1. Writing an interesting
introductory paragraph
30th September 2013
MID-PRIMARY COMPOSITION WRITING TIPS
Let’s review good writing habits and commonly
made errors.
2. COMPOSITION WRITING
HELPING SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
(1) 1st person account – a personal recount
(2) Good to begin with a dialogue (D), makes
the writing more dramatic.
(3) Use past tense throughout for a personal
recount/ story-telling.
4. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM
(6) 3rd person account – telling a story
(7) A passion for art went overboard,
the kid began to paint the wall.
5. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(1) He when to school.
Went
(2) Went the family went out, …
When
6. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(2) Be realistic – A man was jogging in the
park when he ran straight into a bench. He
was blocked by the bench and collapsed
over the bench. Is it realistic?
7. COMPOSITION WRITING
Be realistic. Do you think it is
likely that this man, while
jogging, ran into a bench
accidentally and fell over the
bench? GET REAL !!
8. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(3) Always “SHOW”, never “TELL”
TELL: “This was what happened that
day…Jim went to get some paint…”
9. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(3)(a) Don’t begin a sentence with “And”
And he found a bottle of spray paint rolling
on the floor.
A bottle of spray paint was found rolling
on the floor.
10. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(3)(b) Don’t begin a sentence with “So”
He was bored at home. So he thought of
spraying some paint on the wall.
He was bored at home. An idea came to
him. He thought of spraying some paint on
the wall.
11. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(4) “The boy used crayons to vandalise the
floor” – does this fit in with 2nd picture?
Always follow the picture(s) (at least one
picture) closely.
12. COMPOSITION WRITING
“The boy used crayons to
vandalise the floor” – does this
fit in with 2nd picture?
Always follow the picture(s) (at
least one picture) closely.
13. COMPOSITION WRITING
AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(6) Use the 1st person or 3rd person account
consistently and correctly in your writing.
Tom was glad his parents had gone to work. I
was left alone by myself.
14. AN ACT OF VANDALISM & HELPING
SOMEONE IN DISTRESS
Commonly made mistakes
(7) Use past tense consistently for all personal
recounts and story-telling.
apologised
Eg He quickly apologise to the police officers
and promised never to do it again.
COMPOSITION WRITING
17. How to make our introductory paragraph
better??
Dialogue
Description of
feelings/weather/
state
Adding
adjectives/adverbs
Adding similes/
idioms
Flashback
18. Examples:
“Mum! Where are my shoes?” yelled Megan as
she realised she was late for school.
OR
"What are you laughing it? I'm late for a major
exam that determines the rest of my life and the
two of you are giggling! You must have something
to do with this!" I yelled in frustration. I guess my
tone was nasty as my youngest brother started
crying.
Dialogue
19. The sun was shining brightly and the birds were chirping
cheerfully. It seemed like a day that nothing would go wrong.
But…
OR
Perspiration was trickling down the sides of my [WHO] face,
every step causes a drop that was dangling at my chin to
splatter on the tar road. It was the day of my PSLE
examination.
OR
I woke up this morning thinking it was six in the morning. The
room was dark, the air was fresh and most importantly, my
trusty clock had its shorter hand pointing at six and its longer
hand in the opposite direction.
Description of
feelings/weather/
state
20. I proudly walked down the aisle to collect the
wonderful prize. I excitedly looked to my
lovable parents, who were cheering happily
for me. I gave a broad grin and recalled the
day of the stressful competition…
Adding
adjectives/adverbs
FLASHBACK!
21. When she laughed, the sunlight went splashing off
her teeth like diamonds in search of adventure. I
was as happy as a lark when I received my birthday
present.
Adding similes/
idioms
26. ATTEMPT A GOOGLE RESPONSE
Be the first 5 to respond correctly to the Google Response and
you’ll be awarded with a Dojo point!. Treat this as
a revision for the coming SA2 Paper 1 examination.
