1

English for Visiting Scholars: Reading and Writing

Duration: 16 weeks, 60 minute classes, Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6 pm
Instructor: Angela Sharpe
Location: Education Building Room 104, Colorado State University
Course Description: This course utilizes the communicative approach to language learning and
is based upon the principles for teaching reading and writing according to Nations (2009)
paradigm for second language reading and writing instruction. In this acquisition paradigm, the
emphasis is on providing learners with meaning-focused input in order for them to produce
meaning-focused output where the learners overall focus is on others understanding the
message. In this way, this course will provide learners with instruction and opportunities to
develop their receptive and productive abilities through tasks focused on using the English
language for a variety of purposes and contexts. Each lesson integrates the skills of listening and
reading by providing meaning-focused input, as well as the skills of speaking and writing in
order to help students develop their communicative English skills (i.e. meaning-focused output)
for living and studying in the United States.
Course goals: By introducing students to the concepts of audience, purpose, and
communication, this course has the following goals:
1) Students will understand the concepts of audience, purpose for writing, academic
genres, and register and how these concepts affect organization and language choice.
2) Students will be able to write summaries, critiques, commentaries and research
papers.
3) Students will understand the importance of and use appropriate citation conventions
to distinguish themselves from published authors.
4) Students will be able to use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways for
writing in the academic genre.
5) Students will be introduced to a variety of learning strategies for developing academic
reading and writing skills, such as guessing meaning from context, breaking words
into parts, predicting, simplifying difficult sentences, taking notes, and identifying
topic type and features of genre.
Curriculum Outline
Week
1-2

3-4

Unit
Unit 1:
Informal and
Formal
Communication
: Register
Unit 2:
Introduction to

Lesson Overview
Students will be introduced to informal and formal writing
conventions through language-focused tasks. Students will
understand abbreviations, how to write an e-mail, and how to write
and respond to formal letters.
Students will be introduced to the general purposes for academic
writing as well as the concept of audience and stance in academic

Sharpe, A. (2014)

academic
writing.

5-6

Unit3:
Reading and
writing general
to specific texts

writing. In this unit, students will also be introduced to

organization and style in academic writing through languagefocused input including: vocabulary shift, formal grammar style
and flow, transitional language, and stance.
Through intensive and extensive reading, students will be
introduced to the structures of general and specific statements in
order to write short or extended definitions, write comparative or
contrastive statements, and write purpose statements.

7-8

Unit 4:
Reading and
writing problem
and solution
statements

Through intensive and extensive reading, students will be

introduced to the underlying structure of writing problem and
solution statements. Students will also be introduced to the writing
problem and solution statements in terms of a process or the steps
required to provide a solution to a problem.

9-10

Unit 5:
Reading and
writing
summaries
Unit 6:
Identifying
sources

Through skimming and scanning, students will become familiar

with the parts of a source text, such as text sections, genre features,
main ideas, and supporting details. Students will write summary
statements and summary paragraphs of source texts.
Students will be introduced to the conventions of identifying
sources in writing, through proper use of reporting verbs, APA and
MLA styles, formulaic phrases, connectors and transitions,
comparative and contrastive language, as well as defining forms of
plagiarism.
Students will be introduced to evaluative language for writing
critical analysis statements in different genres and disciplines.
Students will write critiques of articles based on an evaluative
framework including considerations of: audience, purpose, research
questions addressed, conclusions and results, evidence offered, and
implications.
Through intensive and extensive reading, students will be
introduced to the sections of research papers and projects including:
abstracts, introductions, methods, results, discussion, and further
research/implications. As a final project, students will compose a
short research article or a project based study.

11-12

13-14

Unit 7:
Reading and
writing critiques

15-16

Unit 8:
Constructing
research papers
and projects

Brief Description of Classroom Setting

Each 60 minute lesson will focus on the language objectives of informal and formal
writing conventions through the content of text messages, notes, e-mails, letters of inquiry, letters
of response, and thank you notes. The lessons will take place as part of a general English course

