Final Lesson

http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

There's no rest for the wicked as they say, and even in your final lesson you are going to have to do some work.

Enjoy

Final Seminar

Hi,

Don't forget that tomorrow in your seminar Jim and I will also be listening for your ability to present a logical and clear argument.

THINK before you SPEAK. Don't just say a random collection of sentences and expect the people in your group to make sense of them. Prepare beforehand and have some good arguments to put forward.

Happy seminar planning!!

and another one

Hi,

Another link you might find useful

http://www.efl.arts.gla.ac.uk/Links.htm#presessional

Enjoy!!

Essay Outlines - website

Hi All,

Here is the link to the University of Glasgow's website which gives you some sample essay outlines.

http://www.efl.arts.gla.ac.uk/CampusOnly/essays/index.htm

Use this to help you guide you with your essay writing

See you tomorrow

Paragraph website

Hi,

Look at this website about writing paragraphs.
http://www.clpd.bbk.ac.uk/students/essayparagraphs

When you have written your paragraph, look at the information and decide if your paragraph contains all the essential elements.

Enjoy!!

Answering the question

Thinking about what we talked about in the lesson today, remember that it is very important to keep looking back at the question when you are writing an essay. Every sentence you write must have some relevance to the essay question.

Remember - it doesn't matter if you write a perfectly structured essay with no grammar mistakes and the most amazing vocabulary ever......... if you don't answer the question, you haven't done the task properly.

See you tomorrow

Self Study

Hi,

Just to remind you that your self-study must be handed in on Friday. Make sure that you have been updating your blogs or putting things in your paper portfolio. Remember that I have to have evidence of work to be able to give you a mark - you can't just tell me what you have been doing.

See you tomorrow

Seminar reflection

Hi,

For those of you who have posted your seminar reflections I have added a comment.

Seminar - Monday 1st Dec

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all having a good Saturday. Don't forget that you need to do some research for the seminar on Monday.
Jim has posted some links on his blog which you might like to look at.
www.jimselfstudy.blogspot.com

Think about your performance in the last seminar and the areas that you feel you need to improve. One suggestion is that you try and use some of the more functional language for agreeing, disagreeing etc.

See you all on Monday!

Academic Phrasebank

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Hi,

Here is the link to the Academic Phrasebank.

See you tomorrow

seminar reflection

Dear All,

Just to remind you that by Friday I would you like you to post on your blog or put in your portfolio your reflections on today's seminar.

Use the questions on page 61 of the red book to guide your reflection.

See you all tomorrow

Media seminar and writing task

Hi,

Don't forget that you should have started your research by now for the seminar on Monday. Have a look at Jim's blog for some links to some more articles.

Tomorrow you should let me know which of the essay titles you have chosen.
Starting tomorrow and continuing next week we will look at writing discursive essays, essay outlines and writing introductions in more detail.

For the moment concentrate on collecting some information in order to have something to put in your essays.

See you all tomorrow

Older postings

Please have a look at some of the older postings on my blog as I have put in some links to useful websites.

Self study

Hi,

Hopefully everyone has now either set up a blog or has started recording their self-study on paper. Remember that at the end of the month I can only give you a mark if you PRODUCE something for me to look at. You will be given a mark for the amount of self study that you have done and also for the effort that you have put in. Try and include some variety in your self study and remember that anything and everything you do in English outside the classroom can be recorded as self study. So, if you work, record that on your blog/on paper, if you go to conversation club, add that etc

You also have to complete at least 7 of the self-study tasks listed in the front of your red books.

Have a good evening and see you all tomorrow.

Media Seminar

Dear Amber,

Monday is the first of your assessed seminars. The topic is the media and your homework today was to look at the areas of the media to be covered in the seminar.

You need to start doing your preparation NOW. Please don't leave it until Sunday night and then expect to do well in the seminar. One of the areas you are given a mark for is your preparation. You can bring your notes with you to the seminar - you don't have to memorise everything you read.

See you tomorrow

Books you might like to look at

English Vocabulary in Use published by CUP
Academic English in Use - as above
English Grammar in Use - as above
Advanced Grammar in Use - as above

Keep a vocabulary notebook and try and use the new words you learn in conversation or in your writing.

Read books connected to your subject.
Newspapers
Novels

Purple Research

Hi,

Today we decided on the topics for each research group. The topics you have chosen are very broad so we also looked at writing more specific aims.

Tomorrow we are going to start looking at how to create a valid and reliable questionnaire and begin writing the questions.

See you all tomorrow

Things to think about for your presentations

• Does my presentation reflect my essay?
• Is my presentation well organised with an introduction, main body and conclusion?
• What questions can I anticipate?
• Am I speaking clearly and loudly enough?
• Am I using oral signposting?
• Are my visuals clear? - check for spelling mistakes
• Am I sure that I can pronounce any difficult words?
• Have I practised?
• Am I reading from the script too much?
• Have I made note cards to help me?

Headphones

Dear Brighton,

If you get this message, please can you bring headphones with you to the lesson tomorrow as you will need them for the self-study exercises.

