Funnel Introduction

Connectors

The Hamburger Structure

Thesis Statement

A useful tip

This is some simple yet valuable advice that got me through countless essays as well as a number of speeches while I was studying at university.  I hope you find it as useful as I did.

Greetings from your new English lector.

Hello everyone.  My name is Jason Aaron Finley and I'm going to be your English lector this academic year.  Just to let you all know a little about myself, I'm from a very small town in Kentucky and I have been living in Spain for about eight years now.  While living in this country, I have had a lot of different experiences helping others improve their English skills.  I am looking forward to extending any bit of useful knowledge I may have to make you better English speakers and writers.  If there is anything I can do to help you during your academic journey, please don't hesitate to ask.

Best wishes,

Jason

jasonaaron.finley@um.es

...isn't it?

Do you feel identified with some quote? You might make use of one or more quotes to write a free post on your blog

1. The first draft of everything is shit. -Ernest Hemingway

2. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, emassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass. -David Ogilvy

3. If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy. – Dorothy Parker

4. Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home. -Paul Theroux

5. I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. — Harper Lee

6. You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. ― Jack London

7. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. — George Orwell

8. There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. ― W. Somerset Maugham

9. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time — or the tools — to write. Simple as that. – Stephen King

10. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. – Neil Gaiman

11. Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die. – Anne Enright

12. If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do. – William Zinsser

13. Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college. – Kurt Vonnegut

14. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. – Ernest Hemingway

15. Write drunk, edit sober. – Ernest Hemingway

16. Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Hard to know the shape of the thing until you have a draft. Literally, when I wrote the last page of my first draft of Lincoln’s Melancholy I thought, Oh, shit, now I get the shape of this. But I had wasted years, literally years, writing and re-writing the first third to first half. The old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage to write badly. – Joshua Wolf Shenk

17. Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. – Mark Twain

18. Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that — but you are the only you.― Neil Gaiman

19. Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. – Oscar Wilde

20. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ― Ray Bradbury

21. Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.– Lev Grossman

A CLASH OF THOUGHTS [B2 GROUP POEM]

Fear of darkness.

Fear of waking up and being alone.

Fear of not being good enough.

Fear of bad influences.

Fear of being loved and not loving in the same way.

Proud of having found myself.

Fear of being alone when there are a lot of people.

Fear of myself.

Fear of failure.

Fear of empty hearts.

I don’t believe in “friends”.

Fear of regretting not having done the things I should have done.

Fear of being alive when no one is.

Fear of regret.

Fear of losing control.

Fear of being forgotten by the people I love.

Fear of being stolen.

Fear of seeing someone dead.

Fear of the unknown.

Fear of finding the one and not loving enough.

Fear of my decisions.

Fear of being at home in a sunny day.

Fear of listening to noises in the middle of the night.

Proud of “s” and “c” sounds.

Not interested in writing a poem.

Fear of not reaching all my goals.

Fear of having an accident.

Fear of ending up the same.

Fear of being in a wheelchair.

Fear of losing the wings that make me feel alive every day.

AT NIGHT [B1 GROUP POEM]

Fear of giving up.

Fear of talking in front of many people.

Fear of the lies told for love.

Fear of seeing the truth in your eyes.

Fear of the silence between us.

Fear of the loneliness… again.

Fear of nothing and fear of everything.

Bad news! Bad news! I failed my exam and then…

Fear of seeing a good person torn into pieces.

Fear of not trying when the moment comes.

Fear of becoming an adult.

Fear of forgiveness.

Love despite of distance.

Wish you were happy.

Proud of fairy tales getting kids to sleep…

Fear of seeing a spider in the night.

Fear of living an unhappy life.

Fear of living in the past.

Fear that my parents will die.

Fear of feeling out of me.

Fear of losing my memory and don’t remember anything.

Fear of being just another puppet.

Proud of what I’ve become.

Believe in your dreams.

Fear of my thoughts at night.

A piece of advice

Welcome to PRÁCTICAS DE REDACCIÓN

Dear Students,

Your teachers Soledad and Alejandro welcome you into this amazing writing world. This blog should help you develop your writing skills during the term. Just enter your e-mail address in the box “Follow by Email” to start receiving our newsletters.

Besides, you will be asked to create your own personal blog and interact with your teachers and classmates! We invite you to be as you are: creative, participative, romantic, realist, poet, prudent, sensible, industrious, day-dreamer, stubborn, funny, joker, classic... All in all, be yourself (and please, do try to be persevering as well!)

Best,

Alejandro and Soledad

alejandro.camacho@um.es

soledadm.romero@um.es

Prácticas de redacción 2015/2016	TEORÍA	PRÁCTICA PREVISTAS (se avisará debidamente de los cambios y las sesiones prácticas añadidas)
SEMANA 1 16-18 Septiembre	INTRODUCCIÓN Y TEMA 1: Getting ready to write	-Presentación asignatura + test inicial (Práctica 1) -Completar los ejercicios más importantes del tema 1, comentando brevemente la teoría.
SEMANA 2 21-25 Septiembre	TEMAS 2 y 3: The structure of a paragraph/ Development of a paragraph	Ejercicios tema 2 y 3 Práctica: Experimento poema
SEMANA 3 28 septiembre-  2 octubre	TEMA 4: Descriptive and Process Paragraph	Práctica : Descripción persona Feedback Ejercicios de repaso temas 1, 2, 3 y 4.
SEMANA 4 5-9 octubre	TEMA 5: Opinion Paragraphs	Práctica: Descripciones de  lugares Práctica (evaluable): párrafo de opinión (5%) Práctica: narrativa literaria, según directrices (relato, anécdota, etc.)
SEMANA 5 12-16 octubre	TEMA 6: Comparison/ Contrast Paragraphs	Feedback. Entrega de Práctica evaluable corregida Práctica: Escritura párrafo contrastivo o ventajas y desventajas
SEMANA 6 19-23 octubre	TEMA 7: Problem / Solution Paragraphs	Práctica: Escribir un problem-solution paragraph Práctica: Escribe una composición (problem-solution)
SEMANA 7 26-30 octubre	TEMA 8: The structure of an essay	Práctica evaluable: 2 párrafo + thesis statement (5%)
SEMANA 8 2-6 noviembre	TEMA 9: Outlining an Essay	Tutorials
SEMANA 9 9-13 noviembre	TEMA 10: Introductions and Conclusions	Práctica: Escribir una introducción Feedback Práctica: Escribir una conclusión
SEMANA 10 16-20 noviembre	TEMA 11: Unity and Coherence	Días 18 (B1) y 20(A y B2): Práctica evaluable Outline + Introduction + Conclusion
SEMANA 11 23-27 noviembre	TEMA 12:  Writing an Essay	Prácticas
SEMANA 12 30 noviembre- 4 diciembre	Práctica evaluable: Essay (10%)	Doble sesión
SEMANA 13 9-11 diciembre	REPASO GENERAL
SEMANAS 14 Y 15 14 -23 diciembre	TUTORÍAS INDIVIDUALES