Writing English 2B: 5th writing assignment・作文5

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce our 5th writing assignment (作文5) - writing an essay, with an outline to go with it.

I will introduce this writing assignment differently - this time, posting it here on the blog first. I will give all of you a handout about the assignment next week (12/14), with some other things that you will need to do for the assignment. 

Topics
You have two (2) choices on what to write about. Choose one (1) of them:

1. Write about yourself
While this may seem easy in one way because you know yourself – and in another way difficult, because you might feel that because you are young, you have not experienced much in life – this could be a good topic for you to do because you can touch on your family history, and the personalities of your family members, as well. 

Go into details! For example, not only things such as where you were born, but also where your parents met and when they got married. Of your parents, are you more like your mother, or your father? In addition, who do people say you look more like – your mother or your father? 

Do you have any brothers or sisters? If so, are you the youngest, or the oldest, or in the middle? Of your brothers and sisters, who do you get along with the best? Also, which one are you more like? 

Of course, please go into things such as hobbies and interests, and things you like to do, just as you did when you wrote your pre-teaching surveys back in April. But I would like you to go much deeper and longer than what you did before, with more detail. 

Important note:
Your outlines (あらすじ) that you did in class today (12/7) you could use to help you with your writing – if you want to do this topic!


2. Research and write about a historic place in Japan - or in another country

While this may seem like such a different topic that it is a little strange because of it, this might also be a good choice for you just because it is so different! 

For this one, choose a historic place somewhere in Japan or in another country. What happened there? Is there a monument or statue about what happened? Could it even be a park, or a UN World Heritage Site? What impact does the place have in Japanese history - or in the history of the country you chose? Even more importantly – what impact do you believe it has had in Japan – or the other country? 

For example, here is a picture of Mont St. Michel in France: 

 

As you might know, Mont St. Michel is a place that is an island at high tide and connected to the land at low tide. It is a famous sightseeing spot not only in France, but Europe as well. But even more – it is important in French history. Do you know what that might be? Find out if you're interested!

If you want – you can research and write about one of the places in the blogpost about historic places I showed you in class. 

While we have already done a little of this in the spring semester when we wrote about places, this time I would like you to go deeper and longer about a historic place, with more research and a few citations of sources of information the way you did on the 4th writing assignment. 


How much to write


As I show at the top, I would like to see around 1 to 1 1/2 pages. (Make the paragraphs at least a little longer!) But if you can write even a little more – go for it!


Deadline (締め切り)

It will be December 21st (12/21), so I want you to bring in an outline next week (12/14) in your notebooks in pencil. From there, please follow the important points I will show you in my handout on 12/14! 

Then – do your rough draft (下書き) writing in class. Then type your writing on a Word document to turn in class on 12/21. 


Good luck with this! I hope you can have fun with this, and enjoy trying out writing an essay about yourself or a historic place.

See you next time!

Image: By Underground pictures - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44907843/Mont St. Michel - by Diliff - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15845315