WRITING YOUR COMPOSITIONS - Intermediate and Advanced

1. Introduction

There are many kinds of ‘compositions’, including narratives, descriptions of people objects and places, formal and informal letters/mails, arguments (opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, etc), summaries, speeches, giving directions or instructions, giving advice and describing a process. The different kinds of course require diferent styles and registers, and different conventions. Thus, not only the language, but even the page layout can be different at times.

Usually, during an English course, you have previous models to follow and exercises that prepare you to write a better composition of a certain type. These are essential for you not just to make a good composition, but even the composition required).

2. Writing guides

You have been given photocopies [check if this is true this year] of two different guides (Writing Bank and Writing Guide) from two different English coursebooks (New English File Intermediate Plus and Targets 2). Always have them at hand before you begin to write a composition. They will always be useful or necessary. All writing guides I could give you would be very similar. With these two, you can check what you are really advised to do. Follow this advice! One of the most important things is the process, the different steps you take before actually writing out your final version. You certainly need to take your time. Just writing what first comes to your mind for five minutes and handing it to the teacher is not good practice for you, and usually leads to the teacher being unable to check or understand it, or having to rewrite the whole of it, which is usually impossible with so many students and doesn’t teach you much anyway.

The second (longer) guide also describes a few particular, typical kinds of compositions or writing genres, so you don’t have to read it all at all times. But both its first pages and the last page are general.

These guides are always good for your exams, of course. For example, they organise you, prevent you from making many mistakes in several respects, and make you aware of different aspects of writing assessment (not just vocabulary and grammar).

3. What (not) to do: guidelines and comments

As you want want me to be able to check your writing, you must basically take the following into account.

·     Always follow the model composition. For example, look at the paragraphs, how you really separate sentences, how the punctuation marks and the blank spaces after them and capital letters etc are used. If you copy words, phrases and sentences there (which is normally OK and even better), copy them, don’t distort them. If you read I look forward to seeing you, don’t write I look forward to seen you, for example.

·     Always follow the instructions exactly. The most important thing is always to make sure you understand the situation and the exact instructions. It’s not very uncommon, for example, to be asked to write to a friend of your brother’s to say you’re going to visit him in Sydney if he agrees, and then to actually write to your bother that your friend is going to visit you, who live in Sydney - and similar kinds of misinterpretations.

·     No compositions can be accepted after the deadline.

·     Make sure whether you are expected to hand them in in class or send them by mail.

·     Some of your compositions are expected to be handed in hand-written. Of course it is sometimes better to type them (e.g. a CV). Your handwriting should be very clear. For example, try to imitate printed letters rather than quickly writing letters joined together; make sure anybody could make out which letter you’re using at all times; separate words (and paragraphs!) clearly and correctly.

·     Leave plenty of space (margins, lines, etc). Don’t overfill your space with words when you have at least two pages available. Please give me the standard sheet, not a small notebook sheet. Try to write in big letters. Make it possible for the teacher to write on your sentences. Always leave enough space at the end for teacher’s notes, too – if necessary, staple two sheets together.

·     Don’t forget to write the title of the writing - and of course always concentrate on it, never dealing with things outside the topic, or irrelevant things. [Sometimes the title will be obvious, but sometimes you must supply it.]

·     Don’t forget to always write your full name and your exact group on the very top of the first page.

·     Never write your final version in red.

·     When the homework is via email, there are some basic things to bear in mind (although I understand you sometimes can’t prevent ‘computer incidents’ - everything is right, then you send your mail and something has got changed):

-         First, unless I say otherwise, write your final version directly on the mail, not in an attacched document, even if I try to download more and more programmes to be able to read your docx, for example.

-         Second, make sure that when you finally paste it onto the email your paragraphs haven’t got disorganised/disarranged, with split lines, etc.

-         Third, make sure you are leaving one space or no space between words, and words and punctuation marks, according to English (and 99%) Spanish conventions. Simply look at this document to see whether it’s one blank space (systematically) or none; whether the comma, etc is attached to the previous, or the following word ...

-         Fourth, write/type apostrophes like this: don't; not like this: don´t. So: no blank spaces, and the apostrophe itself, not the accent! Your keyboard has a key for the apostrophe (in the top row), which is different from the one for the Spanish acute accent. One of the reasons to use it: sometimes, when I edit your text, a word like you'd gets split in two different lines:                     you

-         ´d

·     Always keep to the approximate number of words required, when you are told so. If you are not, look at the model composition in your book, which is a basic model for this too. Please don’t give me a long composition when it must be short according to the instructions.

·     Remember you aren’t translators. I would not recommend you to make a Spanish version before the English one. Anyway, be aware that languages really are different – this is easier said than done, and you are students, not native users, but ...

