a Notice of English Speech Contest

[ziawj2]

This week I assign my students to write a notice based on the following situation:
The Student Union is to organize an English Speech Contest. You are supposed to write a notice on behalf of the Student Union to inform all the students at your university to participate in it.
After collecting their writing, I found one of their common problems is that the content of the body is empty. So I go to the Internet, search the topic and write a notice on my own. I think that there are still some expressions or sentences which are not native English. So could you help me to correct the notice?

English Speech Contest​

September 18​

An English Speech Contest will be held at the university auditorium by the Student Union. Any of the full-time students is qualified to participate in it. Contestants will be divided into two categories: English majors and non-English majors.The Contest goes through two phases: the initial and the final. In the inital, contestants are free to choose topics, and oral English teachers will be invited to be judges . The top five contestants in each category will enter the final. In the final, each contestant will be allocated a topic, and the top three will be final winners who will be awared prizes by the principal of our college. If you are interested, please come to the English Speech Organizing Committee Office at Room 203 of Teaching Building II and decide speech orders by drawing lots on October 15 at 18:00. On October 25 at 18:00 begins the final. For more information, please call Mr. Zhang at 88413677-6203.​

Student Union​

 

[emsr2d2]

This week I assigned my students [STRIKE]to write[/STRIKE] the task of writing a notice based on the following situation:
The Student Union is to organize an English [STRIKE]Speech[/STRIKE] Speaking Contest. You are [STRIKE]supposed[/STRIKE] to write a notice on behalf of the Student Union to inform all the students at your university to participate in it.

After collecting their writing, I found one of their common problems is that the content of the body is empty (?Do you mean there isn't much content?) So I went on the Internet, searched the topic and wrote a notice [STRIKE]on[/STRIKE] of my own. I think that there are still some expressions or sentences which are not native English. So could you help me to correct the notice?

English [STRIKE]Speech[/STRIKE] Speaking Contest​

September 18​

An English [STRIKE]Speech[/STRIKE] Speaking Contest will be held at the university auditorium by the Student Union.[STRIKE] Any of the[/STRIKE] All full-time students [STRIKE]is qualified[/STRIKE] qualify to participate in it. Contestants will be divided into two categories: English majors and non-English majors.The contest [STRIKE]goes through[/STRIKE] will have two phases: the initial and the final. In the inital phase, contestants are free to choose topics, and oral English teachers will be invited to be judges. The top five contestants in each category will [STRIKE]enter[/STRIKE] go through to the final. In the final, each contestant will be allocated a topic, and the top three [STRIKE]will be final winners who[/STRIKE] will be awarded prizes by the principal of our college. If you are interested, please come to the English [STRIKE]Speech[/STRIKE] Speaking Organizing (Organising in BrE) Committee Office [STRIKE]at[/STRIKE] in Room 203 of Teaching Building II. [STRIKE]and decide speech orders[/STRIKE] The order of speakers will be decided by drawing lots on October 15 at 18:00. The final will begin on October 25 at 18:00. For more information, please call Mr. Zhang [STRIKE]at[/STRIKE] on 88413677-6203.​

Student Union​

See above.

 

[ziawj2]

Thank you for your careful correction.

This week I assigned my students to write the task of writing (Thanks. I looked up "assign" in a dictionary. Assign is used in expressions such as assign sth. to sb.or assign sb. sth.)a notice based on the following situation:
The Student Union is to organize an English Speech Speaking (I look up "speech" and "speaking" in Collins COBUILD ADVANCED DICTIONARY, and the definitions for them are: speech is a formal talk which someone give to an audience; when someone speaks to a group of people, they makes a speech. Then I google and search the two phrases in COCA Corpus, it seemed that both of them acceptable. )Contest. You are supposed to write a notice on behalf of the Student Union to inform all the students at your university to participate in it.

After collecting their writing, I found one of their common problems is that the content of the body is empty (?Do you mean there isn't much content? Yes, so I can make it more clear: the content of the body is empty?) So I went on the Internet, searched the topic and wrote a notice on of my own. I think that there are still some expressions or sentences which are not native English. So could you help me to correct the notice?

English Speech Speaking Contest​

September 18​

An English Speech Speaking Contest will be held at the university auditorium by the Student Union. Any of the All (Do you mean the former is too wordy?) full-time students is qualified qualify to participate in it. Contestants will be divided into two categories: English majors and non-English majors.The contest goes through will have two phases: the initial and the final. In the inital phase, contestants are free to choose topics, and oral English teachers will be invited to be judges. The top five contestants in each category will enter go through to (The reason why you replace "enter "with "go through" is that "go through" can indicate that the competition is intense. Is that right? ) the final. In the final, each contestant will be allocated a topic, and the top three will be final winners who will be awarded prizes by the principal of our college. If you are interested, please come to the English Speech Speaking Organizing (Organising in BrE) Committee Office at in Room 203 of Teaching Building II. and decide speech orders The order of speakers will be decided by drawing lots on October 15 at 18:00. The final will begin on October 25 at 18:00. For more information, please call Mr. Zhang at on (I think "at" is grammatical right.Because the telephone is associated with a specific place.) 88413677-6203.​

 

[Rover_KE]

Notice that your cut and paste job has removed all of ems' deletions.

