Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 171 - After you watch

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Discussion after you watch

Although they all follow up issues raised in the video, Warwick and Rogers' three discussion questions can be addressed independently, even if some points might be relevant to two or three of the questions.  

Choose the two questions that most interest you. In two separate comments, write one paragraph responding to each. In addition to stating and explaining your main idea, what personal knowledge or experiences might be relevant support? What examples can you give? 

 

The three questions: choose two to respond to. 

• What personal attributes do you think would be brought out of participants during an escape room experience? 
   
• Do you think teambuilding events are a worthwhile use of both the employee’s and the company’s time and money? Why / why not? 
   
• To what extent are positive working relationships more important than other factors in the overall profitability of a business?
   

Planning and writing = 21:00 minutes 

You have 21:00 minutes to plan and write a response to two of the three questions. I suggest you divide your time into two ten-minute chunks. 

Remember: write two separate comments.  

A helpful strategy

Avoid writing things like "question 3."

Instead, imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are responding to. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But it will typically be more effective to paraphrase (rewrite) ideas in questions as a statements. 

Because our writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, this paraphrasing of questions to provide context is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.

 

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 163 - Debate (academic words)

Number 3 was definitely the controversial one to debate.

What is it? 

The text used to illustrate the academic vocabulary introduced on page 163 of Skillful  introduces the opinions that we should "switch to a vegetarian diet as an ongoing way of reducing [our] use of water" (Warwick and Rogers, 2018, pp. 163).

We want to debate a slightly stronger version of that proposition. 

This is an opportunity to use the academic vocabulary introduced: advocate, equate, eventual, finite, intensity, legislation, ongoing, and resolution. 

The verb patterns introduced in the grammar section on page 166 might also be useful. 

The proposition

Meat consumption should be banned. 

The government team is arguing for this proposition, the opposition team is arguing against it. 

First, present key points

Your team has had time to brainstorm the supporting points for your side of the argument. Now, each team member will write a comment in one paragraph to support their allocated main point supporting their side of the argument. 

The topics have already been chosen. You have already brainstormed ideas in your group. Now, organize those ideas and write one paragraph that states and supports one of the main points for your side of the debate, perhaps including responses to possible counterarguments from the opposing side. 

Time: 12:00 minutes. 

How many of the words on the academic vocabulary list can you get into your one paragraph? (This is not your major concern, and depending on the key point you are presenting, some of the vocabulary might not be appropriate.)

Next - rebuttal 

Back in your group, read the opposing teams arguments. How are you going to respond to each of their points? 

Brainstorm responses, and allocate a team member to write the rebuttal reply to each of the opposing team's supporting points. 

Time: 20 minutes. 
I suggest you spend about 10:00 minutes first discussing how you might answer each of the other teams arguments, then each member has 10:00 minutes to write their one-paragraph response to their allocated comment from the opposing team. 

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Yok: Why chosing vegan diet

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851, regarded within the industry as a national newspaper of record. The New York Times’s news covers wide ranges of columns to choose from. I used to read several columns from it for many years. Unfortunately, the article which I am most interested in, a vegan diet, has rarely been posted on in the health column. If I had a chance to write a column in The New York Times, I would enjoy writing about vegan diets, which fit my passion and lifestyle. I would use this column to let my readers know how they and their planet can benefit from switching to vegetarianism, and also introduce some wonderful vegan shops in Bangkok.

As I can remember, my childhood life didn't have various activities to experience. I lived in a strict family where  my mother always forced me to focus on education as the first priority. From primary school years to university career, my life was mostly spent in the academic field. When I was an adolescent, my interests seemed different from the majority of teenagers. I did not enjoy playing games or partying at night, but exercising and sports. Playing football at school was the best activity for me. After I finished high school in 2013, I had decided to hit the gym for the first time. Eventually, exercise has become my daily habit. Our diet is the key factor to achieve every exercise goal and to enhance performance. I started to pay attention to what I eat, and researched on macronutrients and micronutrients. The most reliable result is that a plant based diet is the most effective way to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. This turning point made me switch to a mainly vegan diet and it has become seventy percent of my daily diet.

