Understanding Rubrics - Guide to Writing

To plan your composition your need to understand the rubrics (the main composition instructions). Read the rubric carefully and underline the key words/phrases, which will help you decide what you will write about.

 Keywords/phrases indicate:

♦ the imaginary situation you will write about (e.g. you are a newspaper reporter ... to write about a gangster who escaped from the local jail last night...) this can also suggest who you are (e.g. a reporter), what has happened (e.g. a gangster escaped), etc.
♦ the imaginary reader who is going to read your piece of writing (e.g. the manager of the hotel you work for ahs asked you to write...). This will help you decide on the writing style{the appropriate style of language - formal/informal, etc) you should use,
♦ the writing style you should use depends on the type of composition you are writing, the situation and the intended reader. Therefore, you should not use the same style of writing for every composition. The two main types of writing style are formal and informal. However, not all styles of writing fall under these categories.

For example, in a letter to somebody, you do not know very well or in an article for a student's magazine, the style used is neither formal nor informal but a blend of the two, known as semi-formal.
♦ the type of writing (e.g. a letter, a review describing a film you saw, etc)
♦ the specific topics you should include in your answer (e.g. describe the city/place and comment on its good and bad points).

Study the example below.
1. The TV Company you are working for needs a report about young people's television watching habits. Write your report for the company.
1-situation 2 - render 3 - type of writing 4 -specific topics

Guidelines for Writing - Types of Composition

When you write a composition, you need to understand the type of witting required. Your piece of writing can be in the form of an informal letter, a report or an article for a teenage magazine. The following article is contributed by two outstanding teachers - O. Kurysh and O. Karpenko.

LETTERS are written to a person (e.g. your pen friend, a newspaper editor, etc) or a group pf people (e.g. the local basketball ciub, the hotel administration, etc) for a specific reason (e.g. to give advice, to make a complaint, to thank for the invitation, etc).

LETTERS include:
♦ Informal letters to people you know well, written in a personal chatty style.
♦ Formal letters to managers/officials, etc, written in a polite formal style.
♦ Semi-formal letters to people you do not know well or people you know but you want to sound polite and respectful, e.g. your teacher, your pen friend's parents, etc, written in a polite and respectful style.
♦ Letters to the Editor, which present the writer's personal opinion on a specific problem or the writer's suggestions on a specific problem.

ARTICLES are found in magazines and newspapers. They include descriptions of people, places, buildings, objects, festivals, ceremonies, etc.

NARRATIVES (STORIES) are about real or imaginary events, which happened in the past. They can be written in the first person (first-person narratives) when the writer is the main character of the story or in the third person (third-person narratives) when the writer is describing events which happened to another person or group of people.

REPORTS are formal pieces of writing and have a specific format and features. They include:

♦ News reports about current/recent events (e.g. accidents, natural disasters, etc) written in impersonal style. News reports present facts objectively and unemotionally.
♦ Assessment reports discussing the suitability of a person, place, plan, etc for a particular purpose, job, etc.
♦ Proposals reports discussing suggestions or decisions about future actions.
♦ Survey reports, which are based on research.

REVIEWS are formal pieces of witting discussing a film, play, TV program, book, restaurant/cafe, etc and recommending it or not to the reader.

ESSAYS are a group of compositions describing various opinions, concerning specific topics, discussing different problems and their causes. They include:

♦ Discursive Essays about arguments concerning particular subjects.
♦ "For and Against" Essays, which present the pros and cons on a specific topic.
♦ Opinion Essays, which present the writer's personal opinion on a specific topic.
♦ Providing Solutions to Problems Essays, which discuss a problem and its causes, making suggestions and mentioning the expected results and consequences.

Besides, there are some other kinds of essays, which include such titles as, cause/effect essays, descriptive essays, compare/contrast essays, critical, definition and process essays, etc.