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Writing Skill

Background

As our current world has entered the era of international communication and advanced technology, there are more and more chances for engineers and technical professionals to convey technical information in English for various purposes. Engineering students need to be equipped with
adequate writing ability so they can communicate technical information clearly on at least a basic level.

Writing Skill

The goal of this topic (writing skill) is


to train students in writing clear, concise and effective English.

Syllabus Outline, this topic consists of four stages:


Preparation stage Tools Acquisition Stage Summary writing stage Composition stage

Writing Skill: preparation stage

This is the stage for building up students' confidence or reshaping their perceptions of English writing. To start with, write a few short essays on topics you are very familiar with
Write an essay about your home, consists of at least 100 words (about 10 lines) Hint: use the words and structures you are familiar with

Writing Skill: preparation stage

Make a journal
To see your own progress This journal is to be submitted in the end of this writing skill topic

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage


Many grammatical constructions are important for writing good English. The principle of this stage, however, is to make students get familiar with a few basic essential tools that can enhance their sentence clarity in technical writing.

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage

Use of Subordinate Clauses

Definition: A group of words that has both a subject and a verb but (unlike an independent clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. Also known as a dependent clause. Example:

"Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events." (Albert Einstein) "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." (John F. Kennedy)

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage

Formally, subordinating conjunctions can be grouped as follows:

simple conjunctions: when, whenever, where, wherever, because, if, unless, until, while, as, although conjunctive groups: as if, as though, even if, even though, even when, soon after, no sooner complex conjunctions:: there are three subclasses:

derived from verbs : provided (that), granted (that), considering (that), seeing (that), suppose (that),

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage Exercise


1.Below is a list of complex sentences, identify the subordinate clauses and the subordinating conjunctions, then explain the relationship expressed in each sentence.
1) Since Jim arrived early, he didn't have to wait. 2) When Constance sighed, the other people in the room turned to see who had done it. 3) Because the dog barked incessantly at night, the neighbors finally lodged a complaint with the town board. 4) As motor racing goes green, Formula 1 is

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage Exercise


1.Combine two sentences or a set of isolated ideas into one sentence by using appropriate subordinating conjunctions.
1) New racing bicycles have disc wheels. Wind resistance is reduced. 2) Copper is highly conductive. It is used for electric wiring.

As copper is it is used for electric wiring.


1) The water is heated. It reaches a pre-set temperature.

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage Exercise


1.Study about Relative Clauses. 2.Study about Parallelism. 3.Write an essay about the metamorphosis of any insect by using subordinate clauses, relative clauses, and parallelism.

Do not forget the rule, that you have to make a journal of your writing practice. Submit your work today to Mr. Dayat in the Lecturer and Administration room.

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage


Relative Clauses. Relative clauses can be useful tools for defining and qualifying nouns instead of putting a long list of technical nouns or adjectives before a noun. Example:

A girl is talking to Tom. Do you know the girl? Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom? relative pronoun I was invited by the professor whom I met at the conference. relative pronoun That is the reason why we met him. relative adverbs

Writing Skill: Tools Acquisition Stage


Parallelism. By convention, items in a series appear in parallel grammatical form: a noun is listed with other nouns, an -ing form with other -ing forms, and so on. Failure to express such items in similar grammatical form is called faulty parallelism. Example:

"They are laughing at me, not with me." (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons) "Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but

Writing Skill: Summary writing stage


A summary is condensed version of a larger reading. To write a summary, use your own words to express briefly the main idea and relevant details of the piece you have read. Many benefits from summary writing practice:

Students can focus on language skill in spite of the content of the text. The chosen texts can also serve as sort of model writing, grammar guides and sources of new vocabulary.

Several techniques that are important in summary writing:

Writing Skill: Summary writing stage


A good paragraph is a mini-essay, should demonstrate 3 components:
1. Introduction, i.e., a topic sentence 2. Body, i.e., supporting details 3. Conclusion or a transitional sentence to the paragraph that follows. A good paragraph is characterized by unity, coherence, and adequate development. Unity: State the main idea of the paragraph in a clearly constructed topic sentence. Make sure each sentence

Writing Skill: Summary writing stage


How to write a summary?

