UNIT 5. TELLING TALES - LESSON 3 – HOW TO WRITE…..AND HOW NOT TO!

NAME: Javier Muñoz

DATE: Thursday, June 18, 2020
1. DO YOU ASPIRE TO BE A WRITER? LOOK AT SOME “WRITING RULES” SUGGESTED BY VARIOUS
SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS AND COMPLETE THEM WITH THESE WORDS. LISTEN TO THE COVERSATION AND
CHECK YOUR IDEAS.

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inspiration power

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editing
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2. READ THESE OPENING LINES FROM A SHORT STORY BY SARA PARETSKY CALLED The Maltese Cat. WHAT
KIND OF STORY IS IT? DO THESE LINES MAKE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE?

Her voice on the phone had been soft and husky, with just a whiff of the South laid across it like a rare
perfume. “I´d rather come to your office; I don´t want people in mine to know I´ve hired a detective.”
I´d offered to see her at home in the evening – my spartan office doesn´t invite client confidences. But she
didn´t wait until tonight, she wanted to come today, almost at once, and no, she wouldn´t meet me in a
restaurant. Far too hard to talk, and this was extremely personal.
“You know my speciality is financial crime, don´t you?” I asked sharply.
“Yes, that´s how I got your name. One o´clock, fourth of the Pulteney, right?” And she´d hung up without
telling me who she was

It´s a detective story. Elements that might make them want to continue are that they want to find out what
the personal matter is and why the caller wants a financial lawyer, why it´s so urgent, why no one must
know about it, etc.
3. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE STORY.
1. What do you learn about the writer and the caller from this extract?
The narrator is a detective specializing in financial crime who has a spartan office. She is flexible (was willing
to meet the client at home or in a restaurant). The caller is a female with a husky voice and a southern
accent who works in an office with other people, wants to hire a detective, urgently, about something
financial and very personal.

2. How does the writing match up to Rules 3, 6 and 10.

Answers to this will be subjective, but the dialogue sound fairly natural (rule 3) – it uses contractions and
ellipsis, It includes some description, but not excessive amount (rule 6), and it avoids clichés (rule 10)
(although students may find the comparison of the woman’s accent to a rare perfume odd).

4. FIND AND UNDERLINE ALL THE ´d SHORT FORMS IN THE OPENING LINES OF The Maltese Cat. WHICH
ONES ARE SHORT FOR had AND WHICH FOR would?

_I´d rather_ = _____would______

__I’ offered______ = ____had_________
_She´d hung up___ = ____had____

GRAMMAR
5. COMPLETE THE CONVERSATION WITH THE CORRECT FORM OF had OR would.
A. I think we __had__ better start walking. They could discover we´ve left any minute.
B. I __had_____ rather we waited for the bus.
A. No, we _would_ be better off walking than waiting. It´s too risky.
B. You _wouldn’t say that if you were wearing these heels!
A. Sorry. I hadn´t noticed that you had heels on.
B. That´s OK. But I would_ rather we didn´t walk if you don´t mind.
A. Not at all. I would just like the bus to come soon! They might be catching up with us.
6. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. THEN LISTEN TO SOME POSSIBLE ANSWERS (Audio 2.10)
1. Do you think there´s a difference in the way we learn to speak and write? Children are congratulated for
trying and encouraged to make mistakes when speaking, but in writing they´re made to worry about
correctness and become terrified of making mistakes.
2. Why are we afraid of writing? Because we´re trained to worry about making mistakes, of getting it wrong
3. What´s the difference between writing and editing? Editing is checking and correcting, whereas writing is
the creative part
4. How can we get better at writing fluently? We need to practice separating writing and editing. Write first,
without stopping to check, then go back and edit it afterwards
7. DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THIS QUOTE FROM MARK TWAIN? WHY / WHY NOT?
“If we taught our children to speak in the way that we taught them to write, everyone would stutter.”
I agree with this quote, because to write, as I am doing now, we think and rethink what occurs to us, we erase,
rewrite, stop and rewrite.

LANGUAGE IN ACTION

AGREEING AND POLITELY DISAGREEING

8. LOOK AT THE PHOTOS AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION (Audio
2.11)

1. What problem do you think Marianne is having with

her company?
She doesn´t have an __intern and there´s too much
_work__, and also a lot of _competitors___.

2. What do you think she is hoping to accomplish?

She´s hoping to update the website to emphasize
their _custom-made food boxes more.

9. MARIANNE TALKS ABOUT HOW HER PRODUCT IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS.

WHAT ARE THE TWO REASONS SHE GIVES? DOES DANA AGREE? (Audio 2.11)
Reason 1: the ___pakaging__
Reason 2: They __custom-made___ their __food boxes___ .
Dana agrees / disagrees
10. MATCH THE PHRASES FROM THE CONVERSATION WITH THE CORRECT MEANING

1. the work´s really piled up c a) too much detail

2. what we´re up against e b) it´s a hard thing to do
3. out there d c) the amount of work has increased
4. busy a d) in existence
5. it´s a lot to ask b e) what other people are doing in the same area
11. MARIANNE AND DANA MANAGE TO AGREE AND DISAGREE POLITELY DURING THEIR CONVERSATION.
WRITE “A” (agreement) OR “D” (disagreement) NEXT TO EACH OF THESE SENTENCES.

1. It´s a nice design…although I don´t know about all those bright D

colors.
2. Yes, that´s a big plus. A
3. Well, personally, I don´t like the font. D
4. Actually, I quite like the font, but the page does look too busy. D
5. Yeah, that´s what I thought. A
12. LISTEN (Audio 2.12).
WHAT DO BOTH MARIANNE AND DANA DO TO MAKE THEIR DISAGREEMENT IN SENTENCE 3 AND SOUND
MORE POLITE?

They use __personally____ and _actually___ to moderate their answers, pausing

after the __adverbs___ so that they don´t seem rude.