Communicative Writing May 11, 2002

1. Revising Compositions.

• Listen to the tapes with my comments on your composition.
• If I have misunderstood something you wrote or if you don't understand my comments, please ask me.
• I do have a couple of tape recorders you can use to listen to the comments, but please try to bring your own walkman if you have one.

2. Remember when writing your compositions to follow the composition format, in particular the following:

• write the name of the assignment at the top of the composition;
• write the line numbers every 5 lines;
• double space.

3. Focusing writing in a Letter to the Editor

• This class we will look at focusing our writing when writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper.
• Go first to the focusing part of the process writing page.
• Then look at the Letters to the Editor assignment page.
• Look at the example letters.
• Write your own letter.

4. Compound Sentences

• To help you develop your sentence building skills, I want you to concentrate on compound sentences.
• To review simple sentences and compounding, go here.
• Then go back to your composition and compound any sentences where you feel it would improve your writing.
• Underline the compound sentences you have used.
• Remember, you do not need to make every sentence a compound sentence.

More advanced writers should look at sentence variety as well.