東京理科大学 Writing & Composition 1a: Writing assignment 1・作文1

Hello!

 

How are you? Today I will show you our first (1st) writing assignment (作文1) for this class - writing your opinion, with support for your opinion, on a topic connected to the themes from the textbook in the listening and speaking class. 

Before we start, if you like another refresher on what we did in our 5/6 classes, click on this link. 

Themes (テーマ)

Here are your choice of themes. You can choose one (1) of these: 

• International relations 
• The environment

There are many topics you can choose from that fit with these themes. You can use a topic from one of the textbook chapters we have done so far in this class, plus any ideas you may have gotten from your listening and speaking class on the same textbook chapters. 

But here are also some other ideas for topics that fit with these themes and that you can try for. You could choose one (1) of these if you want: 

• Refugee resettlement in Japan (or another country)
• Brexit
• Work and effectiveness of a particular United Nations agency or of some famous NGOs such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders
• Relief work and resettlement of people from Fukushima and Miyagi after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami
• The impact of climate change on Japan

Deadline (締め切り)
It will be by the end of class on May 27th (5/27), so you have two (2) week(s) to prepare. You should have a rough draft (下書き) for next week (5/20), then have your final draft ready on 5/27.

*NEW NOTE: I know that some of you have a laptop computer or tablet, but not all of you do. So if you have your own computer or laptop, work on your final drafts, and bring your computer or laptop with you, with a USB, to class next week on 5/27.

If you don't have your own computer, bring a USB with you. Outside of class before next week, you should work on your writing on a campus computer, and save your Word file on your USB.

Your final draft for 5/27 will be typed on Word, and should be at least 3-4 paragraphs (段落) long - but if you can go longer, try for it! I encourage you to go longer and build your writing and take your ideas out further as much as you can.

Anything shorter than three (3) paragraphs will not be acceptable. I will ask you to re-write if you bring in less writing than what the assignment asks for. 

Please also do not write line-by-line sentences. Remember that you are writing paragraphs (段落), not lists of sentences. I will also ask you to re-write if you hand in a paper that has only lists of sentences on it. 

I will show you guidelines in class on 5/27 about Word formatting for your final drafts.

Guidelines

1. Prepare a rough draft about the topic you want to write on about a problem or situation, and your opinion of it, and especially try to propose a solution. I will give you some time to do some research, and begin writing, in class.

Important note:

The rough and final drafts should have: 

• A short introduction showing what your topic is
• One (1) major problem or situation about it, with some details or important points about it
• Your opinion about it, with your idea or ideas on solutions or extra actions to the problem or situation

Things to think about:
How big is the problem? What is the situation? What is your opinion about what might happen if nothing is done about it?  

For negative opinions - if you feel that not enough is being done about the problem or situation, or if you feel that the wrong things are being done - that you should try to show some possible solutions to the problem or situation, and support your opinion with facts and/or data.  

2. Be ready with your rough draft next week to read aloud to your classmates, and discuss your opinions and ideas. You do not have to agree with each other! Getting differing viewpoints from your classmates is important, and can help you to deepen your ideas. 

* This is very important! You don't have to have your rough draft 100% finished - but you have to have enough content so you can read aloud and discuss your writing! Do not come in with only 1-2 sentences!

3. Based on the discussions and any feedback you get from your classmates, then finalize your rough drafts outside of class into final drafts, and be ready to hand in on the deadline day on 5/27! 

Now here are the lesson board notes from our class today (5/13):

Good luck! See you next time!

Images: top - courtesy of public-domain.com/Board notes - personal photograph. All rights reserved.

特別ポスト: Places & Traces (Part 3)

Hello!

How are you? Here is one more set of samples for the great Places & Traces collection that you have made so much of! 

To see the first set, click here. To see Part 2, click here. 

Here are some more places, situations, and memories to share. Let's start! 

Some of our memories are not so much of certain places as they are of certain times in our lives, as in these two: 

My best memory

How are you? I will tell you about my best memory. My best memory is to join a Japanese archery club when I was high school student. My high school life consist of this club activity. It has two reasons.

