H4 week 15 donderdag, writing

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Which book are you
reading right now?
Read for 20 mins.

Class H4B

Lesson goals for today:

- practicing your writing skills

Do you agree with the woman in the video? Why?

Writing skills

- informal letter writing

- formal letter writing

Which is the correct date in an informal English letter?

1. January 1, 2021
2. 01-01, 2021
3. 1st January, 2021
4. 1 Jan. 2021

Example

of a good informal letter

Send in the letter you wrote:

Let's check!

Now check your classmate's letter

What kind of language do you use in an informal letter?

Language

Your language should match the person you are writing to. 

You use a different style when you write to a close friend from when you write to an uncle you have not seen in years. Always remember who you are writing to and adapt your style accordingly. 

Spelling

Spelling is extremely important in a letter/email. Other people will get a bad impression of you when your writing is full of errors. So use a spelling control (UK) when you write on a pc or a dictionary when you write on paper. Likewise, grammar mistakes will distract the receiver from enjoying your letter. There are many pitfalls that will be dealt with later in this hand out.  

Punctuation

Punctuation is another thing to notice (and use). Although some people talk without ever stopping, a comma is generally used wherever you would normally take a breath. In other words, in longer sentences there should always be a comma. A question needs a question mark (?) and when you make something specific you use a colon (:). We arrived at our destination: London Paddington station. 

Now grade the letter you checked! Look at structure, language, spelling and punctuation

Your own style

There are a lot of standard phrases you can use, but don’t make your letter into a dull sequence of these kind of sentences. You need to develop your own style, with (possibly) the help of standard phrases. We will discuss some of these phrases later. Likewise, you can use sentence connectors (signaalwoorden). A list of those will be uploaded to Magister, and using them will make your letter more cohesive. 

Additional exmples

http://www.talenwijzer.com/schrijfvaardigheid-engels-bovenbouw.html  

Which 'connectors' (signaalwoorden) do you know?

Use the connectors to write the first paragraph of a letter to your father or mother. Confess something you did, but never told them.