Sharpe, A. (2014)

focused on social and survival language skills for real-world communicative competency. The
classroom is composed of 16 low to mid intermediate level students according to the ACTFL
(2012) proficiency guidelines. The ethnolinguistic background of the students is diverse. The
skills foci of each lesson are reading comprehension and writing production. In the last class
students completed a unit focused on word order and building bigger sentences with coordinating
and subordinating conjunctions. This unit will be the first in the course and will take place for
one hour twice per week for two weeks total. A final project constitutes the summative
assessment for the course; students are also given formative assessments in each lesson which
accumulate into their pass/fail standing in the overall course. Students are enrolled in the course
as non-matriculated.
Brief Description of the Thematic Unit
The following lesson plans function as part of a thematic unit and constitute the content
of unit 1 in the respective course curriculum. The lessons in this unit integrate the skills of
reading and writing with an overall content theme of informal and formal language and writing
conventions. The goal of the overall course, which this thematic unit is a part of, is to give
students the opportunities to become familiar with and use North American English through
meaning-focused tasks for the purposes of developing communicative language abilities as well
as developing and employing learning strategies.
Specifically, this thematic unit will involve language-focused learning wherein learners
attention will be deliberately drawn to conventionalized and contextualized language features in
formal and informal reading and writing from the perspective of fluency development so that
learners may bridge what they already know with new language forms, features and meanings
for effective reading and writing.
Scope and Sequence
Unit 5: Informal and Formal Communication
Content

Reading Skills

Lesson 1

-Text
Messages
-E-mails

-Understanding
abbreviations and
acronyms

Lesson 2

-E-mails
-Letters

-Recognizing informal
language and informal email and letter structure;
recognizing context,
audience, and purpose in
informal writing

Writing Skills
-Using
abbreviations
and acronyms
in informal
writing
-Writing out
abbreviations
and using
conjunctions
and word order
rules
-Summarizing
ideas in

Learning
Outcomes
Reading
informal text
messages and
e-mails
Write an
informal letter
to a friend and
summarize
letter in an email or in a
post card.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Lesson 3

-Formal emails

Lesson 4

-Formal emails and

formal letters

informal
writing
-Composing an
informal letter
-Reading for main ideas
-Comparing
formal and
informal
Recognizing/understandin writing
g audience and purpose
-using
formulaic
language
-writing and
responding to emails
-Understanding
formal -Expanding
language and formal letter formal e-mails
conventions
into formal
letters
-Writing formal
letters for a
specific
purpose and
audience
-Comparing
writing through
register and
style

Write a formal
e-mail and
respond to a
formal e-mail.

Write a formal
letter of
inquiry;
respond to
formal letter of
inquiry; write a
formal thankyou note.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

References
Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York: Routledge.
ACTFL (2012). ACTFL proficiency guidelines 2012. Retrieved from:
http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_
NAL.pdf

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Lesson 1
Pre-lesson inventory:
Lesson objectives:
Language:
Students will be able to recognize and use informal acronyms and abbreviations in text
messages, post cards, and e-mails.
Students will be able to recognize contexts for using informal language in writing.
Students will be able to comprehend and write informal text messages and e-mails.
Materials to take to class: dry-erase markers, Colorado post cards, Spot-the-difference
worksheet, acronym/abbreviation meaning worksheet, when is it ok/okay? Worksheet
Equipment needed for class: doc cam/projector
Assignments to collect from students: none
Special room arrangements: none
Warm-up: Writing your name as an acronym (15 minutes)
Purpose: To make a clear connection to lesson objectives (in terms of acronyms and
abbreviations) by drawing on familiar vocabulary.
Procedure:
1.

Students will be given a piece of paper and instructed to write their names horizontally
down the piece of paper. I will model this using the doc cam.
2. Students will be instructed to write and adjectives which begins with a letter in their
name next to that letter. Student will be able to use their dictionary if they cannot come
up with an adjective however they will only be given ten minutes. Students can ask other
students for help.
3. I will walk around and gather good adjectives and write them on the board so students
can borrow from others in the class.
4. Volunteers will be asked to come up to the doc cam and share their name acronyms.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Transition: Students will be told that they created acronyms using their own names. They will
be told that each letter in their name represents something about them but when we use only our
name without the adjectives we are using an abbreviation for all of the qualities that describe us
(according to the acronym). I will show ASAP and illustrate how it is both an acronym when
pronounced as a word and an abbreviation when pronounced letter name by letter name. I will
tell students that we are going to look at different formats in which informal writing conventions
such as abbreviations and acronyms are used and acceptable.
Activity 1: Spot the difference (15 minutes)
Purpose: Students will be able to notice, through language-focused comparison, the differences
between a formal text and informal text.
Procedure:
1. Students will get into pairs. Each pair will be given a worksheet with two texts
(conveying the same message) side by side where one is more formal than the other.
2. Pairs must spot the differences in the texts and decide which is more formal and why.
3. Students will share with the class the differences they noticed and the clues which led
them to believe one was more formal than the other.
Transition: Using the differences, students will be asked what kinds of contexts they have seen
or have used acronyms and abbreviations. The answer I am looking for is text messages and emails. After students have answered, or I have suggested text messages, I will hand out a
worksheet which contains a conversation by text.
Activity 2: abbreviations in a text conversation (10 minutes)
Purpose: Students will recognize that text messages are an appropriate context to use
abbreviations and acronyms.
Procedure:
1.

