Tips On writing Skills

I was searching for tips of writing for my kids in school tomorrow and look what I have found ! 

From the webpage : It says 50 tools that can increase your writing skills.  Mmmmm... 

have a look kids. These definitely will get you busy thinking the whole week. haha!

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2006/10/50-tools-that-can-increase-your-writing.html

• Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right
• Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs
• Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs
• Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign
• Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory
• Writing Tool #6: Play with Words
• Writing Tool #7: Dig for the Concrete and Specific
• Writing Tool #8: Seek Original Images
• Writing Tool #9: Prefer Simple to Technical
• Writing Tool #10: Recognize Your Story’s Roots
• Writing Tool #11 Back Off or Show Off
• Writing Tool #12: Control the Pace
• Writing Tool #13: Show and Tell
• Writing Tool #14: Interesting Names
• Writing Tool #15: Reveal Character Traits
• Writing Tool #16: Odd and Interesting Things
• Writing Tool #17: The Number of Elements
• Writing Tool #18: Internal Cliffhangers
• Writing Tool #19: Tune Your Voice
• Writing Tool #20: Narrative Opportunities
• Writing Tool #21: Quotes and Dialogue
• Writing Tool #22: Get Ready
• Writing Tool #23: Place Gold Coins Along the Path
• Writing Tool #24: Name the Big Parts
• Writing Tool #25: Repeat
• Writing Tool #26: Fear Not the Long Sentence
• Writing Tool #27: Riffing for Originality
• Writing Tool #28: Writing Cinematically
• Writing Tool #29: Report for Scenes
• Writing Tool #30: Write Endings to Lock the Box
• Writing Tool #31: Parallel Lines
• Writing Tool #32: Let It Flow
• Writing Tool #33: Rehearsal
• Writing Tool #34: Cut Big, Then Small
• Writing Tool #35: Use Punctuation
• Writing Tool #36: Write A Mission Statement for Your Story
• Writing Tool #37: Long Projects
• Writing Tool #38: Polish Your Jewels
• Writing Tool #39: The Voice of Verbs
• Writing Tool #40: The Broken Line
• Writing Tool #41: X-Ray Reading
• Writing Tool #42: Paragraphs
• Writing Tool #43: Self-criticism
• Writing Tool #44: Save String
• Writing Tool #45: Foreshadow
• Writing Tool #46: Storytellers, Start Your Engines
• Writing Tool #47: Collaboration
• Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group
• Writing Tool #49: Learn from Criticism
• Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

Cool website for teachers and students

Check this out , fun activities for writing practise.

http://www.brucevanpatter.com/funstuff.html

12 Tips To Improve The Way You Speak English

1. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

2. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you. 

Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.

3. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

4. Listen to the 'music' of English.
 Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'. 

5. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.   

6. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

7. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day. 

 Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.

8. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

9. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

10. Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

11. Listen to and sing English songs. 

12. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Writing Techniques

Most of the students in a primary school setting in Malaysia, are having problems to deliver ideas and merge them into creative writing which could attract the readers to continue reading. And this causes major problem when the kids sit for Paper 2, UPSR examination. 

Now, writing is an important form of communication. Good writers use different writing techniques to fit their purpose for writing. To be a good writer, you must master each of the following writing techniques.

1. Description

   Through description, a writer helps the reader use the senses of feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting to experience what the writer experiences. Description helps the reader to clearly understand the people, places, and things about which the writer is writing. It is the most common form of writing. 

2. Exposition

   Through exposition, a writer informs, explains, and clarifies his/her ideas and thoughts. Exposition goes beyond description to help the reader understand with greater clarity and depth the ideas and thoughts of the writer. 

3. Narration

   Through narration, a writer tells a story. A story has characters, a setting, a time, a problem, attempts at solving the problem, and a solution to the problem. Bedtime stories are examples of short stories while novels are examples of long stories. 

By using the writing technique that fits your purpose, you will be able to communicate your ideas effectively and get high marks for your Paper II, children. Isn't that interesting and worth trying ? 

Podcast: Speak Good English in Public Transport

The Predicate

Once you have identified the subject, the remainder of the sentence tells us what the subject does or did. This part of the sentence is the predicate of the sentence.

The predicate always includes the verb and the words which come after the verb. For example:

• Muhammad Irfan drove the race car.
  • "Muhammad Irfan " is the subject; "drove the race car" is the predicate.

