are tall or short. The simplestway to do this is simply to start at someone’s face and describe the person as you go down to their body,clothes, maybe even all their way to his or her shoes. Remember to pay special attention to the thingsthat might show that person's character. For example, do their hair and clothes look like someone whopays very much attention to how they look, or is their appearance more relaxed and casual? Unlike describing a house or a table, people move. Also, each person moves a bit differently. This canalso be described to show something about the person. Does he or she move about in a very livelymanner, like they have much energy? Are their actions very slow, like someone who is careful about thethings they do? Even the person’s expressions, the small movements on one’s face, tell much about theperson and help the reader to imagine him or her more clearly. For example, some people smile with big,wide smiles showing many teeth. Yet, other people simply raise the sides of their mouths a bit. Like all good description, though, we should not stop with how something looks. What does yoursubject’s voice sound like? Does the person speak slowly or quickly? Is the tone of the subject’s voicelively, or very calm? You may tell how the person’s voice changes when different topics are discussed,what type of accent they may have, or unusual phrases the person often uses. One good way to bring
attention to their speaking is to use many quotations. Let the subject tell the reader about himself orherself a bit by using the person’s own words.Basic Structure of a Personality Profile In the introduction of a personality profile, it is often best to start with something outstanding about thesubject. What is it about this person that most makes them interesting? Is it something about the way theylook, like the person is very tall or very good-looking? Maybe it is the way they speak. It could besomething the person is very good at doing, like playing the piano. The subject could have experiences inhis or her past that are special, such as getting better after a very bad accident. Simply ask yourself whatyou find most interesting about that person. Then describe that carefully, and with great detail in yourintroduction. The introduction should also tell what the person looks like, even if you just do it briefly. Thishelps the readers start with a picture of the subject in their minds. In the personality profile’s body, you should decide what type of person your subject is andconcentrate on showing that to your reader. Do you feel that the person is very serious and hardworking?Maybe your subject is a funny and relaxed person. Whatever type you decide, you should try to use mostof your description to show this. It may help to give each paragraph a theme, such as one paragraphabout how the person has fun, and another paragraph about how they feel about work. You could evendo something simple, such as one paragraph about the way the person speaks, and another paragraphdescribing his appearance. The main goal of your conclusion is to give readers something to help them remember your subject.Talking to Your Subject – Interviews Very often, we will have a chance to speak with our subjects and ask them questions that help us toknow them better and describe them better. This is an interview. There are a few bits of advice that helpyou to get the best results from an interview with your subject. First, avoid questions that can beanswered “yes” or “no.” For example, you would not ask a foreign person living in Thailand, “Did you findit hard to adjust to the different culture?” Instead, it would be better to ask, “What things did you have tochange living in a new culture?” This second questions makes the subject tell much more than one simpleword. Pay attention to what your subject wants to talk about. Maybe I only prepared one question about mysubject’s father. However, when my subject answers the question, he gets excited and starts telling memany things. If I am a good interviewer, I will keep asking him about this topic, because the things he tellsme about his father are an important part of his personality. In addition their feelings about people, payattention to the events in their lives that seem to be important to them. Finally, do not forget that small things tell us very much about a person. What kind of movies, books ormusic your subject likes may not seem important at first, but these things all tell what kind of person he orshe is. Even asking your subject what she likes to do on a boring day will often get surprising and
interesting answers.
