Estructuras






In the last unit, we looked at some strategies we can use to read in Spanish. Remember, they were:
  1. Focus on what you know
  2. Look for cognates
  3. Focus on the basic idea, then dig deeper.
 
To write in Spanish, we can use some strategies as well. These strategies are as useful for writing one sentence as for writing a short story. Let’s look at a few:
 
Estrategias para escribir en español:
  1. Brainstorm in Spanish and make a plan: Don’t start by thinking in English. It’s natural to want to start off in English (or your first language) - but, if you do that, you’ll want to say things as you would normally in English, which is at a high level. Remember, you’re still learning Spanish and what you can say in Spanish is not at the same level as what you can say in English - and that’s OK!
  2. Use what you know to start: Start off with using what you know. You have your plan, what vocabulary do you already know in Spanish? What verbs could you use? You should be comfortable with the present tense, the present progressive, the simple future and you have lots of verb combinations that you can use within that, so get creative!
  3. Be smart with your dictionary: Once you have already figured out what you know in Spanish, you need to fill in the blanks. Sometimes there is a specific word that you want to use that you haven’t seen yet, look it up. Try to build your work so that you are not looking up entire sentences - because if you’re doing that, you probably need to find a way to simplify what you are saying. While printed dictionaries are great, there are a number of online resources that you may want to use. One in particular is WordReference - this website is especially useful because it serves as a dictionary, a conjugator and has forums where you can post/see questions about the different uses of words in various languages.
 
Keep these strategies in mind as we go forward in the course. We will reference them and add to them as we go on.