Lesson Seven / 13/05/2009

(Absent: Jinny Seo, Ji Eun Kang, Jung Ryun Kim, Kwang Jun Jang)

Lesson Summary

In the seventh lesson, we:

Considered the importance of clear paragraphing.
Discussed the contents of different paragraphs in correspondence.
Examined what makes an effective paragraph.

Some important issues from this lesson were:

Dense text is difficult to read, like looking into a forest and trying to find a path: paragraphing helps make your text easier on the eye, and is considerate to the reader.
Virtually all messages have a beginning, middle, and end - even postcards have a salutation, a main message, and an idiomatic ending. Clarity of structure is what readers expect.
An effective paragraph will 'hang together' well - it will be coherent in its structure. This effect is created by:

Having an obvious beginning, middle, and end.
Repetition of key vocabulary, phrases, and ideas.
Judicious use of referents.
Signposting clearly by using discourse markers.
Separating different ideas into different paragraphs to avoid confusion.

The materials used for this lesson are attached below.

Self-study Practice: Mid-Course Feedback

This week you are asked to send an e-mail to your teacher giving your opinion on some aspect of the course so far. You can find the instruction document below. Unless you prefer to keep your message private, you can also post your opinion on the discussion board. This is to be completed by Tuesday, May 19.