Don't worry if you don't see this in time - we can borrow some headphones!!

Thanks

Language for presentations

1 Good morning ladies and gentlemen
2 Welcome to my presentation
3 The topic of my presentation is
4 The aim of my presentation today is
5 The main points I will be talking about are, firstly
6 Finally, I’ll be happy to answer your questions at the end
7 Firstly I’d like to talk about
8 This is an important point because…….
9 I’d like to illustrate this by showing you this graphic
10 That’s all for my first topic
11 I’d now like to conclude by summing up and making recommendations
12 The purpose of this presentation was to
13 The main points I talked about were
14 Therefore I recommend
15 Now I’d like to invite any questions you may have

another good website

Have a look at this website for activities connected to the Cambridge Exams

www.flo-joe.co.uk

Enjoy

Class worries about the presentations

Here is a list of things the class is worried about:

• nervous
• panic
• shy
• forgetting the information
• confidence
• pronunciation
• grammar
• vocabulary
• talking continuously

Good website

Here's a link to a really good website to help you with your English.

Enjoy!!

www.eapstudy.com

Draft Essay

Dear Brighton

On Friday 29th August you will hand in a draft of your essay on globalisation. Obviously I will not expect a complete essay from you BUT the minimum requirement is the introduction and first paragraph. The more you can give me the better!!!!

Remember that you can always change what you put in your draft.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow!!

Stages of writing an essay

1. Look at the essay question.
2. Brainstorm ideas.
3. Reject irrelevant ideas.
4. Write an essay plan
5. Go to the library.
6. Read with your essay question in mind.
7. Add/remove ideas.......
8. Write a draft.
9. Check your draft....
10. Proofread your essay.

Assessed Writing No2

http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/languagecentre/efl/writinganessayoutline/patternsoforganisation/argumentcounterargument/

Look at this website to help you with your next piece of assessed writing

Good Blog

Hi,

A good blog that you should take a look at is

www.englishforuniversity.com

See you tomorrow

Introductions

Hi,

This is just to remind you to bring in two copies of your introduction tomorrow. It doesn't matter if you haven't finished it.

See you all tomorrow

Blogs

Dear Grape Class,

I've had a look at your blogs and some of them are very good. Some of them, however, look a bit empty. Once you have set up your blog the idea is to post something everyday. Please let me know, as some of you already have, if you intend to submit your self-study as a paper version.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and see you all tomorrow.

Helen

Key points from the lecture about the media

• confusing reality and fantasy
• people don't want to see reality on tv - they want fantasy
• more men on tv, only 38% were women
• men can solve problems, don't need help, money, better jobs
• women are represented as looking for a relationship
• Americans watch 30 hours of tv a week
• Easy to find rich people on tv shows - this does not represent reality
• Occupations and economical status does not represent the reality
• 1/3 of people on tv have professional jobs but in reality 11%
• more than 50% of people on tv are seen as wealthy
• the reality is that it is lower
• compared tv to a product - a marketing tool
• stereotypes - easy and quick to recognise so people identify with them
• Like tv for entertainment purposes

Academic Word List

Hi,

Here is a link to the site where you will find the Academic Wordlist and the Academic Wordlist Highlighter and Gapfill.

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/%7Ealzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.htm

Grammar

Here is a useful website you can use to help you with your grammar. Look in the resources section at the material bank

www.llas.ac.uk

Preparing for the seminar on Media/Television

• Internet
• Newspapers
• Own ideas
• Other people
• Books
• attendance at lectures

Newspaper Links

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/

Here are the links to two newspaper sites.

Seminars

Benefits and Purpose of Seminars

• exchange information/sharing ideas and thoughts
• vocabulary
• communication skills
• increasing confidence
• more knowledge about the topic
• helps for next level
• familiarity with different accents
• socialisation
• team work
• working as a group
• teacher can check understanding of subject
• put forward own ideas/comparing ideas with others

Drafts

Dear Derby,

I've had a look at your drafts and made some comments on them. I've sent you each an email with your draft re-attached with comments

Issues raised in tutorials today

Hello Everyone,

During the tutorials today a number of people raised the issue of wanting to prepare more specifically for their Masters courses.
One way in which you can do this is to look on Weblearn at the modules you will be studying on your Masters and looking at the book lists. Whilst the university is quiet you are more likely to find the books on the reading lists. Try taking one of the books out of the library and reading a couple of chapters. This will give you an idea of both the level of English and the type of vocabulary used.

A website that you could look at for more business oriented materials is
http://www.businessballs.com/

Also look in the library for the book Business Vocabulary in Use published by Cambridge University Press

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

This website can give you lots of advice on writing. Have a look if you think you need to work on your writing skills.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/

This is the website we used in Self-study on Friday 27th June for the News Quiz. If you want to practise your reading it's a good site to use.

Draft

Dear Derby,

This is to let you know that by 5pm on Friday 4th July I'd like you to email me the first draft of your research report for the first 3 sections:
Background
Aims
Methods
Could you also include 3 or 4 points about the findings from your research.

Thanks