英语写作 Personal Letter

1、Lecture 61. Teaching task: Personal Letter writing 2. Teaching target and object: (1) Enable the students to know the differences between notes and letters(3) Enable the students to write different kinds of personal letters mainly letters of invitation and reply; letters of thanks; letters of congra

2、tulations; letters of apologies and explanations; letters of condolence and sympathy. (4) Enable students to know the correct format , content and the language used in personal letters3. Teaching focus: (1) The differences between notes and personal letters(2) How to write a letter of invitation and

3、 reply(3) How to write a letter of thanks(4) How to write a letter of apologies and explanation(5) How to write a letter of condolence and sympathy4. Teaching method: free writing-commentary -discussion-guided writing-commentary -comparison with the samples-summery 5. Teaching procedures:(1) Greetin

4、g(2) Let students know the teaching tasks, target and teaching focus. (4) The idioms of the day: look forward; getting to know; make it; at your disposal; drop by; in the neighborhood (3) Explain the idioms of the day and ask the students to use them in their own sentences.Look forward: expect : e.g

5、. I am looking forward to your reply.Getting to know: starting to know: e.g. We are getting to know each other.Make it: to come : e.g. I am sorry but Joe and I wont be able to make it to your barbeque this weekend. Thank you for the invitation and I hope well be able to make it for the next gatherin

6、g.At your disposal: be available (formal but a good idiom): e.g. If there is anything at all that I can do to help, please dont hesitate to give me a call. I am at your disposal.Drop by : visit but not according to an appointment: e.g. Yesterday I dropped by to see a friend .In the neighborhood: e.g

7、. Sometimes we can meet our acquaintances in our neighborhood.(4) The quotation of the day: “ The man who has made up his mind to win will never say “impossible”. ( Napoleon Bonaparte) (5) Discuss with the class the personal letters Do you often write letters? For what purposes do you often write le

8、tters? Do you often write letters to promote friendship? (say, to invite someone; to thank someone; to congratulate someone; to make apologies and explanation; to express condolence and sympathy) (6) Ask the students to write a personal letter of about 70-80 words to anyone they want to in any way t

9、hink appropriate. within 10 minutes.(7) Broadcast two or three students personal letters to the class so that we can make detailed comments.( 8) Show the students a sample letter of thanks: The Metallurgy Dept. University of Liverpool Liverpool LR5 6 KI England15 November, 2004Dear Mr. Rallinen, I m

10、ust write and thank you for your kindness to you on my visit to the Tampella factory earlier this month. I am very grateful for the time you spent answering my questions, and the trouble you went to, to make my stay in Tampella as interesting as possible. I can assure you those two days were the hig

11、hlight of my trip to Finland. Yours very sincerely, George R. Finlay(9) Discuss the format, the semantic elements, the language used in a personal letters:The format of a personal letter is a bit similar with notes. Every well-constructed personal letter is made up of five essential parts:A. The hea

12、ding: your address and the date ( where and when)B. The salutation: your complimentary greetings (to whom)C. The body : your purpose, information about yourself (what and why)D. The complimentary close: your complimentary good byeE. The signature (who) So the semantic structure of personal letter sh

13、ould be as follows: Heading salutation body (purpose and information) complimentary close signatureHeading: The heading is the senders address and the date of writing the letter. It always goes in the top right-hand corner. Start writing about in the center so that the longest line reaches your righ

14、t margin.Notes:a. The order of the address is as follows: number of house, name of street, town of city, area, country. Never write your name above your address.b. Pay special attention to the punctuation of the address. Notice that there is a comma after each line and a full stop after the last one

15、. This style is called closed punctuation and is favored by many British people. However, modern practice tends to omit the punctuation at the end of each entry. This style is called open punctuation and is favored by many American people.c. The names of cities should be written out completely excep

16、t those abbreviated forms are accepted such as N.Y (New York) N.J.(New Jersey).d. The name of the country can be left out of the address when you are writing to someone in your own country. And among very close friends, the whole address can be left out.e. The date should never be omitted. It goes i

17、mmediately below the address and never above it. There is no need in a letter to a friend to include the year in the date. Salutation: salutation of a letter is the complimentary greeting to the person to whom the letter is written. Its like saying Hello. (Refer to the rules we mentioned when we tal

18、ked about note writing)The Body: A letter can be long or very short. It just depends. You can begin your letter by referring to either to a letter you have recently received or an event which has caused you to write. Then get to the point and tell the receiver your purpose of writing this letter and

19、 information about yourself. Content is important. To end with a letter, we usually express our polite wishes in order to leave a favorable impression in the readers mind.The Complimentary close: The complimentary close of a personal letter should be written below the body of the letter, beginning a

20、bout in the center of the page. Only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized, and there should be a comma at the end. (Refer to the note writing) The wording varies according to the type of letter and according to the degree of friendship and intimacy with the receiver, but it must

21、agree with that of the salutation. The most usual complimentary close for friends and acquaintances is “Yours sincerely or Sincerely yours.” Unless on special occasion, avoid using such a close as “Yours hurriedly; Yours hastily; Yours in a haste; Yours in sympathy ; Yours in sorrow.” The signature:

22、 the signature of a letter is written below the complimentary close and somewhat to the right so that it ends just about in line with the right-hand margin of the letter. There is no need for a full stop after your signature. Always sign by hand, in ink (not a pencil), write clearly. Sign your name

23、without any title such as StudentNote :The language of personal letter has the following features：a. write with clarity : try to avoid long involved paragraphs. A letter composed of short sentences and short paragraphs is not only more inviting to the eye, but reads more easily and conveys your idea

24、s with greater speedb. keep your language simple : plain ,familiar words are the best.Do is better more than accomplishWrite is a better word than correspondFind is a better word than locatePlease is better than will you be good enough Now is better than at the present timec. Use lots of verbs. And

25、keep your verbs short ! Make them say what you have to say. Verbs like “come , go , run , walk, send, meet , buy , give” give force and action to your sentences.d. Make your letter sound conversational. Contractions can make your letter sound conversational in a personal letter.(10) Ask the students

26、 to revise their letters in class and select two or three students to read their letters to the class so that we can comment based on the following aspects : the purpose; the relationship between the reader and the writer; the mode; the information; the format; the l use of the language)Commenting o

27、n the writing by asking the students the following questions:1. What is the purpose of this writing task? 2. What is the relationship between the writer and the reader?3. What is the mode of the writing? Is it to be read or to be spoken?4. What is the necessary information and what is the optional i

28、nformation?5. How are these elements expressed grammatically and idiomatically?(After the discussion the students should know that in writing we have to be clear: to write for what a particular purpose, for what a particular reader, and in what form(11) Compare the semantic structures of note and th

29、ose of personal lettersThe necessary elements of notes are as follows:Date salutation purpose closing form signatureThe necessary elements of personal letters are as follows:Heading salutation body( purpose and information) complimentary close signature (12) Assignment: Write personal letters based on each