TIGHTENING UP WRITING You will recall the basic characteristics of English writing which were discussed in the first lesson. Oneof these was direct expression of ideas. However, when we try to write in a foreign language, it can bedifficult to write in this way, because we feel that our grammar or vocabulary will not allow us. Althoughyou would not expect it, much of this problem comes from students writing in sentences and phrases thatare too complicated. Below, you can see a passage written about someone’s dream. I have always had this wish in my mind. My dream has been to be a famous writer. Everyone would read my books. I would make very much money and become wealthy. Although the reader could understand the meaning here, it is not written in the direct, clear way mosteasily understood by native speaking readers. It can also be more difficult to write for students who aretrying to express themselves in a foreign language. It could be written more directly and clearly, as shownbelow. I have always dreamed of being a wealthy, famous writer, read by everyone. We not only removed unnecessary words, but made it much clearer and pleasant to read. When wetake away things that are not needed, native speakers often call this “tightening.” This is not hard to do –you simply need a few basic methods and little practice. The suggestions in this chapter should help youto learn these methods.Some Methods for Tightening One of the easiest ways you can tighten your writing is to look for to put two or three sentencestogether into one, as we did in the first example. You see how this works again in this statement about agift from the writer’s father. Original I have this beautiful watch. It is gold. It was given to me by my father last year. Tightened Last year, my father gave me this beautiful silver watch.We can see that to use this method, the writer needs to have a good basic understanding of how to usecommas and other punctuation. This is because this punctuation is used to put different ideas andphrases together in a sentence. You should also try to avoid sentences that repeat an idea. Some writers have a habit of writing thesame idea in two different sentences because they think it will be clearer. However, many readers mayget bored reading ideas repeated again and again. This type of writing also gives the impression that thewriter has little to say, so he or she is filling up space on the paper repeating. We see this in sentencessuch as: My sister loves roses. They are her favorite flower.Here, we clearly understand that if they are the sister’s favorite, that she must love them. The writer does
not need to tell the reader both and should choose the one which expresses the idea best. Since thesecond sentence is more specific, it would be better to write; Roses are my sister’s favorite flower.Sometimes writers accidentally use phrase made of two words that tell the same idea. We call theseredundant phrases, which mean phrases that repeat. The clearest way to explain redundant phrases is toexplain some specific examples. Look at the following: My past memories of childhood are very happy. (memories are all from the past, so the word past is redundant and should be taken out of the sentence) Linda’s young baby is very cute. (all babies are young) I will only tell you the true facts about what happened. (all facts are true)Sometimes writers will express a very simple thought in a sentence that is much too complicated. Whenwe do this, it is almost as though we have hidden the simple idea we wish to express inside too manyunnecessary words. Indian food might be said to have certain qualities which make it seem unpleasant to all of my friends except one.When we read this, it is almost difficult to see that the writer is really just making the simple statement: Most of my friends do not like Indian food.This is also easily seen in these two sentences: Original We are not permitted to purchase alcoholic beverages within our college’s facilities. Tightened We are not allowed to buy alcohol on campus.Many sentences which are too long have a different problem, though. In the sentence below, we do nothave a simple idea expressed in an overly long way. Instead, we have many different ideas pushedtogether. The river can be a very fun place for boating, but it can also be dangerous because the water moves fast after heavy rains and has even caused some people to drown.Therefore, our method for tightening will be a bit different. If we find the different ideas in this sentenceand express each of them in shorter, clearer sentences, we will get his result: The river can be a very fun place for boating. However, it can also be very dangerous. The water moves very fast after heavy rains. Some people have even drowned. There is a simple trick you can learn to find these types of sentences in your writing. When you arechecking your writing, look for sentences with many commas or semicolons (;). As we already stated,these pieces of punctuation are used to put ideas together into a sentence. If you see that you have manyof these marks in a sentence, you should try to take it apart into several sentences, as we did here.In our earlier lesson on word choice, we looked at the way one well-chosen word may be used to express
the idea. This is especially true about using strong, specific verbs. Look at these two sentences. Original The children were talking quietly, trying not to be seen or heard. Tightened The children were whispering.Of course, the word “whisper” means to talk quietly, which a person does when he or she wishes not tobe noticed. Therefore, this one word can take the place of nine words.Finally, do you remember what was written about passive and active voice in the chapter on writing forclarity? Passive voice is when the subject of the sentence does not do any action, such as this sentence: The report was read to us by Mr. Coleman. In this sentence “report” is the subject and “read” is the verb. However, it is Mr. Coleman who is reading,not the report. This makes the sentence passive voice. In the active voice, this sentence would read: Mr. Coleman read the report to us.Now, the subject, Mr. Coleman, is doing the action. Most native speaking readers find the active voiceboth clearer and more pleasant to read. Also, it is quite an easy method to use. All you have to do is findthe subject and main verb. The final topic we will discuss is called “redundant phrases.” This simply means phrases that say thesame idea twice, or tell something that is not necessary. A very clear example would be the phrase “coldsnow.” All snow is cold, so there is no reason to use the word “cold” here at all. You can see similarproblems with these examples: I have happy past memories about my childhood. ( All memories are from the past, so the word past is redundant. The birthday party was an unexpected surprise for Tom. ( A surprise is always something unexpected, so the word unexpected in redundant.) Avoiding redundant phrases helps you to not waste your reader’s attention by telling himthings he does not need to be told. This way, you pay more attention to expressing the ideasyou do want to tell the reader. All of our examples today have one thing in common – their goal is to help you easily haveclear vivid, expression of your meaning. To explain this idea briefly we may say that the goalis to make each and every word work best for you.
