Schreibprojekt Nr 1: Erklärung 


This writing project will receive a letter grade and will be worth 2% of your final course grade. It is due on Wednesday, February 4.

Imagine that you are spending a year studying at the University of Freiburg. Last Saturday sometime between 9 A.M. and noon, a prize-winning poodle was dognapped from a home near your dorm. Everyone who lives in the area is a suspect. You need to prove that you did not purloin the pooch. On this worksheet, prepare your alibi.

A. First, establish where you were. You spent last Saturday doing some errands in town. Make a list of at least five places you went and the approximate times you were there. Write down how you got to each place. Please complete the table below with your own five (made-up) errands -- be sure to write in German.

 Wann?Wie?Wo?
BEISPIEL:9.00 Uhrzu Fußdas Café
1   
2   
3   
4   
5   


B. Now write at least two sentences about each place that you went. Tell how you got there, what you did there or why you went there (you could use ‘weil’ or ‘damit’ to give reasons) -- and be sure to mention anyone who saw you there, so that they can verify your alibi. Be sure to write in the past tense (das Perfekt), using the correct forms, and pay attention to your prepositions, cases, and word order.

BEISPIEL:Um 9.00 Uhr bin ich zu Fuß ins Café gegangen. Dort habe ich ein Brötchen gegessen und eine Tasse Kaffee getrunken. Die Kellnerin hat mich gesehen.


Complete two (or more) sentences for each of your five errands below.

1. 




2. 




3. 




4. 




5. 






C. Finally, use your sentences above to compose a connected paragraph describing your day. You should use some of the words below to help your paragraph flow better. (Remember that if these words occur as the first element in the sentence, your conjugated verb must be the second element!)

zuerst......................................first of alldarauf..................................following that
zunächst...........................................nextspäter..............................................later
dann................................................thenschließlich......................................finally
danach.....................................after thatalso...................................thus, therefore


In addition, if you wish, you may include a statement or two describing what other reasons you have for being innocent of stealing the poodle (e.g. you’re allergic to dogs, your cats would hate you, etc.) Here are a few vocabulary additions you may find useful -- if you need to use other words, please consult a dictionary and be sure to ask your T.A. for help with any difficult phrasings. Feel free to be creative or humorous if you want, though of course you don’t have to be!

der Pudel......................................poodledas Alibi............................................alibi
unschuldig..................................innocentbeweisen (hat bewiesen)....................to prove
schuldig.........................................guiltyentführen (hat entführt).......to kidnap, snatch
allergisch gegen........................allergic toder Hund, -e.......................................dog
hassen.........................................to hatedie Katze, -n.......................................cat


BEISPIEL:Zuerst bin ich um 9.00 Uhr ins Café gegangen. Dort habe ich ein Brötchen gegessen und eine Tasse Kaffee getrunken. Die Kellnerin hat mich gesehen. Dann bin um 9.45 Uhr mit dem Bus zur Buchhandlung gefahren ...


Please type or write your final paragraph on a separate sheet of paper.

Length: You need to complete sections A, B and C of this worksheet. Section C is your final product, and it should be at least 12 sentences or 75 words long -- more is fine. Please type or write section C on a separate sheet of paper. (I would prefer that you type, but it’s not required. If you do type it, please be sure to include UMLAUTS. If you need help typing umlauts on the computer, please do a Google search on “how to type umlauts on a PC” (or Mac!) -- there are many pages that will show you how to do this.) The completed Schreibprojekt is due on Wednesday, February 4.

Grading Criteria: In addition to completing each section (A, B, C), this project requires that you use the two-way prepositions in combination with shops and places in the city, so please double-check your use of the phrases we’ve been practicing (auf die Bank gehen, in die Bäckerei gehen, an der Bushaltestelle stehen, etc.). Also, you will be writing in the past tense (das Perfekt), so if you need to refresh your memory of the past-tense forms, please review pp. 181-189 in your textbook, or consult the appendix verb chart in the back of the book. Finally, your sentences should flow together using connecting words as described in section C, and should also have correct word order. Spelling is important and will be counted, so be sure to proofread your work for any possible typos or missing umlauts!

Viel Glück und viel Spaß!