Advanced Writing with English in Use

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Unit 5 • Peopleand places

86 •. Types of writing

2.1 Atmosphere

Thisdramatic d escript ion of New Yorkharbour,taken from a travelbookby

JonathanRaban entitledHuntingM rHeartbreak,evokesanatmosphere -a very

different style fro mt he dry description in a guidebook.

A Inmost l inesof thete xtthere is eithera spelling or a punct uation error. Write

thecorrect lyspelledwordsorshow the correctpunctuation in thespacesin the

margin.Somelines are correct : indicate these lines witha tick(.f).Theexercise

beg inswit h two exam ples(0). Seepages9-10for informationand adviceabout

this exercisetype.

o .\l anhattan was adozen glitte ringsticks,oflight,

o throughwhichlivi dsto rmdouds were rolling .There

1 wasB rooklvnBridge , a swe epingCIIIYCofwhite lights

2 toothe north;there ,all herrock, w asLilie rtv,w ei rdly

3 flood litin le prechaun green.Manhattan sfreakish

4 he igth andnarrowness.rising in fronto f thelowdark

5 industral sprawlofthe Je rse y shore ,de fiedgravity,

(J p rop ortion. natur e.Itwasbrazenin it' sdisdainfor the

7 o rdinary limitsofhumane nte rpriseI watchedthe

8 sto rmandthec ityhattling it out, high in thesk..)'.Fo r

9 a fewmoment s ,the sailingdouds, expose da large. low

10 moon.ItwasdriftingOH;'rthe Boroughslike ahuge

1 I corroded~iltmedallion,Civen ,the airo f highmelodrama

12 in the sllrollnding landscape , I wouldhavehee nonly

13 mildy sur p rised toseethe moon comecrashingo ut

14 ofhe aven and se t the hole of Queen s on fire ,

Note:Manhatt an,Brooklyn Bridge , (th e Statn eof) Lihert v,th e Je rsey sho re,

the Bo roughs,andQ uee ns areall featuresofNewYork'sgeography,

B Whenyou have correctedyour answers,look at thestyle of thedescription.

What details contribute to t he sense ofdramaand atmosphere?

2.2 Writing

Part 2 writing task

YourlocalTouri stInformation Centre is planninga brochu re which will intro d uce

thetownorregio n whereyou live toEnglis h- speakingvisito rs.Other peop le will

be writing artic les on touristfac ilities such ashot elsand restaurants, transpo rt ,

'things todo'etc.so youshou ldavoidthoseareas.You havebeen asked to

w rite thephysicaldescription, includingthe location, layout, geographicaland

architec tu ral features. Some referenceto historymay beappropriate.Your

descriptionshouldmakeyourareasoundinterestingandattractiveat the same

time as deliveringa maximumof preciseinformation in about250 words.

Task achievement:whichof the pointsyoulistedin2.0C(page85)mustyou

notmention?

Taskbank:Tas ks 23 ,24, 25, 31,36 and 4 6