Writing Right : The Chilean Independence Day

Diego’s Post

Hello my friends, today i (c) will write about the patriots parties(We). In this month the(Nn) Chileans(c) celebrate the first goverment council, specifically (1)18th of September (c).

The(Nn) Chileans(c) people celebrate this date with many happiness (We), (p)we go to the "fondas".(p)In the fondas we dance the (Nn)"cueca" a dance characteristic of Chile(Wo-We); we eat food than just eat in this date(We), for example: "empanadas", "anticuchos"or another kind of meat roast(Wo); we play a(Nn) typical games than(s) we learn in the (Ww)country, as the "rayuela" or the race in sacks(Wo). But this isn't all because we drink a lot of alcohol, but a(Nn) typical drinks for example: "chicha" or "terremoto".

When i(c) was a child just(Nn) play(Wt) with my "trompo", because my parents decided than(Ww or s) we have(Wt) to visite our family but when we visited to our family isn't always had cousins of my age(?), so i(c) enjoyed of(Nn) a good meat on the grilled and play(Wt)with my "trompo".

Actually i(c) enjoy the "18's" dancing "cueca"(Wo), metting(s) with my friends around(s) of a grilled with a barbacue of glass(?) and studying so much because always i have a test(Wo9 or a homework for the first day of return class(We).

Finally i(c) can say than i(c) haven't (1) a favourite "18", but i(c) (1)never to forgiven(Wt-Ww-Wf) the last "18" when i(c) travel(Wt) to the beach with some friends.....i (c) (1) never forgiven(Wt-Ww-Wf) or i (c) forgiven some moments of that date (?)....

OK friends....
this is all!(We)
BYE!
See You!!
And enjoy this 18!!!

Error Correction Key.

·Wt: Wrong Tense
-Wf: Wrong Form
·Ww: Wrong Word
·Sp: Spelling
·p: Punctuation
·Wo: Word order
·1: Something Missing
·?: What the hell does this mean
·We: Wrong Expression
·C: Capital letter
-Nn: not needed

Writing Right : The Chilean Independence Day

Natalia’s Post.

What do Fiestas Patrias mean to you?
Well for me the (Nn) Fiestas Patrias are an instance for share (We) with my family and my friends, (p) we always do funny things, we went (Wt) to fondas and drank(Wt) chicha of Curacaví jajajaja and of course the unmissable barbecue.

What (1)typical Chileans do?
I think that a typical Chileans go to fondas with the (Wf) family and eat anticuchos, choripanes,(p) or some people go to a park and made(Wt) a barbecue and your(Wf) child fly(Wt) a kite, or other people made(Wt) a fonda in your(Wf) house and invite to your (Wf)parents, your(Wf) friends and all the people that they want,(p) some people go to the beach or the farm(Ww) to rest. All this(Wf) things depend (1)the family and the ties with the Fiestas Patrias.

What you did(Wt) as a child(We)?
Uff when I was a child I went to Melipilla and celebrate(Wt) with all my family,(p) I have 12 uncles, and many cousins like 30(Wo). The18 September(We), we stay(Wt) on my grandmother(1) house, we made a barbecue with Chilean salad, we bought empanadas, and we played pinpon and fly a kite. The 19(1) September we went to my uncle’s house in Melipilla of couse(s) and we made the same but they have(Wt) a swimming pool, so we swam there and played all the time.

What (1)you do nowadays?
Now I stay in Santiago and went(Wt) to a fonda,(p) but the last fonda that I went, was horrible I dislike(Wt) (1)very much. Now I hope that this fonda (1) be better. For other part (We)I made(Wt) a barbecue with my family on my brother(1) house, and I want to go to Lo cañas and celebrate with my boyfriend, and his family.

Which was your favourite 18 and why?
My favourites 18, was went(Ww) I was a child, I liked very much share(Wt) with all my family,(p) I played with my cousins and l laugh(Wt) very much. The other 18 that I like(We-Wt) was on 2002, with my school friend’s went to the Stadium National Fonda(Wo), and drank chicha, and (1)was bad because after (1)drank we were with stomach pain(We) but apart of(Ww) this event I laugh(Wt) very much, I remembered that was really fun.

Error Correction Key.

·Wt: Wrong Tense
·Wf: Wrong Form
·Ww: Wrong Word
·Sp: Spelling
·p: Punctuation
·Wo: Word order
·1: Something Missing
·?: What the hell does this mean
·We: Wrong Expression
·C: Capital letter
·Nn: not needed

Writing Right

I think, one of the main problems that Natalia and Diego have is that they get confused with the use of the tenses. So, when you read and analyze their last posts you see that they repeat some of the same mistakes they made before. There are also some mistakes on punctuation and capitalization. However, they have improved quite a lot their word order, because they only have a few mistakes on that.
I believe that if they want to improve their writing skills first of all they have to read some other stuff in English. If their read and notice about the expressions, the use of the tenses or lexical chunks, they are going to be more aware of their next posts in order to write them more carefully. At the same time, and I think that Javiera wrote it, that a good idea is to read the posts twice before they publish them. To be honest, I do not do that frequently when I create pieces of writings or posts but I know I have to do it for my own learning.

Word Aid Assigment

Well, on Natalia’s posts “My English Experience” and “Summary… Desert Cities…”, two of the most common mistakes she made were on the order of words and expressions. I think these error happen because of the unconscious desire to translate what we write and say in Spanish to the English language. She also had some problems on wrong tenses but I think that it is an error easy to fix when you grow up as English learner.

On Diego’s posts “Learning English” and “I am Diego Pinto” we can see that he made mistakes mostly on spelling, wrong tenses and expressions. I also have noticed that Diego used the form “ can + an infinitive verb” Example: i can to read english texts and i can to confirmed. Although, he makes himself understood through his posts, he has to improve some of the basic errors he made on them.

One of the pattern I found is that when they want to contrast an idea they do not know how to do it. For example Daniela wrote For other part and Diego in opposite of. So, in that sense they have not notice the On the other hand lexical chunk yet as a way of contrasting different thoughts or ideas.