This document provides guidance on writing strategies for beginners, including how to develop paragraphs. It discusses generating ideas through brainstorming, organizing ideas, writing a first draft, revising ideas, editing for grammar, and identifying topic sentences, subjects, verbs, and concluding sentences. The writing process involves five steps - get ideas, organize ideas, write a first draft, revise ideas, and edit for grammar.

1. WRITING STRATEGIES FOR BEGINNERSFROM SENTENCES TO PARAGRAPHFIRST LEVEL INTENSIVE COURSEBY JOSEFINA CALLE

2. Writingisnotaneasytask.Itisnecessarytofollow a process:1. Get ideas Get a better idea2. Organize ideas3. WriteThink of a betterwaytoorganize4. ReviseNeed more ideas5. EditFindsomegrammarmistakesTHE WRITING PROCESS

3. BRAINSTORMINGOnewaytoget ideas forwritingistobrainstorm.Brainstormmeanstothinkabout a topic and writedown as many ideas as possible in a list.Whenyoubrainstormwritewordsorphrases.Youdon´tneedtowritesentences.Some ideas willbegoodones, and otherswillbenotuseful.Lateryou can use the ideas thatyouwantto use.1. GET IDEAS

4. Fromthelist of ideas:Decide which ideas to use; then,Orderthem.2. ORGANIZE IDEAS

5. ThefirstdraftThefirst time youwrite a paragraph, itiscalledthefirstdraft.Try towriteyour ideas in aninterestingway.Don´tworryaboutmakingmistakes.Checkittwo times: revising and editing3. WRITE

6. Revise means:Checkingyour ideasItdoesnot mean checkingyourgrammar. Youwillhave time to do itafteryou revise.4. REVISE

7. Editmeans:Checkingthegrammar in yourwriting.Itisimportant:To revise your ideas first and thenedityourgrammar.Ifyou revise first, youwillnotwasteyour time editingirrelevantsentences.5. EDIT

8. Whatdoes a sentence mean?Sentences are group of wordsthatexpress a complete idea. Theybeginwith a capital letter and endwith a punctuationmark.Examples:Small dogs are goodpets.Do youhaveanypets?My neighbor has fifteenpets. I don´tlikepets; so, I don´thaveanypet.FOCUS ON SENTENCE GRAMMAR

9. In English:Everysentencemusthave a subjet and a verb. A sentencewith a subject and a verbiscalled a simple sentence.A subjecttellswhoorwhat a sentenceisabout. A simple sentence can have more thanonesubject.Jackiehatesthemorning.Everymorning, hermother and fatherwake up at sixo´clockAverbtellswhatthesubjectisordoes. A simple sentence can have more thanoneverb.Jackiehatesthemorning.Shenevergets up orspeakstoanyonebeforenineo´clock.SIMPLE SENTENCES

10. Mark eachunderlinedwordwith a Sforsubject of Vforverb:My dogshorty At home in Mexico, I havea littledog. Sheisanimportatpart of ourfamily. WecallherShorty. Sheisa littlefat, buthershapeisvery cute. All my friendsknowhername and playwithher. My fathersometimesgetsangrywithherbecausesheeatsplants in hisgarden. Histomatoes and flowers are herfavoritesnacks. I wouldliketopetShortyrightnow.IDENTIFYING SUBJECTS AND VERBS

11. Whatdoes a paragrah mean?Goodparagraphs in Englishconsist of threetoeightsentencesononetopic.Paragraphsusuallyhavethreeparts:A topicsentence,usually at thebeginning, whichtellsthemain idea of theparagraph.Severalbodysentencesin themiddle, whichgivesupportinginformationaboutthetopicsentence.A concludingsentenceat theend, whichrestatesthetopicsentence.PARAGRAPHS

12. Readtheparagraphbelow:My grandmother ------------- Shewasborn 77 yearsago in England, Whenshewas a baby, herfamily moved tothe USA. AfterHighSchool, sheworked in a bakeryuntil se married my grandfather. She can stillmakedeliciouscakes! My grandfatherdiedfiveyearsago, so sheliveswithusnow. My grandmotherisnotpatient, butshenevergetsangrywith me. Shealwasyslistensto me and helps me with my problems.Checkallthesentencesthat are goodtopicsentencesfortheparagraph:-----1. My grandmotheristall and thin. -----2. I think my granmotheris a wonderfulperson.-----3. Animportantperson in my lifeis my grandmother.-----4. My grandmotherhadfivechildren.-----5. Let me tellabout my Grandma.-----6. My grandmother can make me laughwhen I am sad.IDENTIFYING TOPIC SENTENCES

13. Stowe Vermont Do youliketoskyor snowboard? For a trulyrelaxingwintervacation como toStowe, Vermont, in the Green Mountains. Enjoythefreshmountain air and snow at Mount Mansfield. Do youlike ice skating? Thereis a small ice skatingrinkneartheskatingarea. At thebottom of themountain, there are severalwonderful restaurants foreatinginsideoroutside. At the hotel nexttotheskyarea, thereis a heated pool and a hottub . In thetown of Stowe, there are plenty of antique shops and restaurants. Stowe, Vermont, is a great place for a wintervacation.Readthetravelbrouchure. Thenunderlinethemain idea.

14. Wordsthat show sequency of events are: first, then, next, afterthat, finally.Thisis a goodwaytoorganizethesupportingsentences in thebody of a paragraph.Writeabout a camping dayyoutook in thepast, add time wordsto show thesequency.USING WORDS TO SEQUENCE EVENTS

15. A concludingsentenceisusuallythelastsentence in a paragraph. A goodconcludingsentenceoftenrepeatstheparagraph´smainidea in differentwords.Writeit. Underlinethemain idea and write a concludingsentence in theparagraphbelow: Janet Francis wantstoteachabout local history. She has a collection of 50 oldmaps of Boston neighborhood. Shealso has a collection of oldphotosfromtheneighborhood. Everymonth, Janet invites neighborstoherapartmentto look at hermaps and photos. ¨Peopleliketoseehowthisneighbohoodchanged,¨Janetsays. ¨ IDENTIFYING CONCLUDING SENTENCES

16. Followtheintructionsyouread and writeyourownparagraph.Choose a topicyouliketowriteabout. WRITE YOUR PARAGRAPH

17. Cameron S. & Vargo M. (2008).Hemipheres. New York: McGraw-HillIngram, B. & King, C. (2005). FromWritingtoComposing. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. Singleten, J. (2005).Writers at WorkTheParagraph. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. REFERENCES