英语写作personalletter

Lecture 6

1.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 congratulations; 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 letters

3.Teaching focus:

(1)The differences between notes and personal letters

(2)How to write a letter of invitation and 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 sympathy

4.Teaching method: free writing--–commentary --–discussion---guided writing---commentary

–-comparison with the samples---summery

5.Teaching procedures:

(1)Greeting

(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 : . I am looking forward to your reply.

Getting to know: starting to know: . We are getting to know each other.

Make it: to come : . I am sorry but Joe and I won’t be able to make it to your barbeque

this weekend. Thank you for the invitation and I hope we’ll be able to make it for the

next gathering.

At your disposal: be available (formal but a good idiom): . If there is anything at all that

I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to give me a call. I am at your disposal.

Drop by: visit but not according to an appointment: . Yesterday I dropped by to see a

friend .

In the neighborhood:. 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 letters

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 think 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

England

15 November, 2004

Dear Mr. Rallinen,

I must 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 highlight 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 heading: 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 bye

E.The signature (who)

So the semantic structure of personal letter should be as follows:

Heading ^salutation ^body (purpose and information)^ complimentary close ^

signature

Heading: The heading is the sender’s 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 right 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. 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.