·     Always use a good dictionary and make sure you don’t make typical dictionary misinterpretation mistakes. Look for contexts in your dictionary; occasionally, you can look up the word in a monolingual dictionary, and/or in the other part of your bilingual dictionary. Monolingual dictionaries for students nowadays usually contain thesaurus tables, comparison between similar words, etc. A thesaurus itself is a dictionary that takes you from the concept to the word you’re looking for (but then you have to check its meaning), unlike the traditional dictionary, which takes you from the word to the meaning, so it isn’t a bad idea for advanced students to use any king of theasaurus or “dictionary of synonyms” sometimes. Of course there are so many on line now. Be careful with false friends, Spanish structures, rare or unnatural English and similar things. Just a couple of examples:

- If you’re looking up “miembro”, is it member or limb that you need? Check it in a good dictionary and you’ll see that one belongs to such phrases as ‘a member of my club’ while the other fits in ‘Unfortunately, both his upper limbs had to be cut off after the accident’.

- Are you sure that “sobre todo” will be “sobretodo” in your dictionary? That will make no sense in your writing! Actually, an overcoat must be a kinf of coat, and your dictionary will at least tell you it’s a Spanish noun! So now you now: no more overcoats this winter! J [Yes, I know advanced students don’t tend make this mistake.]

·     You can always look at the “frequent mistakes …” documents in the blog before you write your final version. Besides, you’ll be soon [March 2012] three very usuful photocopies with the ‘top miskakes’ for each level (again, Michael Swan knows Spanish students of English very well). At these levels, no more for to can to go, He will going, She don’t went, actually for “actualmente” … At the Advanced level (especially), no more He said me something, He told me that I helped him (when you mean He told me to help him!) ... I’ll try to little by little include more typical mistakes in the blog. I know there are few [but not little J] there at the moment.

·     The pronoun "I" is always written like this (not "i").

·     English is spelt English, not *english, *inglish, *Englis …!! [Yes, not uncommon among Intermediate students.]

·     Don’t make the typical mistake (especially in English) of exemplifying with more than one device. In Spanish, at the very least, people tend to say twice that they’re giving examples (“como” + “por ejemplo” = “como por ejemplo”; “como A o B, por ejemplo”; tales como A o B, etc”). In English and other languages the basic thing is saying just once that you are exemplifying, and, of course, because you’re saying these are only examples, you use “and” before the last element. Use, especially,  including / such as [more formal] / like [more informal] A, B and C. Never use things like these: for example, A, B, C ... etc. / like A, B or C, etc ...  (very common in students’ writing!). A similar thing: Spanish is very quickly replacing “y” by “o” in many cases, and fusing and confusing “a/o/ni” in general (for example, “Podemos admirar obras de Goya o Velázquez”); English isn’t. Not to mention logical contradictions (for example in negatives and positives: “para evitar que no se escapara”; “No me moveré hasta que no vengas” ….) and redundancies (“Han vuelto a reabrir la tienda” … ¿otra vez de nuevo?). Don’t tranlate all this into English literally. It’s a very different language ‘now’!

·     Make a basic good use of capital and small-case letters, even if you may have a few mistakes. María is never spelt maria (except in your notes or an sms to a friend, if you like); don’t write your whole composition in capital letters; a capital initial is used after . ! ? but not after a comma; don’t mix them arbitrarily. Just use this text as a model - *Not AS a Model (!).

·     To separate paragraphs, either leave a blank line (I use this option myself) or indent the first line of each paragraph (for this, use the Tab key on your keyboard, or really leave some space at the beginning of the line when hand-writing).

·     Advanced students are supposed to use a wider range of vocabulary and grammar than Intermediate ones, and these, of course, more variety than Basic students.

·     Improve your variety and accuracy of connectors (i.e. linkers, discourse markers). Don’t try to force them into your composition, though. For example, some students, after “learning” things like “on the other hand”, use them when they aren’t suitable, or use so many unnecessary connectors just to show they know them and get higher marks. On the other hand is used for contrast in English, and it doesn’t mean In addition / Besides / Furthermore / Moreover … If you really have to use it, don’t write (or say) things like *In other hand. You have a particular list of usual connectors in the Writing Guide, but remember a list is not the same as practising them and really understanding how to use them.

·     Remember that, in principle, formal style requires full forms (e.g. cannot, does not, I am, my friend has said), whereas informal style requires contracted forms (e.g. can’t, doesn’t, I’m, my friend’s said). This writing isn’t intended to be formal (it’s for my students).

·     Try to be systematic at all levels (e.g., don’t mix styles, and use punctuation systematically).

·     Always review your writing at the end. Check and double-check for mistakes (including lots of typical tense, spelling and punctuation mistakes), incorrect paragraphing, irrelevant information and the like.

·     Make your writing (appearance and contents) as attractive as possible.

·     When you get your composition back, study the teacher’s notes and corrections and improvements. It’s absolutely essential. Of course it’s also sad to have some compositions undelivered to their owners by the end of the course, etc. Learn from your mistakes.

4. What to do: the process

a)    Brainstorm you ideas before you write anything.

b)   Arrange these ideas for the different paragraphs and leave out the irrelevant ones.

c)    Make a first draft.

d)   Review and improve it (what about another draft?).

e)    Write and edit your final version.

f)     Check and double-check it: if you know it’s I saw my mother, why does your final version include *I saw to my mother or even *I saw a my mother? Systematic distraction may be more of “an excuse” in an exam (and certainly when speaking), but less so in a writing assignment.