You need to put that right for a start.

You have received an excellent revision of your text and none of your contradictory remarks are worth considering further.

You can not say 'the content of the body is empty.'

Well done, ems.

Rover

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks Rover

In case the deletions etc were confusing, here's a complete post of my suggested version:

English Speaking Contest​

September 18​

An English Speaking Contest will be held at the university auditorium by the Student Union. All full-time students qualify to participate in it. Contestants will be divided into two categories: English majors and non-English majors.The contest will have two phases: the initial and the final. In the inital phase, contestants are free to choose topics, and oral English teachers will be invited to be judges. The top five contestants in each category will go through to the final. In the final, each contestant will be allocated a topic, and the top three will be awarded prizes by the principal of our college. If you are interested, please come to the English Speaking Organizing Committee Office in Room 203 of Teaching Building II. The order of speakers will be decided by drawing lots on October 15 at 18:00. The final will begin on October 25 at 18:00. For more information, please call Mr. Zhang on 88413677-6203.​

 

[ziawj2]

Thank you, Rover. I didn't know how to express my confusion based on ems' correction version, so I cut and paste. Unfortunately, I didn't notice I have removed ems' deletions.
Here I still feel confused about some correction.
1) speech or speaking?
I look up "speech" and "speaking" in Collins COBUILD ADVANCED DICTIONARY, and the definitions for them are: speech is a formal talk which someone give to an audience; when someone speaks to a group of people, they makes a speech. Then I google and search the two phrases in COCA Corpus, it seemed that both of them acceptable.
2)Any of the full-time students or All full-time students?
Do you mean the former is too wordy?
3) The top five contestants in each category will enter / go through to the final.
The reason why you replace "enter "with "go through" is that "go through" can indicate that the competition is intense. Is that right?
4) For more information, please call Mr. Zhang at / on 88413677-6203.
I think "at" is grammatical right.Because the telephone is associated with a specific place.
Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you, Rover. I didn't know how to express my confusion based on ems' correction version, so I cut and paste. Unfortunately, I didn't notice I have removed ems' deletions.

Here I still feel confused about some correction.

1) speech or speaking?
I look up "speech" and "speaking" in Collins COBUILD ADVANCED DICTIONARY, and the definitions for them are: speech is a formal talk which someone give to an audience; when someone speaks to a group of people, they makes a speech. Then I google and search the two phrases in COCA Corpus, it seemed that both of them acceptable.

The definitions are correct but the commonly used and more natural expression in English usage is "English (or any other language) Speaking Competition". The suggestion is that it is a competition to see how well you speak English.

2)Any of the full-time students or All full-time students?
Do you mean the former is too wordy?
Again, I have changed it to the more natural phrase, using "All". That is, in effect, the situation. All the full-time students are eligible to participate. I would have used "Any" if there were a smaller group of students who were eligible - "Any full-time student who attends classes on a Friday afternoon is eligible" or "Any full-time student who has not entered another competition this year is eligible to participate", for example.


3) The top five contestants in each category will enter / go through to the final.
The reason why you replace "enter "with "go through" is that "go through" can indicate that the competition is intense. Is that right?

No, not at all. It has nothing to do with intensity. It's what we say in English. You "go through" to the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the final etc. We don't "enter" specific rounds, we qualify for a place in them and go through.

4) For more information, please call Mr. Zhang at / on 88413677-6203.
I think "at" is grammatical right.Because the telephone is associated with a specific place.

There may be an AmE vs BrE difference here, but in BrE, we telephone someone on a telephone number. We contact them at a postal address or an email address.
A telephone is not necessarily assoiated with a specific place, especially a mobile telephone.



Thank you!

See above for my responses to your queries.

 

[crazYgeeK]

Wow! I have experienced that expressing your ideas in English to communicate with other English speakers is only the first step (I wish I could do this well only just for my job and the world of programming languages) and expressing them naturally is the second as well as the last step to be called real English speaker.
Thank you all!

 

[ziawj2]

1) speech or speaking?
I look up "speech" and "speaking" in Collins COBUILD ADVANCED DICTIONARY, and the definitions for them are: speech is a formal talk which someone give to an audience; when someone speaks to a group of people, they makes a speech. Then I google and search the two phrases in COCA Corpus, it seemed that both of them acceptable.

The definitions are correct but the commonly used and more natural expression in English usage is "English (or any other language) Speaking Competition". The suggestion is that it is a competition to see how well you speak English.

This time you explained it very clear, thank you!