EXERCISESTighten the following sentences. Remember that there can be more than one correct way to change eachof these sentences. Compare your changes with those of your classmates.1. Several unnecessary words can be cut here. They can be cut by putting the two sentences togetherinto one single sentence.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. My last English teacher was somewhat older in age than my present English teacher. His hair hadturned mostly gray, but it still had some black parts left in it.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3. We are going to Hua Hin and Koh Samuii. Both of these are very beautiful places located in thesouthern area of the country.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4. If a person looking for a job has a good physical appearance, a job in general will be easier to find. Thisis because an employer wants a person who is neat looking in appearance.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5. Regular petrol is what is needed to make my car work. This fact makes my car an inexpensive car,which is very useful when petrol costs so much money.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6. It even seems as though these two examples could possibly be the same species because of the colorcoordination and also because of how the shapes are similar.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7. Because of the great amount of people in such a small area, there is, of course, a large amount ofcrime in this same area.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8. There was a sudden emergency when the wires that carry electricity caused there to be a fire.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9. The mountains, which lie in the north of the country, offer many forms of fun, like camping, hiking andfishing, which can be done inexpensively.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10. The people who live near Linda like to look at her flowers because they are beautiful.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BOOK REPORTS During the time you are in college, many of you will be asked to write a book report in English. Thereare many different reasons one might write a book report. If your report is about a book of fiction (a storythat is not true, made up by the writer) your report is supposed to show that you have a deepunderstanding of the book. If you are writing about non-fiction (a book that tells only things which are truein real life) you may want to summarize the author’s main ideas and tell why you agree or disagree withthem. Both kinds of book reports have one thing in common. You are not just supposed to tell what is inthe book, but what you think of what is in the book. A good book report starts with a good thesis statement. You may remember from our first chapter that a thesis statement is a clear, brief summary of what the reader can expect in your report. Your thesis statement should have two characteristics. It should be as specific as possible, and should not simply be a summary of the story. Below is an example of a thesis statement that is too general. Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” is a story about a young man who takes a boat trip on the Mississippi River.This statement only tells what the story is about. It does not tell the writer’s ideas about the book. Thenext example is far too general: Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” is the best American novel of the 19th century.This statement is much too big and general. If we wanted to prove this to the reader, we would have tocompare Mark Twain’s book with every other book written in one-hundred years! This is impossible, ofcourse. The example below shows a much better way to write a thesis statement for a book report. In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, we can see the desire for freedom felt by many Americans in the 19th century.In this statement, we chose a specific thing to study – freedom. Now, all we need to do is explain how thattopic is an important part of the book. It also tells more than just the things that happen in the story. It tellsabout the important ideas in the story. A good thesis statement like this one not only helps to make yourbook report better. It makes it easier for you to write because you already have chosen a topic anddecided what you would like to tell about the topic.What Should Be in a Book Report? There are some basic things that should be in almost any book report. The first is information aboutthe author or writer. Did this person write many other books? How is the book in your report different orsimilar to other things that author has written? Does the author have anything unusual about his or herstyle of writing? By telling your reader about the author of the story, you can help them to betterunderstand both the author’s story and your own ideas about the story.
