The Order of an Essay

Introduction:
This task is for you to practise ordering an essay. You should look for organisational features in the introduction and conclusion, linking expressions, topic sentences and their supporting evidence to help you decide in what order the sentences should be.

The objective of this activity is for you to realise the importance of such features in creating a well-organised essay, and therefore include these features in your own essays.

Instructions:
To move the items in the boxes:

  1. Click in the table cell containing the item you want to move.
  2. Click in the table cell where you want the item to go. The words will swap position.
  3. If an item is in the right position, it will have a green background and a tick.
  4. When all the table cells are green and have ticks, you have finished.

       Score: / 13

 

Cantonese is a language, not a dialect    
1 Introduction It is unusual for a dialect to be written in a different form from its parent language.
2 First paragraph Possibly the next most noteworthy reason is that Putonghua is the standard and official language of China.
3 Counter-argument Therefore, although there are a large number of differences between Cantonese and Mandarin, this does not therefore mean that they are separate languages.
4 Consequence Finally, the next most important argument might be that there are different forms of Chinese writing. Written Cantonese is different from written Putonghua.
5 Second paragraph However, many countries have more than one national language, which does not threaten their national unity.
6 Explanation An example is Switzerland, which has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh.
7 Counter-argument This is both because simplified writing is used in the mainland, and because Hong Kong has some special characters.
8 Example Overall, the points in favour and the points against seem balanced. However, in my view, the strongest argument is that dialects can have a large number of differences from their parent language, and remain dialects.
9 Third paragraph Probably the most important argument is that there are a large number of differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. Cantonese and Mandarin are as different as European languages.
10 Explanation Whether Cantonese is a language, not a dialect is currently a controversial topic. The purpose of this essay is to examine the contention that Cantonese is a language, not a dialect. This essay addresses three main issues. These are that Cantonese and Mandarin have many differences, Putonghua is the official language, and there are varieties of Chinese writing.
11 Consequence To summarise, in this essay the objective was to evaluate the proposition that Cantonese is a language, not a dialect. Three main points have been covered: Cantonese and Mandarin differences, Putonghua as an official language, and that there are varieties of Chinese writing.
12 Conclusion However, dialects can have a large number of differences from their parent language, and remain dialects. For example, many English people find the Scots English dialect difficult or impossible to understand due to differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, but it is still a dialect of English.
13 Analysis Recognising only Mandarin as the official language is important for national unity.

More information on Cantonese as a dialect or language.

 

Last updated on: Friday, March 23, 2012