CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐÀO TẠO TRỰC TUYẾN

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

SCRIPT
Subject: ACADEMIC WRITING 2
Unit 2:
Part 2:
Slide Content
1 Hello. Welcome back to the second part of the unit: steps to write a descriptive
essay. We are going to step by step writing an essay with the topic: Write an
essay to describe some of your favorite features of Tet holiday in Vietnam.
2 The first step is brainstorming the ideas to describe. In this step you should try
to find out what features of Tet you like best such as foods, activities, customs,
or decoration,.. In each features try to jot down some of the details that are related.
For example, when you think about foods on this occasion, Chung and Day cakes
will appear like the symbols.

3 Then try to list as many as possible the vocabulary that describe the features
you chose. Save that list so as to use when you make the outline and when you
write the first draft.
4 The second step is making an outline.
The question is: How can we make up the INTRODUCTION?
First, The Hook should introduce the importance of Tet among holidays
When writing the background information, try to find out the information by
answering the questions like: When to celebrate Tet? Why to celebrate? Who
participate in the celebration?
The thesis statement should state clearly which features of the Tet you like
best. For example, the feature of this thesis statement is the preparation for the
Tet
5 The next question is that how can we organize the information in the Body?
As I stated before, the number of the body paragraphs depend on the number of

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

the main ideas that you want to use to support the controlling idea in your thesis.
In this example, the writer has two main ideas to exploit: the first is the
preparation of the house and the second is the preparation of the traditional foods
on the occasion.

Therefore, the topic sentence of the first body paragraph should have the
controlling idea: prepare their house with lots of work in decoration and cleaning
To support the idea “the preparation of the house”, we have two supporting
points:
1. Cleaning the house and
2. Prepare the altar
To find out descriptive details for each supporting points, we should ask and
answer these following questions:
- Why to clean? What do we do to prepare our house?
- What do we use to decorate? What colors do we prefer in this occasion? Why?
- Why do we clean and decorate the altar?
- What are used to decorate the altar?
6 Similar to the way we build the outline for the first body paragraph, the
second one will be done with the controlling idea in the topic sentence:
Preparation of traditional foods
To support the controlling idea, we have two supporting points:
1. general description of foods and meaning
2. description of traditional foods and meaning
To find out descriptive details for each supporting points, we should ask and
answer these following questions:
What are the traditional foods?
What are some of their descriptions (look, taste, smell)?
What are the meanings of these foods?

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

Who enjoy the foods?

What other foods for the occasion?
7 In the conclusion, we will restate the controlling idea of the essay,
summary of the two main ideas that support the controlling idea of the essay and
final thought.
8 After making the outline, we start step 3: writing the first draft. You should
use your brainstorming vocabulary, and your outline to write your first draft.
While writing, pay attention to your use of descriptive adjectives and
prepositions/ prepositional phrases to describe the features of Tet that you like
best.
9 After finishing your first draft, come to the fourth step: Editing the paper
using the Editor’s check list. In each checking item, If your answer is YES, put
a stick on the box and go to the next question. If your answer is NO, revise this
mistake immediately.
You should read your paper at least two times before you revise your paper.
The first time reading is for checking the form and the content of the description.
At this time, you should check if the essay has the correct form, coherence and
unity. Then if the details are arranged in space order or if the descriptions touch
the senses of the readers or not. You should figure out any places where you can
add more information, correct wrong details, or cross out unnecessary
information. You may even need to change your organization so that your text is
more logical.
The second reading is for checking for the mistakes in using grammar, word
used, spelling, punctuations…..
10 - You can ask a classmate to exchange the essay with you. Your classmate reads
yours, and you read his or hers. Getting a reader's opinion is a good way to know
if your writing is clear and effective. Learning to give opinions about other
people's writing will help you improve your own. Now, you may want to go on

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

to step six now and revise the content and structure of your essay before you hand
it in.
11 Now, is the instruction clear for you to write your essay? Let’s start your
writing and enjoy it. See you soon in the next lesson: Narrative essays