Sadlier-Oxford : Grammar For Writing

Grammar for Writing:
Level Gold — Chapter 11

This Is Vietnam

Geostock
City Hall in Ho Chi Minh City

During the 1960s and 1970s, Vietnam was in the news every day. In the twenty-five years since the United States withdrew its military forces, Vietnam (officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 1976) has grown and changed. Imagine that you are chief editorial writer for a major metropolitan daily newspaper and that you have been assigned to write a lead editorial on contemporary Vietnam.

Your Assignment

Read current news items from Vietnamese sources, and choose a topic or issue that interests you. Topics to consider are (1) the current economy, (2) the political scene, (3) economic and political reforms, (4) problems involving rural or urban areas. Do in-depth research on one topic or issue. Take extensive notes and base the editorial on the facts you collect.

STEP 1: Initial Search
Begin your research with visits to the following Web sites:

Viet Nam News

Yahoo! Vietnam News

STEP 2: Focus Your Search

Focus your search on one current topic in Vietnam. Possible topics include business and industry, human rights, politics, and lifestyles. Use cluster diagrams to organize the details. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, pages 10–11.)

Search the Internet for more information and explore other resources, such as books, an almanac, newspaper and magazine articles, or recent encyclopedias. To find current articles on your topic, visit your local library and look up Vietnam in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature.

STEP 3: Define Your Audience

Your audience may know something about Vietnam, but it may not know a lot about current events there. Make your editorial informative and persuasive. First, inform readers about the issue or topic you chose by providing enough background and facts to give them a solid understanding of the topic. Then take a position on that issue or topic, and use persuasive writing to convince them that you are right.

STEP 4: Make an Outline

Develop an outline based on your notes. Include (1) the facts readers will need in order to get a good grasp of the topic; (2) the slant of your editorial; and (3) the facts, reasons, and other important data that support your opinion.

When speaking of the Paleo-Indian culture, try to use interesting, accurate modifiers that compare your topic to cultures with which the audience is already familiar. Review the rules on using comparatives. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, pages 249 and 251.)

The purpose of a newspaper editorial is to express the newspaper's opinion on a topic or issue, and to persuade its readers to agree with that opinion. Before you write your editorial, consider all the tools you have at hand to persuade the reader. Review the many techniques available to you in Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, pages 63–68.

STEP 5: Organize Your Ideas and Write a Rough Draft

Use your outline as the basis for your editorial. Write three different opening sentences, choosing the most powerful one as the opener for your draft. Follow your outline to produce your rough draft.

Geostock
Boats in Halong Bay, Vietnam

STEP 6: Revise, Edit and Proofread Your Writing

Reread your editorial. Make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence and that all the sentences in the paragraph support that topic. Be sure that you have included all the facts and reasons that will inform and persuade readers to agree with your opinion. Reread your editorial—is it convincing? Will readers agree with your opinion?

Edit your writing for grammatical errors; then proofread your work carefully for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors.

STEP 7: Publish Your Work

Present your editorial to the class. Be prepared to support your opinions with facts and to answer questions.