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[The Ever-changing Cleric]

Anyone teaching lessons on expository writing that would like to exchange some ideas please contact me via PM.

[xiaolongbaolaoxi]

If you pass on some more info, I can"spitball" ideas your way. PM me, and I can go from there, as well as send links/worksheets... please indicate (privately) if you have VPN access.

In terms of writing, the biggest issue I saw in China was structure/continuity of argument... kind of burying the lead and hedging/qualifying the statement(s) to the point it was useless. Major cultural issues. Have a close friend (reporter in the US, but trained in China) who said that she had to learn to be blunt in her writing in a way she would never have done in PRC. Students who I knew had received early exposure to western education [their parents were rich] had zero problems with "how to write an essay," but otherwise, it was brutal. Also, defending statements/explaining why/providing evidence was/were a/n amazing concept/s.

I felt like I was in a constant battle with CTs regarding every aspect of writing... everything I was teaching was being undercut by other teachers. Punctuation, grammar, syntax, even idioms were a battle. When in doubt, CTs would rip into students for a/an/the when the teachers themselves were wrong. Felt like writing was a way for them to hold themselves over their students. But, when I met/saw/observed the English instructors who were teaching tourism in English, whole different world.

Aloha (comma)
XLB

[Beyond1984]

"Expository writing is a type of writing, the purpose of which is to inform, explain, describe, or define the author's subject to the reader." -Wikipedia

I'm guessing that you are teaching expository writing to first-year college students. Probably your main goals are to stress the evils of plagiarism and how to do some basic research.

Many students in such a course want to write about their interests:

1. How I Make Dumplings
2. Why Coke Is Better Than Pepsi
3. Why KFC Is Better Than McDonald's
4. The Great Wall
5. Michael Jackson
6. Kobe Bryant
7. My best friend



I recommend that, if possible, you steer your students toward what could be described as academic writing, which uses few if any personal pronouns, quotes experts and authorities and follows the MLA or APA format.

-HDT

My second-year students must choose a subject that has been in the news within the last year, is non-trivial and is researchable. Their papers require critical thinking and follow these formats:

Theory X is Useful in Understanding Subject Y

or

Subject + Researchable Assertion, e.g.:

The Great Wall Was/Was Not Effective in Deterring Invasions

[randyj]

This upcoming term my classes will consist entirely of elementary writing for English majors, so I am debating how to proceed. First of all, I will submit a questionnaire to my students and try to find out their ideas.

I am guessing that academic writing is what they need, as Beyond says. At the same time, I believe students learn to write by writing, so I want to assign journal topics each week rather than concentrate on a few larger writing projects during the semester. This could be a conflict.

Xiaolong is right about the problem of style. I have observed in previous writing classes that students definitely have a problem with bluntness. Students tend to be verbose. I remember one student in a writing class last semester remarked to me that the idea of less is better was a real eye-opener for him.

[TexasHighway]

The biggest challenge I find in teaching writing is that the students' essays are so full of clich�s. We need to encourage them to think outside of the box!

[kev7161]

This year, I've taught my 6th grade primary students the joys of the 5-paragraph essay. They started with a basic brainstorming word web, learned how to put together an outline, used that outline to make a rough draft and, ultimately a final copy. They learned about topic sentences, paragraphs dovetailing into the next, and introduction and closing paragraphs. Afterward, they translated their outlines onto index cards and gave a speech about their topic (a European country). They learned how to choose only 3-4 main ideas and not try to do it all in one paper. I would grade their success rate at about 75% (several stumbled over the oral report and a couple blatantly cut and pasted from websites) - - not too bad for 6th graders though, considering it was their first taste of writing a full report like this.

If you use the semester to go step by step with your students, you may find many wonderful papers. If you just tell them to write a report and give them only a lesson or two about the basics, then they may fall apart.

[randyj]

[Beyond1984]

"Students tend to be verbose." -randyj

So true.

I attribute this to the teachers who stipulate x number of words.