You also want to describe the most important parts of the plot, or story, or the book. Remember, youdo not want to spend your whole report just repeating the author’s story. However, the reader must knowthe basic plot and most important events in order to understand the things you wish to tell them about thebook. Of course, you need to tell about the characters, or people in the story. The characters make a storyhappen, so description of their personalities and the things that they do helps to tell your reader about theoriginal story. What things does a character do that made the plot change? Do you feel that a certaincharacter is a good person? A bad person? Maybe you feel that some character is a bit of both.Describing this makes your report a more complete picture of the author’s work.What are Good Topics? The best topics for book reports are usually the parts of a book that you found most interesting.Simply ask yourself why you chose this book for your report. Did you like one character very much? Didyou find the book very unusual and different from anything else you have ever read? As with all writing,the best topics are those that you care most about. However, there are some common topics that will veryoften work well for a report on almost any book. You can make your entire book report about the characters. Of course, you do not wish to write aboutevery character. You can choose one character and write about him or her in a very detailed way. Tellwhy you think the author gave that character a certain personality. Do you think that people in real life aresometimes like that character? You can also choose two characters and compare them. You can explainto the reader how they are different and how these differences are part of the story’s plot. Perhaps the easiest way to write a book report is to tell your own opinion about the book. Explain tothe reader why you liked or disliked the novel. You must be careful to support your opinions, though. Didyou find the characters interesting, or did they seem like they could not be real people? Did you think thatthe plot was boring because you could always guess what was going to happen next? The mostimportant thing to remember is that you cannot just tell that you thought the book was good or bad, youmust tell why you feel this way and explain your reasons clearly.Tools for Building Your Book Report One of most valuable tools you should use in a book report is quotations from the book. You could saythis is letting the book “speak for itself.” This not only shows that you are very familiar with the book, italso helps your reader to become familiar with it in a direct manner. Quotations also help to support youropinions by showing that they are based on things that are truly in the book.There are certain things a writer should to use quotations well. Of course, it is important to use the rightpunctuation to show that you are quoting. You should also make sure that you are only using quotationsthat help to support your own ideas. Do not fill a book report with quotations that uselessly take up spaceon the page. A basic rule tells us that quotations should not be more than 25% of anything you write. If itbecomes more than this, then it is mostly the original author’s work and not your own. Needless
quotations will also begin to make most readers lose interest because they do not add to theirunderstanding. Like all tools, quotations have the most benefit when they are used well.Paraphrasing is a bit like quoting, but you use your own words to express what the author wrote. Forexample, look at the following quotation As she reflects upon her transformation into a poet in her memoir Lit, Mary Karr explains, “I'd spent way more years worrying about how to look like a poet -- buying black clothes, smearing on scarlet lipstick, languidly draping myself over thrift-store furniture --than I had learning how to assemble words in some discernible order” (Karr 97).A paraphrase might look like this: Reflecting upon her new career as a struggling writer, Karr explains that she was more concerned with physically resembling a poet than working on her writing (97). (USF lib guide)You should paraphrase when the original text may be difficult to understand and you wish to make itsimpler for the readers. There may be other times that the author’s exact words are not as his or her mainidea. You may also choose to paraphrase when the original passage is rather long and you feel you canexpress the main idea briefly in your own words. Paraphrasing also shows the reader that you have adeep understanding of the novel which allows you to express its ideas in your own way. You have already learned how to summarize a passage, and this is very helpful tool for book reports.You will remember that to summarize is to take another writer’s work and explain it more briefly, and inyour own words. Summarize can help you to explain the plot of a long story to the readers, so that theycan better understand the rest of your report. Therefore, it is good to do this in the introduction, or in thefirst paragraph of the body.
