Writing First
Mubarak Abdessalami
get acquainted with writing as early as their first year since their
starting point with the target language should be based on solid basis
and make them adapt good writing strategies. Actually, as it is not
hard for the students to write a simple single sentence paragraph
writing to write a compound one then to compose a paragraph of two or
three sentences until writing becomes a habitual activity for them.
It is advisable for the teacher not to ask them to write but about
the topics they have already come across in the classroom like
favourites for example. In this paper I'll try to show how things will
go on slowly and with meditation.
Normally beginner learners are taught to talk about their
favourite sports, food, actors, actresses, singers and so on.
Therefore, instead of writing separate discrete sentences, the
students should be given the necessary tools and techniques to expand
their product and shift from the boring broken sentences to a whole
paragraph.
The teacher's job will be based on the two firsts the students
should master about writing notably the form of the paragraph and its
content. The latter is up to the students' background knowledge to
achieve whereas the teacher's obligation in the first place is to show
them how a paragraph is normally written so as to be logical and
convincing thus eligible. This method engenders a trouble-free
paragraph writing that will evolve with time and further studies.
The students should first and foremost own the skill to develop a
paragraph based on the three famous cohesive components namely:
1. The topic sentence.
2. The supporting details.
3. The concluding sentence.
They should be encouraged to decide upon their favourites, let's
say a dish or a meal for dinner. As their tastes differ so their topic
sentences will, too. The topic sentence is normally stated in terms of
each one's taste and preference. Let's make our way into the method
through a prearranged sample.
1. Topic sentence:
My favourite dish for
dinner is couscous.
After the student has decided about his or her favourite dish, He
or she should think about the motives behind choosing this dish not a
different one. Surely he or she did for some reasons. So he or she
should provide ideas that justify and reinforce his or her very choice
of Couscous, (other students might choose Tagin, Soup (Harira),
spaghetti or anything else). Each one has to be able to shape the
exact ideas in accurate statements that correlate with the topic so as
to be coherent and cohesive.
Since this paragraph is partly persuasive, it has to focus on the
detailed qualities of each specific choice. This would make the proof
reader able to spot the very things which make this or that dish
different, special and likeable. The writing should be purposeful. It
has to focus on convincing or at least making the reader believe that
the student is sincere not just writing for the sake of writing. The
student should avoid vague or confusing arguments like:
- It is good / excellent.
- It is cheap.
- It is typically Moroccan food.
- It is admirable, and so on.
These things have nothing specific and convincing about them. We
definitely don't choose a dish just because everybody else does. So
the student should show the merits of the choice. His or her
individual view is worth underlining.
2. Supporting Details
Supporting details come to do this perfectly well. They should be
topic related ideas and persuasive for both the student and the
reader. Some of them may be set in this way:
Supporting details
- Couscous is appetizing / delicious / tasty
- It is easy to digest.
- It is full of healthy vegetables.
- It is fat-free.
- Etc
With time the students will be able to back each supporting detail
with an example or two to make the paragraph rich, complete,
realistic, credible, and hence believable.
It is delicious because it contains flavorful spices.
- It is easy to digest since its ingredients are not hard for our body
to absorb quickly.
- It is full of healthy vegetables like carrots and cauliflower.
- It is fat-free as its constituents are not fatty at all.
- Etc.
Once these ideas presented, the concluding sentence should be
written in accordance with what has been stated in the topic sentence.
3. Concluding Sentence:
Couscous is my most preferred dish
for dinner.
The final outcome is so uncomplicated that the student surely gets
astonished and therefore enjoys being able to write an authentic
paragraph. The more training the student is used to, the more perfect
his or her output will be. Moreover, once the student is exposed to
opinion paragraph in advanced levels, he or she'll realize that
writing a paragraph is not that complicated. He or she has just to
formulate the appropriate layout to control the topic. This method
will later help the students to assimilate the thesis statement when
they grow with writing difficulties in their higher studies.
