Tag Archives: writing

Writing: 5 Useful Exam Tips

General,

I get it. Writing test. These two words don’t look super inviting or inspiring, but trust me, if you follow these tips, it might help you pass or, at least, enhance your writing skills.

I think we have already discussed here at length my obsession with using the vocabulary and structures that I teach in class. That’s non-negotiable. You have to use them. So, I am not going to beat about the bush here and I am going to state the obvious, the two most important tips are:  study and practise. As much as you can. But you already know that, don’t you?

Once we have agreed on these two tips, these are the ones I give my own students. Some students follow them. Some don’t. Some try  🙂

 

Don’t start writing straight away. Spend about 10 minutes getting ready. You might grow anxious and think this is a waste of time. It is not. In fact, in my humbe opinion, it should be mandatory. Use these 10 minutes to plan what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.

So, you are given the task. Now what?  

  1. Identify the task. It is very important to read the information in the task carefully, underlining any keywords or any questions you are being asked to answer. Identify the topic: is it about sports, work, holidays?
  2. Identify the audience. Who is going to read it and what language do you need to use? Can you use informal language because it is an informal email or maybe a post for a blog or do you have to use formal language because it is a formal letter or email or maybe a report? 

Now that we have clearly identified the topic and the kind of task we have been asked to fulfil, spend some time doing some brainstorming.

Ask for some draft paper and brainstorm…

  1. Vocabulary. Make a list of all the specific vocabulary you remember about the topic (that includes phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms…, etc) The teacher will be looking for specific vocabulary related to the topic. Make sure you use a wide range of vocabulary. As you start writing, find a way to naturally introduce this vocabulary.
  2. Grammar. Make a list of all the grammar and structures you want to use. The teacher will be looking for a wide range of grammar and structures adequate to the required level, but make sure you sound natural and communicate clearly. If you overuse structures or “force” the use of others just to show off, it might have the opposite effect, as it might be inappropriate and possibly confusing.  For example, if in this course you have learned perfect modals – might have worked- try to use them in your essay;  or if you have learned inversions, try to use them, but do not use 3 or 4 inversions just because you know them. It would not sound natural.
  3. Connectors and Linkers. Make a list of connectors and linkers you want to use to contrast different points of view or join ideas. Remember that you will be required to elaborate on your ideas. Words such as “ and” or “but” are fine, but you are not going to impress the examiner by using these very simple linkers. 
  4. Ideas. Finally, brainstorm ideas and choose the strongest ones and the ones you feel most confident developing.

Clear paragraphs. Now you are ready to begin writing your draft. Organize your essay into clear paragraphs 

  • Introduction
  • Body ( here you can have 2, 3 or more paragraphs)
  • Conclusion

A good idea might be to start each paragraph with a strong idea and then elaborate on it,  making sure you back your idea or opinion with reasons and examples. 

New idea, new paragraph.

Have you written your draft? Awesome! Now, reread it and consider adding:

–Adjectives to add colour to your work. For example, if you are describing a house, you can write “an elegant house” or “a red-brick house”; if you are writing about “work”, you can modify it by saying “ challenging work” or “rewarding job”. My favourite website for this is Ozdic

–Adverbs:  you might want to introduce some sophisticated adverbs such as: remarkably, noticeably…etc

-Strong collocations: have some up your sleeve in case you have the chance to use them. For example: take for granted, draw an audience…etc

Carefully proofread your essay before handing it in. Make sure you check your work to avoid making obvious mistakes:

  • spelling mistakes
  • subject-verb agreement
  • singular-plural agreement,
  • punctuation …etc

Llast tip? Read it to yourself. If it sounds confusing to you, imagine how it would sound to the teacher. You still have time to rephrase what is not clear.

Now you are ready to write your essay on the exam sheet. Be extra careful when copying from the draft. I have found that students when copying from the draft if in a hurry, tend to make spelling mistakes. After all this effort, you don’t want to do that. 

I hope these tips help you and you score high on the writing test. Best of luck!

 

A Short Descriptive Writing Activity with a Touch of Pasta

General, , , , ,

Hello February! What? Already almost mid-February?

It took me most of the second half of January to assess my students in the five skills required to certify their level but now I welcome February with open arms and with the aim of letting loose a bit and doing activities that are a little bit more fun than assessing students. It shouldn’t be too difficult LOL.

Also, I have to confess, and from what I gathered from their marks in exams,  I might not be doing enough writing. So, I have started February with the aim of planning some time in my classes to give my students some short writing activities.

Here we go with one of them and….. you are going to need PASTA.

  • Topic: Describing scenery
  • Level: C1
  • Skills and subskills: vocabulary and writing
  • Aim:
  • Learning vocabulary
  • Writing a short descriptive paragraph
  • Peer correction
  • Having fun ( I can feel your scepticism right through my computer screen LOL but be assured I will never lie to you)
Introducing Vocabulary

Step 1: Brainstorming

Put students in pairs and ask them to write in 1 minute all the words they can think of related to landscape and scenery.

Get feedback and give enthusiastic applause to the pair who has written the most items. At this point, it does not really matter if the words are below the advanced level. Let them have some fun but, on the board, write only the ones that are a bit more advanced ( for ex: I wouldn’t write the word “tree” but I would write the word “ridge”).

Step 2: Introducing Vocabulary

Hopefully, in the brainstorming activity above, students would have come up with some of the words in this exercise.

  1. Introducing. Do the exercise a couple of times, change templates, and give students the time to write down the words.


2. Clarifying. Some words might cause confusion; these are the ones I have clarified.

Same, Same, But Different Worksheet by cristina.cabal

3. Reinforcing. Silently assign a word to every student in the class and ask them to write a definition for the word and then have them read it aloud for the class to guess.