SAMPLE OUTLINEI) IntroductionA) Title, author, thesis statementII) BodyA) Describe the main points of the plot 1) Not too much detail. Those pertinent to your thesis a) Leave something for your supportB) Main characters 1) Protagonist (hero) and any essential to the plot and your thesis 2) This could be in a separate paragraph, or the same, depending on your paper. * Always keep your thesis in mindC) Your thesis explained in full / supported 1) Build on information / points from the bodyIII) ConclusionNews Writing News is all around us every day – on television, on the internet and in newspapers. Many students ofEnglish language listen to radio news to improve their listening skills and read newspapers to help withtheir reading ability. The style of writing for newspapers also has great benefit when learning to write inEnglish, because it is one of the most simple and direct styles of writing we use. Therefore, it can helpyou to practice all the basic skills of English writing. You can become better at paying attention to detailsand arranging them in your essay. Even people who are not professional news writers, called journalists,may sometimes have to write a press release. This is a short news story about something that yourcompany or business would like to get some attention in the newspaper. Whatever your future experiencein writing English may be, news writing is one of the best ways to review the basics and to give yourwriting the direct clarity that we see in the papers every day. There are actually many kinds of writing in a newspaper. Editorials and reviews allow the writer toexpress his or her opinion about society, entertainment or other matters. Feature stories are long storieswhich may tell us the current news with more detail, or they may be about more entertaining and funtopics. In this lesson we are going to focus on “hard news” stories. These are the short news storiesusually found in the first pages of a newspaper. They are written to give the reader the most informationpossible in a very short space.
Main Features of the Hard News Story One of the most important characteristics of hard news writing is that it is almost completely objective.This means that it only tells facts that are completely true, without any of the writer’s opinion. Many youngjournalists are told that they should learn to be “invisible” in their writing – meaning that the reader shouldthink of only the story and not the writer. Although many types of writing allow you to express youropinions, readers expect opinions to be supported by objective facts. Therefore the ability to writeobjectively will help all aspects of your writing. How does one write in this fashion? To write with an objective tone, you should use neutral descriptions. You may remember our lesson onword choice, when we discussed the connotation of a word. To be objective, you wish to avoid positive ornegative connotations and choose words which have a neutral tone. For example, you would not call aflood the “most terrible flood in a century,” because the word terrible has a negative connotation.However, we could call it the “most destructive flood in a century.” This is more objective because theamount of buildings and property destroyed are facts, not opinion. In a hard news article, you can alsoachieve more objectivity by using only the information needed to give the reader a completeunderstanding of the story. In this manner, you avoid the problem of choosing to tell the parts of the storywhich best support your view. News stories also use information from many people, called “sources,” instead of only relying on thejournalist’s knowledge to tell the story. The writer may interview people who saw what happened, experts,or others who can add useful information. Quotations from these sources help the reader to understandthe story more completely and directly, and they add to the writer’s objectivity by allowing others to tell thestory. You may be wondering how the story can be objective if the sources express their own views andopinions. The journalist avoids this problem by trying to find as many useful sources as possible. In thisway, readers are given a number of different views that they can put together to make up their own mindsabout the event. To make sure that all readers can understand the article, writers do not assume that all readers havethe necessary background knowledge. Therefore, if they use a word from another language, anuncommon term, or an acronym the writers will tell its meaning, and then put the word or acronym inparenthesis. An acronym is simply the initials of two or more longer words, such as writing U.N. for UnitedNations. The writer only needs to do this the first time he or she uses this term, though. After that you mayuse the acronym or unusual word, because you have told the reader its meaning. The United Nations (U.N.) announced new policies Thursday. According to U.N. officials, it will become more difficult for some countries to borrow money from the organization.Do you see how the writer spelled “United Nations” completely the first time, but then put the acronym“U.N.” in parenthesis to show the reader its meaning. In all sentences after this, the writer is free to write“U.N.” because the reader now knows its meaning. This is also done with many words from other
