Who Said the Mechanics of Essay Writing Can’t Be Fun?

By Francis A. Andrew

This book is essentially a sequel to Francis A. Andrew’s earlier book, “Who Said English Grammar Was Boring?” The “sequel” begins by devoting a few chapters to some grammar points and continues with explanations and examples of twenty three essay types. As well as example essays, each unit provides reading passages which are unrelated to the essay type. The reason for this is to encourage students to read widely and thus to see reading and writing as interconnected and inter-related skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Oct 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781490791364

Francis A. Andrew

Francis A. Andrew was born in Aberdeen in Scotland. Although he is not a scientist by training, he has had a life-long passion for astronomy and space technology. In his childhood years, he was influenced by the works of Sir Fred Hoyle and by Sir Patrick Moore's monthly television programme, "The Sky at Night."

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Copyright 2018 Francis A. Andrew.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018911826

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9135-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9134-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9136-4 (e)

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PREFACE

Rohit: First of all, Francis, let’s determine whom this book is intended for.

Francis: It certainly presumes that the reader is familiar with the basic structures of English and is quite advanced in his studies.

Rohit: However, at the higher levels, I have come across quite advanced students and even teachers of English who are unsure about the mechanics of the more complex structures of the English language.

Francis: This book can therefore have a twofold purpose: first of all, to instruct students in the complexities and subtleties of the English language; second, as a kind of brushing up for teachers who have become, over the years, a bit rusty in the subject.

Rohit: We can look at structures at different levels—single words, tenses, and sentence types.

Francis: And so that we can live up to the title of our book, we will include short stories followed by exercises to reinforce the topic of the unit.

Rohit: Also, to render the book a practical dimension, we will include our ideas on the methods and techniques that could be used in the teaching of these structures. What I would like is for this book to focus on the mechanics of language, teaching mainly to higher-grade learners and well-read students who already have proficiency in the English language.

Francis: Yes. We should ensure that the four aspects of language are included in our teaching methodologies—that is, reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Rohit: Indeed. And there is another aspect to the learning process that I think should be encouraged—students acting the role of teacher.

Francis: Indeed! Even for the professional language teacher, teaching can not only act as a revisionary process but also provide new insights into a subject.

Rohit: Yes! And with this in mind, the teacher should ask a student to act the role of teacher at the conclusion of a unit.

Francis: This may be for five or ten minutes, to see if the student has a full grasp of the main points of a unit. We can call this the practicum.

Francis/Rohit: We therefore hope our book will be of both interest and use to both teachers and students of the English language.

CONTENTS

Unit 1:   Determiners

Unit 2:   Modifiers

Unit 3:   Mixed Conditionals

Unit 4:   The Admission Essay (or the College Essay)

Unit 5:   The Academic Essay

Unit 6:   The Argumentative Essay

Unit 7:   The Cause-and-Effect Essay

Unit 8:   The Classification Essay

Unit 9:   The Comparison Essay

Unit 10:   The Critical Essay

Unit 11:   The Deductive Essay

Unit 12:   The Definition Essay

Unit 13:   The Descriptive Essay

Unit 14:   The Evaluative Essay

Unit 15:   The Exploratory Essay

Unit 16:   The Expository Essay

Unit 17:   The Illustration Essay

Unit 18:   The Informal Essay

Unit 19:   The Literature Essay

Unit 20:   The Narrative Essay

Unit 21:   The Personal Essay

Unit 22:   The Persuasive Essay

Unit 23:   The Research Essay

Unit 24:   The Response Essay

Unit 25:   The Scholarship Essay

Unit 26:   The Process Essay

UNIT 1

Determiners

Francis: Let’s begin with determiners.

Rohit: That is a good idea. Before we move on to sentence structure, we should begin with single words. What about the more basic parts of speech such as nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions?

Francis: These have already been adequately covered in our first book, Who Said English Grammar Was Boring?, so I don’t think there is any need to repeat that here.

Rohit: So let’s start, then, on determiners. There are essentially nine types of determiners. We shall begin with the definite article. Let’s examine the use of the—the definite article. First of all, it is used to refer back to something already mentioned.

Francis and Rohit: We recommend that the material in bold be written on the blackboard by the teacher.

I know exactly where to get some confectionary. The shop is on the corner of this street.

It was blowing a gale last night. The wind blew a number of trees down.

That was an interesting novel. The book is on the table if you want to borrow it.

Francis: We need to think about the teaching methodology at this point, Rohit.

Rohit: Yes, keeping in mind reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Francis: And with the addition of a practicum whereby the students take turns at being the teacher.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We also use the definite article when we accept it as given that there is only one of something in a particular place. It doesn’t matter if it has not been mentioned before.

John and I went swimming in the sea yesterday.

We stayed at the hotel on Baker Street.

Which room is the sitting room?

Billy opened the present his uncle gave him for his birthday.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We also use the when we refer to a specific person or object we have identified.

Mr. Smithers is the headmaster of that new school.

I bought this hat from the milliner’s in Babble Road.

The book you just bought is a best-seller.

The building he has entered is in a dilapidated state of repair.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: For things that are unique, we can use the definite article.

Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

The Empire State Building is very tall.

The Queen visited our city.

The manager came to see us.

We photographed the Great Pyramid last week.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: The definite article should be used before ordinal numbers and superlatives.

This is the first edition of our book.

Bill is the cleverest student in our section.

Their teacher explained his lesson for the tenth time.

She is the most beautiful girl in this street.

The definite article can be used with adjectives to refer to entire categories of people.

The rich should help the poor.

The disabled should be given sheltered housing.

The Americans play baseball a lot.

The short-sighted need glasses.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We use the definite article for decades and centuries.

The Swinging Sixties was quite a decade.

This castle dates from the 1400s.

The artefacts here are from the tenth century BC.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: The definite article is used in clauses beginning with only.

Mr. Thompson is the only teacher who explains things clearly.

This is the only house for miles around.

Only the bank manager knows my financial situation.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We use the definite article with geographical and geological areas and features.

Roald Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole in 1911.

My family and I took a cruise down the Mississippi River.

Our ship ran aground on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Last week, we climbed the Pyrenees.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We also use the definite article for countries with plural names.

We had a holiday in The Bahamas.

My friend works in The Marshall Islands.

It should be noted that the T in these examples is uppercase.

We use the definite article for countries with kingdom, states, and republic in their names.

The Kingdom of Nepal is an amazing place to visit.

He lives in The Republic of Ireland.

Susan wants to do her postgraduate studies in The United States.

There are countries where the definite article is optional.

Emad comes from The Lebanon. (Emad comes from Lebanon.)

I used to work in Sudan. (I used to work in The Sudan.)

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: The definite article is used for the names of newspapers.

I saw his article in the Sun.

Danny Trabbot is a reporter for the Daily Telegraph.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: Then we use the definite article with names of famous buildings such as museums and art galleries; also with works of art and monuments.

The Smithsonian Museum is a wonderful place to visit.

The Scream is a well-known painting by Edvard Munch.

The Cenotaph, a war memorial, is in London.

The Louvre is a famous art gallery.

TASK 1

Ask the students to give a presentation on what they have learned so far about the definite article. They should talk for anywhere between three and five minutes.

TASK 2

Ask the students to write a paragraph using the definite article in the way it has so far been presented.

Practicum: Select a student to give a mini lesson on what has been so far taught about the use of the definite article.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph using the definite article in the way you have learned it in the lesson thus far. Do not copy from your paragraph in task 2.

Rohit: We use the definite article for the names of hotels and restaurants unless they are named after people.

We stayed at