This week, we’re focusing on the writing technique of Template Sentence Extraction, which is designed to help EFL students develop better academic style in their English writing.
Week 5, Lesson 1
For our Lesson 1, we’re diving into the next portion of the writing process I’m teaching you this semester.
Specifically, I’m going to talk about the important Template Sentence Extraction technique, which a process you can use to create more naturally structured and fluent paragraphs in English by drawing sentence structure models from example texts. (It’s a way to quickly improve your writing by expanding your “inventory of stock phrases for academic style writing” without simply copying and pasting someone else’s words.) We’ll also maybe discuss the Editing Process for paragraphs (and we’ll try a group editing exercise),
Both of these topics are very important, and will be included in the exam. The handout I shared for the editing exercise is available in the Non-Textbook Related Videos for this week, along with a handout showing a basic structure for organizing your template sentences when doing Template Sentence Extraction.
Handouts for Lesson 1
Week 5, Lesson 2
For Day 2 this week, we’ll do a paragraph-building exercise using Template Sentences in our small-group meetings.
Handouts for Lesson 2
Textbook Videos and Exercises
In Great Writing 1, please do the following:
- Read Grammar: Simple and Compound Sentences (page 69)
- Complete Activity 10 (page 70)
- Complete Activity 12 (page 71)
- Read the Writer’s Note on Writing Lists of Words (page 70): this is a about the “Oxford Comma.”
- Complete Complete Activity 13 (page 72)
- Read Grammar: Using A, and An or Ø (page 73)
- Complete Activities 14–17 (73–76)
Paragraph Blog Post for Week 5
In our Lesson 1 class week (Week 6) next week, you will be sharing a rough draft of a paragraph for feedback. (That means you will be sharing it with a group, getting comments, giving comments to others, and editing your work to improve it.)
For this reason, you need to write a paragraph ahead of time. Please try out the entire writing process we’ve studied so far:
- Brainstorming, (including Free Writing, What’s Interesting Here?, Mind Map, and a Statement of Intent/Thesis)
- Gather materials by doing Template Sentence Extraction (using two or more example paragraphs from the textbook)
- Build a Paragraph Skeleton
- Transform the Paragraph Skeleton into a First Draft of a Paragraph.
For the Template Sentence Extraction step, choose any paragraph from the textbook so far. If you find less than 5 useful sentence structures in that paragraph, choose a second paragraph to extract more template sentences from.Try to choose a source that is a type of paragraph similar to the type you are writing: in other words, choose a paragraph that explains a process if you plan to explain a process; choose a paragraph that compares two things if you plan to compare two things, and so on.
After you have written your paragraph, save a copy of it (along with all of the rest of the work you did in the process) on your Google Drive. Then download that copy as a PDF file and submit it to the Paragraphs For Feedback link below. Reminder: The entire process should be included in the document you share.
This paragraph needs to be ready to share (and should be uploaded at the link below before) our offline class for Lesson 1 of Week 6.
You will do three things with this paragraph:
- Post it as your Paragraph Blog Post for Week 5.
- Bring 5 copies of your paragraph (but not the rest of the writing process) to class next time we meet in person (Lesson 1, Week 6).
(Optional) Non-Textbook Videos
For those who missed class on Day 1, here are two videos and some handouts that accompany them: