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Finding topics for writing exercise | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| anytram Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5509 days ago 85 posts - 89 votes  Speaks: German*, Polish*, French, English Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 11 18 May 2009 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone!
For exercise I'm trying to write short texts and let them correct by native speakers. My only problem is, I can't seem to find a topic, once I sit down to write something! I've done a presentation. And NOW? How do you find topics for such exercises? (Apart the standard: My Family, My Room/Flat, ...) Any ideas? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6851 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 2 of 11 18 May 2009 at 11:04pm | IP Logged |
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I had a hard time doing this too. Try googling for "journal prompts". For a slightly easier set, add "esl" to the query to find ones targetted at language learners.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6543 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 11 19 May 2009 at 11:22am | IP Logged |
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Write about the TV programs you have seen or the discussions you have had with other people during the day. retell the most salient stories in the news or a magazine or newspaper. Forget about relevancy, just find something that has somehow stirred your curiosity. If you can't choose then write 6 possible themes and roll a dice.
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| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 5854 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 11 19 May 2009 at 12:51pm | IP Logged |
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Some people prefer to keep an actual journal, while other write about books they've read, movies they've seen or places they've been to recently.
I like to write about my plans. The little ones and big ones :)You know, the usual stuff - hopes, dreams and fears. Write about what you feel comfortable with. Maybe you like to write poems or short stories? I believe it would be a good idea to try it in your L2 then. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6276 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 11 19 May 2009 at 3:47pm | IP Logged |
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What about checking some prompts they use for high school foreign language courses? Some of them are rather boring but many of the topics can be tackled by language learners of different calibres as they see fit. I remember that for my GCSE German, my prompt was "Who is to blame for increased teenage smoking?" - you can pretty much write anything from a simple paragraph to a university thesis for such topics.
It's also nice to try doing comparative pieces. For example, you could compare cultures of different languages you are studying, or different places you've been to. Social issues like teenage smoking, anorexia are really good to write about, too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5537 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 11 19 May 2009 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
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Look around in nature. It's springtime. Try to describe things you're wondering of.
Listen what children or youngsters say to each other, finding something strange or funny. Look for something said by a person near you what is funny, strange or special. " Today a girl was painting our house at the outside with still parts to do at the inside too.I said her to paint outside while it was not raining, hoping she could continue with the covered parts when rain should fall. "You are clever/smart tough", said she to me. She's 16 I'm 70, she's a scholar. Oh, said I, never I heard someone say this to me." FIN So she said on a very kind way. My idea. Staf 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anytram Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5509 days ago 85 posts - 89 votes Speaks: German*, Polish*, French, English Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 11 20 May 2009 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
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Thank you all for your answers!
Thank you dmg for your idea! Now I know what to google for, just checked a couple of pages and will try to find something suitable for me. :) Jiwon: I've done quite a lot of comparative study texts last year for my French classes, group presentations with students of other nationalities included. It is interesting, but having discussed already a huge amount of such topics... it's making me a bit weary. Aquedita, Iversen and Staf: I'm going to university and coming home to learn and sleep. Basically my life is quite reduced right now and bore someone off with what I have been eating during the day? No way! This will change as soon as exams are over, but at the end of the day, trying to write something in Japanese I usually can't thing of anything. That's why I like the suggestion of dmg to look for daily prompts a lot. Some of the few things I do encounter are... private, no wish to spread them out in front of correctors, who'll dissect my grammatically incorrect phrases. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anytram Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5509 days ago 85 posts - 89 votes Speaks: German*, Polish*, French, English Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 11 21 May 2009 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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I found a very interesting prompt community (for fiction as well as non-fiction) on DreamWidth named "daily prompt": http://dailyprompt.dreamwidth.org/
If you have a favorite source of prompts you'd like to add or want to comment further, feel free to do so. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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