A letter
to futureme
Inga Shen
May 29th, 2012
Dear Futureme
addressing
body
closing
Tony
Dear FutureMe,
Can you believe you're 18 years old
today? Time truly flies. Happy birthday!
You're finally an adult.
…
…
…
…
Love,
Tony
send 4 years into the future, to May 29th, 2016
age 14
age 18
Congratulations! You have more freedom.
You can drive a car. You can get a part time job.
You can play hours of video games a day. You
can come back home after 10 PM… Wow! You
can do everything you want without parent’s
permission.
without
parent’s
permission
!
However, you have more responsibilities.
You should look after yourself, probably clean
your room and get rid of hamburgers. You
should also take good care of your parents. It’s
never too late to show how much you love them.
Cooking dinner at weekends, for example, is
very helpful.
You are entering a world full of excitement,
promise and many possibilities. So I hope that you
will be more independent and make your own
decision. I hope that you will be more responsible
and love the world around you. You will achieve all
this, I truly believe that. All it takes is a little careful
planning.
Group discussion
Freedom
Responsibilities
Possibilities
Freedom
Freedom
opinions, actions, reasons
What will you
How do
you like it ? do and why?
 play computer games for hours  exciting…
 drive a car
 cool…
 travel/ live alone
 free…
……
 not / bad
 You can play computer games for hours.
 It’s exciting.
 You won’t play computer games for hours.
 It’s bad for eyes.
Paragraph writing
Topic sentence:
When you are 18 years old, you’ll have more freedom.
Supporting details:
 You can play computer games for hours.
 It’s exciting.
 You won’t play computer games for hours.
 It’s bad for eyes.
When you are 18 years old, you’ll have
more freedom. You can play computer games
for hours. How exciting if you can! However, I
hope that you won’t play for so long because
it’s bad for eyes.
How can we make the structure logical?
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we can use the transitional
words(连接词) as following.
So,…
However,…
Moreover,…
What’s more, …
此外…，而且…
Besides, …
另一方面…
On the other hand, …
First, Second, Third, Next, Then, Finally,
Lastly, At last, Last but not the least, etc.
How can we make the structure logical?
we can use…
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Coordinating Subordinating (主从连接词)
(并列连接词)
 …because…
… and …
 … as…
… but …
 … although…
… or…
 …after…
… for…
 ... since…
… as well as…  …so…
 …if…
opinions, actions, reasons
Responsibilities
What do you
think of it?
 take care of myself
independent
What will you
do and why?
 take care of family
 love the world around
Possibilities
 fail to go to university
 lose the job
 have some bad habits
 have no friends
responsible
What do you
think of it?
 unsuccessful
 poor
 unhealthy
 lonely
What will you
do and why?
Paragraph writing
Topic sentence:
When you are 18 years old, you’ll have more
freedom.
 You can…
Paragraph writing
Topic sentence:
When you are 18 years old,
you’ll have more responsibilities.
 You should…
Paragraph writing
Topic sentence:
When you are 18 years old, you’ll…
 You will…
Dear Futureme,
Can you believe you're 18 years old today? Time truly flies.
Happy birthday! You're finally an adult.
Congratulations! You have more freedom. ______________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
However, you have more responsibilities. _______________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
______________, you may face some difficulties. __________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
You are entering a world full of excitement, promise and
_________. So I hope that you will be more independent and
make your own decision. I hope that you will be more
responsible and love the world around you.
Love,
_____________
Let’s make the writing more
powerful!
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a. Use correct grammar and spelling
b. Make topic sentences clear
c. Make supporting details specific
d. Use transitions(关联词) properly
e. Make the structure of the
sentences or paragraphs logical
Homework
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Write a letter to future you, at least 2
paragraphs for each of the topic:
freedom, responsibilities and difficulties.
(You may write about any other topics as
you like.)
Try to rewrite the concluding paragraph
(总结段), different from the sample.