Using the worksheet from the warm-up, students will be asked to write out what the
abbreviation in the text message stands for.
2. After students have identified the abbreviations they will be asked to expand on the text
using other abbreviations.
Transition: I will write out 12 abbreviations/acronyms we have looked at in the last activity on
the board so students may reflect upon them and take notes. I will write the abbreviation and ask
students to volunteer the unabbreviated sequence. I will tell students that the unabbreviated
portion is called a formulaic sequence. I will ask them why they think we would abbreviate
formulaic sequences. Depending upon responses, I will suggest that formulaic sequences broken
down into abbreviations can be a good processing short-cut and a time and space saver.
Activity 3 Post card writing as an example of the necessity for abbreviated language (15
minutes)

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Purpose: Students will be able to produce informal language, including abbreviations and
acronyms, in order to write a post card to a friend or family member.
Procedure:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Each student will choose a post card from Colorado and a friend or family member to
send it to.
Students can refer to the board for the abbreviations/acronyms we looked at during the
lesson.
After 7-9 minutes, students will exchange their post card with a partner and do peer
editing for each other.
After 3-4 minutes, students will look over and correct their post cards.
Volunteers will be asked to show their post card on the doc cam.
I will collect the post cards and correct them for an activity in the next lesson.

Closure/evaluation (5 minutes)
Purpose: To assess students comprehension of the language objectives detailed in the lesson in
terms of writing contexts.
Procedure:
1.

Students will be asked to write down as many other situations besides texting and post
card writing where they think the informal language might be appropriate.
2. The teacher will collect the papers with contexts or situations for next lesson warm-up.

Lesson 2
Pre-lesson inventory:
Lesson objectives:
Language:

Students will be able to recognize informal letters and e-mails.

Students will be compose informal letters and e-mails.
Students will be able to expand post cards into letters.
Students will be able to condense a letter into an e-mail.

Materials to take to class: dry-erase markers, corrected post cards, list of contexts/situations from
closure activity, post card worksheet, letter worksheet.
Equipment needed for class: doc cam
Assignments to collect from students: none
Special room arrangements: none

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Warm-up: Contexts or situations for informal writing (5 minutes)

Purpose:

Students will understand the contexts in which informal writing is appropriate in order to
bridge the previous contexts of text messaging and post cards to the new contexts of letter
writing and e-mails.

Procedure:
1.

Using the contexts/situations students brainstormed in the closure of the last lesson, I
will make a list on the board including e-mails and letters to family and friends
2. I will ask students if there are any other contexts or situations they can think of.
3. I will ask students what all of the contexts have in common. I am looking for the fact that
the recipient is someone familiar.
Transition: I will tell students that informal language is appropriate when they know they person
well that they are writing. In order to illustrate this, I will use examples of people who they may
know well but not well enough for informal language like your boss or professor. Only people
who you have a relationship with outside of work (professional life) or school. I will tell
students that we are going to practice letter writing by expanding our post cards into letters. I
will tell students that letters can include abbreviations so long as the person we are writing to
will understand them. However, letters can still be informal without using a lot of abbreviations.
I want students to begin to understand that there are degrees of formality and that abbreviations
are extremely informal.
Activity 1: post card expansion (25 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be able to expand a post card to a letter through writing out abbreviations
where necessary and using conjunctions and word order rules that we studied in the last
unit.