My column in The New York Times would explain why plant based diets are an extremely healthy option, and clarify the popular belief about the low amount of proteins and minerals that are received from eating plants. In fact, not only is a vegan diet nutrient-rich, providing all macronutrients and micronutrients needed, it also has very low calories compared to any other diet. For example, broccoli contains fibers, fatty acids, vitamins and even some protein and it has been proved by scientific research to help reduce bad cholesterol. This superiority of a vegan diet beyond a meat diet can let us live longer and healthier by preventing disease like cancer, stroke and diabetes. I think that this content can be very important to readers as poor diet is the number one cause of premature death.

A related issue I could explore in my column is to mention another aspect of plant based diet’s benefits. It is a resolution to solve top the global challenges facing humanity. Shifting from meat diets to vegetarian ones will lower significant levels of methane and carbon dioxide emissions from domestic livestock. These greenhouse gases are directly attributable to climate change, which continues to increase unprecedentedly. Moreover, a vegan diet is also a viable solution for water scarcity. Cultivation of vegetables and grains is far less water intensive than production of meat. From this evidence, switching to vegetarianism would dramatically reduce the amount of water consumption by agriculture, which accounts for seventy percent of global consumption.

The last issue is that I would like to use this area to help readers experience vegan diets more comfortably. I know that it is very hard, especially in Thailand, to change our routine diets to plant based diets  due to our tradition and culture. The toughest issue would undoubtedly be its taste. Fortunately, Bangkok has a large community of vegetarians, and there are a wide range of vegetarian restaurants and cafes available to try. I think it is a good idea to recommend some vegetarian hot spots to readers, so that they could get inspiration and probably change their views toward vegetarians. To start, Broccoli Revolution, Vistro cafe, and Plantiful are places where I want you to experience the new versions of vegetarianism. They are popular hangout places for vegans and their staff can provide very useful information to help you start to eat plants effectively and happily. 

I enjoy eating a vegan diet very much as it makes me become healthier, happier and fitter than ever before. I want to share my positive influences with readers, if I have a chance to write a column in the New York Times. This is a very useful principle to both readers and their planet. You will definitely get pleasure from the tasty foods which are good for your health.

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 161 - Critical thinking, E2

What is it?

In their critical thinking question 2 that concludes "Thirstier than Ever", Warwick and Rogers (2018, pp. 161) invite us to apply the ideas in the reading to our own experience and ideas.   

____________________________________ 

The question

1. We have already shared our ideas on ranking the four methods for effectiveness in dealing with water shortages. The reflection we went through in doing this should be useful preparation for the following question, on which we now want to share our ideas. 
    
2. Do you think personal solutions, such as changing your diet, are effective or should governments and companies solve the problem?

You have 15:00 minutes to plan, write, and edit a response to question 2.

____________________

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. 

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Good: Movie reviews

 

Being a columnist in one of the most popular and prestigious newspapers like The New York Times would be everyone’s dream. Personally, I could not imagine this as I believe this career requires creativity to generate a piece of writing regularly. However, if I had a chance to produce essays on a particular topic in The New York Times, I would like to review disparate kinds of movies because I have considered myself a universal movie lover since I was a child.

To begin with, although it might be a bit difficult in the beginning to start writing a movie review in that newspaper, I would tend to start with family films such as the Harry Potter ones, which I really liked when I was in primary school. One of the reasons I want to write it is that I assume many of the newspaper’s readers may be adults or older; therefore, I think some of them will feel nostalgic and want to think back to when they were a child and watched these kinds of films with their old friends or family. Moreover, the Harry Potter series is one of my most favorite franchises according to my own preferences.

However, I do not want to stick with only one type of movie that I would write about. It is better to show my different interests and tastes through movies I have watched to the readers of this column. The Godfather would be a perfect film I would review as it has been recognized as the most valuable and greatest movie in human history, and I spent almost a decade before being able to feel its original value clearly. To be totally upfront, my friends recommended this movie to me when I was around 10, but after I had watched the legendary film, I did not like it at first and felt it made me sleepy as there was no exciting action scene similar to superhero movies. But between five to ten years later, I thought I was ready and old enough to watch and understand the hidden details from this renowned movie again, and finally, I agreed with other fans that it is appropriate to be one of the legendary movies. 

Another movie category that I would prefer to review if I were a columnist would be animations. I was interested in doing traditional cartoons by bringing hundreds of papers with slightly different motions of characters in each piece of paper and flipping them to see the movements of the characters. Nowadays, the process of creating cartoons has been changed and developed significantly due to computers, and there are more advanced animations created by famous studios. In my opinion, it is much easier to transform screenplays to animations because of realistic limitations in live-action. Therefore, some scenes beyond imagination can be composed by computer graphic software in a few clicks, and this might save time and costs of props or models, which might be easily broken and expensive.

In conclusion, it is well-known that being a columnist in The New York Times is difficult. However, if I had an opportunity to do that duty, I would provide fantastic movie reviews to demonstrate my personal interests.

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 156 - Critical thinking, E

What is it?

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes "Climate Change 101", Warwick and Rogers (2018, pp. 155) invite us to critically reflect on two of the issues raised.   

____________________________________ 

The questions

1. How compelling do you find the evidence that human activity is the main cause of climate change? Explain your reasoning.
    
2. Is there any point changing our behavior if it will take thousands of years to reverse the damage caused by climate change? Why or why not?

You have 12:00 minutes to plan, write, and edit a response to question 1.

After we have published our responses to question 1,  you will have another 12:00 minutes to plan, write, and edit a new comment responding to question 2. 

____________________

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. 

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Phum: The business world

              A career in journalism is a kind of occupation that I have never thought of before. It doesn’t mean that I think it is not a great job or not a high-paid job, but a really outstanding journalist should have a broad vision, forward thinking, and be able to quickly summarize the main idea, which skills I lack. Anyway, if I have a chance to become a journalist publishing in the New York Times, a business column would be the one I would choose to write because the business field is the one I have become familiar with since studying at university in the past.

After I had browsed the business column, I found that various topics were covered in this section, including the Coronavirus pandemic, climate change, economics, politics, and more. Even the publication of some legislation issues was also included in this section; for example, the government's measure to raise taxes dramatically affects international trade and investment. Almost every movement in our world is reported in the business area, which is very fascinating. Furthermore, when I was a student at university, I studied a business major at bachelor's degree level, so I could say it's something I have spent plenty of time with. By studying business, I have learned a lot about understanding its mechanics, demand and supply, how to confront changing trends, and how to predict the trends in the market so that I have realized how important business is. 

Another reason is why this type of news is critical for traders and investors and needs to be up-to-date. If we understand the mechanism of the business market, we are able to make some profit on it. Let's suppose that some big company called "A" takes over another and you can predict exactly what is going to happen. Then you buy the stock of A company, waiting until the takeover process is done. The stock price in hand should rise by double or triple. That is one way to make a profit. It is also necessary for the owner's business to predict changes in customer purchases. It should mitigate negative effects if you're in a downtrend. In the opposite direction, it might help accelerate your success in an upward trend.

One thing that makes business more interesting is that business never stops but changes quickly every day. It is impossible to worry about a lack of content which you are going to write about, and this kind of context is always attractive to readers. Moreover, reading business columns not only gives you financial perspective or market trends, but it also is an interesting topic  for chit chat at lunchtime with your family and friends. It is better than bringing up a sensitive topic such as sexuality, religious beliefs, or political preferences. By taking this on in the conversation, you will have an exchange of information with the other person, expanding your vision and many perspectives on the issue.

Guidelines on investment in Japan and Japanese culture are especially interesting for me to write about, which topics relate to the business field. After I had recently studied the adaptation between Japanese and Thai employees in a Thai context, I found that there is a contrast in culture between Thais and Japanese working together within the organization. If I could declare and make readers understand the differences in both background cultures in The New York Times, it would help to encourage Thais and Japanese to coordinate more smoothly.

Have you tried to read something about business yet? Let's try to catch up with the business world. You might be surprised at how business revolves around us. Even if you are not a businessman or have your own business, it always expands your perspective, broadens your vision, and opens new possibilities for you. Besides that, you also have a topic for a little chit chat with your friend.

Yujin: The Recommendations

 

The New York Times has been a staple news source for many generations, and many all over the world read it. Of course, I have also enjoyed reading some of its issues in my house; however, to be a reader is a different story from being a writer. Therefore, if I had a column in the New York Times, I would write music, movie, and book recommendations, and name it “The Recommendations”.

First of all, you may wonder why I would write about music recommendations. Well, shortly, I like music. My first memory was my father playing Johann Pachelbel on a CD before I went to sleep, and since I was  a baby, I would sing nursery rhymes all the time, and if I could not, I would hum softly even if everyone was annoyed at me. My family would also play songs whenever they could in the house, which unconsciously introduced me to many genres, such as oldies, classicals, and Chinese’s classics. Now, I listen to music whenever I have the opportunity to, even if I’m doing my work. Therefore, you could say that music has cultivated a big part of my life. If I had a chance, I would recommend anything from jazz, and classical music, to Hip-Hop, pop, and rock, including some of Pachelbel pieces such as Pachelbel's Canon. Mostly because they would attract more people, and I would make more money, but also because I like to explore new music and genres and share it with people.

I would also write about movie recommendations in “The Recommendations” column. Again, my family played a big part in my love of movies. We would watch one every week if we had the time, and it wasn’t very often, but when we had the time, we would watch something, and then critique it. While my father and mother had a more systematic approach of criticizing movies, my brother and I would critique them heartlessly. We would have a lot of interesting yet exciting conversations, which often ended up in some shouting and yelling. I would recommend any movie in my column, and then critique it, adding other people’s opinions into the column also. This would make it more interesting than having only one opinion in an article. I would also probably have a special section for my favorite movies of all time, such as Forrest Gump, Castle in the Sky, and so on.

Finally, I would write about book recommendations in my column. I would have a book recommendation posted once a month which is the minimum time because on average, I need at least one month to finish one book. Like movie recommendations, I would add other reader’s opinions to make a more dynamic article. I would have special sections organized into different book categories, such as Sci-fi, fiction, non-fiction, or children’s books, all of which I like to read.

            To conclude, I would make my column a recommendation of a variety of books, movies, and music. It may seem a bit basic, but I like all of these things. Naturally, if I had the opportunity to write in the NYT, I would write about something I like rather than politics or business, which I am not interested in.

Num: Asians Visit

Being Asian is an inherited race that I could not choose. I was born an Asian kid. I live in Asia. If I had a chance to write a column in the New York Times, I would write something about our cultures, histories, foods, religions, societies, or beliefs. My title would be Asians Visit. The purpose of my column is to explore my curiosity about Asian matters and also create a positive vibe towards Asians.   

I have been more interested in Asian culture than before since 2019. I then went to study film business in Korea, where I met Asian classmates from different regions. All of my classmates were from Asian countries. I met friends from south Asia, east Asia, west Asia, and also southeast Asia. Surrounded by Asian friends, I wondered more about our roots. For example, when we shared food, especially for dinner, we did rice co-productions where we sometimes mixed Indian rice with Korean rice as we almost ran out of one type. Of course, Asians eat rice with every meal, and our different rices are attributable to climates and geographies, both of which make the size, the shape, and its taste unique. There are thousands of menus that have rice-based dishes across Asia that I could write about in my column. Although our culture, food, religion, and beliefs are different, we still share things in common as Asian families. Writing a column is an imperative way to study Asian cultures.    

There were many Asian racism cases when the Covid-19 pandemic first started. The case is as serious as forest fires which spread quickly and are hard to stop. Even though New York City is a diverse city where many nationalities and races are combined, Asian racism became more of a hot issue during the pandemic. Chineses were the first target that other nations blamed. However, the conflict causes a problem to anyone who has an Asian ethnicity, putting them in danger of hatred. Many of them barely walked on the street in safety. This urges me to create positive content to reduce negative thoughts or ideas toward Asians. As I studied in the Journalism and Mass Communication program, I have learned that the media can widen people's perspectives. For example, when Korean cultural contents are widely spread and popular, it results in a positive outcome for Korean matters such as food, products, music, drama, and movies. Korean industries are expanding in the global markets because of the positive image of their country. Providing knowledge and helping others to understand our cultures can tie us together in peace. 

            When I was young, American culture was the most popular. People in my country admired Americans more than Thai people. This attitude was passed along through media content such as songs and movies. A useful analogy for today is to imagine that K-culture started to replace the American flavor; therefore, Korea has been recognized more on the international stage. In addition, this circumstance brings Asians into the spotlight, while others tend to be more curious about us. Writing a column in the New York Times is a tool that can answer my own interest and also educate others, hoping they will understand the cultures and be impressed. 

Mook: My traveling diary

 I would say I am a little bit of a homebody and I don’t like crowded places such as department stores and some popular cafes. However, I am very fond of traveling and if I had a column in the New York Times, I would write about my travel experiences and interesting places around the world to visit once in your life. It is my way of broadening my views of the world. To me, traveling helps me grow up. I have gained many skills from traveling, including planning, time management and language.

Travelling has been my favorite thing since I was young. My first trip was to Australia with my grandmother. At that time, things were very new to me, including my first long flight to Sydney, and the little knowledge of the language I knew. I must admit that it was quite hard but worth it! I got to go to many wonderful places and attractions around Australia and I like the Opera House the most. I met new people and I made friends there. It was a great time. I still remember myself crying on the day I had to leave Australia. I was yet to explore more of the country and to see more of its beauty. And that was the beginning of me loving traveling. Moreover, it was also the beginning of my language learning,

Traveling is a way to enjoy yourself.  It can give you the inspiration and motivation to do things. To me, I think I am better and happier when traveling. I like being in new scenarios and seeing things I’ve never seen before. I value my time that is spent traveling a lot because it is the only time I can put my work aside, relax my mind and take a small break. But, traveling can sometimes be challenging, especially when you first travel alone or to places you’ve never been to before. The difference between cultures, food, accommodation and languages can be overwhelming. Some people may find themselves unfamiliar with the situation. With this idea, I would also like to include a few traveling tips for my readers. For me, if you plan to go on a trip alone, you must make a list of your emergency contacts in case you lost your belongings and give your travel plans to your family or friends back at home in case of emergency.

I used to read so many travel blogs and watch travel videos in the past. The information is very useful for me to plan my trips with my family. For me, browsing through those travel blogs is somehow addicting. At some point, I already found myself binge reading them everyday. Some of the places I found in the blog that interest me are the shimmering shores of the beach in the Maldives, a gallery located in the submarine base and the beautiful Lake Tahoe in California. Apart from traveling, I also like taking photos of landscape and scenery and I have been keeping those photos as a memory that I’ve been to that place once. So I always think that it would be great if I could write one of those travel columns myself.

There are so many places around the world that I have not been to and I have not known of. It might even take more than a lifetime to visit all of them. Every place has their beauty and their uniqueness. And I would like to share how amazing those places are to the world.

 

Peter: Were it only so

Anyone who has browsed it knows that The New York Times takes seriously its motto of more than 100 years: “All the news that’s fit to print.” The New York Times prints news covering politics and economics, culture and cooking, arts and health, fashion and obituaries, and a lot more in between. Does it need another column? Thinking of what I might cover in a column, I realised that all of my topics have already been done. Words? John McWhorter currently writes a column that typically focuses on words and language, recently an essay on the pronoun they. There is an entire section on food; another column about that isn’t needed. But since it retired the long-running column “The Stone”, there has been no column specifically addressing philosophy. The column I would enjoy writing for The New York Times would be on philosophy, which fits my long term interests and resulting knowledge, and whose ideas and approach I suspect many readers would find at least clarify the issues in a range of complex questions that concern individuals and society. 

One of my earliest memories is a silly thing I said to my mother when asked what sandwiches I wanted for school lunch: “Yesterday.” When she told me not to be silly, I came back with an equally impossible answer. From the visual image of our old house accompanying that memory, I must have been six or seven at the time, although my memory of more than half a century ago might not be reliable. I suspect like many children, I asked questions and wondered why impossible things were impossible. Those early philosophical leanings went to sleep during my primary school years in a very small Catholic convent school run by nuns, where I was a fairly ordinary, somewhat shy, student who discovered that reading was a fun way to escape people and explore strange realities in encyclopaedias and weirder unrealities in fiction. 

Those interests were initially met in high school by science and mathematics. Mathematics soon won out over every other subject. It’s worlds of numbers, from natural to imaginary and complex, were more exotic than anything in the real world, and then there were all the other branches of mathematics to intoxicate an impressionable teenage mind. Physics came second, but mainly theoretical physics. Actual experiments did not excite me as much as working out what must logically follow from a set of principles with the help, of course, of mathematics. Towards the end of my high school years, my physics and mathematics teacher, a Marist Brother at my Catholic high school, might have been concerned that my passion for mathematics and science would lead me away from my Catholic faith, so he introduced me to philosophy. He suggested good, proper Christian thinkers, but that backfired badly. I read his suggested Thomas Aquinas and Søren Kierkegaard, but the town library had a lot more to offer, and that began my addiction to philosophy. It quickly proved fatal to religious belief. 

