This week we’re touching on a couple of technical aspects of writing, specifically working with modals and using good sentence variety.
Lesson 1
During our Day 1 for Week 13, Lesson 1, we’re going to do two things:
- Discuss the importance of sentence variety, and do a Sentence Variety editing exercise
- Discuss Modals and how they’re important when you are writing advice (among many other things)
Please make sure to read the Advice Request Folder posts (linked below) before our meeting on Day 2 of this week.
Lesson 1 Handouts
Lesson 2
In our small-group meetings this week, we’re going to discuss the situations in the Advice Request Letters (see directly below) and you’ll choose which one each of you wants to write about for the Paragraph Blog. Again, make sure you’ve already read all five Advice Request Letters before you come to the meeting.
Letter 1: Feeling Blue
Dear Helping Hands,
I’m so tired these days. I haven’t been working long in my career, but I’m already so exhausted from my work.
I don’t have any problems with my boss or coworkers. My company is alway busy, but it is not hard for me. However, nowadays, I feel tired and I just want to sleep when I come back home. Even on weekends when I have nothing to do, I don’t know what I should do.
Above all, I might want to cry, because I always feel blue. I think maybe I am suffering from depression, and this is making me have a hard time both at work and at home.
Do you think I’m depressed? Should I go to a psychiatrist? If I have depression, what should I do besides going to the hospital? I don’t know what I have to do for myself.
Please help me,
Feeling Blue
Letter 2: Lovesick Juliet
Dear Helping Hearts,
I’m in love with a boy. I used to talk to him everyday about my life: when I was having dinner, when I hung out with my friends, and what I was doing in the moment.
Until lately, he had always been so nice and friendly that I thought he might like me too. However, when I finally worked up the courage to ask him out, he turned me down!
It seems that he thought of me as just another of his friends, and he wasn’t interested in me romantically.Now my heart is broken. I tried to convince him to give it a chance, but he responded by being very cruel to me. I don’t understand: why did he talk with me every day if he wasn’t interested in me romantically? I always assumed we talked so much because he liked me too.
I don’t know what to do. I’m scared that I might lose my mind over this confusion and heartbreak! Please help me with any advice you can offer. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lovesick Juliet
Letter 3: Holding My Breath
Dear Helping Heart,
I’m having trouble with my dormitory roommate. At first, I thought he was a nice and hard-working guy, but after a month, I realized that he barely does his laundry. He just piles up his dirty laundry in a basket next to my bed. As a result, when I try to sleep, I can’t because of the smell of his dirty socks and shirts.
I want to talk with him about this problem, but I am worried that I might offend him or make him feel bad. Most Importantly, he is serious fitness fanatic, so he’s very muscular and scary. In other words, I’m a little bit worried about getting beaten up by him if I mention these issues. What should I do? How can I solve this problem without upsetting my scary roommate?
Cordially,
Holding My Breath
Letter 4: New Papa
Dear Helping Heart, I am a new dad. I have a 4-year-old daughter who is a troublemaker, and I’m very tired of dealing with her behavior problems. She always cries when she eats dinner and at bedtime.
What’s worse is that she hits her friends in kindergarten, so I have started to feel really bad for her classmates and their parents. Her classmates’ parents often call me to complain about her. However, our daughter doesn’t listen to my wife or me at all. When she starts trouble, I quietly warn her to stop, but she isn’t improving at all. I guess this might be a severe problem. My wife is becoming really stressed out by our daughter.
How, as her dad, can I help my daughter to behave better and quit her bad habits?Sincerely,
New Papa
Letter 5: Alone and Nervous
Dear Helping Heart,
I need to move to a new city on my own for a year for training. It might be quite rough so I’m worried not only about moving somewhere new on my own and feeling isolated from my friends, but also about safety since I can’t avoid walking alone sometimes as a woman.
How can I make friends in this new area? How can i maintain my relationships with my friends in my home town? Are they any activitie you could recommend? Do you have any advice for moving, or tips for staying social after I move?
Sincerely,
Alone and Nervous
Non-Textbook-Related Materials
This Week, you have two videos in the Non-Textbook Related Videos. If you were in class for Lesson 1, you can skip them, because these just cover the same material covered in class.
Textbook-Related Materials
As usual, the following textbook-related videos are optional; the textbook exercises are required. Skip the videos if you want; if you find the textbook exercises difficult or want to review this material, check out the videos associated with the exercises.
After watching Video 27, please do the following in Great Writing 1:
- Read Grammar: Using Modals to Add Meaning (p. 138)
- Complete Activities 9-10 (p. 138-139)
After watching Video 28, please do the following in Great Writing 1:
- Read Grammar: Opinion Verbs + That Clauses (p. 154)
- Complete Activities 5–7 (p. 155–157)
Optional Extra Textbook Homework
This work is optional: I recommend it, and think it’s a good way to review previous units, but it’s not required.
Choose a topic from the Additional Topics for Writing (p. 147) and write a paragraph using the grammar we studied in this unit, including Adjective Clauses and Modals. Make sure you use good Sentence Variety as well.
Unit 6
- Activities 12–13 (p. 140–141)
- Activity 18 (p. 144)
- Activity 20 (p. 145)
- Activity 21 (pg. 146)
Unit 7
- Activities 12–15 (p. 160–162)
- Choose a topic from Additional Topics for Writing (p. 163) and write a practice paragraph. Try to use an Opinion Verb + That structure in your Topic and Concluding Sentences.
Paragraph Blog for Week 13
In our second meeting this week, you selected one of the five Advice Request letters above. Now it’s time to write a letter offering advice in response to this letter.
For your letter, you should focus on three things:
- First, be polite. Use everything you learned last week in writing a formal email, and apply it to this letter.
- Second, use good sentence variety. Try to use a nice mix of sentence types, as we discussed in class.
- Third, use modals. In fact, you should make sure you appropriately use each of the four modals we discussed this week in your letter.
Your Advice Letter should follow the format from the handout (linked below, but it’s the same handout as in the first handout linked in the Non-Textbook Videos folder for this week). Make sure you use all four (4) modals in your letter. Also make sure to use the same letter structure, and the same style. (“Dear ________” at the start and “Sincerely, Helping Heart” at the end). This is modals practice, so carefully check that you have used all four modals correctly.
When your letter is complete, post it to the Paragraph Blog as your Week 13 post.