Procedure:
1. Students will be given their corrected post card from the last lesson.
2. I will give them 15 minutes to expand their post card into a letter.
3. After 15 minutes, students will exchange their letter with a partner for 8-9 minutes peerediting.
4. Students will then return/exchange the letters and correct their mistakes.
Transition: I will ask students to brainstorm how they think a letter may differ from an e-mail.
Together as a class we will discuss/compare/contrast. I will tell students that often an e-mail is a
condensed version of a letter but not as condensed as a post card. E-mails can include more

Sharpe, A. (2014)

10

abbreviations than a letter but only as long as the recipient will understand the abbreviation(s). I
will tell students that we are going to condense the letters into an e-mail by summarizing the
main points which is something we have learned in previous units. I will give students a handout that they can read which details some similarities and differences between informal e-mails
and letters. After they are finished reading they can use the template on the back of the sheet to
write their e-mails by condensing/ changing their letters while maintaining the message.
Activity 2: condensing a letter to an e-mail (20 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be familiar with the differences between letters and e-mails.
Students will be able to summarize a letter into an e-mail.
Students will infer some of the conventions of letters and e-mails.

Procedure:
1. Students will read the hand-out which includes details of writing a letter or an e-mail.
2. Students will summarize their letter using the e-mail template on the back of the sheet.
3. After 10 minutes students will exchange with the same partner who read their letter so
that person can peer-edit the e-mail both for mistakes and summarizing skills.
Transition: I will tell students to give their e-mails back to the original writer. I will tell them to
correct and perfect their e-mails at home as homework and bring them to me next week. I will
also tell students to write in their journal what they feel they learned this week along with what
they feel they need to work on more and how they think they can improve on what they feel is
their weakness. I want students to be able to assess their own strengths and weaknesses each
week and devise strategies for improvement. I also want students to make connections in their
world as to when they will use these skills as a means for determining strengths, weakness, and
strategies. After explaining the journaling assignment I will give students a pop quiz that has
them match formulaic sequences of e-mails and letters with the sections of a letter or e-mail.
Closure/evaluation: Pop quiz (10 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be given a pop quiz to assess their knowledge of the parts of a letter and email.
Students will be implicitly introduced to formulaic language and be able to inductively
match them to their corresponding parts in a letter or e-mail.

Procedure:
1. Students will decide which part of a letter or e-mail the formulaic language belongs.
2. After 5 minutes, I will collect the quizzes.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

11

Lesson 3
Pre-lesson inventory:
Lesson objectives:
Language:

Students will recognize and understand the difference between informal and formal
language vocabulary, formulaic language, and conventions.
Students will be able to identify purposes, contexts and situations which warrant formal
language use and conventions.
Students will be able to write a formal e-mail.
Students will be able to respond to a formal e-mail.

Materials to take to class: dry erase markers, spot the difference e-mail worksheet, e-mail graphic
organizer worksheet, e-mail response worksheet.
Equipment needed for class: doc cam
Assignments to collect from students: Hand back quizzes for warm-up activity.
Special room arrangements: none
Warm-up: Go over pop quiz (5 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be able to refresh and assess their knowledge of formulaic language and its
corresponding part of a letter or e-mail.

Procedure:
1. I will hand back the pop quizzes and as a class we will go over the answers.
2. I will ask students if they have any questions pertaining to the pop quiz.
Transition: I will tell students that we are going to continue looking at the structure of e-mails
and letters, however, we will be concentrating on formal writing. I will remind students of the
first lesson where we looked at really informal writing with abbreviations and in the second

Sharpe, A. (2014)

12

lesson we looked at informal writing in letters and e-mails to friends and family. I introduce
formal e-mail writing by asking students to brainstorm contexts, people, or situations where we
would need to compose a formal e-mail. I am looking for answers such as to your boss, to your
teacher or professor, to your childs teacher or principal, to a company, to someone you do not
know. In order to give this lesson further rationale, I will ask students if they have ever had to
write or received a formal e-mail and who was it to/from. I will list these on the board.
Activity 1: Spot the difference (15 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will recognize the difference between formal and informal writing.
Students will make connections to what they have already learned about informal
language and the structure of e-mails and make comparisons (i.e. form schemata) for
formal language e-mails.