I refuse to stipulate word counts. but they must count sentences: 4-7 per paragraph. They can count pages ... most papers need not exceed 3, plus a Works Cited page.

-HDT

[the_otter]

I got my first year college students to write essays last semester. It was...interesting. There's definitely a lot of things I'd do differently...after tipping my melted brain back into my skull first, of course. Reading 120 essays of a thousand words each was not fun.

With one class, I told them not to use 'I' - unfortunately, I forgot to add 'we' and 'you' so I ended up with about thirty essays written in the first person plural or the second person. D'oh!

References are tricky. Some essays 'cited' websites by putting www.baidu.com in the footnotes. Despite my giving them each a handout with correct examples of references and using the class textbook to demonstrate, very few actually wrote down more than the title. If that.

When reading my students' writing, I've noticed that they have a problem with the comma splice, presumably because Chinese makes much greater use of the comma than does English. I haven't figured out how to get them to stop doing it yet. (Suggestions?)

A few of the girls especially drift into conversational English - they put in friendly little tags like 'isn't it?' and write 'what's your opinion?' at the end of their conclusion.

I think if I were to introduce the academic essay to them again, I'd prepare handouts for group-work. The handouts would have several short paragraphs about the same topic. Some would be bad (no evidence, colloquial English, no line of argument), some good. The students would be asked to read the paragraphs and decide which they think is best/worst and why.

I used a lot of powerpoint the first time round - a bad habit that I'm going to try and get shot of this semester. I also asked them to choose their own topics, which was a mistake. Although they were asked to email their topic to me so I could check and reword it, only half did. It also resulted in a lot of essays about whether part-time jobs/boyfriends at college were a good idea. Next time - if there is a next time - I'll write about twenty questions down myself and let them choose one.

[nickpellatt]

Id echo some of the above comments regarding the need to establish some kind of framework and rules regarding academic English.

Im in the UK now, and have a Chinese language exchange partner. She has already completed an undergraduate degree in the UK, and is now doing an MA. My part of the language exchange is helping her with her essays, and despite her outstanding use of English (she has lived here and completed a degree here) her command of academic writing, and correct language use within the register is quite poor. Learning the conventions of the register is going to be a lot of help!

A few years ago I did an Open University course called 'English Grammar in Context', and this course featured a number of tasks which showed examples of different registers side by side - conversation/fiction/newspapers/academic papers. Each example of writing was on the same topic and the tasks were to analyse on a grammatical level how grammar was used. Differences in clause structure/lexical choices/lexical density/pronoun use/question tags etc where all quite evident, and making students aware of such differences would prove useful activities.

Unfortunately, I have my material in books, not something I can share via email, but if anyone is a tech whizz and can find torrents or other files for that OU course (code e3030) some of the material might be useful

[Beyond1984]

the_otter has detected among his students "a problem with the comma splice ... I haven't figured out how to get them to stop doing it yet."

Some reading this thread may chuckle, imagining the_otter laying awake nights worrying about his students' propensity to try to connect two independent clauses with a comma, but I believe the problem is serious, and indicates his students have not grasped the concept of a well-formed sentence.

I make a very big deal about this with my students, and teach them that the comma is too weak to do the job, but that the semi-colon is up to the task. I emphasize that the correct use of a semi-colon is beyond the ability of most English native speakers, and that they are sure to win extra points in any kind of essay competition by its correct use.

Start by asking if the following is well-formed:

I'm hungry. (tell them to nod their heads yes).

Ask if this is a sentence:

Let's eat! (tell them to nod their heads yes).

Explain that two short independent clauses, closely related, can be connected with the comma with a dot over it: [;], known by the cognoscenti as the "semi-colon."

Tell them that if you see another comma splice you will stop reading the essay and mark it with a 69, signifying "below average."

Problem solved.

-HDT

[randyj]

[MisterButtkins]

Does anyone else have writing students who overuse the phrase 'On the one hand... On the other hand' in ridiculous ways? I feel like I should ban this in my class because they butcher it so often.

[TexasHighway]

MisterButtkins wrote:

[the_otter]