Abstract

As one of the five “language arts skills” (reading, writing, listening, speaking, and translating), the productive skill of writing has the best chance of surviving after college. In P. R. China, and many other countries, this skill is steadily eroded over time, mostly due to the lack of a constantly reinforcing language environment. During the college years, many students are faced with the lack of a simple structure, out of which they can generate creative, self-inspired writing text. The ability to write effective sentences and paragraphs is fundamental to all writing. This book seeks to distill the current and extensive writing curricula into six types of sentence and nine types of paragraph, following a highly-structured format: out of these structures, it is hoped that a foundation for personalized and creative writing will emerge. The sentences are classified according to “clause structure”, six in all, and nothing else; the paragraphs are the usual “development by...” paragraphs, except that they follow a rigid seven sentence format, using the above-mentioned sentence types. Next, this book applies this model to writing outlines for expository articles and narrative articles. Finally, some models concerning resumes and cover letters are added, since these skills are also important for graduating college students. This writing model is meant to be a compliment, not a rival, to all the writing methodologies in existence today. It is hoped that a firm structure, combined with the inner creativity and personal “voice” of the writer will help this current generation of English-language graduates to express themselves in English, throughout their lives.