Welcome to Part 2 of the writing pages!
In developing paragraph writing to
compositional writing, there are a number of points you
can use to structure your writing.
There are some different
types of papers for composition. Probably the most
common are comparison & contrast (比較対照), procedures (手順),
and cause & effect (原因結果).
Along the way, you can show examples
and illustration to help strengthen your writing.
On this page, we'll first look
at comparison & contrast composition with examples
and illustration (例え、実例).
Compositional writing
- comparison and contrast/作文の書いて：比較対照
This is the one of
the most common types of composition.
Let's imagine you are building your paragraph
about university life. Perhaps an effective way to develop the composition
would be to compare & contrast (比較対照して) your
university life to your high school life.
Here's how it might look:
例えば：
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about
studying. It is a life unlike the one I had in high school.
そしたら・・・
In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In my
university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries.
それで：
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far
I enjoy this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life
unlike the one I had in high school. In high school, I went to school with kids
I grew up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries.
Examples and illustration (例え、実例)
This is important in developing your writing.
As you keep going in your paragraph, you can
use examples and illustration (例え、実例)
to make things more interesting in your writing:
例えば：
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life unlike
the one I had in high school. In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries. For example,
in my history class I sit next to a student from Malaysia. I have never met anyone
from Malaysia before, so I am learning as much about culture as I am about
history in that class. (…)
To make your topic and examples stronger,
you can even break up the paragraph into smaller,
separate paragraphs for more interesting effect:
例えば：
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life unlike
the one I had in high school.
(here, make two separate
paragraphs)
In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries. For example, in my history class I sit
next to a student from Malaysia. I have never met anyone from Malaysia before,
so I am learning as much about culture as I am about history in that class. (…)
そしたら・・・
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life unlike
the one I had in high school.
In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries. For example, in my history class I sit
next to a student from Malaysia. I have never met anyone from Malaysia before,
so I am learning as much about culture as I am about history in that class. (…)
Give more examples as
well:
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life unlike
the one I had in high school.
In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries. For example, in my history class I sit
next to a student from Malaysia. I have never met anyone from Malaysia before,
so I am learning as much about culture as I am about history in that
class. It is incredible! In my Japanese
class, there are students from eight different countries, and each one of
them speak great English. Some of them could already speak two or three other languages
before they came to this university.
Show different ideas in your examples as
well. You can make them into separate paragraphs for stronger
effect. From here, you now have the basics of a composition (作文):
University is a whole new world for me, and I
will tell you how. My life at my university is good and I
have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy
this school. But it is more than just about studying. It is a life unlike
the one I had in high school.
In high school, I went to school with kids I grew
up with from my elementary school days. In
my university, however, I go to classes with all different kinds of people, and
even some from other countries. For example, in my history class I sit
next to a student from Malaysia. I have never met anyone from Malaysia before,
so I am learning as much about culture as I am about history in that
class. It is incredible! In my
Japanese class, there are students from eight different countries, and
each one of them speak great English. Some of them could already speak two or
three other languages before they came to this university.
Right now, the university is
preparing for the school festival, and I cannot wait to see the food stands
they will have and all the different kinds of food from all over the world they
will serve. I can sample Indian curry, Turkish kebabs, souvlaki from Greece,
and roast pork from Nigeria. Even more, I can also see an Ethiopian coffee
ceremony, and try Korean herb tea with some great Thai sweets.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When you give
examples or illustrations, you usually group them by
their first letters in the alphabet, or by
the first letters in the alphabet of
the most important words.
You can also group things that go
together in a natural way by kind, type, area and/or place (例えば：coffee-tea,
fish-rice, family-home, China-Japan など)
I - Indian
curry
T -Turkish kebabs
souvlaki from Greece (G)
roast pork from Nigeria (N)
an Ethiopian coffee ceremony (E)
Korean herb tea with some
great Thai sweets (K, T) —> herb tea-sweets
(herb tea and sweets can often go together), Korea-Thailand
(both in Asia)
I hope this helps you start writing compositions in English! Go onto Part 3 for more about compositional
writing.
Images:
Top - Screenshot taken from image by Gregory Maxwell - From File:Yin yang.png,
converted to SVG by Gregory Maxwell., Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=364239/Thai curry - "Green
Curry" (courtesy of tiverylucky)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
No comments:
Post a Comment