1: Writing Basics: From Sentences to Text
The more we read, the more we write! Reading in English teaches you new words and shows you how words fit together in sentences. As you learn English, give yourself time to read often. You can read about anything you like: sports, fashion, movies, games, the list goes on and on. As long as you're reading, you're learning!
The materials below include information about grouping sentences together to create a short text in Standard English. After you read the explanations and watch the videos to learn about writing, you will have a chance to test your understanding by completing practice activities.
Taking college courses is all about reading and writing. We started this course by looking at word forms (parts of speech) and how we can group them to create phrases and then different types of sentences. Sentences can also be grouped together to create text: paragraphs and essays. Let's look at some basic information about grouping basic sentences to create a simple text or paragraph.
Much of the text and writing you'll do occurs in chronological order. This means that the events in a story happen in order from beginning to end. Writing in chronological order helps the reader follow what is happening in a story. For example, if a student wants to prepare for an exam, she will first go to class, then study, and finally, take the exam. These events all happen in an order the reader knows.
In this section, you will learn how to use context clues, prediction, and prior knowledge to help figure out the chronological order of a text.
Now that we know some writing strategies, let's put our knowledge into practice.
The activities below give you the opportunity to find out how well you understand the writing process. If you have a difficult time recognizing these strategies, you may return to review the information in the Let's Study section and then try these practice activities again.