Reference, Ellipsis and Substitution (and a dash of Lexical Cohesion and Conjunction!)

http://www.uefap.com/listen/refer/refer.htm

A lesson in altruism…

Watch this first:

Then read this from the Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life website, and watch the associated videos.

Want to keep reading?  Try this recent article from The Guardian.

And, finally, for you Ayn Rand lovers (or haters!) and general philosophers, contemplate the views on altruism here.

Enjoy!

Writing an article for the CAE exam

Check out this onestopenglish.com resource: http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/pdf-content/exams/exams-article-writing-cae-and-cpe-lesson-plan/147546.article

Here’s a nice example of an article, including the planning: https://timjulian.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cae-article-new-technology1.pdf

And here’s some tips and examples for the CPE that are relevant to the CAE!: http://cpesamplewritings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/an-article-fun-way-to-learn-english-by.html

Have fun with this entertaining and dynamic writing genre!

Writing resources: register, punctuation and proofreading

Use commas correctly: The Grammar Book, Oxford Dictionaries and The University of Bristol.

Practise your formal and informal register: Flo-Joe’s formal and informal register practice activities

Use apostrophes correctly: The Oatmeal’s apostrophe comic

Use semicolons correctly (and then teach native English users how to do it!!): The Oatmeal’s semicolon comic

Practise your proofreading!!! Flo-Joe’s proofreading practice activities

Academic writing resources: linking expressions

Academic writing involves the communication of complex and nuanced ideas and arguments, and therefore tends to require particular words and expressions to do so effectively.

Knowing such language is step one.  Step two is knowing how to use it in a sentence!  In other words, each expression creates or modifies meaning in its unique way and appears in different positions in a sentence.

Here are some resources to help you with both:

Flo-Joe’s expressions of contrast, addition, purpose, reason and time

Birmingham City University’s list of expressions and practice activities

Manchester University’s Academic Phrasebank

Getting ready for the CAE

Here you have the link to the public folder in my Dropbox where you will find resources for getting prepared for the CAE.

Link to the paradise!