First, I could win the championship in regional competition of Inter-High when I was senior in high school. Our club didn’t have any coaches. So it’s difficult to become well. Several club members caused trouble and left our club one after another. Moreover, I broke my elbow before regional competition of Inter-High. I was worried then, but I practice too hard by myself. Thereby, I could achieve good game results.

Also, I have had great rivals in another high school. I have had good juniors, too. I thought my mental became stronger thanks to them. I have a lot of hard experiences through club’s activity. But, I have met many great people and I have left a satisfying life. That is a good memory now. I will join the Japanese in this University. I will make a lot of memories, too. I don’t forget this memory which I learned how interesting making efforts.

My best friends

I’d like to talk about my friends from high school. We all belonged to the Japanese archery club, so we spent a lot of time together. We practiced Japanese archery every day and also visited many places together.

Last year, we went on an overnight trip to Fukushima in winter and Tokyo Disney Resort in spring. In Fukushima, we enjoyed skiing. It was the second for us to go skiing with this member. I’m not good at skiing but my friends who are good skiers helped me many times. After we got back to the hotel, we talked and played games all night long. At Tokyo Disney Resort, we rode many attractions. Though the lines were long and we had to wait for a long time, I didn’t get bored with talking with them. We had a fulfilling day. These trips are my good memories of my high school life.

There were times we fought over things about our club, but we are good friends that I can talk about anything with. They always give me advice whenever I am worried about something. Also, each of them have their own personality so it is fun for me to communicate with them. We went our separate ways but I still meet some of them who live near me. Some of them are still studying to enter their first-choice college and others go to universities far from where I live. So it is hard for me to meet all of them. I sometimes feel loneliness but I’m looking forward to getting together again sometime. I wish I can go for a drink with them after we come of age!

A special time indeed for the both of them! Now how about this one: 

About special days for me

My great memory is the days I spent as a tuba player. Tuba is the biggest and the lowest brass wind instrument, and I played it in the brass band of my elementary school and the wind orchestra of my junior high school for 5 years. I practiced it very hard, so though I couldn’t play it well in the beginning, I was able to improve enough to get first prize at a solo contest. Even though there were a lot of difficulties all of these days I enjoyed playing tuba.

Today I want to tell you one of the important episode in the memory, the competition we participated in when I was a second year student at my junior high school. That year, we could go to the third round, and this was my first and last experience of participating in the third round. First and second round were held at the halls in Saitama we had often used, however this round was held at the hall in Yamanashi we had never even been to. It was quite difficult for me to do my best in the unfamiliar environment, so I was very nervous. I felt the stage was larger, the time was longer, the eyes of audiences were icier, than usual. However, I was also excited. I was very happy that I could perform at the bigger stage, for longer time, and in front of many people who had never heard our music. This precious experience is my treasure. This is my first reason for choosing this episode.

The second reason is that competition was the last time I performed with my favorite senior. She was euphonium player and the leader of the bass part. She was so kind that she taught everything I couldn’t understand. Not only about music, we talked about many things such as school events and hobbies. What I was pleased the most was that she praised my test scores. I remember I was encouraged every time she praised me. I thought as if she were my sister. I was very happy and grateful that I had a lot of chances to play our music on a stage with her. For these reasons, this competition is quite important for me.

This is a part of my great memory. I will never forget these special days. 

Very special! Now let's look at these three - the first about a holiday, and the next two about two very different, but unique moments. 

Summer Holidays

This year, I went mountain and sea with my family.

