LEVEL 5 STUDENTS

WRITING LOG

Professor’s name: ________________________________________

Student’s name: __________________________________________

Group: ________________

Date: _________________

Dear student.

Welcome to level 5. We are happy to have you this semester and to be part of your learning process. Here,
you will find the instructions with all the activities you have to accomplish during the first period. These
activities are related to your writing process, mainly. It is important to be responsible with all of them in order
to have a good performance. The main objective of the writing log is that of self- learning by putting into
practice the topics covered in class.

WRITING LOG CHECK LIST

ONLY FOR TEACHERS

There are 4 exercises in your first period writing log. They are described in the list below:

1. Exercise 1: Your article with the main ideas, vocabulary highlighted, and vocabulary meaning. ______
2. Exercise 2: writing your first draft for your composition. ______
3. Exercise 3: Improving your article’s summary
4. Exercise 4: Improving your article’s critique

Teacher’s feedback:

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Writing log general grade:________

 EXERCISE 1

Specific Objective: To identify the different library services from the university such as
books, magazines, newspapers and databases in order to find and to select academic
readings about his/her field of expertise using some search commands as well as to put into
practice the skimming and scanning reading strategies when reading an academic texts for being able to
identify its main and specific ideas.

Activities:
a. Choose an article from the databases of the university with a minimum of 2 pages, maximum 3 pages.
Underline the main ideas of the article with a marker and use a different one to underline the words that
help you to understand it. Choose 10 words you don’t understand and complete the following chart.

Word Definition in English Example in English

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.
 EXERCISE 2

Specific Objective: To recognize and to apply the most important writing tips to write a
well-structured article review.
Before getting started, please take a look at the article review structure:

Introduction:
 Mention the author(s) the title, and briefly explain the main topic of the text.
 Explain the main objective of the article and its contribution(s)/finding(s).
 State your evaluation of the article. It can be positive, negative or both.
Summary: Explain in your own words the key points of your article along with a limited number of examples.
Critique: Evaluate your article: Think about the relevance of your article for people in your field nowadays. Are
there any gaps in the information given in the article? Do you have any recommendations?
Note: since this is your first article review, I suggest you to select whether your critique is positive or negative.
Conclusion:
 Restate your overall opinion of the text.
 Briefly present recommendations.

Now, let’s start with the activities:

1. Introduction: Write sentences according to each component of your introduction.

Author: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________
Main idea of the article: ______________________________________________________________________
What you think about the article (not about the topic presented in the article!!!!):________________________
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EXERCISE 3
Specific Objective: To use reporting verbs and phrases when summarizing.

COMMON VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS

state report announce stress argue respond claim
suggest express believe demonstrate show
According to…, In … ´s view… As …. explains, …

Tips to summarize:
1- Use your OWN words
2- Mark with reporting verbs and phrases
3- Give importance to the author. Example: In David Khan’s view, the
4- Be general.
5- Avoid word repetition. Use synonyms!
6- Use connectors to organize your ideas!
Activity:

Keeping in mind the vocabulary & common expressions as well as the tips to summarize, please write your
article summary.
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EXERCISE 4
Specific Objective: To write stronger critiques.

EXPRESSING YOUR OPINION

General point of view: No one can argue that…/ It is generally accepted that…/Most people say that…/
Agreeing with an opinion: I agree with the idea of…./ I completely agree with this view…./ I couldn’t
agree more on…
Partial agreement: The idea is right, but…/ I partly agree with …./ I am not sure that I compketely
agree with this idea…/
Disagreeeing with an opinion: However,…/ On the contrary,…/I don’t believe that…/ I disagree that…

When writing your critique, think of the following aspects of your article to have more ideas you
can criticize about:
1- How confident are you in the article’s results/ 4- In what way should the article have made a
information and why? contribution, but then did not?
2- Are its ideas really new, or do the authors simply 5- How complete and thorough a job did the
repackage old ideas and give them a new name? authors do? Do the authors include an adequate
3- What are the article’s faults and limitations? Did discussion, analysis and conclusions? Did they
it discuss all the important aspects and issues in justify everything adequately? Did they provide
its field? enough background information for the intended
 audience to understand it? For you to 6- Were there adequate and appropriate examples
understand it? and illustrations?

IMPORTANT: Reference the author when you want to refute his ideas. Example: In David
Khan’s view, the……However, I consider that…
Always use your OWN words!

Activity: Keeping in mind the expressions to give opinions as well as suggestions, please elaborate your
critique. Use the information you wrote about the critique of your article, in exercise 2.
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EXERCISE 5
Specific Objective: To write the conclusion of your article review.

Please go back to the initial chart to find out what needs to be addressed in the conclusion.
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