Attention- site is moving
June 12, 2009 at 8:02 am | Posted in 1 | Leave a commentDue to a huge demand from students, I have decided to move these blog posts and material to a new home. I am still busy updating the new site and it will hopefully will be ready by the end of June 2009. The new website address is http://english.esolasia.com
Word Choice in Essays – excellent!
April 2, 2008 at 3:31 pm | Posted in Writing Academic Essays | Leave a comment
from the University of Western Ontario http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/
Word Choice: Tips for ESL Students
The types of language listed below will help you to determine what types of
words and phrases you can use in a formal essay.
►Clichés: Phrases or sentences that have lost meaning through overuse.
Examples: Don’t count your chickens before they have hatched.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
These phrases can add colour and life to informal speech; however, in
writing, they appear to be substitutes for clear thought.
►Colloquial Language: Casual conversational language that has a wider
general acceptance than slang.
Examples: Let’s do lunch.
I’m going to get back at him.
Colloquial language is generally acceptable in casual spoken English, but
it is unacceptable in formal speaking situations, and in written English.
►Euphemisms: Expressions that soften or obscure the meaning that you wish
to convey.
Examples: a guest of the government (in jail)
pre-owned (used)
passed away (died)
tactical omission (lie)
Euphemisms are good if they spare someone’s feelings, but they are bad
if they obscure meaning, or give a positive connotation to something
illegal, immoral, or otherwise unacceptable.
►Formal Language: Language of scholarly and technical writing that is
characterized by: precise language, complex sentences, and no contractions.
Formal Language is used in oral presentations and public addresses,
essays, reports, resumes, and business letters.
►Informal Language: The language of peer group discussion, newspaper
editorials, and certain magazines such as Time or Newsweek.
Examples: I writing in first person
can’t using contractions
Why not? using sentence fragments.
►Jargon: Technical words or phrases that are used in connection with a
particular trade or profession.
Examples: downsizing
bottom line
Jargon is good to use within the context in which it was developed, but it
becomes difficult to decipher when used outside of its particular context.
Be careful to define technical terms when you are addressing an audience
outside of your technical specialty.
►Non-standard Language: Incorrect language.
Examples: anyways
could of
prolly
youse guys
Never use non-standard language in your writing, unless you are quoting
someone who has used it. You should also avoid non-standard language
in conversation.
►Redundancy: Often called “wordiness”, this means using several words when
one or two will do.
Examples: In my opinion, I think …
completely new
dead body
Never use redundancies in your written work. They often irritate the
reader, and they sometimes make the intended meaning obscure.
►Slang: Informal language that is specific to a particular group and time period.
Examples: groovy
stylin’
wicked
Use slang only in casual conversations with your peers.
Concordance- Improves remembering vocabulary
March 17, 2008 at 1:55 pm | Posted in Vocabulary | Leave a commentTags: ielts vocabulary
http://www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/sentences/
Type the word in the block and click search. It will show numerous different sentences using the word.
You can also check http://www.lextutor.ca/multi_conc/
IELTS – strategies for True/False/Not Given
March 17, 2008 at 12:44 pm | Posted in Reading Strategies | 4 CommentsTags: IELTS, Reading, strategies
Reading – technology Web creator rejects net tracking
March 17, 2008 at 12:31 pm | Posted in Reading-Technology | Leave a comment
| By Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News |
The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the internet.Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he would change his internet provider if it introduced such a system.Plans by leading internet providers to use Phorm, a company which tracks web activity to create personalised adverts, have sparked controversy.Sir Tim said he did not want his ISP to track which websites he visited.
| I think consumers rights in this are very important – we haven’t seen the results of these systems being used Sir Tim Berners-Lee |
| He’s the greatest technological pioneer Britain has produced over the last 30 yearsBBC News Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones on interviewing Tim Berners-Lee |
| We should look out for snags in the future – things can change so fast on the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee |
Essay on capital punishment
March 16, 2008 at 10:16 am | Posted in Essay Exercise, Vietnam - Students | 1 CommentBelow is an essay written by a student. See if you can help make it better!
Capital punishment has raised a continuing debate in community these days.This highest punishment has been perceived as the most effective way to reduce violence in society.However,the death penalty should be abolished because it is against human rights and there are some other methods to control criminals.It is obvious that living is an indisputable right of a human being.Consequently,death sentence is likely to be against this privilege,although this person has committed a serious offence.Similarly,law professionals would be in the same position as murderers to whom they have given the death penalty,thus capital punishment seems to be unfair and inconvincing.Moreover,the sentence of death which is considered as the most effective way to control brutality in society turns out to be helpless under some circumstances.For example, America where capital punishment is applied has been known as one of the countries having the highest criminal rate all over the world.In fact,there are other methods to reduce the number of violence-realated crimes in society and other sentences should be cogitated about such as life imprisonment.Nevertheless,the best way is to educate prisoners or give them jobs.Hence,they could easily rehabilitate society in the future. In conclusion,the death penalty should be abolished in our society.Law professionals ought to find alternatives of punitive measures that are reasonable for different criminals in order to ensure that living environment is becoming safer for human beingsCopy and Paste to check for Academic words!
