Swick - Writing Better English for ESL Learners

Writing Better EnglishFOR ESL LEARNERS Second Edition

FOR ESL LEARNERS Second Edition ED SWICK Copyright 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-07-170202-7 MHID: 0-07-170202-4 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-162803-7, MHID: 0-07-162803-7. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

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Writing in any language is a difficult skill to acquire. Therefore, as an ESL student you should approach writing in English carefully.

In order to write well, you want to first have an understanding of grammatical structures, vocabulary, and tense usage. You practice those concepts until you can use them with relative ease. Then you are ready to practice writing original material. This book does two things: 1. It gives you an abundant review of basic structures. 2.

It provides various forms of writing practice within a controlled program that focuses on improving the skills needed to write accurately. In you will have the opportunity to learn or review grammar basics. By checking the Answer Key at the end of this book, you can find the correct or example answers to the exercises. If you have an English-speaking friend, you might ask him or her to check your work. If you wish, you can follow your progress by using a very simple method. After each exercise, count every word that you have writteneven little words like the, a, and, or but.

Then count every error you have made in spelling, tense, word order, missing words, or any other potential mistake. Divide the number of words you have written (W) by the number of errors (E) you have made. The result is a number (N) that you can compare after every exercise you write: W E = N If you wrote sixty words and made twelve errors, you would come up with: 60 12 = 5 If the number is getting larger, you are making progress. . In this chapter you will complete sentences with your original phrases, and you will use your own ideas as you write. You will see a sentence similar to this: John borrowed to get to work.

You might write something like this: John borrowed to get to work. For each exercise in you will compose ten short, original sentences while using a phrase as the specific element in each sentence. For example: Sample phrase: The new car Used as the subject: The new car is in the garage. Used as the direct object: Mary loved the new car . Used after the preposition to: A man came up to the new car . You may, of course, use dictionaries and grammar books as aids in order to write as correctly as possible.

You could give yourself a time limit (fifteen minutes or thirty minutes) for writing the exercise, but use the same number of minutes each time you write. In you will fill in the missing phrases or sentences in a story. They can be any phrases or sentences that you wish, but they must conform to the plot of the story. For example:

The Diamond Ring

The robber crept into the hallway of the dark house and turned on the light. On the desk he saw a beautiful silver box holding a diamond ring , which he put in his pocket.

deals with letter writing. deals with letter writing.

Each letter can be written within the same framework of time (fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or longer). There is a difference between friendly letters and business letters. This part of the writing program will help you to write both types of letters. you will write original stories. The stories are to be based on the assigned topic, and they should include the grammar structures indicated. For example: Sample title: Lost in the Desert Include these structures: the relative pronoun whichto want to in the past perfect tense the conjunction if You would then write a story about someone lost and roaming the desert.

You would probably write of heat and thirst and of the difficulties of finding a way to safety. And somewhere in your story you would have three sentences similar to these (which include the required sample structures): She believed she saw a lake,

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