First, I'd like to write about climbing. We went Okutama to climb Mt. Mito which is 1,531 meters above sea level. It has three summits and this is the origin of its name "Mito (three heads)". We took Holiday Rapid Akigawa, a special rapid service train of JR Chuo Line going straight through to the Ome Line and Itsukaichi Line to get to Musashi-Itsukaichi Station, the terminal station of the rapid train. Then we rode a bus to Tomin-no-mori bus stop (1000m), which is an entrance of Tomin-no-mori (Forest of Tokyo Citizen) in Hinohara Village. We started climbing from the bus stop. After a while, we reached Saiguchi Pass (1142m). While we were climbing toward Miharashi Cabin (1397m), it started rain. It didn't stop and we were completely soaked with rain when we arrived one of the tops of Mt. Mito (1528m). We ate curry doughnuts as our lunch there. After climbed all mountaintops of it, we took a north path which is along Nukazasu Ridge. It took us four hours to arrive Lake Okutama (530m) via Iriozawanomine Peak (1302m), Mt. Nukazasu (1175m), and Mt. Iyo (979m). Since Iyo is still 979 meters high, there were a lot of steep slopes between the Lake. During the traversing, I found a leech and a huge earthworm which was longer than thirty centimeters. I also found a place in which many Japanese pepper tree grew. We changed our clothes in a public lavatory after crossed Mugiyama Floating Bridge, which was floating on Lake Okutama. Then we took a bus to Okutama Station and went home by Ome Line and Chuo Line. It was exhausting, but I could get many fantastic and important things through this experience.

Second, I'll tell you about another fun thing I did - marine sports. We went to Zushi Beach to enjoy windsurfing. My mother had wanted to do the sport for a long time, and we decided to do it this year. It was a really hot day that day, however we have to wear a wet suit to protect our skin from ultraviolet rays, rocks, and jellyfishes. We had never experienced that sport, we didn't even know names of each parts of the sailboard. After an instructor taught us names of parts and how to operate the board, we managed to ride it and catch wind into its sail on the ocean. Soon after that, I began to be able to ride it for a little while. I was really excited when my board started to move! When I fell into the sea, sometimes I felt weak pricking pains in my arms. I could not see them but I think there were a lot of jellyfishes in the water. When we began to return to the shore, I felt a severe pain in my left foot. I jumped up and climbed up on the board. It was a spine of a sea urchin that pierced through a sole of my shoes! My foot really hurt as if I stepped on a nail. Next time, we have to bring a safety insoles, I think. 

Experiences that I got from windsurfing is not only terrible things like that. I could feel winds and waves in the ocean. That was really enjoyable and stress-relieving to me. Since I used many parts of body while windsurfing, I could train all muscles in my body. If I have time and money to spare, I want to go windsurfing again. 

The leg of the moth

My hobby is to look into what I'm interested in. Now, I want to talk about the most impressive thing among them.

One day, l was on the train on the way back to home. When the train stopped at the station, I could see the moth stopped outside the window of the train. I thought if the train started moving, the moth will blown off. But contrary to my expectation, the moth stopped at the window for about one minute after the train started to move. I thought why the moth was able to stop for one minute on the window of the moving train. So l made four hypotheses. First, moth has a suckers like octopuses. Second, moth has a claws like clipping sticks. Third, moth uses intermolecular attraction like geckos. Fourth, there are a sticky object at the window.

I got of the train, and I touched the window around the moth stopped, but there was no sticky object. Next, I got the corpse of a moth and observed its legs with a magnifying glass. I saw there are a claw and a lot of thorns on the moth's leg. So l understood moth hooks its claw thorns on the window to stop. 

Through this experience, I learned the joy of solving familiar doubts. I would like to continue this hobby in the future.

My precious “brother”

My great memory is that my cousin was born. When I was an elementary school student, I heard from my mother that my cousin would be born. My aunt is so kind and I felt her happiness was so great. My mother went to her hospital because of first birth. All my family was so excited.

One day my mother cried out, so I knew my cousin was born. Thus, we went to the hospital and saw my cousin. When I arrived at her hospital room, I saw a cute baby. He was so tiny, for example his hand was like a little leaf. But as a baby, he was big and strong. His face was like a monkey, but so cute! His eyes didn't open. I tried to open his hand, and then he gripped my finger strongly.

I felt I should become his “older sister,” so I thought I had to try hard everything. I experienced this special event, and I thanked my aunt, the baby whose name is Yuya, and all his family.

Now I meet him, we always have a good time. I may become his “sister.” 

What did you think of all these? These represent your work, and you have made this collection about places, events, times, and situations in your lives what it is. 

Good luck on your exams and other projects for other classes. I will miss having every one of you as students. 

Take care!

Images: Top - by travel oriented from Manila, Philippines - Spectacles Bridge, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64304467/Beach - by Tadashi Okoshi, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54862809