Helpful Website

Useful links for English Writing
1. http://www.writingcommons.org/
2. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl
3. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/
4. http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/
5. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/ - (General\business English)
7. Open2Studies short little video course on writing for the web
8. Dr. Jakob Nielson's work on writing for the web
9. http://www.bartleby.com/141/
You must scroll down to see the contents of this guide and click "Next" at bottom of page to see the entire guide.
10. Free Online Dictionary: http://dictionary.reference.com/
11. Also: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
12. A self-paced program of videos and exercises for learning English grammar:
https://caryacademy.haikulearning.com/melissa_davenport/grammaronlinepublic/cms_page/view/6326031
______________________________


Targeted help

• Types of sentences: http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/writing/forms/Kinds%20of%20Sentences.pdf
• Types of Clauses: http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/writing/forms/Types%20of%20Clauses.pdf
• Tips for writing effective titles: http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
• Tips on how to punctuate Titles: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Punctuating_Titles_chart.pdf
• For organizing your writing: http: //writingcommons.org/process/organize
• Conciseness: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/1/
• Paramedic method for conciseness: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/635/01/
• Organizational Patterns in Academic Writing: http://valenciacollege.edu/wp/cssc/documents/OrganizationalPatternsinAcademicWriting.pdf 
• Online Tools that you can use:
  1) To check for number of words, sentences, readability, etc: http://wordcounttools.com/
  2) To check if your composition is concise: http://www.writersdiet.com/WT.php
  3) Free online Grammar, spelling, proofreading checker: http://www.paperrater.com/
  4) To check for plagiarism: http://www.plagaware.com
  https://www.plagtracker.com AND http://www.duplichecker.com

Other useful links:
· The BBC does a good site for Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
· Business English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/
· Purdue Online Writing Lab has good resources for English as a second Language Students (ESL) – Click on the Navigation panel on the left-hand side of the website page to see the full menu: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/974/2/
******************************************

Suggested web-links:

•http://www.ego4u.com/

•http://www.english4today.com/

•http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/

•http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

•http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/

•http://www.englishclub.com/

•http://www.englishlearning.com/

•http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

•http://www.usingenglish.com/dictionary.html

•http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_99.htt

______________________________

Final assignment

Chinese Traditional Food - Turnip Cake (draft)

Most of the Chinese traditional food are delicious, but beyond their taste, they usually contain special wishes and meanings.  Turnip cake is one of the popular traditional food that people will eat at Chinese New Year especially in Guangdong province, the southern China.  It's also sometimes referred to as radish cake (菜頭糕) which in Chinese is a homophone for good fortune (好彩頭).  Moreover, the word "糕"(gao) meaning "cake" is identical in sound to "高" meaning "high'" and "tall" and that implying promotion and prosperity.  Prosperity was considered very important in anient Chinese agricultural society since it would affect their harvest and even living. The turnip cake  was mainly made of shredded Chinese radish and plain rice flour with additional ingredients of dried shrimp, dried shilltake and Chinese sausage, all chopped-up in pieces.  Despite I could eat or buy different version of turip cake from various Chinese restaurant, I like the turnip cake made by my mother.  The rich ingredients she used, in quality and quantity, made the cake very tasty and every bit of the ingredients represented her rich giving heart to us.  I learned how to make the turnip cake from my mother and now I will do it with my daughter every Chinese New Year.  I think something can be traditional because it had passed from generation to generation.  It became precious not only because their special taste but also express a strong family bonding in Chinese culture.  Hope we could continue to pass down the good tradition to our next generation.