Procedure:
1. Students will be put in pairs.
2. I will give students a worksheet which contains two samples of an e-mail and ask them to
read both versions over.
3. I will ask students to discuss the differences and similarities they see between the two
writings.
4. I will ask students if they think one of the e-mails might give Adam a better chance of
getting into the applied linguistics program.
5. I will tell students this is an example of an academic e-mail.
Transition: I will tell students that the difference between informal and formal e-mail writing is
mostly contained in the language but structure is still important. A formal e-mail structure is
similar to an informal e-mail structure but the most important part is selecting the appropriate
language to use in each part. I will tell students that we are going to look at another version of
Adams letter which is a little different but still is formal. We are going to label the parts of the
structure of a formal e-mail which holds true for any type of formal e-mail.
Activity 2: E-mail Graphic Organizer (15 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will understand the structure of a formal e-mail.

Students will be able to make connections to the structure of informal e-mails and
understand that formal e-mail structure is more conventionalized.
Students will become familiar with appropriate formulaic phrases in formal e-mails.

Procedure:

Sharpe, A. (2014)

13

1.

From the first activity, students will use a similarly formal version of Adams e-mail and
dissect it into its parts using a graphic organizer.
2. Students can work on the organizer alone or in pairs.
3. Students will put the formal language that they are becoming familiar with into a table
according to its parts.
Transition: I will tell students that the structure and language of formal e-mails comprise an
important skill that can translate to other types of formal e-mails. In order to make formal e-mail
more relative I will give students another example of a formal academic e-mail which may be
more relatable. I will ask students to read through the formal e-mail and pretend that they
received this e-mail from their childs teacher. I will tell students to make sure their subject line
is specific and give them examples of subject lines which are not specific, like my answer,
urgent, my response, my e-mail, etc. In pairs, I will have students brainstorm and then write a
fictitious response.
Activity 3: Responding to a formal e-mail (25 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be able to take information from an e-mail and formulate a response e-mail
using appropriate language and conventions.

Procedure:
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Students will read through the e-mail from their childs teacher. The activity is designed
to further raise students consciousness to formulaic language, structure and conventions
of formal e-mail writing.
Once students have read through the e-mail (about 5 minutes) they will get into pairs and
discuss the language and structure of the e-mail.
In pairs students will respond to the e-mail.
During the last 5-7 minutes volunteers will be asked to share their response e-mails on
the doc cam.
I will collect the responses and give the groups feedback.

Closure/evaluation (5 minutes)
Purpose:

To review objectives by asking students to make comparisons between informal and

formal e-mails.

Procedure:
1.

I will ask students if they have any questions.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

14

2. I will ask students to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between
informal and formal e-mails as a class.
3. As homework, I will ask students to journal on the differences that they think are
important and what they can do to help themselves better understand formal language.

Lesson 4
Pre-lesson inventory:
Lesson objectives:
Language:

Students will be able to write a formal letter of inquiry using formal language, letter
structure, and formal letter conventions.
Students will be able to write a thank you card.
Students will recognize when a thank you card is socially/culturally expected.

Materials to take to class: corrected e-mail responses with feedback, dry erase markers, formal
letter structure and sentence starters hand out, formal letter improvement worksheet, thank you
card hand out and blank thank you cards.
Equipment needed for class: none
Assignments to collect from students: hand back e-mail responses with feedback.
Special room arrangements: none
Warm up: review e-mail responses from last class (5 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will review the feedback on their e-mail responses.

The following lesson will be rationalized through the concept of writing in response to
something so that students can make connections between writing a response e-mail and
writing a letter of inquiry (e.g. a letter responding to something in order to obtain more
information, etc.)

Procedure:
1. I will give students 2-3 minutes to review the feedback on their e-mail response.
2. I will ask students if they have any questions.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

15

Transition: I will introduce letter of inquiry writing by juxtaposing it with an e-mail response,
where both are responding to something and/or asking for something. I will ask students if they
can think of a reason they would write a letter to get information. I will list their suggestions on
the board and add: writing in response to a job opening, writing to a school or company to get
more information about their classes, products or services, and writing to a company to make a
complaint or suggestion. I will tell students they are going to compare two letters and try to
guess which one is formal/informal and what types of letters they are.
Activity 1: Spot the difference (15 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will compare and contrast two letters of inquiry in order to become familiar with
formal letter structure and language.

Procedure:
1.

