I consider Conditioned QWing as fun-and-effective writing practice in a sense that I can go deeper into the articles or passages that I really like. When I found a good article while reading extensively online, I used to copy and paste it onto an MS Word file, read it intensively, that is to read every sentence attentively and check unfamiliar words in a thesaurus and English-English dictionaries, and read it aloud as daily Ondoku practice until I completely feel comfortable reading and visualize what is written. But… that’s it. I didn’t do any “writing practice” based on the English pieces that I like. In retrospect, it was such waste of good resources and references that I could’ve learned a great deal. “Conditioned QWing” was partly inspired by “Seven-Step-Method” (http://fadeddeadjaded2009.blog65.fc2.com/blog-entry-395.html ) that my friend proposed, which aims to develop learners’ writing skills through rewriting model pieces multiple times. “Conditioned QWing” is not a learning method in which I rewrite the whole piece, but rewrite sentences using the words I’m not familiar with. So, in that respect, Conditioned QWing bends towards vocabulary-building-through-writing kind of learning method. Today’s piece is from Slate, “How To Give Good Gift - Despite an Asperger’s-induced empathy deficit, I’ve learned to choose meaningful presents for my wife. You can, too.” http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/11/thanks_to_asperger_s_i_used_to_give_my_wife_terrible_gifts_here_s_how_i_learned_to_pick_good_ones_.html?tid=sm_tw_button_chunky
It’s simply good. I want to write such a piece someday. Here are 14 words that I’d like to learn.
a swatch of, lumpy, crummy, bar, fixate, a waft of, gag, ruminate, feverish rumination, beget, elliptical, nonplus, overt
To conclude today’s preliminary Conditioned QWing, let me just quote my favorite part of the article.
“By learning to be more responsive to what people tell you, you may just stumble upon the greatest gift of all: friendship.”
Oh, yes. “Friendship”. That must be the greatest gift of all that anybody could exchange.