Students tend to copy sentences exactly from the original article and put them together when they write summaries

lose opportunity to practice their writing skills. Most likely can not include all the important ideas mentioned to jot down the main points in note form and then link them clearly into concise sentences in the students' own words.

A better way to make a summary is

Writing Skill: Summary writing Exercise


Summarize the following article about Thais and their cuisine in not more than 120 words.

Thais give a great deal of thought and time to the planning and preparation of their meals. There is an infinite variety of recipes from which they can choose, and rarely would a household repeat the same dish within a fortnight. The staple food is rice which is the base for most meals. The most commonly-used meats

Writing Skill: Summary writing Exercise A possible answer:


Thais have such a great variety of food to choose from that a typical household rarely cook the same dishes in a fortnight. A variety of meat, fish and vegetables are used in different ways with rice as the basis for most meals. A typical household would serve a simple breakfast of egg or porridge, followed by noodles and dumplings for lunch. Dinner is more elaborate where

Writing Skill: Summary writing Exercise Summarize this article about Man and his destruction of wildlife habitat in not more than 120 words Man is forever changing the face of nature. He has been doing so since he first appeared on the earth. Yet, all that man has done is not always to the ultimate advantage of the earth or himself. Man has, in fact, destroyed more than necessary. In his struggle to live and extract the most out of life, man has destroyed many species of wildlife; directly by sheer physical destruction, and

Writing Skill: Summary writing Exercise A possible answer:


Man, in his pursuit of development has done more harm than good. By destroying the habitat of wildlife directly or indirectly, many species of wildlife are lost forever. Certain species are able to withstand the changes to the land while others simply vanish. Every form of human activity will affect the habitat of the wildlife. The only preservation done by man is for animals that they consider useful to man. Their predators are systematically destroyed. Yet this has in no way increased the number of the protected animals. By intervening, Man has created an imbalance in the cycle. Therefore, there is a need to keep a balance between development and preservation because man's future depends very much on this equilibrium. (120 words )

Writing Skill: Composition Stage This is the stage where students practice some common patterns of technical writing with the application of skills taught at previous stages. Some common patterns including:
Writing definitions Writing processes Writing comparisons and contrasts Writing analysis

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing definitions Writing a definition is frequently used in technical writing. There are two kind of definition:
1 sentence definition

The typical form is: ____ is a kind /form/category/device/type of (class) that ( distinguishing feature.) Example: A capacitor is an electronic device that is used to ....
Extended definition

One can write an extended definition by adding extra

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing definitions Practice Write extended definitions about these topics electricity, television, electric coffee pot, refrigerator, microwave oven, and building.

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing processes A process is written to instruct or to inform. A clear description of a process involves sequencing the stages, locating the stages, describing what happens at each stage and explaining what happens at each stage. Most operational process descriptions follow a chronological order, which can be shown by using sequence words like first, next then, subsequently, at this point, later, afterwards, finally and so on.

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing processes Look at the diagram showing how chocolate is manufactured. Now you will practice writing a description of the process. First, you will need a sentence

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing comparison and contrast We use this type of writing to relate the similarities and differences among things. This writing technique can be applied when it is necessary to compare and contrast different proposals, solutions to problems, and improvement or design change of a conventional product with a new product. Here are some suggested topics for writing comparison and contrast.
Compare and contrast two generations of a product, e.g. computer/ stereo/robot

Writing Skill: Composition Stage writing analysis

Technical writing is used to convince someone of something. An effective approach to convince others is

to support the broad general statements with details by

begin with a generalization or topic sentence that covers the whole topic and then substantiate the generalization at a more specific level with facts, examples, statistics and other details.

Example: It is difficult for foreign students to adjust to life in a new country for several reasons. First,..........Second,.......

Writing Skill: Composition Stage Exercise Write a technical essay about safe electrical wiring in homes. It must be your own writing, do not plagiarize. The essay should include
Definition and/or extended definition A description of process Comparison and/or contrast Analysis Conclusion

Your essay is to be included in your writing skill

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