WRITING GOOD ARTICLES

COMPOSITION WRITING   : ARTICLE.

                   1. The title of the article.

                    1.1 Good articles have interesting titles. Read these characteristics of interesting titles.

 They are like short sentences.

 They ask a question or make a suggestion.

 They use interesting punctuation like dashes, question and exclamation marks (- ? and !)

                      1. 2 Look at these pairs of titles and circle the more interesting title in each pair.

                       1. A) My town Avila                                 B) There’s something for everyone in Avila!

                       2. A) Pollution? It’s your problem too!    B) Why pollution is a problem

                       3. A) Sardinia- island paradise!                B) The island of Sardinia

                       4. A) The popularity of recycling             B) Recycling mania- Everybody’s doing it!

                 2.   Good articles also use a range of vocabulary.

                       Read these ways of making your vocabulary more interesting.

                      Suggestions:

                      DON”T always use the first words you learnt in English e.g. big, important, good, nice,

                      badly,  much/ many, problem.   

                      DO use interesting words e.g. enormous, essential, fascinating, wonderful, excellent,

                      disastrous,thousands of, numerous, disaster., remarkable, astounding

                      USE ADVERBS after verbs  such as  play beautifully, act normally, run wildly, answer

                      rudely , etc

                  2.1 Make the underlined vocabulary in these sentences more interesting.

                  1. A big pool of oil from a tanker has caused an ecological problem.

                  2. In the centre of the town you can find many boutiques selling nice clothes.

                  3. Buying a guidebook is important. The Lonely Planet guides are good.

                  4. Her exam results were bad and she had to repeat the year.

  

                  3. In good articles the writer expresses her/ his opinion. Read these ways of introducing your opinion.

                                                         EXPRESSING ONE’S OPINION.

                            In my opinion/ view, ………

                            As far as I am , X is concerned, …………..

                            As I see it, ……….

                            If you ask me,………….

                            I’m sure …….

                            I can promise you, ……..

                            From my point of view, 

                             Im positive that ……………… 

                

                      4.  Complete the introductory phrases in these opinions.

                      1. As far ……….   people should recycle as much of their rubbish as possible.

                      2. In …………….. pollution is everyone’s problem.

                      3. I ……….. you won’t be disappointed with Smith.

                      4. I’m ………… you won’t regret visiting Singapore.

                      5. If ……….. people who hurt animals should be put in prison.

               5. Write your answer to this task in your notebook.

                   A student magazine in your country is offering a prize for articles in answer to the question

                  “What can we all do to make our cities and towns cleaner, more pleasant places to live in ?”       (120-160 words)

Topic & Supporting sentences

Paragraphs always include a topic sentence, which says what the paragraph is about. Topic sentences usually come at the beginning of the paragraph. The other sentences in the paragraph develop the ideas in the topic sentence. Supporting sentences expand what has been previously said in the topic sentence

Task 1

The sentences that follow are supporting sentences of the topic sentences that appear below. Choose the best topic sentence A, B or C for each paragraph from the list.

1)….. Almost everyone on Earth has watched it at some time and millions of households have two, three or more televisions. But is this a blessing or a curse?

2) ….. They say that it has too much influence on us and that violent programmes are responsible for an increase in crime. Even non-violent programmes can have negative consequences, according to some psychologists, because they stop us talking to each other or taking part in other healthier activities.

3) …… They point out that there are a lot of programmes with educational value such as documentaries and new reports. Some channels also show excellent films and discussion programmes.

4) …… We can decide if we want to own a television, how much we want to watch it and what to watch. Perhaps we just need to learn how to make those decisions intelligently.

1)   A  Unless you are over 50 years old, you probably cannot remember a time without a television.

B  I love television.

C  Television design has improved a lot in the last few years.

2)   A  My friends think that most of the programmes are rubbish

B  Some experts say that television is harmful.

C   My parents say that they would like to get rid of our TV sets.

3)   A  Television has its supporters, however.

B   Teachers usually advise parents to restrict the amount of time children spent watching

television.

C   Even   people who watch a lot of television frequently say that it is a waste of time.

4)   A    Let’s not forget that television can be good fun!

B   In my opinion , there are more positive things about television than negative things.

C   In the end we are responsible for making television into a blessing or a curse.

Task 2

                               Now write an article about the advantages and disadvantages  of watching  too much  television or spending too many hours in front of a computer .

ESSAY WRITING

1.It is important when you write  to use the connectors that will make the text flow naturally. Complete the composition below with suitable connectors .

                      You have recently been discussing the question: Should people who do dirty, dangerous or unpleasant jobs,  be paid more?

                    It is said that people …………..do dangerous or unpleasant jobs should

            be paid more…………….,  it is important to think about this question

                 carefully. ………………….some people who do difficult or dangerous

                things for a living actually enjoy their work. …………………., some of

                      these jobs give the person a lot of freedom, so they don t do perhaps

                those jobs because they are forced to but because they agree to do them

              . Although there are compensations for this kind of work, it is also true that

            people who have pleasant, safe jobs also often earn more than they do.

               ………………………, I think people who work in unpleasant or dangerous

             conditions should be paid at least as much as people with enjoyable and interesting  jobs.

2. Add the correct linking expressions from exercise 1 into this table.

Introducing the topic of the discussion	Listing points in the discussion	Introducing an alternative point of view	Expressing an opinion	Concluding
People often say that……… ………………	Firstly……….. ……………….	However, ………………. ………………	From my point of view ……………….. ……………….	To sum up, …………….... ………………

3.  Here are some more linking expressions. Add them to the table in exercise 2.

I think / believe / I view ……

Finally, it is important to remember that …..

Secondly……….

In my opinion / To my mind, / From my point of view……..

On balance then ……….

Nevertheless ………….

4. The composition the student wrote has not been divided into paragraphs. Put a mark where you think there should be a paragraph break.

5. Now use linking expressions from the table on the left to complete this composition.

(1). ………… “ Money is the root of all evil” but could we really live without it?  (2) …………… it would not only be possible but better than living the way we do now.

(3) ………….. money stops us really working together to solve problems. If we exchanged goods and services instead of paying for them there would be all sorts of advantages.

(4) ……….., we would try much harder to produce good quality work because our friends and neighbours would be our customers.

(5) …………, we would think more carefully about the things we consume. Perhaps this would be a complicated system to set up.

(6) …………., I am convinced that it would work.

(7) ……….., although it will take time and effort to learn to live without money, it can be done. Why don’t we give it a try?

CEI C-65 ,2013