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Writing level 3 – Developing reasons and examples

Writing level 3 – Developing reasons and examples



May 10, 2016

think

One of the main obstacles for our students for their writing is thinking of reasons. Firstly, they need to be able to understand the question and then think of relevant topics that connect to the question. This can be quite a challenge. I approached this in a few simple steps that I have borrowed from Garry Pathare’s “On the Road”, our writing resource for level 3. I found its structure to be helpful, but as I felt that repeating students were already familiar with this, I spent more time working on reasons and examples.

Instructions

I gave my students help by providing a very simple worksheet. I divided the two main paragraphs into their own charts. As you can see from the example below I then separated reasons and examples.

 

While most people eat meat, some people choose not to. Discuss the reasons why they make this choice and the opposite view, and give your opinion.

 

Reasons for my opinion

Reasons Examples

 

I would go through the question with my students so that they will understand what the question is about. I try to elicit information as much as possible. The next stage is thinking of reasons that support your opinion. In the early stages, I like to have a class consensus and have everyone write about the same choice. Once this had been done, I then gave my students topics for the reasons. Below is a list of topics that can be used for thinking of reasons –

Reasons

wheel

People / Health / Financial / Family / Environment / Country

 

From these choices chose 3 and add them to the worksheet. For example –

While most people eat meat, some people choose not to. Discuss the reasons why they make this choice and the opposite view, and give your opinion.

 

Reasons for my opinion

Reasons Examples
Health
Financial
Environment

 

Whenever the students used the grid above I encouraged them to work in pairs or small groups and to write full sentences. I wanted to see them make a full correct sentence (subject +verb +object). As they worked on the reasons I walked round and checked any sentences for any mistakes. We should then have filled in the grid with something like this (for arguments sake I will support not eating meat) –

 

Reasons Examples
Health

Eating more vegetables does not make you fat.

Financial

Vegetables are cheaper than meat.

People

A lot more people are becoming vegetarian.

 Examples

Next we moved on to making examples. I told my students that a reason should be very general, but an example needs to be specific. I tell them to give me the name of a product or person. For example, our first reason is “Eating more vegetables does not make you fat”. I asked my students what type of meat makes you fat? And what type of vegetables help you keep you slim? They might say burger for meat and salad for vegetables. They could also say fried chicken for meat and carrots for vegetables. It doesn’t matter, but they have gone from the general reason to a specific example. One important point to remember is that they should be on topic.

Reasons Examples
Health

Eating more vegetables does not make you fat.

 

Eating burgers makes you unhealthy, but eating salads helps you to be thin.

Financial

Vegetables are cheaper than meat.

People

A lot more people are becoming vegetarian.

 

I usually spend 1 class on this procedure. So, if I see the same class for 2 or 3 hours the same day I will have them do this in the first hour, and then have them write in the second hour. I like to try and give feedback on the same day, if not then the next day. The writing should be straight forward as they can use Gary’s framework with their own ideas fitting in between.

If your students are doing well, I like to have them develop their writing further. Here we can use some of the grammar that our students learn throughout level 3. So, I just alter my worksheet to something like this. When we first do this I work with them and elicit different ideas from the group.

 

Reasons Examples
Health

 

First conditional – if / will

 

Financial

 

Modal – can/ could /may/might/
People

 

Connecting words – because of/due to/because

 

If we go back to the earlier example we can now change our example into a conditional sentence.

Reasons Examples
Health

Eating more vegetables does not make you fat.

IF you eat burgers, you WILL be unhealthy, but IF you eat salads, you WILL be thin.

 

I know this may seem a bit difficult, but if our students can see that everything we are trying to teach them is linked together, it will help to reinforce the grammar and vocabulary along with writing and reading, listening and speaking.

It is up to you which parts of level 3 grammar you want them to try and use. We also have relative clauses, present perfect, passive, and future. I do tell my students that they can use family members or friends as examples, and that it does not need to be true, as long as their example is on topic and tries to use more complex grammar.

Finally, I would like to add that I stress to my students the importance of having some planning time. I tell them not to just rush in and start writing straight away, but to give themselves a few minutes to understand the question and jot down some ideas for reasons. I suggest a maximum of 5 minutes for this, as level 3 students generally have 45 minutes to write their opinion essays.

Here is a worksheet that goes with this activity. Feel free to use it and let me know if you have any ideas to improve it. worksheet-reasons

 

May 10, 2016
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