When I was a kid, things were so different...

Assignment #3

Hello everyone! This week we'll finish our look at manners around the world with one last writing on the topic.

In the online magazine we read, some of the students wrote about how manners have changed in their country over time. For example, Alessandra wrote that in Italy, children are not very well behaved in public compared to when she was a child.

Writing Topics:

1) Do you think manners have changed in your home country?

2) Do you think manners have changed in the United States?


Before your write, you can return to the international students' writing about Traditional Manners and Changing Manners. Read the students' writing again, and notice how the writers shift between talking about present time and past time.

Writing Focus

Talking about the Past

In English, verb tense is used to mark when an action occurs in time (past, present, or future). Adding -ed marks the past tense, will and going to to mark future tense, etc. But you will also often see particular words and phrases used when writers are comparing the present to the past. These time phrases help the reader to know when the writer is changing focus from one time to another.

Examples:

"Nowadays" and "these days" are phrases used to indicate present time.

Nowadays, people think more about their rights than their responsibilities.
These days, people are less likely to say "please" or "thank you".

There are many ways to mark past time. Here are some of them:

Store clerks in the past talked more with their customers.
For the past 50 years, people have been becoming more and more rude.
When I was a child, students were rarely rude to teachers.

Also, the verb "used to" shows a habit of the past.

In the U.S. many people used to smoke, but now it's not so popular.

And, lastly, the adverb "still" shows that something that was true in the past is true in the present also.

Most Americans still believe in teaching their children to say "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome".

In your writing this week, please use some time phrases to make your time references clear. Thanks!

Susan and Whitney