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Welcome to E-Mail and Writing for ESL. In this class you will learn to use e-mail, address books, and manage your accounts and folders. At the same time, you will improve your writing skills and written grammar by sending and receiving letters from your penpals (writing partners). Your penpals might be a classmate or from another class - maybe even from a school in another country! You will learn many interesting things about their culture and lives and teach them about your two countries - the United States and your native country.
Activity 1:
Set up your e-mail account. Click here.
Assignment 1:
Write a letter to your new penpal and introduce yourself. Write about who you are, where you are from, your hobbies and anything else you would like your penpal to know. Here is a sample letter.
Activity 2:
Send and receive your first e-mail to me. Click here for guidelines.
Assignment 2:
Always remember to answer any questions your penpal might have asked you. Then write about your daily life. Do you work? Do you stay at home? What time to do you go leave home? Where do you go? How far is it from your home? How do you get there? Describe your officemates and/or classmates. What are your favorite daily activities? What do you hate doing the most? What time do you get home? What do you do when you get home? What time do you go to bed? Click here for a sample letter.
Activity 3:
Use your address book. Add your teacher and your classmates to your address book. Also add the address of your penpal and penpal's teacher.
Assignment 3:
Write a descriptive letter about a trip you have taken. Where did you go? How long were you there? Who did you go with? How did you go there? Was the flight, drive, etc nice? How long did it take? Describe the place. How did it look, feel, smell? How did it make you feel? Would you recommend it to your penpal? What would you have done differently if you could take the trip again? Use the past tense to describe the trip and "would" for the last part. Click here for a sample letter
Activity 4:
I will send each student a different picture. Download the picture to your desktop. Use your address book to send all of your classmates a copy of the picture. You will have to attach the picture to your email. When you have received all of the pictures, send me an email with your attachment. You should only have one attachment/one picture. The email should look something like this:
Dear Celia,
Thank you for the picture of a/an _____________. I also received pictures of __________, _________, ___________... from my classmates. My favorite picure is the _______________. It is attached for your to see.
Assignment 4:
Write a comparative letter about two periods in your life. For example, you might want to write about life when you were single and life as a married person. Maybe you want to write about childhood and adulthood and the transition in between. You could also write about the difference between the life of a student and that of an employee. Use the different forms of past and present. You must attach a picture of yourself for your penpal.
TIP: Conventionally, there are 2 ways to write a comparison. The first way is to have 3 main sections: write about one thing first and then the other and then tie the two with a common theme. Or you can discuss a different idea in each paragraph and make a comparison within that same paragraph. If you do this, each paragraph will have a main idea and a comparison. The number of paragraphs depends on the number of ideas you discuss. Click here for a sample letter
Activity 5:
Use folders to manage your email. Delete email you don't want anymore.
Assignment 5:
Write a letter about plans you have for the near future. It can be a special dinner you are having with your family. Or you may want to write about a trip you want to take, even if you aren't sure that you will be taking it. Use the different forms of the future. Refer to the Future Time Chart before you begin. Click here for a sample letter
Activity 6:
Change your password and personal preferences.
Assignment 6:
Write about a fairy tale or short story from your country:
1. Translate the story.
2. Write about the lesson or moral of the story. What does the story mean?
3. How do you feel about the fairy tale? Do you like it? When did you first hear or read the fairy tale?
4. Do you know of any other fairy tales that are similar? Have you ever heard or read an "American version" of the story?
Click here for a sample letter
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E-Mail & Writing for ESL