Chapter 5: Career Management
31 Writing
Before you write
In this section, we will practise writing a paragraph about the past. You will have many occasions to do this in the workplace. Here are a few topics you may need to write about:
- A description of what you did on your shift as part of a shift log
- A description of an accident or an incident at work as part of a report
- A description of your duties at your last job as part of a cover letter for a job
- A description of what you did to improve your skills as part of a performance review form
The paragraph
- Do the following:
- Read the sentences below carefully.
- The sentences are not in order. Think about how best to rearrange the sentences to make two well-organized paragraphs.
- There is one sentence that is not relevant. Find it.
After Tara left, I read for a while.
After my walk, I sat by the river for some time to rest.
At around ten, I drove to a nearby park and walked for an hour.
First, I had my shower and breakfast.
I admired how beautiful everything looked. I had a lovely day yesterday.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
I was very happy to see her and invited her home. It was a lazy but beautiful day.
It was my friend, Tara.
There were some empty cans floating in the water. We chatted for hours and cooked dinner together. We enjoyed the dinner on my deck and watched the beautiful sunset.
When I got back to my car, I heard someone shout my name.
When I got up, it was warm and bright outside.
A co-worker called 911.
A short while later, an ambulance arrived and the paramedics took him to the hospital.
He had on his safety boots and gloves, but he did not have on his safety glasses.
He was in a lot of pain.
Igor lost the sight in his left eye.
My friend Igor learned about safety the hard way.
Suddenly, a small piece of plastic hit him in his left eye.
The doctors worked hard to save his eye but were not successful.
The terrible experience taught him to always follow safety procedures and requirements carefully.
The machine was new and shiny.
Two months ago, he was working on a machine.
- Discuss how the sentences should be arranged in your opinion. What words in the paragraph helped you decide. How did you select the topic sentence? How did you select the concluding sentence?
- Rewrite each of the above sets of sentences to make a well-organized paragraph. Develop and practise your typing and formatting skills by using a computer to produce your paragraphs. Indent the first line.
Editing a paragraph
The following paragraph has errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Rewrite the paragraph with no errors. Develop and practise your typing and formatting skills by using a computer to produce your paragraph.
I worked very hard to improve my writing skills on my own first, I wrote a minimum of 150 words in my joornal everyday. I wrote about my day or something special I did or see I also write a summary of too short newspaper articles twice a week. In addision, I used the audio from the listen exercises in my e-textbook as dictation exercises. This helped me improve my spelling and my punctuations. I asked my instructor for the scripts so I could chick my work. Finally, I worked on my weakest Point, prepositions. twice a week, I got two copyes of the same free newspaper. I choose an article. In one newspaper, I deleted the prepositions in the article I chose. The next day, I write in all the preposition, and then compared them with the same Article in the other copy of the newspaper all this was a lot of works, but I write much better now.
Writing practice
Write a paragraph about a job you held in the past. Write about 150 words. Your paragraph must have an appropriate topic sentence and relevant supporting sentences. Use signal words to organize your writing. Develop and practise your typing and formatting skills by using a computer to produce your paragraph.
Before you start writing,
- think about the points you are going to write about
- decide what signal words you are going to use
- read the rubric on the following page so you are aware of the expectations of the task.
Writing progress check
Rubric
The table on the right is a special type of form called a rubric. Rubrics are often used to measure how well a person completes a task.
On the left side is the writing task or assignment, with the main requirements below it. The requirements show how you should complete the task.
There are spaces for checkmarks in the three middle columns to show how well you did. On the right-hand side, there is a space for comments from the instructor or tester.
Complete the writing task on the next page, paying attention to the expectations in the rubric.
| Chapter 5: Writing Progress Check | ||||
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Name:
Date: |
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| Criteria | Yes | Some | No | What can you do better next time? |
| You wrote an appropriate topic sentence. | ||||
| All your supporting sentences were relevant to your topic sentence. | ||||
| You used appropriate signal words to guide your reader. | ||||
| You used accurate grammar. | ||||
| You used correct end-of-sentence punctuation. | ||||
| You used correct capitalization. |
Task
You are an employee at CDN Malls. You have been asked to contribute a short article to the newsletter about a soft skill that you worked on. Write about the importance of the skill and what you did to improve the skill.
Instructions:
- Write one paragraph of about 150 words.
- Write a suitable topic sentence.
- Write relevant supporting sentences.
- Use appropriate signal words to guide your reader.
- Read the rubric so you are familiar with the expectations of the task.
- Use a computer to produce your paragraph.