Bonjour à tous! Merci et bienvenus! Today's post serves as an extension of IB French Survival Guide's Atelier d'Écriture. In part one of this writing guide, I urged you to form writing groups with classmates to help improve your writing. We discussed the idea of writing as a social activity and today we will expand on that.

This Commenting Guide, will help guide your editing and rewriting process. It will provide you with a framework to work with when editing  your rough drafts. My hope is that it will provide you with a valuable resource to aid in the development of successful writing strategies that will help your writing flourish. 

As an editor, you can use this "commenting guide," that is, a set of questions or guidelines for reading a work in progress that will help focus your attention on specific issues in the text. For ideas about what to look for when you analyse a paper, study the following list; it provides some general issues to address and some strategies for commenting.

In responding to any given paper, use only four to seven items from the list; rather than addressing every item, choose the issues that best suit the particular paper. If you are commenting on your very own rough draft, you may want to discuss only the paper's content and thesis; it is probably premature to work on the paper's style at this stage.

Content
▪Which  section do you find the most interesting?
▪Is there anything in the draft you do not understand?
▪Do you strongly agree of disagree with any of the ideas?
▪Can you think of any ideas the author could add?

Thesis
▪What do you think the thesis is?
▪Is the thesis stated anywhere in the paper? If so, where? If you are not sure, ask the writer to tell you the point of the paper. Write down his or her answer word for word.
▪Is this thesis narrow enough for a paper of this length? If not, suggest an alternative statement.
▪Could the thesis be worded more precisely? If so, suggest a change in wording.
▪Do you think a different thesis would work better, given the paper's ideas?
▪Number each paragraph. On a separate sheet of paper, list the numbers and next to each  number write the main idea of the paragraph. Does any paragraph have more than one idea?
▪Is any paragraph missing a topic sentence?
▪Is any section unnecessarily repetitious or out of place?

Development
▪What in the paper would you like to know more about? As the writer explains the point, have one person in your writing group take notes.
▪Where would additional examples clarify the area that puzzles you? Suggest a specific example the author could add.

Style
▪Which words or sentences impress you the most, and why?
▪Find three general terms that could be replaced with specific ones. Suggest alternatives. 
▪Find three instances of any combination of forms of être, avoir, or il y a that could be replaces with stronger verbs. Suggest alternatives. 
▪Is the tone of the paper appropriate to the subject, audience, and occasion of the task at hand?
▪Indicate any section that could benefit from greater variety in sentence structure. Suggest different wordings. ​

You can download a PDF of this document by clicking HERE.  

Comment célèbres-tu les fêtes du fin d’année? Aviez-vous des traditions? Si oui,parler d’elles. Si non, expliquez pourquoi.

​Qu’est-ce que vous aimez faire dans votre temps libre ? Pourquoi ?

Bonjour tout le monde! I wrote this list for you all to utilize as a reference when writing in French, It provides you with a good foundation of starting words and phrases that will allow your writing to be more fluid. At the bottom of the list you'll find a download link for a pdf file of this list. Enjoy!

Guidelines for a good piece of writing:

• Write 150-200 words.
• Write accurately.
• The first sentence of each paragraph should say what the paragraph is about.
• State your opinions and give reasons for them.
• Use a variety of verbs, tenses, adverbs and adjectives, mindfully and correctly.
• Make a conscious effort to include some sophisticated phrases from this list.
• Round it all off with a conclusion.

Beginnings
 
On parle beaucoup en ce moment de…. [There is a lot of talk right now about…]
 
Giving Examples
 
par exemple[For example]
 
comme [like, as]
 
quant à [as fasr as/as for]
« Quant aux possibilités d’utilisation de l’énergie solaire, le gouvernement devra jouer un rôle plus actif. »
 
l’exemple de…confirme [que] : [the example of …confirms]
« L’exemple de Michèle confirme cette amélioration. » 
           
To announce a new step
 
il ne faut pas oublier que [we musn’t forget that]
 
on notera que [you will notice that]
 
il faut souligner que [it must be stressed that]
 
rappelons que [let’s remember that]
 
To set out a series of events
 
d’abord, tout d’abord, premièrement [first]
 
par conséquent [as a result]
 
ensuite [then]
 
c’est pourquoi [that’s why]
 
enfin [finally]
 
ainsi [thius, so, in that way]
 
Interesting Structures
 
en train de [in the middle of something]
 
sur le point de [about to, on the verge of]
 
après avoir + past participle [after having]
 
avant de + infinitive [before something]
 
en arrivant [upon arriving]
 
To express a personal point of view
 
à mon avis [in my opinion]
 
il me semble que [it seems to me that]
 
je trouve que [I find that/I think that]
 
Contrasting points of view
 
pourtant [nevertheless, said that]
 
d’autre part [besides, moreover]
 
alors que…[while/even though]
 
certains disent que…[some say that]
 
Linking Phrases
 
cela dit [having said that]
 
puis [then]
 
ensuite [following that, then]
 
par conséquent [as a result]
 
autrement dit [in other words]
 
Emphasizing a point
 
en plus [in addition]
 
ce qui est de plus [what’s more]
 
surtout [above all]
 
d’ailleurs [besides/moreover]
 
To express that which is certain
 
il va de soi que [it goes without saying that]
 
il est évident que [it is evident that]
 
il va sans dire que [it goes without saying that]
 
To express that which is not certain
 
il se peut que [it may be that]
 
il est possible que [it is possible that]
 
Constructing complex sentences
 
non seulement…aussi [Not only…but also]
«  Non seulement elle doit être à son bureau pendant huit heures, mais elle doit aussi s’occuper de sa maison et de ses enfants. »
 
cependant [yet]
 
quel[le] que soit… [whatever…may be]
            « Quel que soit ton niveau de français, tu comprendras ce film. »
 
bien entendu…mais [of course…but]
            « Bien entendu, vous pouvez rester, mais il faut payer un supplément. »
 
Listing reasons
 
d’abord / tout d’abord [first of all]
 
d’ailleurs [besides]
 
deuxièmement [secondly]
 
Giving opinions
 
ce que j’aime c’est [what I like is]
 
ce qui ne me plaît pas, c’est…[what I don’t like is]
 
ce qui importe, c’est [what is important, is]
 
l’important, c’est que [the important thing is]
 
à mon avis [in my opinion]
 
je pense que [I think that]
 
je crois que [I believe that] (Belief)


je trouve que [I find that] (Opinion)
 
il est certain que [it is certain that]
 
bien sûr…[surely, of course]
 
Conclusion
 
en conclusion [in conclusion]
 
pour conclure [to conclude]
 
en bref [in short]
 
de tout façon [in any case]
 
voilà, comme vous voyez [as you see]
 
en fin de compte [all in all]
 
ainsi/donc [thus/so]
 
en fait [in fact]
 
en somme [in summary]
 
de toute façon [in any case]
 
on peut conclure en disant que [one may conclude by stating that]
 
 

Parlez de la ville où vous habitez. Décrivez les lieux que vous frequentiez le plus souvent. Pourquoi?