In pairs, students will compare the two letters to decide which letter is more formal and
why.
2. Students will be asked which letter they think would be more effective at getting the
conclusion each seeks and why.
Transition: Students will be told that a formal letter conveys a tone which makes the letter
writer seem polite, respectful and more serious about getting a result or the information the letter
seeks. Students attention will also be drawn to the small differences in formal letters versus
formal e-mails (e.g. the writers address and information is included at the top, dates and specific
places are referenced, and letters are more detailed than e-mails.) Students will be told that
formal letters of inquiry are letters that seek information, a service, or a resolution to a problem.
The following activity is centered on a formal letter inquiring about an employment position. I
will tell students that this letter is very important and to pay attention to the structure and
language as the activity helps develop an essential skill that can aid in finding employment in the
United States. Students will be given a hand out which details the structure of a formal letter
including formulaic language in the form of sentence starters for the next activity.
Activity 2: Editing a letter of inquiry (25 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be able to revise and edit a letter to make it formal.

Students will be able to write a formal letter of inquiry using a hand out detailing
structure and formulaic sentence starters.

Procedure:

Sharpe, A. (2014)

16

1.

In pairs, students will be given an example of a formal letter of inquiry that needs to be
edited and revised.
2. Students will revise the letter using information from the hand out with structure and
sentence starters. They can also reference the first activities hand out with a formal letter
inquiring about information on a school. Students will be encouraged to be creative as
there is no absolute correct revision for the letter. It needs to be made more formal.
3. Students should re-write the letter so that it is more formal.
4. If there is enough time, I will have students exchange with another pair to do some peerediting. If there is not enough time I will collect the letters at the end of class and correct
and provide feedback on them.
Transition: I will give students a response letter in an envelope. In their pairs, they must read
the letter and decide if they got the interview. I will give students five minutes to read the letters.
I will tell the students that they all got the interview and now we are going to pretend that they
actually had the interview and it went very well. Now they must write a thank you card to Roger
Johnson for the great interview. I will explain that thank you cards or notes should be given to
anyone who gives their time or provides a free service for them. I will tell students that thank
you cards are like a very short response that is intended to politely acknowledge and thank a
person for something, in this case, a job interview. I will also explain that paper thank you cards
with a handwritten note are still preferred over an e-mail in the United States (whenever
possible). A formal thank you note differs from any other formal writing in that it is
handwritten.
Activity 3: Writing a thank you note (10 minutes)
Purpose:

Students will be able to write a thank you note using formal language.

Procedure:
1. In the same pairs, students will be given a blank thank you card.
2. I will give student a hand out which includes some sentence starters for thank you notes.
I will ask students what kind of information they think should be included in a thank you
note. I will prompt them with questions like: who are we writing the thank you note to;
why or for what are we thanking this person; etc.
3. After 10 minutes I will have students show and share their thank you notes with the class.
4. Spot corrections will be made as necessary.
5. I will ask students what in other situations they should write a thank you note. I reiterate
to students that the skill of writing a thank you note is important because thank you notes
are a culturally and socially expected gesture in the United States. I will share an
anecdote about how I received a job through a thank you note.
Unit closure/evaluation: (5 minutes)

Sharpe, A. (2014)

17

Purpose:

To review the language and content objectives of informal and formal writing in text
messages, e-mails, letters, and thank you notes.

Procedure:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I will review the types of writing we studied in the unit including text messages, e-mails,
letters, and thank you notes.
I will ask students what kind of writing abbreviations such as TTYL, BRB, ASAP are and
where we find them. I will ask them why we use abbreviations.
I will ask students what a subject line in an e-mail should be like.
I will ask students if they have any questions.
I will tell students that I want them to write another entry in their journal about formal
writing. I want them to include what their strengths and weaknesses are, what they feel
comfortable with and how they think they could improve. I will collect the journals in
the next class. There is one more week of class left (two days), and although there is no
summative exam in the course the journals will provide me some insight into the
students progress in this unit as well as previous units.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

18

Example Activities: Lessons 3 and 4

Lesson 3: Activity 1
Spot the differences: Compare and contrast the two e-mails. How are they similar and how
are different? Underline any vocabulary that is unfamiliar.
E-mail #1

E-mail #2

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Re: your program

Re: Applied linguistics program candidacy

Hey Marianne Mena-

Dear Dr. Mena,

It was totally great talking to you the other

day. I had fun seeing your school and where
you work-LOL! The information you gave me
was pretty helpful but basically I think that
Im a real good fit for your school and I think
the research I want to do will be good for
your program too.

