Welcome to Part 3 of the writing pages! From Part
2, let's now go step-by-step in developing
our compositional writing.
In this part, we'll look at another
kind of composition - processes (手順) - writing about the steps
or order (順番) of how
to do something.
Compositional writing - processes/作文の書いて：手順
Let's look at the example of
the composition from Part 2:
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 food from all over the world they 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.
Now let's imagine we want
to change that last paragraph. Let's say we want to show
that the university festival is already over and that you learned how to
do something there. Maybe it might look something like this - showing
a process or procedure!
In processes, we can show steps of a
procedure, or how something works. This is useful for anything from
a recipe to the mechanics of a device or other piece of equipment.
For our sample composition
above, we could do something like this:
(…) Right now, the
university festival has just finished. I had such a great time there,
and learned so much as well as making many new friends. But one of the
best things about it was learning how to make a dish I really like - Thai green
chicken curry. Here is what I learned about how to
make it.
From here, begin by showing
the things you need to make the dish:
I am so excited about making this that I will show how to make it. First, you need green curry paste, which you can get at
any supermarket. You also need coconut milk, plus whole or soy milk, a little
water, cut chicken pieces, bamboo shoots, cut eggplant, cut red and yellow
peppers, basil, and as an option an extra vegetable, like potatoes,
or perhaps something like okra.
Now show how to make the dish:
To begin with, fry up the green
curry paste on moderate heat in a pot until you can smell it. Then lower the
heat, and carefully add one can of the coconut milk. Stir constantly
until you see a thin film of oil on the top. Spoon it off, then carefully add
the chicken pieces and slowly raise the heat back to moderate level. When it
starts to boil, lower the heat slightly and add one-half to one whole cup of
the whole or soy milk, then the bamboo shoots, eggplant, peppers, plus any
extra vegetable such as the potatoes or okra. Next, add one-quarter
of a cup of water.
Keep stirring for around 10-12
minutes, or until you can see that the chicken is done and the bamboo shoots
and vegetables are getting soft. At this point the coconut and other milk
and water mixture should be slowly boiling. Lower the heat further, and let
simmer for an extra 3-4 minutes.
After that, serve in a bowl or soup
cup, and add the basil. It is great to go with Thai-style rice, or even regular
Japanese rice if you do not have Thai rice. Finally, you are ready to eat!
Now here's how it would fit with our sample
composition:
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 festival
has just finished. I had such a great time there, and learned so
much as well as making many new friends. But one of the best things about
it was learning how to make a dish I really like - Thai green chicken curry. Here is what I learned.
I am so excited about making this that I will show how to make it. First, you need green curry paste, which you can
get at any supermarket. You also need coconut milk, plus whole or soy milk, a
little water, cut chicken pieces, bamboo shoots, cut eggplant, cut red and
yellow peppers, basil, and as an option an extra vegetable, like potatoes,
or perhaps something like okra.
To begin with, fry
up the green curry paste on moderate heat in a pot until you can smell it. Then lower the heat, and carefully add one
can of the coconut milk. Stir constantly until you see a thin film of oil
on the top. Spoon it off, then carefully add
the chicken pieces and slowly raise the heat back to moderate level. When it
starts to boil, lower the heat slightly and add one-half to one whole cup of
the whole or soy milk, then the bamboo
shoots, eggplant, peppers, plus any extra vegetable such as the potatoes
or okra. Next, add one-quarter of a cup
of water.
Keep stirring for around 10-12 minutes, or until
you can see that the chicken is done and the bamboo shoots and vegetables are
getting soft. At this point the coconut and other milk and water mixture
should be slowly boiling. Lower the heat further, and let simmer for an extra
3-4 minutes.
After that,
serve in a bowl or soup cup, and add the basil. It is great to go with
Thai-style rice, or even regular Japanese rice if you do not have Thai rice. Finally, you are ready to eat!
IMPORTANT NOTE: One way to
help organize the steps of the process is to use signal words -
these are words that show one step to another in an order (順番).
First/To begin with…
Then…
Next…
After that…
Finally…
そしたら・・・
First, you need green curry
paste…
To begin with, fry
up the green curry paste…
Then lower the heat…
…then
carefully add the chicken pieces…
…then the
bamboo shoots, eggplant, peppers…
Next, add one-quarter of a
cup of water…
After that,
serve in a bowl or soup cup…
Finally, you
are ready to eat!
I hope this can help you as a model with how to
explain a process. Go to Part 4 for more on compositional writing!
Image:
"Green Curry" (courtesy of tiverylucky)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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