1. Steps to write a description
Unit goal: Steps to write a descriptive essay
Topic for practice: Write an essay to describe some of your favorite features of Tet holiday in Vietnam.

2. Step 1: Brainstorming the ideas
food
Chung – day cakes, tet cake, candy fruit and seeds
Offer the ancestors and treat the guests
decoration
Clean the house, redecorate
Clean and decorate the altar
See off the evil, welcome the good luck
Invite the ancestors to enjoy the festival
customs
“Xong dat”, “tat nien” offering, giving lucky money
Vietnamese TET holiday

3. Step 1: Brainstorming the vocabulary
Prepare
Peach blossom
Preparation
Kumquat tree
Celebrate
Lucky money
Celebration
Tet greetings
Reunite
Sticky rice cake
Reunion
Taboo
Occasion
Buddhist temples
Grave
Swept away
Altar
Roasted watermelon seeds
Ancestors
Meat stewed in coconut water
New Year’s Eve
Pay off the debt
Pickled onion
Show respect
Dried candy fruit
Kitchen Gods
Five fruit tray
Pray
Good health
Prosperity
Longevity
Symbolize for
Symbol
Red/yellow color
Lion dance
Noisy/noise

4. Step 2: Outlining Introduction
Hook: The role of Tet among holidays
Background: When to celebrate? Why to celebrate?
Thesis statement: Which features of the Tet do you like best?
1. Hook: Tet is the most important traditional holiday in Vietnam 2. Background: - on the first three days of Lunar Calendar - to welcome the New year, to show their respect to the ancestors, to reunite the family, to enjoy after a year working hard 3. Thesis statement: - preparation for the Tet with my beloved family.

5. Body: Paragraph 1
Supporting point 1: clean and decorate the house Descriptive details: + sweep away the bad luck to welcome the good ones + clean their house, do the wash up, buy new furniture -> want to make a new look for a new start in the New year + Prefer the red and the yellow -> bring good luck and wealthy to the house -> choose red Peach blossom or bright yellow marigold to be the flower of the holiday. + Decorate the house with the objects like red envelopes, or trees like kumquat that symbolize for the prosperity or fertility. Supporting point 2: clean and decorate the altar + clean and decorate the altar to invite the ancestors to enjoy the holiday + Burn the jot sticks or offer the “five fruit tray”
Topic sentence: - prepare our house with lots of work in decoration and cleaning.
Descriptive details:
- What do we do to prepare our house, our neighborhood? Why? - What do you use to decorate? - What colors do you prefer in this occasion ? Why? - Why do we clean and decorate the altar?

6. Body: Paragraph 2 Topic sentence: - Prepare traditional foods
Supporting point 1: general description of foods and meaning
Descriptive details:
the menu includes rice, meat, fish and vegetables -> Vietnamese traditional products.
prepare big feast to offer their ancestors, treat the guests and enjoy together.
Supporting point 2: description of traditional foods and meaning
Chung cake: square cake made of glutinous rice, pork and green beans wrapped in the dong leaves and boiled for a day. It symbolizes the Earth.
Day cake: round cake made of glutinous rice and green beans. It symbolizes the Sky.
pork cooked with eggs in coconut milk and fish sauce.
bitter melon stuffed with meat,
preserved fruit such as ginger, coconut, kumquat fruit, or tomatoes in various shapes and colors
Body: Paragraph 2
Topic sentence: - Prepare traditional foods
Descriptive details: What are the traditional foods? What are some of their descriptions (look, taste, smell)? What are the meanings of these foods? Who enjoy the foods? What other foods for the occasion?

7. Conclusion Restate the controlling idea of the essay
Restatement
the most interesting part is the preparation for Tet.
Summary
Spend time and energy to clean up decorate the house cook many kinds of foods…..-> working together makes the Tet’s atmosphere warm and cosy.
Final thought
to reunite, together hold feasts to offer the ancestors, to visit parents and relatives… -> tighten the relationship among members in the family
Restate the controlling idea of the essay
Summarize the two main ideas that support the controlling idea of the essay
Give final thought

8. Step 3: Drafting
Use your brainstorming vocabulary, and your outline to write your first draft. While writing, pay attention to your use of descriptive adjectives and prepositions/ prepositional phrases to describe the features of Tet that you like best.

9. Step 4: Editing Editor’s check list
1. Checking on the form: - Does the essay have an introduction, body and conclusion? - Does the essay have transitional words and phrases? - Does the essay have any irrelevant ideas?
2. Checking on the content:
Introduction - Does the introduction have a hook to get the reader’s attention? - Does it have background information to tell the reader when to celebrate Tet and the meaning of the holiday? - Does the thesis statement state your favorable features of Vietnamese Tet?
Body - Do the body paragraphs have the topic sentences? - Do the body paragraphs include details that describe the favorable features of Vietnamese Tet? Do they touch the senses of the reader (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting)? - Does the essay have similes to make the writing more descriptive? - Does each paragraph have a concluding sentence?

10. Conclusion - Does the conclusion restate the controlling idea of the essay? - Does it have a summary of the main ideas stated in each body paragraph? - Does it include the final thought of the writer?
3. Checking on language - Do you use the correct form and order of adjectives ? - Do you use the sensitive details in description? - Do you use the emotional details in description? - Do you use any kinds of phrases in writing?

11. Peer Editor’s check list
Step 4: Peer Editing
Peer Editor’s check list
1. Checking on the form:  Does the essay have an introduction, body and conclusion?  Does the essay have transitional words and phrases?  Does the essay have any irrelevant ideas?
2. Checking on the content:
Introduction
 Does the introduction have a hook to get the reader’s attention?  Does it have background information to tell the reader when to celebrate Tet and the meaning of the holiday?  Does the thesis statement state your favorable features of Vietnamese Tet?

12. Body Do the body paragraphs have the topic sentences
Body Do the body paragraphs have the topic sentences?  Do the body paragraphs include details that describe the favorable features of Vietnamese Tet?  Do they touch the senses of the reader (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting)?  Do the body paragraphs need more details supported? If yes, what paragraph? Does the essay have similes to make the writing more descriptive? Does each paragraph have a concluding sentence?
Conclusion Does the conclusion restate the controlling idea of the essay? Does it have a summary of the main ideas stated in each body paragraph? Does it include the final thought of the writer?

13. Thank you for enjoying the lesson!