The Subject

The subject is the person or thing the sentence is 'about'. Often (but not always) it will be the first part of the sentence. The subject will usually be a noun phrase (a noun and the words, such as adjectives, that modify it) followed by a verb.

The Verb

The verb is the fundamental part of the sentence. The rest of the sentence, with the exception of the subject, depends very much on the verb. It is important to have a good knowledge of the forms used after each verb (verb patterns), for example: to tell [someone] TO DO [something]

Here we can see that the verb to tell is followed immediately by a person (the indirect object, explained later), an infinitive with 'to', and, possibly, an object for the verb you substitute for DO.

Verbs also show a state of being. Such verbs, called BE VERBS or LINKING VERBS, include words such as: am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being, became, seem, appear, and sometimes verbs of the senses like tastes, feels, looks, hears, and smells.

For example:

• "Coffee and orange juice are my favourite drinks." The verb "are" is a linking (be) verb.

Fortunately, there are only a limited number of different verb patterns. Verbs can descibe the action (something the subject actually does) or state (something that is true of the subject) of the subject.

For example:

• ACTION: I play badminton twice a week.
• STATE: I've got a bicycle.

Some verbs can represent both actions and states, depending on the context.

For example work:

• ACTION: Harith's working in the bank.
• STATE: Harith works in a bank.

Complex Sentences

Complex sentences describe more than one thing or idea and have more than one verb in them. They are made up of more than one clause, an independent clause (that can stand by itself) and a dependent (subordinate) clause (which cannot stand by itself).

For example:

"My sister likes cats that don't bite."

Dependent clauses can be nominal, adverbial or adjectival.

Compound Sentences

Compound sentences are made up of two or more simple sentences combined using a conjunction such as and, or orbut. They are made up of more than one independent clause joined together with a co-ordinating conjunction.

For example:

"The sun was setting in the west and the moon was just rising."

Each clause can stand alone as a sentence.

For example:

"The sun was setting in the west. The moon was just rising."

Every clause is like a sentence with a subject and a verb. A coordinating conjunction goes in the middle of the sentence, it is the word that joins the two clauses together, the most common are (and, or, but)

For example:

• I walked to the shops, but my father drove.
• I might watch go shopping, or I might watch a movie.
• My friend enjoyed the film, but he didn't like the actor.

Simple Sentences

A simple sentence contains a single subject and predicate. It describes only one thing, idea or question, and has only one verb - it contains only an independent (main) clause.

Any independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. It has a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought.

For example:

• Liza reads.

Even the addition of adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to a simple sentence does not change it into a complex sentence.

For example:

• The brown dog with the white collar always barks loudly.

Even if you join several nouns with a conjunction, or several verbs with a conjunction, it remains a simple sentence.

For example:

• The dog barked and growled loudly.

What makes a complete sentence?

If it helps you, think about a sentence as if it were a skeleton, the skeleton contains various bones and these bones are put together to form different parts of the body. So are sentences formed by words, the words are the bones and they are put together in different ways to form sentences.

Building A Sentence

My dear students, I hope you will take some time to read this . OK? 

A sentence is a group of words which starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!). A sentence contains or implies a predicate and a subject.

Sentences contain clauses.

Simple sentences have one clause.

Compound sentences and complex sentences have two or more clauses.

Sentences can contain subjects and objects.

The subject in a sentence is generally the person or thing carrying out an action. The object in a sentence is involved in an action but does not carry it out, the object comes after the verb.

For example:

The boy climbed a tree.

If you want to say more about the subject (the boy) or the object (the tree), you can add an adjective.

For example:

The young boy climbed a tall tree.

If you want to say more about how he climbed the tree you can use an adverb.

For example:

The young boy quickly climbed a tall tree.

The sentence becomes more interesting as it gives the reader or listener more information.

        

There are more things you can add to enrich your sentence.

Parts of a sentence	Description
Adjective	Describes things or people.
Adverb	Alters the meaning of the verb slightly
Article	a, an - indefinite articles the - definite articles
Conjunction	Joins words or sentences together
Interjection	A short word showing emotion or feeling
Noun	Names things
Preposition	Relates one thing to another
Pronoun	used instead of a noun to avoid repetition
Proper noun (subject)	The actual names of people or places etc.
Verb	Action or doing word

For example: