小３の夏休み（８歳７ヶ月）の頃、には、
調べてみたいテーマを決めて
フォント１２でA４の紙１〜２ページは埋まる長さのものを書き上げる、
という少し長めのライティングにチャレンジしました。
どのテーマで書くか先生と娘で話し合った結果、
今回はハリーポッターの作者 J. K. Rowling と、Walt Disney について、
本やネットで調べたものをまとめることになりました。
先生曰く、
テーマが人物だと、時代や状況がころころと変わってしまうため、
本当は国や土地について調べた方が、まとめるのは簡単だとのこと。
でも、娘がどうしても人物で書きたいというので、
今回は人物をテーマにエッセイを仕上げることとなりました。
８歳７ヶ月の頃のライティングでよく注意されているのは下記のようなことです。
娘の文章に限ってのことなので分かりづらい部分もあるかと思いますが、
覚え書きとして残しておきます。
・最初の段落でこれから述べる理由２〜３つを短く書く。
・-ing, -edのスペルミス、アポストロフィの使い方（所有、短縮）のミスがないか、自分でも確認する。
・and と but 、thatやoneを使いすぎず、it, they, them, there are は具体的な単語で表現する。
・回りくどい言い方になっている文章はシンプルに書き直す。
・自分の主張に対していろいろ理由を述べているうちに矛盾が出てきてしまう（一貫性がない）ので、最初の主張につながる内容の理由を提示する。
・bodyの理由を書くところで簡単に否定されてしまう内容は主張として弱い。
・bodyの理由のパラグラフでは、まず伝えたい内容を短く書いてから、さらに理由を付け加える。
・最後の段落の書き出しは毎回「in conclusion」を使っているので、他にも２、３個別の言い回しを覚える。
・in conclusionの後は上で述べた２つの理由を再度別の言い回しで入れる。
・つなぎ言葉、副詞、よく使用する単純な表現の単語（happyなど）は、他の言葉に変えられないか考える。（ネットで検索）
・フォーマルな文章では、didn'tなど短縮系や、！（ビックリマーク）は使わない。
・I think、maybe、mayなどは曖昧な表現になってしまうので、できるだけ使用しない。
・〜できはない、〜できない、〜と思わないと否定文よりも、〜できる、〜だ、と肯定文にすると伝わりやすい。
上記のことに注意しながら、下記の①〜④を何度か繰り返して書き上げました。
①自分で書いた文章を上記のアドバイスをもとに確認。
②その後、タイピング。
③先生に赤入れしてもらう。
④さらに書き直す。
---
エッセイを書くにあたり、先生に何度も訂正されて ４〜５回書き直したので、
娘はかなりブーブーいっていましたが、
夏休み中だったので頑張れましたね・・・
先生からは「本やネットで調べたものを丸写しするのはダメ！」と厳しく注意されていたので、先生方も小さい頃、本の文章を写すことに関しては厳しく指導を受けていたとのこと
このエッセイでは、娘は自分の言葉に置き換えて頑張って書いていました。
本やネットでいろいろ調べるのも勉強になったし、要約する練習にもなりました！！
最後は自分でタイピングして完成♡
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では、今回はJ.K. Rowling についてまとめたものを公開したいと思います。
J.K. Rowling
Did you know that J.K. Rowling wrote her initials “J.K.” because she did not want anybody to know that a “girl” wrote the book Harry Potter? She did not want boys to know that a girl wrote the book Harry Potter because she thought that the boys would not read it if it was written by a woman. J.K. Rowling’s real name is Joanne Kathleen Rowling, and she gave herself the middle name Kathleen. She was born at Yate General Hospital on July 31, 1965, in Gloucestershire, England. In this essay, I will explain about the life of J.K. Rowling and how the book Harry Potter started.
J.K. Rowling read and wrote many books in her childhood. She loved reading and so did her mother and father. She even called herself a bookworm. She had a little sister called Diana, or Di. J.K. Rowling was called Jo, from Joanne. Jo was always making stories for Di. She loved writing books since she was young. From an early age she wanted to become a writer. The first book she wrote was called “Rabbit” which was about a rabbit. She wrote the book when she was six years old. So young. When she was eleven, she wrote another book about seven cursed diamonds and the people who owned them. She was always reading or writing books. She read books like “The Little White House” and “The Chronicles of Narnia”. When Jo was nine, her family moved into a house with a river and forest, but most of all, a castle. This gave her ideas for the book Harry Potter.
Jo went to school at Wyedean Comprehensive school. Then she studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter. Before Jo became a writer, she worked as a secretary, and an assistant teacher. Other times, she was caring for her baby girl Jessica. It was not easy for her since she was a single mother. However, whenever she had spare time, she tried to write stories. She wrote as fast as she could and as much as she could. Sometimes, she wrote a whole chapter and other times she wrote only one paragraph. Whichever it was, she was still writing. She tried to write several novels for adults, but never finished them. Jo was better at writing stories for kids than writing books for adults. She did not think her work as a secretary and as an assistant teacher was fun at all. She always wanted to write books.
Jo got many ideas for the book Harry Potter in her daily life. When she was on the train back to London, she was looking outside the window, and that was when the image of Harry and Hogwarts popped into her head. Another time, she had a big fight with her boyfriend, she thought of how satisfying it would be to smack something at her boyfriend’s head. That is how she came up with the game Quidditch. This game comes up in the book. It is played by wizard and witches. The game ends when the seeker catches a tiny ball called the snitch. The book Harry Potter was completed in 1995 and was published in 1997. It was so famous that children in the United State was reading it before it was published there. One of the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was the fastest-selling book ever, selling 2.65 million in the first 24 hours in the UK. Also, the Harry Potter series is read all around the world. It is published in 78 languages and more than 450 million copies have been sold. As can be seen, Jo became very famous.
Jo never feared her mistakes when creating her stories or gave up just because some people did not like her stories. She always wrote of what she knew a lot about, tried to become a true writer, and thought of ways to make better stories. Today, Harry Potter is read worldwide and many people will continue to read about Harry for generations to come.