2)Any of the full-time students or All full-time students?
Do you mean the former is too wordy?
Again, I have changed it to the more natural phrase, using "All". That is, in effect, the situation. All the full-time students are eligible to participate. I would have used "Any" if there were a smaller group of students who were eligible - "Any full-time student who attends classes on a Friday afternoon is eligible" or "Any full-time student who has not entered another competition this year is eligible to participate", for example.

I still feel a litter confused . In my opinion, any of the ...=all .... But thanks anyway

3) The top five contestants in each category will enter / go through to the final.
The reason why you replace "enter "with "go through" is that "go through" can indicate that the competition is intense. Is that right?

No, not at all. It has nothing to do with intensity. It's what we say in English. You "go through" to the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the final etc. We don't "enter" specific rounds, we qualify for a place in them and go through.

Thanks, the reason why I misunderstood is that I saw "go through" as a fixed expression. Actually, it can be understood literally.


4) For more information, please call Mr. Zhang at / on 88413677-6203.
I think "at" is grammatical right.Because the telephone is associated with a specific place.

There may be an AmE vs BrE difference here, but in BrE, we telephone someone on a telephone number. We contact them at a postal address or an email address.
A telephone is not necessarily assoiated with a specific place, especially a mobile telephone.

Thanks for your carefulness and patience.

 

[ziawj2]

In my student's writing, there are sentences listed below. I think there are some problems about collocation and style. Could you give me your opinions?
1. In this English Speech Contest, we will organise many programs.
My opinion: "organise" is a British word, while "program" is an American word. Besides that, "programs" is not suitable, and "a program of activities" is more accurate. So I prefer to correct it like this:
In this English Speech Contest, we will organize a program of activities.

2. At that time, there will be many colorful activites and foreign teacher.
My opinion: I don't think "activites" and "teacher" can be used together because the former and the latter do not belong to the same category. Besides that, it is confusing whether "many" is the pre-modifier of "foreign teacher" or not. In addition, I don't think "colorful" is acceptable to modify "activities"

Could you give me your opinions? Thanks!

 

[5jj]

In this English Speech Contest, we will organize a program of activities.That's fine (for AmE, [sigh])

2. At that time, there will be many colorful activites and foreign teacher.
My opinion: I don't think "activites" and "teacher" can be used together because the former and the latter do not belong to the same category. You are right. Besides that, it is confusing whether "many" is the pre-modifier of "foreign teacher" or not. Right again. In addition, I don't think "colorful" is acceptable to modify "activities".It's possible, with the idea of 'lively', 'fun'.

I don't see how the 'foreign teacher" fits in, I'm afraid. Does your student mean, "A native-speaking teacher will be there, and there will be many fun activities"?

 

[emsr2d2]

In my student's writing, there are sentences listed below. I think there are some problems about collocation and style. Could you give me your opinions?
1. In this English Speech Contest, we will organise many programs.
My opinion: "organise" is a British word, while "program" is an American word. Besides that, "programs" is not suitable, and "a program of activities" is more accurate. So I prefer to correct it like this:
In this English Speech Contest, we will organize a program of activities.

Are you teaching them only AmE, or will you be explaining the variations in spelling and meaning to them?
If you're going to stick with AmE, then yes, it's "we will organize a program of activities". In BrE it would be "organise a programme of activities". I'm still a little confused about the actual contest though. The "English Speech/Speaking Competition" would surely be one of the many activities on the program, wouldn't it? Or is it a contest which consists of many separate smaller competitions?

2. At that time, there will be many colorful activites and foreign teacher.
My opinion: I don't think "activites" and "teacher" can be used together because the former and the latter do not belong to the same category. Besides that, it is confusing whether "many" is the pre-modifier of "foreign teacher" or not. In addition, I don't think "colorful" is acceptable to modify "activities"

The two do not belong together, no. "At that time" isn't appropriate either. "Colourful" does not correctly modify activities either. I would use something like "During the competition, there will be a lot of/many fun activities. There will also be a native-speaking teacher available/in attendance.

Could you give me your opinions? Thanks!

See above.

 

[ziawj2]

In my student's writing, there are sentences listed below. I think there are some problems about collocation and style. Could you give me your opinions?
1. In this English Speech Contest, we will organise many programs.
My opinion: "organise" is a British word, while "program" is an American word. Besides that, "programs" is not suitable, and "a program of activities" is more accurate. So I prefer to correct it like this:
In this English Speech Contest, we will organize a program of activities.

Are you teaching them only AmE, or will you be explaining the variations in spelling and meaning to them?
I am explaining to them that there are differences betwen AmE and BrE, so while writing they need to stick with AmE or BrE to retain consistent style.
If you're going to stick with AmE, then yes, it's "we will organize a program of activities". In BrE it would be "organise a programme of activities".
I'm still a little confused about the actual contest though. The "English Speech/Speaking Competition" would surely be one of the many activities on the program, wouldn't it? Or is it a contest which consists of many separate smaller competitions?
There is only one competition, but during the competition, there are small ativitites to make the atmosphere of the competition vivid and active, such as puzzles.