languages as well, for example: The government has done much to stop flooding along the Yellow River (Huang He) over the years. Today, the troubles caused by the Huang He are not as serious as in the past.This method is also commonly used in academic writing as well, because it places the same importanceon complete and clear understanding by the reader. By using an objective tone, a variety of sources andclear explanation, a hard news story should be one of the easiest pieces of writing for the reader tounderstand.Inverted Pyramid Style In the first chapter we introduced the “inverted pyramid,” the way of organizing writing from the mostgeneral to the most specific. In hard news, the inverted pyramid is used in a much more strict way than inmost other types of writing. The story begins with a very general statement based on “The Five Ws” –who, what, where, why, when. The writer answers as many of these as possible in the first one or twosentences of the story. This introduction is called a “lead” in journalism. Then, as the story continues, thewriter gives smaller and smaller details. Information very necessary to understanding the story shouldalso be written closer to the beginning of the article. This very simple kind of inverted pyramid has one characteristic that makes it different from most kindsof English writing – it has no real conclusion. A hard news story simply presents the reader with smaller,and less necessary, facts as the article goes on. Then it simply ends with the last bit of information. Thereis no summary or anything else that would be called a “conclusion.”Read this example hard news story. As you do, try to look for the lead and to notice how the waythe details are arranged from the beginning to the end.Example An unemployed home builder could not believe his luck Tuesday, when he won thirty million dollars in the state lottery. This was the biggest winning in over two years. Stanley Forbes purchased the ticket from a store near his home two weeks ago. He said he had forgotten about the ticket until a friend told him about the huge jackpot. Forbes then remembered the ticket, still in the pocket of a raincoat he had not worn in days. “When I think how close I came to losing that ticket, it makes my hands shake,” Forbes said. “That would have been the worst luck of my life.” Forbes’ life was ready for some good luck. He had lost his job building homes over a year ago. He has been supporting his family by collecting bottles and cans for recyclingand doing small repair jobs. The winning ticket was purchased in a Kwik-E Mart near Forbes’ home. The store had never before sold a ticket that brought such a fortune. “Business has gone way up since news got out about that ticket,” said Pat Henning, owner of
the store. The Illinois State Lottery has been operating for thirty-one years. Governor Jim Thompson signed the law that created it in 1975.Which of the “Five Ws” does this writer have in the lead? We have what (the man won the lottery), who(an unemployed home builder), when (Tuesday). You may notice that this information is very general.Although it tells “who” it does not tell the man’s name, only his job. In the next paragraph it gets morespecific, telling his name and a bit more of the story about him buying the ticket. After using a quotationfrom Mr. Forbes, the writer gives some background about his life before winning. Do you see how this isless directly about the story – winning the lottery – than the information that the writer gave first in thestory? With the next paragraph, the reader is told about the store where it was bought, along with aquotation from an employee. Finally, the journalist gives some background information about the lottery.Hard news stories are an example of the English idiom “less is more.” By taking away all that is notneeded, then giving the article clear, direct structure, you create a piece of writing which gives the readermuch information quickly and easily. As a writer, you give yourself stronger skills in gathering information,organizing your ideas and communicating smoothly with your reader.ExerciseUsing this information, write a short hard news story about the event described below.Event: An old man saves a much younger man from drowning in a river.Time: Friday afternoonPlace: Wabash RiverPeople: Derek Simms (72 year old fisherman) Chris Martin (college student)Facts: Martin was out for a walk along the river with his friend, Rich Barden.Simms was fishing nearby.Four people have drowned in the river in the last six years.Quotes:Simms: “I had been out fishing since about eight-thirty in the morning. It was kind of a nice warm day, so Ithought I’d stay out all day. Anyway about eleven o’clock, I saw two young guys walking down the path.They seemed like city boys who didn’t really know much about the countryside, so I thought I’d watchthem. You never know what kind of trouble kids like that can get into. So, pretty soon, I hear this bigsplash and one of the young guys yelling. I ran down the river a little bit and saw one in the river and theother standing on the side yelling ‘Help him. Neither of us can swim!’ Without even thinking, I just jumpedin after him. I’ve lived by the river my whole life - been swimming since I was little. I didn’t stop to think if itwas dangerous for an old guy like me.”Martin: “Rich and I were playing around on the rocks at the edge of the river. I guess we got a little silly
