For writing practice, my language partner and I have only tried dictation. This is done by writing free hand. When I make notes though, I prefer to type. This is because it helps me remember where the accent marks are better as the keys used are different from normal so I think harder about how the word is spelt. Other short meaningful writing exercises I could do in my target language is writing based on a prompt (ex. Write on the topic of food), creative writing (ex. Write a short story about a puppy), and writing in different dialects.
As to patterns, I haven't consciously thought about it because I'm not learning the language from scratch. However, through the teaching presentation I realized that in Vietnamese, adjectives always go after the noun unlike in English. For example, it would be "table large," rather than "large table." Other than that, I've also noticed that time indicators like 3 O'clock or "yesterday," go at the front of the sentence. It could go at the end, but it sounds less correct to do so. For simple and complex sentences, they work in a similar way to English. I haven't noticed any difference there.
My knowledge of Vietnamese grammar is actually really small. My language partner and I haven't focused on this because I know what sounds correct (but not the reason why) so there's no problem when communicating both orally and in written form. I do think though, that my lack of knowledge in this area, limits the type of writing I can do. For example, I can write in an informal manner, but probably not in an academic setting. If I ever need to write at a higher level in Vietnamese, it's a good idea to study Vietnamese grammar.
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