It was a pleasure meeting you on March 30th,

2014. I enjoyed talking with you about your
prestigious applied linguistics program and
the university. I appreciated all of the
information that you provided to me and I am
grateful for the time you took to get to know
me and my research interests. I was also
thankful for the opportunity to meet some of
the members of your department. A position
in your department seems like a perfect match
for the research I would like to pursue.

So Im sending my CV like you wanted. Send

me an e-mail ASAP to let me know what you
think. Tell anyone else to e-mail if they want.
TTYL!

19

In regards to your request for my CV, I have

attached the most up-to-date version for your
consideration. Thank you again for your
time. Please do not hesitate to contact me if
you have any further questions of
suggestions. I look forward to hearing from
you.

ThanksAdam Shapiro

Best Regards,
Adam Shapiro

Lesson 3: Activity 2
Directions: Label the parts of the e-mail. Then with a partner, fill out the table below according
to what kind of information/ message should be present in that part.
Re: applied linguistics program
Dear Dr. Mena,

Sharpe, A. (2014)

20

It was a pleasure meeting you on March 30th, 2014. I enjoyed talking with you
about your prestigious applied linguistics program. I appreciated all of the
information that you provided me and am grateful for the time that you took to get
to know me and my research interests. I was glad to have the opportunity to meet
some members of your department. A position in your department seems perfect
for the research I would like to pursue.
As you requested during our meeting, I am attaching the most up-to-date version
of my CV for your department's consideration. Thank you again for your time.
Please do not hesitate to e-mail me if you have any further questions or
suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Adam Shapiro

Greeting:

Introduction:

Conclusion:

Closing:

Lesson 3: Activity 3
Directions: Read the following e-mail from your childs teacher. Then, with a partner, respond
to the e-mail using formal e-mail language and structure.

From: Maria Jimenez (maria.jimenez@psdschools.edu)

To: (your name and e-mail)
Cc:

Sharpe, A. (2014)

21

Subject: parent-teacher conferences

Dear__________________,
I am writing in reference to setting up a date and time to meet about your childs academic
performance this year. As you know, we as teachers, make every effort to keep parents informed
about the academic progress of their children. I would like to set up a meeting so that we may
collaborate on how to help your child achieve the goals and standards set forth by the Colorado
educational guidelines. As I hope you know, I strive for student success but believe that you, as
an informed parent, are a vital part of that success. The parent teacher conferences are a great
opportunity for us to get to know each other to and answer any questions you may have.
Please find attached a calendar outlining the dates and times I am available for our meeting. I
have also attached the goals and standards set forth by the district, in conjunction with those
contained within the standards set forth by the State of Colorado. Please e-mail me at your
earliest convenience to inform me as to the date and time which you are available.
Best Regards,
Maria Jimenez

Lesson 3: Activity 3
From:
To: Maria Jimenez (maria.jimenez@psdschools.edu)
Cc:
Subject:

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Lesson 4: Activity 1
Spot the differences

22

Sharpe, A. (2014)

23

Robert Black
1234 College Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80525

Robert Black
Nowhere important

Dear Ms. Jacobs,

Dear Lady or Man,

I am writing in reference to your advertisement

for summer language courses abroad. I would
like to receive more detailed information about
the courses you offer. Could you please send
me more information and details of prices?

I bought a bar of your dark fantasy delight

chocolate at my neighborhood store and it was
moldy with little white specks all over it. Of
course the chocolate was on the shelf for too
long and it went bad. Anyway, I unwrapped
the wrapper and ate a piece, it was absolutely
disgusting and made me sick to my stomach
and so now I want my money back!

I would particularly like to know how many

students attend the school, and the maximum
number of students per class. Your article
mentioned a language library and fully
equipped computer rooms. Would it be
possible to use these facilities also in the
evenings? I am also interested if all of your
teachers have training in second language
education.

If you dont give me back my money I think

that Ill go to my lawyer and have him start
legal proceedings against you and your
chocolate company. Sometimes you
manufacturers of chocolate bars think you can
get away with murder!

