Necessities: Explanation

Necessities

• Details

Name of Item	It Is Necessary
Activity Type	Grammar Reference Sheet / Discussion
Student Level	Lower Intermediate - Upper Intermediate
Time Allowance	10 minutes for discussion
Preparation Required	not a lot
Other Items Needed	nothing special
Vocabulary	necessary / important / essential / advisable / required / recommended / suggested
Grammar	three sentence patterns used with these words

• Instructions

The main purpose of this sheet is as a useful reference for students who need to refer to necessities (in their business writing). A short discussion activity is also provided for some practice and a chance for you to monitor the sentences the students are producing and make any corrections.

The only important thing that might need to be explained about the different groups of sentences is relative levels of urgency communicated by each one. You could ask students to work together and try to decide for themselves what the order of the words is, or you could just tell them (I know we're not supposed to do that, but I've found that a lot of times it's what my students wanted me to do). Anyway, once the meanings and relative importance levels of the various phrases are understood you can move on to the discussion.

If your students (like mine) are inclined to acquiesce with the prevailing thinking of the group, you may want to ask them to write their ideas as sentences, before they share them with their groups.