March 11, 2008 at 12:45 pm | Posted in Tools, Writing Task 2 | Leave a commenthttp://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/
You would want to check all the YELLOW words, which will be highlighted. This shows the academic words used!
Discussion Essays – from the University of Manchester
March 10, 2008 at 12:30 pm | Posted in Writing Task 2 | Leave a commentTags: Essays, IELTS Writing
Discussions
The term discussion has a variety of meanings in English. In academic writing, however, it usually refers to two types of activity: a) considering both sides of an issue, or question, b) considering the results of research and the implications of these. Discussion sections in dissertations and research articles are probably the most complex in terms of their elements. The most common elements and some of the language that is typically associated with them are listed below:
Background information (reference to literature or to research aim/question)
A strong relationship between X and Y has been reported in the literature.Prior studies that have noted the importance of ……In reviewing the literature, no data was found on the association between X and Y. As mentioned in the literature review, …… Very little was found in the literature on the question of ….. This study set out with the aim of assessing the importance of X in ……The third question in this research was ……It was hypothesized that participants with a history of ……The present study was designed to determine the effect of ……
Statements of result (usually with reference to results section)
The results of this study show/indicate that …….This experiment did not detect any evidence for ……On the question of X, this study found that ……The current study found that ……The most interesting finding was that …… Another important finding was that …..The results of this study did not show that ……/did not show any significant increase in ……In the current study, comparing X with Y showed that the mean degree of ……In this study, Xs were found to cause ….. X provided the largest set of significant clusters of ……It is interesting to note that in all seven cases of this study……
Unexpected outcome
Surprisingly, X was found to …….One unanticipated finding was that ….. It is somewhat surprising that no X was noted in this condition …… What is surprising is that ……Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant difference between ……. However, the observed difference in between X and Y in this study was not significant. However, the ANOVA (one way) showed that these results were not statistically significant. This finding was unexpected and suggests that ……
Reference to previous research (support)
This study produced results which corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous work in this field. These findings of the current study are consistent with those of Smith and Jones (2001) who found …… This finding supports previous research into this brain area which links X and Y.This study confirms that X is associated with ……This finding is in agreement with Smith’s (1999) findings which showed …….It is encouraging to compare this figure with that found by Jones (1993) who found that ….. There are similarities between the attitudes expressed by X in this study and those described by (Smith, 1987, 1995) and Jones (1986)These findings further support the idea of …..Increased activation in the PCC in this study corroborates these earlier findings. These results are consistent with those of other studies and suggest that ……The present findings seem to be consistent with other research which found ……This also accords with our earlier observations, which showed that ……
Reference to previous research (contradict)
However, the findings of the current study do not support the previous research.This study has been unable to demonstrate that ……However, this result has not previously been described.In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of X was detected.Although, these results differ from some published studies (Smith, 1992; Jones, 1996), they are consistent with those of ……
Explanations for results:
There are several possible explanations for this result.These differences can be explained in part by the proximity of X and Y.A possible explanation for this might be that …..Another possible explanation for this is that …… This result may be explained by the fact that …../ by a number of different factors. It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be related to ……It seems possible that these results are due to …… The reason for this is not clear but it may have something to do with ……It may be that these students benefitted from ……This inconsistency/discrepancy may be due to ……This rather contradictory result may be due to ……These factors may explain the relatively good correlation between X and Y. There are, however, other possible explanations.The possible interference of X can not be ruled out. The observed increase in X could be attributed to ….. The observed correlation between X and Y might be explained in this way. …..
Advising cautious interpretation
These data must be interpreted with caution because ……These results therefore need to be interpreted with caution.However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to ……
Suggesting general hypotheses
The value of X suggests that a weak link may exist between …..It is therefore likely that such connections exist between …..It can thus be suggested that ……It is possible to hypothesise that these conditions are less likely to occur in ……It is possible/likely/probable therefore that …… Hence, it could conceivably be hypothesised that ……These findings suggest that ……It may be the case therefore that these variations ……In general, therefore, it seems that ……It is possible, therefore, that …… Therefore, X could be a major factor, if not the only one, causing ……It can therefore be assumed that the ……
Noting implications
This finding has important implications for developing …..An implication of this is the possibility that ……One of the issues that emerges from these findings is …… Some of the issues emerging from this finding relate specifically to ……
Commenting on findings
However, these results were not very encouraging.These findings are rather disappointing.The test was successful as it was able to identify students who ……The present results are significant in at least major two respects.
