Lauren, a lawyer, moves to a small isolated town for work and rents a house near an old shack. Every day on her walk home, she meets her neighbor, a young woman living in the shack. Lauren's coworker Paul offers to drive her home one day since the owner of the shack is supposedly dead, but Lauren insists her neighbor accompanies her. They discover the shack is empty and the neighbor is actually the spirit of the previous owner, who was murdered by her ex-husband, protecting Lauren from the escaped murderer on her walks.

1. Name: Juliana Pereira Andrade
Subject: English for Academic Purposes
Professors: Thais Mena Orduña and Maria Montse Irun Chavarria
Activity: Urban Myth
November/ 2016
The neighbour of the shack
This is a story of a beautiful woman called Lauren. She had been working as a
lawyer and had to move to a small city because of her job. She rented a house in an isolate
place where there were only her house and an old shack. Every day she walked from home
until downtown to work and she used to come back too late when the way was too dark.
At the beginning of the way, she always met her neighbour, a young woman that lived in
the shack and was having fresh air and walking. The two woman was becoming good
friends, but Lauren was a little upset because her neighbour had never accepted having
dinner with her.
One day, Paul, his colleague from work, has offered to drive her home. She said
that it was not necessarily, because her neighbour always went home with her. Paul got
surprised, because the owner of the shack had already died. Lauren said that the family
of the death owner had probably sold or rented the house and that he didn’t know the new
resident because she was such a quiet and reserved woman.
Lauren decided to accept the company of his colleague, because she wanted to
introduce her neighbour to him. Unfortunately, that day the young woman wasn’t in the
way. Lauren and Paul went to the shack to see if her neighbour was ok. They rang the
bell many times, without any answer. As they became worried, they decided to look into
the house in an open window and IT WAS EMPTY! They broke into the house and only
found a portrait. When Paul looked to the photo, he immediately said, ‘It’s the previous
owner that is died’, Lauren got shocked and stuttered, ‘This is my neighbour who have
been walking with me every day’.
They came back home astonished and then Paul told her about the woman’s death.
‘She had broken up with her husband and he hadn’t wanted to accept the situation. One
day, he waited for her in the middle of the way, to try to have a conversation, but she
didn’t want to. He became mad and killed her. This happened six months ago and, after
it, he went to a psychiatric hospital. Today I heard that a day before you arrive here, he
disappeared of the hospital. Because of it, I offered to drive you home, I don’t know what
he can do, he is dangerous. I didn’t tell it to you, because I didn’t want you to get scared.’

2. They decided that it would be better if she didn’t stay there alone. When they came
back to downtown, they knew that the man had been found that day in the evening, in the
way of Lauren’s home. So, they understood everything! The spirit of the neighbour had
been walking with Lauren every day to protect her of the murder. When he had been
found, she disappeared and could rest…

3. Description:
Your task is to write a popular myth for the university magazine. Think of all the
ideas mentioned in this unit. When you finish. Self-assess it but answering the questions
below.
Decide how well the story satisfies the criteria by answering the questions in each
category. Give examples from your story to support your opinions.
 Content
Have the instructions in the question been followed?
Yes. I wrote an urban myth and to do it I thought about the elements that are
common in this gender, like ghost, murders, beautiful women, isolate places. I had written
it based in the urban myths that were mentioned in the unit, but also based other ones I
know. The difference between my myth and the ones we saw in the unit is that in mine I
give names for the characters. I thought was better to do it, because it would make the
story clearer. In my myth there are two women and two men and I didn’t want the readers
to get confused about it, so the names were essential.
 Range
Have a variety of past tenses been used? Is there a wide range of vocabulary?
Yes. I used past perfect continuous (‘She had been working as a lawyer’), simple
past (She rented a house in an isolate place), past continuous (‘The two woman was
becoming good friends’), present perfect (‘Paul, his colleague from work, has offered to
drive her home’), past perfect (‘She had broken up with her husband’) and present
perfect continuous (‘This is my neighbour who have been walking with me every day’).
Yes, I tried to use a variety of vocabulary but without making the text too complex,
because myths, in general, have a language that is accessible to any person.
 Organization
Are the ideas and events organised logically? Are linking devices used well?
Yes. The verbal tenses helped me a lot to organize the text, because there were
events that happened in a time before the one of the myth and some of them were told
only at end. I had to be really attentive to use the correct past tense, so the readers could
understand that something happen in a more distant past and had consequences in the
past, that is the time when the myth happened.
Examples: “He hadn’t wanted to accept the situation. One day, he waited for her in the
middle of the way.”
“When he had been found, she disappeared and could rest”
All the myth was written in a chronological way, and I put connectors and expressions
of time to establish the sequence.
Examples: “One day, Paul, his colleague from work, has offered to drive her home.”

4. “When they came back to downtown, they knew that the man had been found that day in
the evening, (…)”
“This happened six months ago and, after it, he went to a psychiatric hospital.”
 Style and format
Is the story written using suitably neutral language? (neither too formal nor too
informal)
Yes, I didn’t use any word or expression from informal language, but it doesn’t mean
that I wrote in a very formal way. My myth was a written in a way that almost any person
who understand English could read it.
 Target reader
Would the reader be sufficiently interested to want to read to the end? Would it
have a chance of winning the competition?
As I said in the first topic, my myth has important elements of the gender, like the
ghost, the beautiful women, the murder, the isolate place. As a consequence of being
chosen these characters and this background, we have a mystery. I think it’s important to
maintain the mystery until the end, because it makes the readers interested in the story,
they will want to know what will happen, so they will not stop. I did it in my myth, I
revealed that the woman was a ghost after the middle of the story, but the mystery was
totally solved only in the last paragraph. I really like my myth, it has a good structure,
interesting characters and a really good plot, so I think it would have a chance of winning
the competition.