The Writing Activity

On the board write some verbs they might want to use: scramble down (the cliff), stray from(the path), stick to (the path),  (the road) wind along, ( a road/ridge) lead up or any other you feel they might need.

Step 1: Writing. Individual work

Ask students to choose one of the photos above and write a short descriptive paragraph on a separate piece of paper. Encourage them to use the target vocabulary ( but don’t let them know at this point that they will be rewarded for their choice of words). Allow 12-15 minutes for this task.

Step 1: Peer assessment. Using the pasta as a reward

  1. Once they have all finished writing, ask students to swap descriptions with the student sitting next to them.
  2. Place a bowl of pasta on the table. A bowl for every two students works fine. Say nothing about it. Students will surely ask you but say nothing. Not yet.
  3. Tell students to read their partner’s writing underlining the target words they have used: it could be nouns, adjectives or adverbs.
  4. Tell the students to circle words spelt incorrectly.
  5. How do you use the pasta? The pasta is used as a reward. For every new word used correctly, the student assessing the writing takes a piece of pasta  (misspelt words get no pasta).  With as much drama as possible, perform the award ceremony where students give and receive as many pieces of pasta as words they have used correctly.
  6. Ask the three students who got the most pieces to read out their descriptions.

A Guessing Game Using Tenses

Games, Grammar and Exercises, , , , , , , ,

Clear a spot in your lesson plan for this engaging activity because you are going to love it. This is a small writing guessing activity using Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous- you can also throw in Past Simple if you are feeling adventurous-  with an added touch of technology.

  • Skills and subskills: writing, vocabulary, speaking  and grammar
  • Strategy: whole class, individual work, whole class
  • Level: B1,B2
  • Magic Touch: Wordwall
Step 1: Learning Vocabulary: Jobs

Revise vocabulary related to jobs using the FlipTiles template on Wordwall- see the game below. If you don’t want to create your own, you can always use mine. I’d be honoured.

In the Flip Tiles, you will see vocabulary for professions or jobs they already know like  teacher, architect… and some more challenging ones like priest, street vendor or surgeon. That was the idea, to revise old content and introduce new.

And so, we spent some time guessing the words and flipping the tiles.

Bonus. Fun revising activity:  after revising all the vocabulary on the tiles, I pointed at one job and instructed students to repeat after me but only if the word matches the tile and remain silent if I was making a mistake. Fun! I told you.

More? Yes! You can do the same with pronunciation. Instruct students to repeat after you only when you have pronounced the word correctly. 😊(most of the times  I give myself away when doing this exercise)

Step 2: Writing. Using Grammar.

Individually, students choose a job from the ones displayed.

Ask students to write clues for this job without mentioning the job. Tell them they will then read their sentences aloud one by one and the class will have to guess their job.

They will need to write three sentences:

  1. Using the present perfect continuous
  2. Using the present perfect
  3. Optional: using the past simple

Example.

  • I have been training all morning  ( 3 points)
  • I have scored two goals today (2 points)
  • Yesterday, I played a match (1 point)
Step 3: Here comes the fun

Ready to play? Divide the class into 2 teams. Instruct a student from Team A to read his/her first sentence, ie, his/her first clue to the job. If members of the other team guess the job only by listening to the first sentence, they score 3 points; if the second sentence needs to be read, they score 2 points and well, you know what the score is if the student needs to read sentence number 3 or if they can’t guess the job.

I hope you have enjoyed this little game. If you use it, let me know how it goes.

 

My Go-To Websites when Correcting Students’ Essays

General,

And again, it is the month of the year that I hate the most. I love my job. I love teaching but I hate marking exams, especially essays.

I guess it is easy to just cross out mistakes  but if you want to do a decent job and offer feedback and provide alternatives to what they have written, then it can be a hard job and even become a daunting task , especially if you are hard pressed for time, you are not a native speaker and we are talking about C1 exams.

You might think that after 30 years doing the same, one gets used to it. Well, not me.

For those of you who are, like me,  struggling with this task, the only way to make it more palatable is to take long coffee breaks and  have fun while doing your job. And by fun, I mean revising, and  learning by looking up “things”, and contemplating different  alternatives  to offer valuable feedback.

These are my fave go-to websites when correcting essays. What are yours?

  1.  Cambridge Dictionary: to look up the different spellings of a word.
  2. WordHippo: in the same dictionary, you have lots of features, but I use it mainly for synonyms and antonyms. I have blogged about it here.
  3. WordReference: invaluable dictionary for translation.
  4. Ozdic: the best collocations dictionary ever.
  5. Sentence Dict: to see how words or expressions are used in context.
  6. HiNative: a free app where native speakers answer all your questions. I have blogged about it here.
  7. GrammarBook: lots of tips on grammar and vocabulary. Type your question in the search box.
  8. Linguee: It is like a bilingual dictionary but for sentences. I have blogged about it here.

Awesome Sentence Dictionary: to Study How Words are Used in Context

Dictionaries, ,

Native speakers – no offence meant- are likely to sniff at this kind of dictionaries, but for non-native learners, they can really be an enormous help.

Standard dictionaries can, of course, provide the learner with other very important information about a word/ expression  and they can even exemplify with a couple of sentences. Well, it is not enough. Sometimes, what you need to see is how the word collocates with others and how it  is used in different contexts. That’s why when I found this dictionary, I immediately thougth: “I need to share this”.

Over the years, I have recommended others like sentenceyourdictionary  , but    https://sentencedict.com/   is a game-changer.  In this dictionary, you can write a combination of words like “potable water”,”natural resources” or “take for granted” and it will show you- obviously depending on the chunk of words- lots of examples you can study and use.

Hope it helps you pass your exams with flying colours!

Ckeck also, Six Amazing Websites that Make your Writing Stronger