ESL Family Members Writing

This page has several ESL family members writing tasks and activities for you to do. This will help you learn how to write about and describe your family so that you will be able to tell people about them when you travel to an English speaking country.

By doing the exercises on this page you will be able to choose and then use the best word for each situation, and as they are writing tasks, you will have plenty of time to make sure you do them as well as possible. Writing activities are important as you can do them slowly and really learn the best words. If you need help finding the best word you can look at the ESL family members vocabulary page.

The four exercises on this page are as follows:

• List of writing topics.
• Summary writing task.
• Describing a picture.
• Writing a role-play.

ESL Family Members Writing Exercises

Exercise 1 – Writing Topics

In this ESL family members writing task you need to choose one of the following writing topics and write as much as you can. Use full sentences and construct several paragraphs. The more you write the better you will get a using the vocabulary. When you have finished writing about the first topic you chose, you can try one or both of the others as well.

• Describe your family?
• Who do you think are the best people to have in a family?
• What are the benefits of living close to your family members?

Exercise 2 – Writing a Summary

In the next ESL family members writing activity you need to read the following passage and then rewrite it so you use different words and sentences but keep the same information and meaning. So the rewritten summary of the passage should contain the same information but use different words to say that information. It should also be shorter than the original passage.

Same-Sex Marriage

Same-sex marriage or gay marriage is marriage or a marriage-like relationship between two people of the same sex; a woman and a woman or a man and a man. It has been made legal in 22 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas. The Netherlands was the first country to allow gay marriage in 2000. As of 2015, four more countries have legalized it: Greenland, Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The legalization of gay marriage has been a controversial issue and sparked public debate. Proponents of legal gay marriage argue that prohibiting gay marriage is discriminatory. They think same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples. The rights include getting married and raising children. On the other hand, opponents contend that marriage is a privilege, not a right as there is no explicit statement in the US constitution about the right to marry. They further argue that raising children in same-sex households is not an optimum environment because children need both a mother and father.

In England, the legal status of same-sex couples has already been granted under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which offers the same legal treatment as civil marriage across a range of matters, but does not oblige the same-sex couples to convert their relationships into marriages. Campaigners of same-sex marriage thought that the act gave the notion that same-sex relationships were not as valid as heterosexual ones. They therefore wanted same-sex marriages to be legalized and it has been granted under the Marriage Act 2013, which legalizes same-sex marriages in England and Wales, except Northern Ireland.

However, the act does not force any religious organizations to conduct such marriages. It even specifies that the Church of England and Church in Wales would be prohibited by law from offering same-sex marriages. It is also unlawful for other religious organizations (Muslims, Jews, Sikh, etc.) to marry same-sex couples unless their organization’s governing body has expressed its willingness to do it.

Exercise 3 – Describing a Picture

This ESL family members writing exercise has a picture that you need to describe. Explain what the picture shows, what is happening, who the people are and what might happen next or what might have happened before the scene shown in the picture. Write as much as you can and use full sentences.

Exercise 4 – Writing Role-plays

For this final ESL family members writing task you need to write a role-play. You have been given two role-plays to choose from. In each of them you have the location, situation and participants, and you just need to write what is said by each of the people. Write as much as you can and then find some friends so you can practice speaking the vocabulary while you perform the role-play.

Role-play 1

• Location: In a school.
• Situation: A new students meets some new friends and they talk about their families.
• Participants: 1 new student and 2 or more other students.

Role-play 2 

• Location: In a house.
• Situation: A man takes his girlfriend to meet his parents.
• Participants: Son and his girlfriend as well as 2 parents.