PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD JAVERIANA

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Communication and Language
English 6 International Business
WRITING WORKSHOP
Name ______________________________________________________________ Date ____________________________
Write a five-paragraph essay on ONE of the following topics. In each case, give reasons and details to explain your
choice. Use appropriate connectors to give your work coherence.
1) When people move to another country, some of them decide to follow the customs of the new country. Others
prefer to keep their own customs. Compare these two choices. Which would be preferable for an International
Business executive? Give reasons for your answer.

2) Do you agree with the following statement? Only people who earn a lot of money are successful.
Give reasons and examples to support for your answer.

 Underline the Thesis Statement in the introductory paragraph.

 Underline the Topic Sentence in each of the paragraphs, which comprise the body of the essay.
 Make sure that each Topic Sentence is duly supported by at least two pieces of detailed supporting
information.

 Make sure that you have used connectors to give coherence to the essay and make sure that these connectors
are appropriate.
 Make sure that the reasons and details to explain your choice are stated clearly and coherently.
Excellent Good Fair Poor

EVALUATION DESCRIPTORS 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.25

The introductory paragraph contains a concise, clear and strong thesis statement
with appropriate general statements, which support it and lead to the body of the
essay. Absolute clarity is a must.

The three body paragraphs correspond to the subdivisions of the thesis statement
and each one has a well-written topic sentence and at least two pieces of detailed
supporting information.

The concluding paragraph restates the main points made in the body paragraphs
and a final comment to summarize the initial argument.

The essay shows good use of sentence structure – word order, spelling, subject/verb
agreement, word usage, word order and punctuation.

Demonstrates the correct use of connecting words and expressions within and
between the paragraphs.

OBSERVATIONS: