Understanding and Producing Written English

1. Understanding and Producing Written English Lecture Three Description The ‘Thinking’ Stage The ‘Writing’ Stage

2. Reminder • Bring the topic and notes for your descriptive essay to you tutorial • Let’s look at some of your topics

3. Homepages • Student helper  Alwin • EMAIL 50446350@student.cityu.edu.hk • ICQ 4019765 • Send • Name • URL • Email • ICQ number and nickname • Quote • To • By…..

4. Tut Instructor Time 1 Rodney Jones 16:30-17:20 2 David Li 14:30-15:20 3 David Li 11:30-12:20 4 Rodney Jones 10:30-11:20 5 Sherman Lee 15:30-16:20 Diagnostic Test

5. Diagnostic Test • Venue: CSC studio K • Format • ‘Fill in the blanks’ reading passage • Correcting errors • Short essay • Don’t worry! • Does not count for your grade

6. Other Business • Academic Advisors • In files section of CityWriters • Master Assignment Schedule • In files section of CityWriters • Student Representatives • Send nominations to CityWriters by Thursday

7. Description • Painting a picture with words • Uniqueness and identification • Showing vs. Telling • Expressing feelings and ideas

8. Two most important qualities of descriptive writing • Specific • Vs. general • Concrete • Vs. Abstract

9. What’s wrong? • I love you… • My classmate is very beautiful. • She’s wearing casual clothes. • The MTR was full of tired commuters.

10. What’s Wrong • Riding a bicycle is preferable to driving a car. First of all, a bicycle is relatively inexpensive to buy and to maintain. While a car may cost thousands of dollars to buy and hundreds of dollars annually, a good bicycle Will cost only a hundred dollars or so, and its annual maintenance cost is very small. Biking is also healthier; not only does the biker get more physical exercise than the driver, but bicycles are nonpolluting. The consequence is a person with strong legs and a strong heart whose bicycle helps keep the environment clean. Finally, bicycling is, unlike driving, personally satisfying. Instead of being a robot inside a machine, the biker pedals along, enjoying the scenery, becoming a part of nature. In all but the most inclement weather, the bicycle is a pleasurable means of transportation.

11. No bikerNo driverno one

12. Describing a Place • The Dentist's Office • I can smell the wintergreen flavored tooth paste out in the hall even before I go into Dr. Smith's office. As soon as I open the outer door, the blast of cool air from the air conditioner hits me in the face making me shiver all over. While I wait for the new nurse in her crisp white uniform to call out my name, I look at the fish in the large blue tank in the corner of the room. The sleek fish dart about playing hide and seek with the plastic snowman at the bottom of the tank while tiny silver bubbles slip to the top of the tank's surface and break silently while I wait my turn. The nurse calls my name and I enter the inner office and sit in the white leather chair looking at all the shiny stainless steel equipment. It's my turn.

13. Describing a Person • What you have heard is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over the house. On the television was a cop show. It was in English. Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace. On the windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores. We had dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for calling the maid. The maid brought green mangoes, salt, a type of bread. I was asked how I enjoyed the country. There was a brief commercial in Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was some talk then of how difficult it had become to govern. The parrot said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass. It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around, he said. As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves. He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last of his wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.

14. Descriptive Words • Adjectives? • Nouns • And • Verbs

15. Three Easy Steps • Think • Write • Edit

16. Invention Stage: Review • Gathering Material • Research • observation • Introspection • Techniques • Free writing • Mapping • Listing • Discussing

17. But it all depends on… • Thinking of a good idea!!! • Some ideas (good or bad?) • My bedroom • My mother • A color • A photo booth • A pencil • My village • ?

18. Composition Stage • Reviewing Purpose and Audience • ‘Controlling Impression’ • Selecting • Sorting • Developing • Shaping

19. Selecting • Strengthening your focus • Finding the ‘gems’ • Getting rid of the ‘dung’ • Criteria for selection • Concrete? • Specific? • Potential? • What does this add to my purpose?

20. Digging for Treasure