The trouble is that most teachers hang around until their students
own a strong vocabulary, grammar and structure repertoire, before
introducing them to the writing experience. This time the writing
becomes a real ordeal. Nevertheless, if the students are trained and
given the chance to write from the very beginning, writing will be as
usual and easy as any other multiple choice or gap-filling exercise
for them.
Circus technique in writing:
Before anything can be done in this respect preparatory training
to writing seems profitable to the process of accumulating techniques
and background knowledge the student needs to face the "ordeal" of
writing with confidence.
No two would disagree that it is impossible for a teenager to do
the trapezes unless he or she was trained to do so from a very early
age. Our tough systemic error in teaching foreign languages is that we
ignore teaching writing until it is too late for the students to get
familiar with.
Once the student is able to formulate a simple sentence composed
of a subject, verb and object, he or she immediately encouraged to
venture into developing the sentence to a compound structure then a
complex one.
It is universally agreed upon that in order for anyone to excel in
an act and to become a good performer, he or she has to lead through
hard training and exercise so as to master the act.
You cannot bring someone from the street and ask him or her to do
tricks at the top of sway poles unless he or she has grown within a
circus atmosphere. More then this not anyone in the circus family
could do that unless he or she is specialized in it. Each child in the
circus should have a zest for a particular act before he or she is
trained to take it for a career.
In the circus they train them from an early age to swing from a
trapeze, walk a wire, juggle or ride a unicycle through repetitive
exercises in which they fall and have accidents before they could
master it perfectly well. So we, teachers, must do with the writing
skill. From an early level or learning English the students should be
given the necessary techniques to write a paragraph and above all a
lot of exercises with a lot of drafting and through repetitive
mistakes and errors they'll quickly own a certain level of authority
on the cohesive relationship between form and content in a writing
act.
From one-sentence to two-sentence paragraph writing:
The students learn to express their likes and dislikes at an early
stage of their school years, so why don't we exploit this for more
productivity. They can say for instance:
- I like apples very much.
- I hate doing karate.
- If the teacher provides the linker "because" and asks:
- Why do you like apples very much?
- Why do you hate doing karate?
Another level of combined learning strategies opens widely and the
student's mind starts whirling looking for the reasons. If his or her
first sentence was just built out of a model not sincere, he or she
would reconsider it and looks for a more sincere one that he could
justify. It is a matter of accuracy not just parrot like style.
I like apples very much because they're delicious and
healthy.
I hate doing karate because it is risky and unsafe.
These steps could be dealt with in terms of many practices in the
classroom. The students consequently will be enticed into writing
without even being aware that what they are doing is practising an act
to be a good performer with time.
Matching exercises:
Match the numbers with the letters to make correct statements
1. Ali has usually had breakfast at home a. because my
house is not far from school.
2. Sandy can't ride a horse b.
since he was at the primary school.
3. I don't go to school by bike c. while
her mother is preparing her meal.
4. I like citrus fruits d.
but she can drive a bus.
5. The little boy is watching TV e. such as
oranges and limes.
As an outset to teaching writing and training the students to
befriend with it, this step is necessary. They should recognize how
the parts of speech work together to make meaning. The linkers or
connectors are the backbone of good writing. This exercise tests the
students' ability to make meaningful utterances. This exercise can be
adapted to the students' levels. Later on you can assign the same
exercise but a little modification to make it a bit more challenging:
Fill in the blanks using the appropriate linkers from the list:
Because but since such as while
1. Ali has usually had breakfast at home __________he was at the
primary school.
2. Sandy can't ride a horse __________she can drive a bus.
3. I don't go to school by bike ________________ my house is not far
from school.
4. I like citrus fruits _____________ oranges and limes.
5. The little boy is watching TV ______________ her mother is
preparing her meal.
CORRECTION
1. Ali has usually had breakfast at home since he was at the primary
school.
2. Sandy can't ride a horse but she can drive a bus.
3. I don't go to school by bike because my house is not far from
school.
4. I like citrus fruits such as oranges and limes.
5. The little boy is watching TV while her mother is preparing her
meal.
