ACTIVITY 10 - Wordprocessing and Essay writing.

Wordprocessing can be a very useful tool in essay preparation - the organisation of ideas following a brainstorm, the grouping of ideas around particular headings, categorisation of bias, opinion, evidence for and against, etc and the cutting and pasting that can produce a finished essay. There are several variations on this theme for classroom use. The Brainstorm could be listed, as here, or students could be asked, on their own or in groups, to produce a list. The Headings for grouping ideas around could be given, or suggestions made as here, or left to the pupils. Here is an example of how using a word-processor can make essay planning and writing easier.

Stage 1. Brainstorm

What to do with Germany at the end of 1918?

• Germany started WW1 - she was to blame for the war.
• Woodrow Wilson was out of touch with the real world.
• America had made a lot of money out of WW1.
• France had suffered badly.
• France been invaded by Germany before, in 1871.
• Italy had been promised lots in the Treaty of London 1915, but hadn't really helped the Allies very much.
• Lloyd George had just won an election with the slogan 'Hang the Kaiser!'
• America wanted a 'Just and Fair Peace'.
• Britain wanted to destroy Germany's navy.
• France wanted to destroy Germany's army.
• Germany was a major trading partner - to punish her too much would make it difficult for Britain and France to recover from the war.
• Other countries - eg Japan - had taken lots of Britain's markets during the war.
• Wilson wanted a League of Nations to prevent any more war.
• There were lots of countries wanting their independence.
• The Austro-Hungarian Empire had fallen apart.
• What to do with all these soldiers now the war was over?
• Blame Germany, or blame the Kaiser?
• Germany expected peace to be based on Wilson's 14 Points they had agreed to at the Armistice.
• Britain and France both expected Germany to pay the costs of the war.
• America demanded the Allies repay the loans they had borrowed to help pay for the war.
• France wanted the return of Alsace Lorraine stolen by Germany in 1917.

Stage 2. Organise the ideas

• Use CUT and PASTE functions to copy text from this web page and paste into a word processing program.
• Headings might include
  • Britain's aims
  • France's aims
  • America's wishes
  • How to prevent another war, etc, etc.

Stage 3. Write the answer

Using the grouped ideas as the basis of each paragraph, write your answer to the question What should happen to Germany after World War 1?. Add your own conclusion.

ESSAY TITLE: What should happen to Germany after WW1?

Paragraph 1: Britain wanted ....

Paragraph 2: France wanted ....

Paragraph 3: America wanted ....

Paragraph 4: Italy wanted ....

Paragraph 5: Germany expected ....

Conclusion: I think ....
Because ....

This is the final exercise in Wordprocessing. Click below to return to the Training Materials menu

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