My university career began as planned with a science degree majoring in mathematics, but after a year, I switched to arts, which let me continue with mathematics but drop the science for languages and philosophy, which became my major, and in which I’ve never lost interest. 

Philosophy does not do experiments, but it does use the results of science along with every other resource that involves thinking, acting or other human experience: not only science, but politics, linguistics, literature, daily life, and everything else are tools that philosophers regularly use in their arguments. I’ve never tired of exploring it. 

My column in The New York Times would apply philosophy’s set of reasoning tools to topical issues. An obvious issue in the US at the moment is the renewed controversy around abortion. Most of the arguments from those opposing abortion seem seriously flawed. Most recently in the news Texas’s so called “Heartbeat bill” argues that abortion should be legally banned after a heartbeat is detected in a foetus. But if the argument that there is something special about having a heartbeat is taken seriously, it logically applies also to every animal we kill to eat, all of which have heartbeats when we kill them to make tasty bacon, steak or chicken nuggets. I’m not sure whether the proponents of Texas’s law are unable to reason or are dishonest, but they need some lessons in basic philosophical reasoning. 

A related issue I could explore in my column is what makes just law, what are the obligations and the limits of governments when making law that a society must follow. I’m looking forward to the upcoming US Supreme Court opinion on the Mississippi case about abortion it has agreed to hear this session. Will it manage to write an opinion that both follows justice and also comports with the US Constitution? America awaits the outcome. 

Another related issue is the meanings of words. That tradition was begun by Plato, several of whose dialogues are effectively discussions about what knowledge, justice, and so on really mean. In the abortion arguments, but also relevant to when we may justly kill other animals, or humans who want to die, is the meaning of words like person, where some philosophical analysis could helpfully clarify the issues. I could easily write a thousand words on why we need to distinguish the set of persons from the set of human beings, an area where common dictionary definitions reflect the traditional prejudices of native English speakers. 

The New York Times will not offer me a column; if it did, I would take the opportunity to share my lifelong passion for the broad subject matter of philosophy and its methods, showing how, although rarely giving definitive answers to some of the most fundamental questions we ask ourselves, philosophy does help to clarify the issues from competing sides. While my dream remains a dream, I can continue to indulge my passion for reading, writing and arguing philosophy. 

words = 995 (after several revisions) 

You can also see my planning.

Skillful 4: Reading and Writing, page 152 - Discussion point 1

Click images to view them full size

 

Why hold our discussion online? 

In every unit of Skillful 4, authors Lindsay Warwick and Louis Rogers make frequent use of the verb discuss (2018). The noun discussion is in fact the very first word of every unit, and the third word in every unit is the verb, for example on page 116. The authors almost always collocate the verb discuss with the object noun partner, or put them in close proximity. They clearly intend the discussion to be spoken, which is what we sometimes do, but in many cases, it helps our reading and writing class more to have a written discussion of the questions the authors ask us to discuss. 

For a more detailed explanation of the benefits for us of written discussions, see the blog page "For better discussions", which is included on the menu bar below the blog title. You might like to read that and the other pages on that menu outside of class. 

Warwick and Rogers' question 1  (Skillful rw4, p. 152)

Since we might reasonably have different answers to Warwick and Rogers' first discussion point question, we naturally want to present our supporting reasons, and perhaps explain why the other challenges presented in the infographic are, while serious, not the most serious challenge facing our species at this point in our history. 

Can you persuade your classmates to agree with your? 

The slightly expanded question

1. 
   Of the threats listed in the infographic, which do you think poses the greatest challenge? 
• Why? 
• Explain why you think this challenge is greater than the other four.  
   

Time: 16:00 minutes

I suggest you manage your time to spend: 

• 3:00 - 4:00 minutes planning (choosing topics, getting ideas, and organizing those ideas)
• 9:00 minutes writing. Write quickly. This is response writing, where the purpose is to quickly communicate your ideas in writing, so although you should write complete sentences organized into paragraphs, you are not writing an academic essay. 
• 2:00 - 3:00 minutes editing (review, revise, and proofread what you have written). 

A useful strategy 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not seen the question you are answering. 

Your job is to clearly communicate your response to your reader. Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually helpful to give background, which can typically be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your responses. 

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education