Final submission

Chinese Traditional Food - Turnip Cake

Most of the Chinese traditional food are delicious, but beyond their taste, they usually contain special wishes and meanings. Turnip cake is one of the popular traditional food that people will eat at Chinese New Year especially in Guangdong province, the southern China. It's also sometimes referred to as radish cake (菜頭糕) which in Chinese is a homophone for good fortune (好彩頭). Moreover, the word "糕"(gao) meaning "cake" is identical in sound to "高" meaning "high'" and "tall" and that implying promotion and prosperity. Prosperity was considered very important in anient Chinese agricultural society since it would affect their harvest and even living. Therefore, this is popular as gifts to one another druing the Chinese New Year. The turnip cake is mainly make of shredded Chinese radish and plain rice flour with additional ingredients of dried shrimp, dried shilltake and Chinese sausage. To make the turnip cake, first chop-up all the ingredients in pieces and stir-fire them. Then, add all the ingredients to the radish and flour mixture. At last, pour the combined mixture in a mold and steam at high heat for 45 minutes until it solidified. In fact, there are various kind of new year rice cakes and the historians discovered that they are one of the oldest food in China. Despite I could eat or buy different version of turip cake from various Chinese restaurant, I like the turnip cake made by my mother. The rich ingredients she used, in quality and quantity, made the cake very tasty and every bit of the ingredients represented her rich giving heart to us. I learned how to make the turnip cake from my mother and now I will do it with my daughter every Chinese New Year. I think something can be traditional because it had passed from generation to generation. It became precious not only because their special taste but also expressed a strong family bonding in Chinese culture. Hope we could continue to pass down the good tradition to our next generation and never lose what is valuable in our life.

Corrections:
1.  Most of the Chinese traditional foods are delicious
2.  The turnip cake is mainly made of
3.  There is a various kind of new year rice cakes

Week 4 - Assignment writing

The place I live is a large private housing estate, which consists of 61 towers and with a total of 12,600 appartment flats; therefore, it has many facilities, including a 6 stories shopping mall, 2 department stores, 1 ice skating rink, cinema and many restaurants to meet the needs of the residents. Being a resident there for more than ten years, let me tell you some of the advantages and disadvantages of this estate. The transportation is very convenience in the estate since we can travel by various routes of citibus and minibus, and also MTR station is accessible directly from the second floor of the shopping mall. Besides, there is a public park next to the estate, so we can play different sports like football, tennis, do jogging whenever we want to have some relaxation. In order that the residents could have more public space, every mansion has podium that often including a children playground. Talking about some disadvantages, the restaurants in the shopping mall are usually very crowded due to many residents go out to have dinner during weekends. Most of the shops and restaurants in the estate shopping mall belong to some famous brand therefore lead to a high level of consumption. In order to maintain a proper image of the estate, there is no market place where the residents could buy fresh fish or meat, so we can only buy cold food in the supermarket. Since the construction of this residental estate was last completed by the 1990, undergo many renovation works all the time due to the long history.

Week 3 - Journal writing 2

Mary eats two scone of ice-cream and feels very content.
(eats - action verb   feels - linking verb)

He drinks 3 bottle of beers so his face start to turn red.
(drinks & turn - action verb)

Who book the table for lunch?
(book - action verb)

Everbody orders the lamb rack today since it's on promotion.
(orders - action verb)

This five stars restaurant become very crowded everyday during the dinner time.
(become - linking verb)

This five stars restaurant will become crowded durying the dinner time.
(will - helping verb)

Week 3 - Journal writing 1

At restaurant

Mary eats two scone of ice-cream and feels very content.

He drinks 3 bottle of beers so his face start to turn red.

"One cold lemon tea, please."

Yours are the last dish of today special.

Who book the table for lunch?

Everbody orders the lamb rack today since it's on promotion.

Eating and dancing are the main activity of this restaurant.

Week 2 - Assignment writing

The young children play football happily in the playground and two of them bump into each other accidentally so they burst into tears.

The pretty woman walks gently and smilingly down the street with her lovely kitten, therefore attract the attention of all people around her.

The sharks swim

The flowers bloom

The wind blows

The computer hums

Week 2 - Journal writing 2

Verb

wait
play
dance
smile
listen
walk
sing

Adverb

happily
patiently
carefully
together
joyfully

Sentences

My son waits patiently for his delicious dessert.
The children listen carefully to the bad news about the car accident.
My daughter plays happily with the lovely kitten.
The little boy jumps joyfully on the sofa when he passes the final state of the computer game.
They like to play the interesting board game together after dinner.