I would be grateful if you could send me more

information on the social programs offered at
your school and whether or not extra-curricular
activities are included in the price of the
program. Furthermore, I would appreciate if
you could inform me on the amenities near the
school.

Youd better send me the money or better yet,

you better send me a years supply of decent
chocolate.

I look forward to receiving your reply.

Robert Black

I want an answer and I want it fast.

Not happy,

Best Regards,
Robert Black

Lesson 4: Activity 2
Layout of formal letters:
Formal letters are made up of different parts.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

24

1. The greeting:
If you know the name of the person you are writing to, begin:
Dear Mr. Jones, (to a man)
Dear Mrs. Jones, (to a woman)
Dear Ms. Jones, (to a woman who is not married or to a woman who you do not
know if she is married)
If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, begin:

Dear Sir, (to a man)

Dear Madam, (to a woman)
To whom it may concern, (when you do know anything about the person)

2. The opening paragraph:

This paragraph (1 or 2 sentences) contains a clear statement of your reason or purpose
for writing. Use specific information including dates and where you learned of
something. Some typical openings are:
I am writing in reference to your posting on Engineerswanted.com on March 30th,
2014.
I am writing in response to..
I am writing in regard to
I am writing to inquire about ..
I am writing to ask about..
3. The body of the letter:
The body of the letter can contain 1-3 paragraphs. The body contains all of the
relevant information. The body should provide the main information of the letter.
4.

Final paragraph:
The final paragraph should signal the end of the letter. Some typical sentences are:
I look forward to receiving your reply.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I look forward to meeting with you.
Please find enclosed a copy of my CV for your perusal.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

5. The closing:
This phrase puts an end to the letter. Some typical closing are:
Sincerely,
Best regards,
Best wishes,
Lesson 4: Activity 2

Sharpe, A. (2014)

25

How can the letter below be improved?

Sometime in April, 2014

Dear Sir,
I saw your ad for a part-time English teacher which was in a daily newspaper sometime last
week and I would like you to give me this job.
I know I can do this job because I speak English very well and Im attending 1st year
university language courses. I taught my friend to speak English too. This friend of mine is
Italian and can now talk English. I think being an English teacher would be great because I
like talking to people from other places, and I like helping people to talk.
I can come for an interview if you want. I can come any day except Fridays because I always
to lunch with my football friends on Friday. My CV is in this letter so have a look at it and
call me or e-mail me if you want, anytime after 11 p.m.when I get back home from the bar.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Mark Ferguson

Rewrite the letter. You might have to make up some details and you might have to exclude
some details from the letter above.

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Lesson 4: Transition activity

26

Sharpe, A. (2014)

27

Read the letter of response and decide if you got the interview. Make comparisons and
contrasts to the e-mail responses you wrote in the last lesson.
Letter of response:
Roger Johnson
Executive Director of Hiring
ABC English Language School
8000 Whatsup Rd
Perfectville, CO 80646
April 12, 2014
Dear Mr. Ferguson,
I am writing in response to your letter, that I received on April 12th , expressing interest in
an interview for the position of part-time English teacher. I want to thank you for your
interest in the position and would like to inform you that the position is still available.
I would like to arrange a time in the near future to meet with you and go over your CV so
that we may discuss your potential as a part-time English teacher at our school. Please
contact me by telephone at your earliest convenience so that we may set up an interview.
Enclosed you will find an informative brochure about our school and a business card with
my contact information.
I look forward to hearing from you and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have
any further questions.
Best Regards,
Roger Johnson

Sharpe, A. (2014)

Lesson 4: Activity 3
Thank you notes:
If someone has given their time or provided a service to you, writing a thank you note is a
culturally/socially expected gesture in the United States. Thank you notes are most often
handwritten on decorative cards or on nice stationary. Typing or e-mailing a thank you note
seems cold and impersonal in the United States.
Here are some sentence starters or phrases to use in a thank you note:
Dear.,

I would like to thank you for

I wanted to tell you how grateful I am/was for.
I wanted to thank you again for..
I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated
Thank you very much for.

Always thank the person again before the closing:

Thank you again for..

Best Regards,

Activity 3: Write a thank you note.

Scenario: You just had an interview with Roger Johnson from ABC English Language
School for the part-time position of English teacher. Using the card provided, write Mr.
Johnson a thank you note for the interview.

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