DSE Chinese | Proposals and Speeches Prep Guide (Tutor Edition)

DSE Chinese | Proposals and Speeches Prep Guide (Tutor Edition) | Skeleton, Tone and Four Common Mistakes

2026-11-12

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Junior Secondary Chinese

Ask for a proposal and most students hand in a letter to a friend: an informal greeting, a chatty tone, and a format assembled from memory. The writing is rarely the problem; nobody ever asked them who will hold the document. This lesson replaces memorised formats with six slots and three tones.

Objectives — Students can: (1) draft any proposal or speech in three minutes using the six-slot skeleton of title, greeting, introduction, body, closing and signature with date; (2) judge from the audience whether the tone should be deferential, neutral or directive, and rewrite one sentence that is out of place; (3) build a 400-character body on the four-stage flow of situation, proposal, outcome and call to action, with three proposals of about 80 characters each and the total checked by arithmetic.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Letter and notice format	What are the last two lines of a letter	Signature and date, set at the lower right
Topic sentences	What should the first sentence of a paragraph do	State what the paragraph will argue
Forms of address	How do you address a principal	By title, never starting with a bare you

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Opening judgement	Hand out a sheet with only the word proposal and ask who will read it	Write an answer, compare at the end
6-18 min	Six-slot skeleton	Show the six slots in order with one function each	Redraw the six slots and number them
18-30 min	Three tones	Write one request in deferential, neutral and directive versions	Choose a tone for four audiences
30-42 min	Four-stage flow	Situation, proposal, outcome, call to action; three items of 80 characters	Write the three proposal headlines
42-54 min	Speeches differ	At 150 characters a minute, 3 minutes is about 450 characters	Rewrite the proposal as a two-line opening
54-60 min	Exit check	Collect two questions, mark whether format or tone failed	Work independently

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Six slots: form first, prose second

Marks are lost to missing slots far more often than to weak ideas: a title with no greeting, proposals with no closing. This act does one thing, drawing the six slots as a fixed diagram with one kind of content each. The title names the subject and the audience, the greeting names the reader, the introduction states who you are and why you write in three sentences, the body carries the proposals, the closing asks for a reply, and the signature with date sits at the lower right. Stress that order is not negotiable. A signature in the middle turns a proposal into a memo, and a greeting after the introduction reads as an afterthought. Control length by arithmetic: about 400 characters in total, three proposals of about 80 characters each, leaving 160 characters for introduction, closing and transitions. Students who subtract once stop writing a top-heavy draft.
Students do: redraw the six slots on blank paper, number them, and write the function of each in one line.

Students say: recite all six slots from memory; any missing slot is re-taught on the spot.

Scene 2: Three tones are set by the reader, not by mood

The same request reads differently to a principal, a classmate and a subordinate. Deferential writing is respectful and specific; neutral writing is direct but leaves room; directive writing may instruct but must give a reason. Write one sentence on the board, please reply by the end of the month, then show three versions: one with a polite modal and a purpose clause, one with a casual request, one with a deadline and a reason. The single test is whether the reader can refuse. Cannot refuse means directive, can refuse and you need a yes means deferential, equal partners means neutral. Speeches add one layer: the audience is in the room, so use we and you, and open each section with a question or a number to pull attention back. Give students four situations, a study room for the principal, a class activity for classmates, a fee change for the parent association, an environment talk for residents, and have them choose a tone for each.
Students do: rewrite one sentence written for classmates so it can be sent to a principal, changing tone only.

Students say: explain why the polite modal was added, using the can-they-refuse test.

Scene 3: Four stages: situation, proposal, outcome, call

The four stages are a causal chain rather than four parallel paragraphs. The situation stage carries only observable facts and numbers; each proposal gets a headline sentence and two lines of method; the outcome stage states what will measurably follow; the call names one concrete action for the reader. The usual failure is a wish dressed as an outcome. The school will be better is a wish; the room seats thirty more students each evening is an outcome. Require one countable result per proposal. Speeches turn four stages into five beats: hook, situation, proposal, outcome, closing call. At 150 characters a minute, 3 minutes is about 450 characters, so each beat gets roughly ninety and sentences must stay short. Keep one memorable line at the close, but never let a slogan replace the reasoning; a slogan needs a reason in front of it. Final check: read the three proposal headlines in a row. If they sound like three unrelated wishes, the situation stage is missing evidence, so go back and add facts.
Students do: draft the body on the four stages and put a countable outcome in brackets after each proposal.

Students say: deliver the whole proposal in thirty seconds; rambling means the stages are out of order.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Proposal	Suggest a study room to the principal	Six slots, four stages, three items	Complete format, countable outcomes
Speech	An environment talk to residents	Five beats, length at 150 characters a minute	Hook, call to action, spoken phrasing
Open letter or complaint	Complain about noise to management	Facts, impact, then a request	Request is specific and actionable
Format repair	A proposal with missing slots	Check each slot against the skeleton	Name the missing slot and write it

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: the chapter holds to three fixed layers of skeleton, tone and stages so students stop mixing format with content; every length is verified by arithmetic (400 characters total, three items of 80); outcomes must be measurable and any better or more ideal phrasing is sent back; tone is decided by one question, can the reader refuse; and the three headlines must read as a chain, so a broken chain means the situation stage needs evidence.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Fill the slots	A proposal missing greeting and signature	Can they name both and write them
Shift the tone	Turn a command into deferential wording	Meaning is preserved
Write an outcome	Attach a measurable result to one proposal	Not written as a wish

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Informal greeting	A proposal to the principal opens with friends	The reader is the principal, not your class, so a wrong greeting spoils everything after it.
Missing signature and date	The draft simply stops	You can recite six slots but lost the last one in practice, so count the six before you hand in.
Wish instead of outcome	The school will become better	Better than what, by how much? Give a number of people or hours, or it is only a wish.
Speech written as an essay	Words like moreover and hence throughout	You will speak this aloud, so read it out and cut every sentence that trips you.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary Chinese chapter index — All chapters for the subject
Prep guide master index — Matching chapters in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Practice 2 and 4: slots from memory and a tone rewrite

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Six slots	Title to signature and date	A missing slot means act one again
Tone test	Can the reader refuse	Wrong call means act two again
Outcomes	One countable result per proposal	A wish means act three again

09 Tutor FAQ

Should students memorise model essays?

No. Memorise the skeleton and the three tones instead, because every task sets a different situation.

Is there a penalty for going over the word limit?

Practical writing rewards format and audience awareness, but over-writing eats the checking time, so hold to about eighty characters per item.

May a speech be colloquial?

Yes, and it should be, provided it stays careful: short sentences, readable aloud, one clear action per section.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.