Ex. 10.17: Letter – Writing

WEEKEND TRIP. Study the dialog about the hike in Jotunheimen on p. 144. Use the information in the text as well as your own imagination to write a letter or an email to a friend about the weekend. Write  approx. 15-20 sentences and be prepared to present your letter in class.

• Pre-Writing: Look back at the dialog on p. 144 and the vocabulary in Ch. 10. Make a brief outline for three paragraphs:
  • Opening: Use the greeting Kjære (dear) + [name] or Hei + [name]
    Paragraph 1: Greeting, asking how things are going, describing briefly your studies and work
    Paragraph 2: Describing the weekend at the cabin
    Paragraph 3: Describing what you are going to do next weekend; suggesting that the two of you get to do something next weekend
    Closing: Use one of the following: Hilsen (greetings), Vennlig hilsen (friendly greetings), Beste hilsen (best greetings) or Klem fra (Hugs from)
• First Draft: Write a rough draft of your essay, but focus more on content than on grammatical correctness.
• Editing: Read your draft and check the items listed below.
  • Organization: Does each paragraph have a main topic? Are the sentences within each paragraph related to each other
  • Cohesion and Style: Have you connected some of the sentences by using coordinating conjunctions (og, men, eller, for), subordinating conjunctions (fordi, når/da, hvis, selv om) and relative pronouns (som)? Have you varied your sentence structure by starting some sentences with adverbials (på fredag, på lørdag, om ettermiddagen, om kvelden, klokka seks, først, så, dessuten)?
• Spelling and Grammar
  • Check the past tense forms of the verb
    ex.) Vi reiste fra Oslo på fredag. / Vi dro på fisketur. / Vi spiste en deilig middag.
  • Check the word order after adverbials
    ex.) På fredag ettermiddag reiste vi. / På lørdag gikk vi på tur. / Dessuten fisket vi.
• Second draft: Rewrite your description now and make the changes you worked on during the editing process. Submit to your instructor.