daily writing

today’s a new day

in language learning there is no substitute for continuous effort. these are some daily writing prompts. this list changes regularly so feel free to save or print it. it’s treated like a calendar but the days aren’t the important part – pick something to write and do it.

for each day, there are seven possible exercises – deep, light, argument, thought experiment, translation, quotation and bonus (a supplementary piece for one of the other six). each day has a theme.

deep & light

the deep exercise is one that will require thought and exploration, possibly research. unless you are already an expert in the topic, this will take some work. light is the opposite. it’s not meant to be a meaningful piece of writing, just something fun you can do to relate to the topic, more like a reflection than an academic exercise.

argument

argument exercises are meant to be focused on one side of a debate. it is your job to explain the situation and convince your reader to agree with you.

thought experiment

these are what-if situations. take a few minutes to think about the deeper effect of the idea that’s presented. there will be a silly answer, of course. but the assignment is to look at the subtle, nuanced result and talk about that. dig deep and you’ll find these aren’t as strange as you might originally have imagined.

translation

translation exercises are exactly that but you’re not being asked to provide a literal translation. that’s what automated translation software is for. you’re not translating for exact meaning or content. what you are aiming for is communicating the same idea (or something close to it) in a fluid and natural way. reword, remove and add, change the organization, whatever makes it a better piece of writing. content is relatively unimportant, only whether it’s well-written in the end.

quotation

these quotations are meant to stimulate your mind to explore an idea. most of them are by people you will probably have heard of, maybe know a lot about from school or personal interest. there’s no need to talk about the person or the situation surrounding the actual quotation. talk about the ideas they are exploring in it.

bonus

bonus questions are extras that either don’t fit in one of the other categories or are expansions on them. they are usually extensions of translation exercises.