and careless, because I slipped on one and fell in the water. I’ve never learned how to swim and my legwas hurt pretty bad by the fall. I tried to stay above water, but I couldn’t. If Mr. Simms hadn’t pulled meout, I’d probably not be here.”Barden: “We brought some lunch with us that day. We had sandwiches and some fruit. I put it on theground and we started messing around, pushing each other and throwing water on each other – justplaying. Maybe it was a little my fault, because I pushed Chris pretty hard when he fell. I can’t swim, so Icouldn’t go in after him. Then the old guy would have needed to rescue both of us. Anyway, when Chrisfell, he splashed water all over our lunch. I was hungry the rest of the day.”
SENTENCE VARIETYAfter you walk into a room you may greet the people there in many different ways? You may say,“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.” Maybe you would say, “What’s up everybody?” You might simply say,“Hello.” Why are there so many different ways to express the same basic idea?If you answered this question by saying that we express ideas differently in different situations, you arecorrect. We speak differently if the situation is very formal or informal. We change the way we speak tomake ourselves easier for a specific person, like a child, to understand us. Sometimes we simply do itbecause it is boring to say the same thing over and over again.This is all true in writing as well. Being able to communicate your idea more than one way creates manybenefits for your writing. It makes reading more entertaining for the audience as well as giving your writingthe more natural style of a native speaker. Communication becomes better because you can be morespecific and direct. It can sometimes help the reader understand difficult ideas if you explain them morethan one way. As we saw in the first paragraph, it allows you write in a suitable way for a variety ofpurposes and situations. Finally, this ability will help your reading, speaking and listening skills byincreasing your vocabulary and flexibility.For example, in an essay about fixing problems among co-workers, the theme of “fixing problems” wouldbe discussed again and again. However, repeating this phrase would start to be boring. Therefore, wecould use a variety of phrases, such as “ending your troubles, creating smoother relationships, or handlethe problem If our essay is on business, we do not want to write “make more money” over and over. Phrases suchas increase your profits, improve business, make your earnings grow, would allow you to discuss this ideain a way that was less repetitive and more specific. Using synonyms (different worlds which have the same meaning) is an easy way to create this kind ofvariety. Look at this example: Barry was a kind friend. His kind behavior made him liked by everyone. He is proof that kindness is the best way to become popular.Do you think that reading forms of the word kind again and again becomes a bit boring? Many otherreaders will think this also. The passage would be much better written this way: Barry was a kind friend. His caring behavior made him liked by everyone. He is proof that thoughtfulness is the best way to become popular. Another good method is to change the order of the words in your sentences. We often get in the habitof expressing ideas in the same grammatical sentence patterns. This has an effect similar to a personwho speaks with no changes in his voice, but carries on in the same, flat tone the entire time. If losespeople’s attention. If you were describing your plans for the weekend, you would not want to write:
After I relax and read for a bit, then I will go out shopping. After I go out shopping, then I will eat lunch with my friends. After lunch, then I will go see a movie. Even though the only words repeated here are “after” and “then” it still seems repetitive because thepattern is the same each time. It would work much better this way: First, I will relax and read for a bit then I will go out shopping. Lunch with my friends will come after shopping. Finally, I will go to see a movie.This is much more interesting to read, and has a style that is much more natural. Changing the grammaris a helpful way to create this variety of sentence patterns. Compare the two passages below. We will go see Stan at seven o’clock. He will finish eating by the time we arrive.We will go see Stan at seven o’clock. He will have finished eating by the time we arrive. In the first passage, both sentences are in the simple future tense. In the second passage, we haveone sentence in simple future tense, and another sentence in future perfect tense. This is useful, butremember that grammar affects the specific meaning of a sentence. Do not change the grammar simplyfor variety if it will change your meaning in ways you do not wish. You want to make sure that thegrammar fits the ideas you are trying to communicate.Exercise Try writing these sentences again with changes. 1. There is too much litter in the streets. Too many people ______________________________________________________________________.2. I did not see her until class was over.Class was over ______________________________________________________________.3. Ron will make a toast right after dinner.As soon as _________________________________________________________________.4. We should have sweaters for the cold weather.When ______________________________________________________________________.5. Molly has not come to visit since last May.The last time ________________________________________________________________.
