All About English Creative Writing

[The Alternative Story]

mujin:

Hi TAS,


We are confused about the differences between past tense and past continuous tense when used in composition. Could you advise us if there is any rule that we can adhere, so that we can distinguish the differences and its applications.

Thank you.

Hi mujin,

The past tense refers to an action that has happened in the past
and it is completed.

The past continuous tense refers to an action that has happened in
the past but the main difference is that it happened for a duration
of time.

Eg:

I slept through the show and I did not know that my friends
had left the cinema.

(Here, the emphasis is on the reason and result, the reason
being you were sleeping, the result being you did not know your
friends had left, the emphasis is not on the duration of the action)

VS

I was sleeping through the show when the bell rang.

(Here, the emphasis is on the duration of the time
that you had spent sleeping and while doing so, the bell rang)

TAS

[vonneee86]

Hi TAS,

Thanks for the information on the vocabulary, it is very interesting…
I will ask you if I need any more help.

Are you going to do the september holiday programmes at the bukit timah
branch? And will you have any more of such programmes in december?

[littlewoman]

The Alternative Story:

littlewoman:

Hi TAS,


I heard about the parents workshop which you will be having. Just want to ask, what will the workshop cover ? Will writing techniques such as personfication be covered?

Also, can I have the details of it, if you have?

Thanks!

Hi littlewoman,

Yes the workshop will cover such details. The details can be found on
this link:

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13090

We do not have much vacancy left, if you are interested,
you can pm, email or call us. The contact information can
also be found at the link.

TAS

Hi TAS,

Thanks for the information and the link! Can I find out from you where you get your materials to teach vocabulary? Is it possible to purchase from you?

[BigDad]

The Alternative Story:

[quote]Hi TAS,


Thanks, your explanation really helps..but what if the personification
is used wrongly, how to identify it?

Hi BigDad,

There are times where children use personification wrongly or rather
awkwardly.

Eg:

The wind wrapped itself around me. (right)

The wind hugged me as I walked to school. (wrong)

There is no rules to govern personification in that sense.
It is not like grammar, with rules that are more or less fixed.

In order to know how to use personification well, the child must
be a reader or at least have teachers or parents who can guide
them in doing so.

What you can do is to show your child examples of personification
in storybooks and encourage your child to use them in writing.
After a while, your child would be able to get a better sense of
how to use it. We do have these phrases that have been
extracted from the storybooks we sell, however, you can also
look for good phrases from the storybooks on your own and guide
your child from there.
[quote]Also, can you help me to look at this and see what is wrong:

- She is as happy as a lark and she played happily with
her toys. (the teacher said description was good but could be
better:? [/quote]Your child has tried to use similes (happy as a luck) and also
adverbs (happily) to give the writing more detail which is good.

Problem (1)

However, similes like 'happy as a lark' while good, are a bit
cliched. If your child is still in lower primary, it is quite
acceptable but if your child is older, then it is advisable to
get him or her to use similes that are more 'naturalistic'.

Eg:

- The silence was like a wall, thick and guarded.

- The anger in him rose up. It seemed to be a
huge tidal wave of emotion, crushing and suffocating him.

Problem (2)

Your child mentioned 'as happy as a lark' and 'she played happily'.

'Happy' was used twice. Usually in writing, we try to vary the
adjectives and adverbs.

You can say:

She was filled with excitement as she saw the new toy in the box.
Laughing happily, she began to play with it

TAS[/quote]Hi TAS,

It is very clear, your explanation, I know what to work on, thanks so much! By the way, should we get them to learn different ways to start a composition at primary 2, I saw from some assessment books they talk about starting with a conversation etc? I thought just start with description of the day can already?

If you have vocabulary books, can let me know also I am interested

[The Alternative Story]

Hi parents,


For those who were asking about our holiday programmes for
creative writing, the information is provided here:

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=247851#247851

TAS

[jeestan]

Hi TAS,


Thanks for the information on the holiday classes. Would you assess the child to see if she should go to which class, is it possible for them to jump a class? - eg: a 9 year old who is fast goes to a primary 4 class? For the holiday programme, will you allow this?

[The Alternative Story]

Hi jeestan,


We do that for our normal classes, we will assess the child and if
we find the child’s ability much higher than his peers, we will
advise the parents to let the child ‘jump’ a level so that
the child will still be ‘stretched’ to his maximum ability.

However, for the holiday programmes we usually do not do so
unless the parent requests for it and then we will arrange for
a assessment to see if he or she should ‘jump’ a level
for the holiday programmes. This is because for children who
join the holiday programmes usually do not have much background
in the way we teach creative writing and hence, for a 1-3 day
programme, it is better that they stick to their own age group.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Hi bigdad and littlewoman,


We produce our own vocabulary materials, we are compiling them
in a book and might make it available to the public but it is not
confirmed that we will do so yet.

Bigdad,

We will get back to you about the composition startings latest by
tomorrow.

TAS

[mujin]

The Alternative Story:

mujin:

Hi TAS,


We are confused about the differences between past tense and past continuous tense when used in composition. Could you advise us if there is any rule that we can adhere, so that we can distinguish the differences and its applications.

Thank you.

Hi mujin,

The past tense refers to an action that has happened in the past
and it is completed.

The past continuous tense refers to an action that has happened in
the past but the main difference is that it happened for a duration
of time.

Eg:

I slept through the show and I did not know that my friends
had left the cinema.

(Here, the emphasis is on the reason and result, the reason
being you were sleeping, the result being you did not know your
friends had left, the emphasis is not on the duration of the action)

VS

I was sleeping through the show when the bell rang.

(Here, the emphasis is on the duration of the time
that you had spent sleeping and while doing so, the bell rang)

TAS

Hi TAS,

Thanks for the explanation (':D')

Mujin

[The Alternative Story]

BigDad:

Hi TAS,

It is very clear, your explanation, I know what to work on, thanks so much! By the way, should we get them to learn different ways to start a composition at primary 2, I saw from some assessment books they talk about starting with a conversation etc? I thought just start with description of the day can already?

If you have vocabulary books, can let me know also I am interested

Hi BigDad,

No problem

At primary 2, it is more advisable to get them to use a descriptive
starting (describing weather etc).

In order to be able to use 'flashbacks', 'conversation', 'idioms' etc
to start, the child must have a very good grasp of the language and
also must be able to develop the story in a very logical manner.

It is also not advisable to get the child to just memorize startings like
flashbacks as she or her will sound quite cliched. It is better to teach
them the techniques and most primary 2s will struggle with this so
I don't think you need to worry about teaching them all these
different startings now. Maybe at primary 3, you can start.

For the vocabulary materials, we are compiling our materials but
are not selling them currently.

TAS