Suggestions for future work
However, more research on this topic needs to be undertaken before the association between X and Y is more clearly understood.Further research should be done to investigate the ……Research questions that could be asked include …..Future studies on the current topic are therefore recommended.A further study with more focus on X is therefore suggested. Further studies, which take these variables into account, will need to be undertaken.Further work is required to establish this.In future investigations it might be possible to use a different X in which …… This is an important issue for future research.
Writing conclusions
March 9, 2008 at 12:32 pm | Posted in Writing Academic Essays | 2 CommentsTags: conclusions
For IELTS the conclusions below should not be used. These conclusions are applicable to university level students writing dissertations. (a long essay on a specific subject)
Writing Conclusions
Conclusions are shorter sections of academic texts which usually serve two functions. The first is to summarise and bring together the main areas covered in the writing, which might be called “looking back”; and the second is to give a final comment or judgement on this. The final comment may also include making suggestions for improvement and speculating on future directions.In dissertations and research papers, conclusions tend to be more complex and will also include sections on significance of the findings and recommendations for future work.
Conclusions may be optional in research articles where consolidation of the study and general implications are covered in the Discussion section. However, they are usually expected in dissertations and essays.
Summarising the content
This paper has given an account of and the reasons for the widespread use of X ……This essay has argued that X is the best instrument to …… This assignment has explained the central importance of X in Y.This dissertation has investigated ……
Restatement of aims (research)
This study set out to determine ……The present study was designed to determine the effect of …….In this investigation, the aim was to assess ……The purpose of the current study was to determine ……This project was undertaken to design …… and evaluate …..Returning to the hypothesis/question posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to state that …..
Summarising the findings (research)
This study has shown that ……These findings suggest that in general ……One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that …..It was also shown that…… This study has found that generally ……. The following conclusions can be drawn from the present study …… The relevance of X is clearly supported by the current findings. This study/research has shown that …… The second major finding was that …….. The results of this investigation show that ……. The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that …… X, Y and Z emerged as reliable predictors of …… Multiple regression analysis revealed that the ……
Suggesting implications
The evidence from this study suggests that ……The results of this study indicate that ……The results of this research support the idea that …….In general, therefore, it seems that ……Taken together, these results suggest that ……An implication of this is the possibility that ……The findings of this study suggest that …
Significance of the findings (research)
The X that we have identified therefore assists in our understanding of the role of …… These findings enhance our understanding of …… This research will serve as a base for future studies and …… The current findings add substantially to our understanding of ……The current findings add to a growing body of literature on ……The study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding of ……The methods used for this X may be applied to other Xs elsewhere in the world.Taken together, these findings suggest a role for X in promoting Y.
Limitations of the current study (research)
Finally, a number of important limitations need to be considered. First, ……A number of caveats need to be noted regarding the present study. The most important limitation lies in the fact that ……The current study was limited by ……The current study was unable to analyse these variables.The current study was not specifically designed to evaluate factors related to ……The current study has only examined ……The project was limited in several ways. First, the project used a convenience sample that ……However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to ……
Recommendations for further work (research)
This research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation.Further work needs to be done to establish whether ……It is recommended that further research be undertaken in the following areas: Further experimental investigations are needed to estimate …… What is now needed is a cross-national study involving ……More broadly, research is also needed to determine …..It is suggested that the association of these factors is investigated in future studies. Further research might explore/investigate …… Further research in this field/regarding the role of X would be of great help in ……. Further investigation and experimentation into X is strongly recommended. A number of possible future studies using the same experimental set up are apparent. It would be interesting to assess the effects of …… More information on X would help us to establish a greater degree of accuracy on this matter. If the debate is to be moved forward, a better understanding of …… needs to be developed.I suggest that before X is introduced, a study similar to this one should be carried out on …..These findings provide the following insights for future research: …..Considerably more work will need to be done to determine ……
Implications/recommendations for practice or policy
These findings suggest several courses of action for …… An implication of these findings is that both X and Y should be taken into account when ……The findings of this study have a number of important implications for future practice. There is, therefore, a definite need for …… There are a number of important changes which need to be made. Another important practical implication is that …… Moreover, more X should be made available to …… Other types of X could include : a), b). ……Unless governments adopt X, Y will not be attained.This information can be used to develop targetted interventions aimed at ……
A reasonable approach to tackle this issue could be to …
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