6. Emma will feel better once she calls her mother.After _______________________________________________________________________.7. “I didn’t order this food,” Paul said.Paul complained _____________________________________________________________.8. It was such an exciting movie that I never left my seat.The movie was _______________________________________________________________.9. The cooking of Northern Thailand tastes very good to me.In my opinion ________________________________________________________________.10. Despite Bobby’s anger, he kept trying to be polite.Although ____________________________________________________________________.11. Can Sara borrow your book?Do you mind _________________________________________________________________ ?12. Carla does not like to work in hot weather.When ______________________________________________________________________.13. The air in the city is not as fresh as the air in the mountains.In the mountains _____________________________________________________________.14. It is not necessary to take the train.You _______________________________________________________________________.15. A lively atmosphere is created by the celebration of the Winter Solstice.Winter Solstice _______________________________________________________________.
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ACADEMIC WRITING Direct Expression of Ideas Topic sentences and paragraphsParts of the Paragraph 3 Parts of a Paragraph A Closer Look SummaryEmphasis on Original Work / PlagiarismBasic Essay StructurePreparing to Write OutliningDESCRIPTIVE WRITING Methods for Good DescriptionLanguage Focus – Adjectives and Adverbs of Comparison ExercisesWORD CHOICE AND CLARITY Word Choice ExercisesCreating Clarity ExercisesWRITING TO EXPLAIN HOW: DIRECTIONS Important Elements for You, the Writer Terms for Directions Writing the Directions Some helpful tipsLanguage Focus: Showing Order ExercisesNARRATIVES – Telling a Story Parts of a Narrative Tools of a narrative EXAMPLELanguage Focus – “Since,” “From . . . to,” and “For” EXERCISESDISCOURSE MARKERS and TYPES OF SENTENCES
Discourse Markers and Conjunctions EXERCISESTypes of Sentences EXERCISESUMMARIZING Steps to Writing a Summary EXAMPLE Read the following article, then compare it to the summary.WRITING LETTERS: DIFFERENT LETTERS FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES Your Letter is You Basic Parts of a Business Letter – One Common Format Letters of Request Letters of Complaint Sample Letter of Request Sample Letter of ComplaintFORMAL AND INFORMAL LANGUAGE Basic Differences Between Formal and Informal English EXAMPLES ExerciseADAGES AND IDIOMS ExerciseWRITING ABOUT GRAPHS AND TABLES Types of Graphics Five Steps For Writing About Graphics General Tips Language– Common Terms for Describing GraphicsPERSONALITY PROFILES How Do You Show Personality? Basic Structure of a Personality Profile Talking to Your Subject – InterviewsTIGHTENING UP WRITING Some Methods for Tightening EXERCISESBOOK REPORTS What Should Be in a Book Report?
What are Good Topics? Tools for Building Your Book Report SAMPLE OUTLINE News Writing Main Features of the Hard News Story Inverted Pyramid Style Example Exercise SENTENCE VARIETY ExerciseBibliographyhttp://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/paragrph.html
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