Writing About My Future Job

1Ten years from now

At the end of the interview project, the teacher asks one last question. This one is not about somebody else.

"In ten years, what will you be?"

Keza already knows in her heart. She is the one who stops at the fence to look at the sick calf behind her house, when everybody else walks on. But knowing it in your heart is not the same as putting it in English, on paper, so that anybody can read it.

Let us write Keza’s answer together. Then you will write your own — and you will need only two small words to do it: want to and will.

2Saying what you hope: want to

Two traps are hiding in that little sentence, and almost every learner falls into one of them at least once.

3And when you talk about somebody else

4You can want to do, not only to be

• I want to study hard this year.
• I want to work in a hospital in Huye.
• I want to help farmers keep their cows healthy.

5Saying what is coming: will

will + plain verb — for everyone. I will work. You will work. She will work. We will work. They will work. No -s. Not ever.

✔ She will help sick cows.
✘ She will helps sick cows. — will leaves no room for an -s.
✘ She will to help sick cows. — there is no to after will.

6Giving your reason: because

A job with no reason is a flat sentence. The word because is what makes the dream yours and nobody else’s.

I want to be a vet because our cows are the wealth of our family, and a sick cow makes a family poor.

I want to be a teacher because my P3 teacher was patient with me when I could not read.

Careful: after because you must write a whole sentence — a doer and a verb — not just one word. ✘ because money. ✔ because I want to feed my family well.

Worked example: Keza’s paragraph

Five sentences, and each one has a job to do. Here is the plan:

1. Name the job — I want to be a ___ .
2. Give the reason — I want this job because ___ .
3. Say what you will do in the job — I will ___ .
4. Say what you will do now to get there — First, I will ___ .
5. Finish with a picture of that day — One day ___ .

Now watch Keza fill the plan in.

I want to be a vet. I want this job because our cows and goats are the wealth of my family, and when a cow is sick nobody in the village knows what to do. As a vet, I will treat sick animals and I will teach farmers how to keep them strong. First, I will work hard at science and English, because a vet reads books in English every day. One day I will walk onto a farm in Rutsiro with my bag in my hand, and a family will stop worrying.

Read it again, hunting for the small words. Count the wills: there are five. Now look at the verb after each one — treat, teach, work, walk, stop. Every single one is plain. Not one -s among them. That is not luck; that is the rule doing its work.

7A second model, shorter

I want to be an engineer. I want this job because I like to stand on the bridge over the Nyabarongo and wonder how it holds so much weight without falling. I will build strong roads and bridges for my district. First, I will study mathematics every evening, even on the days when I am tired. One day people will cross a bridge that I built, and they will not know my name — but I will know.

Notice that neither paragraph uses big words. Good writing is not long words. It is a clear job, a true reason, and verbs in the right shape.

Try it yourself

Write first, then tap Show answer to check.

Then mark your own work with three questions: Did every verb after will stay plain? Did every verb after to stay plain? Did I give a real reason after because — one that is true for me and nobody else?