Match the following sentences using the appropriate linkers from the
list:
Because but since such as
while
1. Ali has usually had breakfast at home a. my house is
not far from school.
2. Sandy can't ride a horse b.
he was at the primary school.
3. I don't go to school by bike c. her
mother is preparing her meal.
4. I like citrus fruits
d. she can drive a bus.
5. The little boy is watching TV e.
oranges and limes.
Once the meaning is gotten and the linkers are used appropriately
another step shows in. The assignment could be more production
directed exercise when it is done this way:
Complete the following sentences using your own words:
- Ali has usually had breakfast at home since __________________
- Sandy can't ride a horse, but ______________________
- I don't go to school by bike because ______________________
- Last summer I visited many cities such as
___________________________
- The little boy is watching TV while _________________________
This method is aiming at giving the students the opportunity to
gain sane self-based writing strategies. They would learn that content
is eventually what makes the difference. The form or Skelton of the
paragraph is nothing if it doesn't bear a strong content totally
competitive. The student is not writing alone. His or her writing is
to be evaluated in comparison with his or her classmates'. Besides the
mastery of the correct syntactic structure of compound sentences, one
has to have enough imagination and logic combined together to make
one's writing the best. When the culminating step arrives, the student
should have been able to harness the content and the form in a
coherent and cohesive way. He or she should be prepared to write
something legible with a great amount of "whys" first then with
"whats" and "hows". Here is perhaps the very scrupulous question for
which all those thing are needed. What makes it scrupulous? It's its
being based on one's own ideas and feelings not on important or ready
made arguments. This same question, however, could ask to assess you
on any other personal view.
What would you like to be in the future? And why?
Some students wrote,
- I'd like to be a doctor because the doctor helps the sick and earns
a lot of money.
- I'd like to be a teacher because this is the most respectful job of
all.
- I'd like to be anything because I still cannot decide on a career
yet.
- My father is a mechanic and he is successful in his job so I'd like
to be a mechanic, too.
- I'd like to be an engineer as I am good at mathematics and physics.
- I don't know but my dream is to be a pilot. I'd like to visit many
countries and meet people.
Aren't these good paragraphs after all?
The more the topic is opinion based; the more valid it is to make
way into good writing.
Which Imperial City in Morocco do you like best?
I like Marrakech best because it is one of the oldest Imperial Cities
in Morocco and it is the most exciting one. It has got a lot of
interesting Historic Monuments such as Koutoubia Mosque, Elbadie
Castle and so on. Also it has many famous places like El Mamounia
Hotel but Marrakech is very hot in the summer. To my mind, Marrakech
is the greatest Moroccan Imperial City.
For a beginner this is more than just good taking into account his
or her level or performance and English language background knowledge.
Good students make their way into more perfection with hard work and
intensive exercises. No doubt, they'll soon be good performers and may
introduce a thesis statement to enlarge their writing into two
paragraphs or more as they master the different facets of the skill.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Morocco there are a lot of Imperial Cities such as Marrakech,
Fes, Meknes, Rabat and so on but I actually like two best.
I am fond of Marrakech because it is exotic and very exciting. It
has got a lot of interesting Historic Monuments like Koutoubia Mosque,
Elbadie Castle. It also has many famous places to visit like El
Mamounia Hotel but it is hot in the summer.
Besides, I like Fes best as this city is more interesting. It is
the oldest of them all. Like Marrakech, it has a lot of Historic
Monuments but it is full of unique places for example the leather
manually colouring site as well as it is on the World heritage list.
In my opinion, Marrakech and Fes are the best Moroccan royal
cities of all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one is bind to the layout and scheme of a two-paragraph
essay writing stating the thesis statement but it is hastily done.
Such topics need research for data, that's why another restraint
breaks into the rule. In addition to the basics of the writing skill
namely accuracy, coherence and cohesion; the student should care about
the information afforded in the writing. Both Fes and Marrakesh
(especially Djamaa L'fna) are on the World Heritage list, not just
Fes. All in all this is our primary concern here. What we intend to
reach above all is an illegible piece of writing which improves with
time.