BỘ LAO ĐỘNG – THƯƠNG BINH VÀ XÃ HỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LAO ĐỘNG – XÃ HỘI
Ban biên soạn:
1. Chủ biên: TS. Đặng Nguyên Giang
2. Thành viên: ThS. Trịnh Thị Thủy
ThS. Đàm Lan Hương
GIÁO TRÌNH
KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TIẾNG ANH 1 (WRITING 1)
(Dùng đào tạo trình độ đại học)
LƯU HÀNH NỘI BỘ
HÀ NỘI, NĂM 2023
i
CONTENTS
Page
UNIT 1: WRITING A SENTENCE
1
UNIT 2: WRITING A POSTCARD
50
UNIT 3: WRITING AN ADVERTISEMENT
59
UNIT 4: WRITING AN INFORMAL LETTER
68
UNIT 5: WRITING A FORMAL LETTER
87
UNIT 6: WRITING A JOB APPLICATION LETTER
98
UNIT 7: WRITING A COMPLAINT LETTER
113
SAMPLE TESTS
122
ii
PREFACE
To the students
Writing 1 is to help you develop your writing ability in English so that you feel
more confident about the writing you need to do in everyday life. The practice tasks
give you the opportunity to practice this day-to-day sort of writing (e.g., postcards,
advertisements, informal letters, formal letters, job applications, etc.). They give you
help with the aspects of writing you might find difficult (e.g., choosing the right word,
linking ideas, paragraphing, spelling, punctuation, etc.).
There is also a lot of opportunity to develop and practice your reading and
speaking skills in this book. You are often asked to look at other people’s writing and
discuss it. This is a good way to improve your own writing. We hope that you enjoy
using it.
To the teachers
The aim of Writing 1 is to help students at B1 level develop their writing ability
in English and to give them the confidence to use this ability in everyday life. Students
at this level usually want to and need to write independently, but often avoid it or
handle it less proficiently than they do speaking, listening, or reading.
The reasons for this are many and varied, but in this book, we aim to break down
four major barriers to student confidence. Firstly, since writing is a more permanent
record of one’s language proficiency than speaking, the demand for unrehearsed
writing is more threatening to the learner. Secondly, learners often feel that they do not
have the necessary knowledge and experience of language that writing demands.
Thirdly, as often reinforced in classroom texts, writing must be correct in a formal
sense, irrespective of context. Finally, such formal correctness must be achieved the
first time in a one-off writing attempt.
The book does not aim to teach items of vocabulary or grammar, except where
such items seem to be specific enough to the writing context and important enough to
the successful completion of the tasks being set to warrant special guidance and
practice. There are many textbooks which do teach these things, and students and
teachers may want to refer to these as they use this book. The practice tasks in this
book will, however, provide a realistic and relevant context within which students can
practice any newly acquired items of grammar and vocabulary.
The practice tasks vary somewhat in level of complexity to cater to all students in
the target group. As well, there is flexibility within many practice tasks to provide for
responses at a variety of levels.
Opportunity for developing reading skills exists with the provision of writing
models and with practice tasks where students must respond in writing to something
they have read. In addition, there is opportunity for discussion. Students are asked to
talk about their own experiences and needs, and to study and discuss the writing
models presented.
iii
1
Unit 1
WRITING A SENTENCE
Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today
- English proverb -
1. Sentence definition
According to Oxford English Dictionary (1989), “A sentence is a set of words that
is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a
statement, question, exclamation, or command, and consisting of a main clause and
sometimes one or more subordinate clauses”. In fact, a sentence is a word or a group
of words grammatically expressing a complete thought. It means that a sentence must
contain a subject and a verb (although one may be implied).
Oshima and Hogue (2006) suppose that sentences involve clauses. In terms of
academic written English, a clause is a group of words that contains (at least) a subject
and a verb. The clauses are divided into two kinds: independent and dependent. An
independent clause contains a subject and a verb, and expresses a complete thought. It
can stand alone as a sentence by itself. An independent clause is formed with a subject
and a verb and often a complement.
Subject
Verb
(Complement)
The temperature
is increasing.
The birds
are flying
in the deep blue sky.
A dependent clause begins with a subordinator such as when, if, that, or who. A
dependent clause does not express a complete thought, so it is not a sentence by itself.
A dependent clause is also called a sentence fragment. By itself, it is an incomplete
sentence, and it is an error. A dependent clause is formed with a subordinator, a
subject, and a verb.
Subject
Verb
(Complement)
…
each kiss
were
a drop of water
…
you
hate…
…
he
knew
my power.
Three groups of words are used to connect clauses in order to form different kinds
of sentences. They are subordinators (subordinating conjunctions), coordinators
(coordinating conjunctions), and conjunctive adverbs.
SUBORDINATORS
after
before
that
when
which